Copenhagen Walking Tour

Meeting by the ship

Meeting by the ship. The start time of the tour is given approximately and will be adjusted depending on your ship arrival time. The exact meeting time will be specified on your confirmation letter.

City Hall Square and Tivoli

The walk begins at the City Hall Square, with Martin Nyrop's town hall of 1905 and Jens Olsen's astronomical World Clock inside it, and the gates of Tivoli next door. Tivoli Gardens, opened in August 1843 and the second oldest amusement park in the world still running. Its founder talked Christian VIII into the licence by arguing that when people amuse themselves they do not think about politics. Walt Disney visited twice and took a good deal of it home with him.

Strøget

A walk along Strøget, pedestrianised in 1962 and often called the longest shopping street in Europe. It runs for more than a kilometre from the City Hall Square, where Martin Nyrop's town hall of 1905 stands beside Jens Olsen's astronomical World Clock, to Kongens Nytorv, the square Christian V laid out in 1670.

Christiansborg Palace

Christiansborg Palace on the islet of Slotsholmen, where Bishop Absalon built the first castle in 1167. The present building, finished in 1928 after two fires, is the only one in the world to house all three branches of government: the Folketing, the Supreme Court and the prime minister's office, along with the royal reception rooms still used for state banquets. Its tower is the tallest in the city.

Amalienborg Palace

A stop at Amalienborg, four matching rococo palaces set around an octagonal square with an equestrian statue of Frederick V at its centre. Nicolai Eigtved laid them out in the 1750s for four noble families, and the royal family moved in after Christiansborg burned in 1794. The guard is changed at noon, when the Royal Life Guards march over from Rosenborg. From the square you look one way to the Opera House of 2005 across the water and the other to the Marble Church, begun in 1749 and finished only in 1894, whose dome spans thirty-one metres.

Nyhavn

A break in Nyhavn. Nyhavn, the canal dug by Swedish prisoners of war between 1670 and 1673 to bring cargo to the heart of the city. The tall gabled houses along it are painted in ochre, red and blue; Hans Christian Andersen lived at three different addresses on the quay, including number 20, where he wrote his first fairy tales. It is now a row of cafes and the place for a coffee or an open sandwich.

Kongens Nytorv

The walk ends at Kongens Nytorv, the King's New Square, laid out by Christian V in 1670 with his statue in the middle, ringed by the Royal Theatre, the Charlottenborg palace and the old Magasin department store.