Rosenborg Castle

Copenhagen is a lot like Burlington in that the weather channel says it is going to be sunny and beautiful when it is really cloudy and rainy or when there is supposed to be thunder and lightning it ends up being sunny and beautiful. We were anticipating another rainy day to stay inside, but instead we got a beautiful, sunny day. Starting our day at 9am, we biked to the city center to make another quick shopping trip. Not quite sure how to spend our day, we decided to be tourists and visit the King's Garden and Rosenborg Castle. The King's Garden is a park around the castle where many children come to play and students come to study or take a break between classes. It was still relatively early, but there were already people starting to enjoy the beautiful weather by lying outside.

 One of the lions at the front of the castle has a tongue that is on a hinge. There is a rumor that the son of Christian IV - who was quite the partier - had a spare key hidden in the mouth of the lion. Many of the tourists come and take a picture with their hand in the lion's mouth looking for the spare key, I was no exception.

After walking around the outside of the building, we decided to take the tour and have a look on the inside. It was a self-guided tour where you could use a NeoReader to scan a barcode and read about the various artifacts. One of the most interesting architectural components of the building was an audio channel in the floor. Christian IV put an audio channel in the floor of the Winter Room after enlarging Rosenborg in 1613-1615. The audio channel is a hole in the ground that could play "hidden" music for the royal chapel.

Not only did we learn a lot about the castle and some of the history of Denmark, but we also had a lot of fun doing so. Natalie found her boyfriend - a bust of Frederik III - and Lindsay met another friend. We even found a room full of mirrors that we weren't sure what to make of. Not to mention, Lindsay almost walked straight into a glass wall without realizing that it was there.

  A room formally known as "The Secret" is the lowest of Christian IV's three toilets. The drain led to the moat which surrounds the Palace. During drier periods there was poor water circulation in the moat, resulting in an unpleasant smell.



A beautiful artifact in the Treasury was Christian IV's crown. This crown was made during 1595-1596 by Dirich Fyring. It is gold with enamel, table-cut stones and pearls, and weighs 2895 grams (6.38 pounds). The crown was last used at Frederik III's coronation in 1648. Before having it modernized for the coronation, he had to redeem the crown from a banker in Hamburg because Christian IV had pawned it when he was having financial problems.

 Everything in the Palace was beautiful, detailed, and intricate. Rosenborg Palace is another sightseeing location where you could spend countless hours without getting the chance to see everything or learn all the history there is to learn.