We concluded our visit to Copenhagen with a visit to the Rosenborg Slot built as a summerhouse for the royal family in 1606-1634 by Christian IV. When built it was surrounded by very large gardens which have now been reduced to a park known as the Kongens Have. Some rooms are open to the public but most of the complex, like the Kremlin in Moscow, is the working home of the royal family and their employees.
Later we visited Amalienborg, another royal palace built in the 1750s by Frederik V. The royal family have lived here ever since and on one day of our visit was visited by President Macron of France. Again this is a working palace and uses the Danish Royal Life Guards to guard the monarch in 2 hour shifts. At noon the guards are replaced by guards from the Rosenborg Castle. When we caught up with them they had already marched through Copenhagen to switch places at Amalienborg.
There is a Russian connection here as close by on the Bredgade (road) is the Marmokirken, the Alexander Nevsky Kirke. This a Russian Orthodox Cathedral and is easily identifiable in this part of the city by its golden, onion domes just as in the Kremlin. Consecreated in 1883 it was a gift from Russia to mark the marriage of Tsar Alexander III and the Danish Princess Marie Dagmar in 1866. Her funeral was held here in 1928.
To round off our stay we did a grand tour of the canals by barge.
At 21:30 we flew by Air Greenland Airbus A330, over the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean directly to Kangerlussaq on Greenland’s west coast. The journey was unusual because, for most Europeans, flights across the Atlantic at night chase the sun eastwards, i.e. dark in the west upon departure, light in the east upon arrival. As we were travelling “backwards in time” we saw the sunset in the west but did not arrive in Greenland to see the light. From the air we caught a glimpse of the MS Fram at anchor in the fjord surrounded by total darkness. The transfer to the ship was conducted by coach along unmade roads in total darkness to a little jetty where we transferred to the ship by Zodiac motorised dinghies. In the darkness one could see the milky, glacial meltwaters having been stirred by the propellers of the dinghy. By 1:00 a.m. we were underway down the fjord to meet the Davis Strait. As fjords funnel wind and water, the right turn at the mouth was most interesting with regards to the movement of the ship!!