Copen-hagen-haagen-hagen

'To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted'

- Bill Bryson

Tuesday morning saw us docking in Kalundborg, Denmark. As one of the gateways to Copenhagen it has a fascinating history of its own and can boast of being one of the few places in the world that still has a 5 spired church and beautifully preserved medieval town. Unfortunately, there just wasn't time to do Kalundborg and Copenhagen and we had settled on the later.

Although we weren't the first tour off the ship, we were still due to leave by 8:45 so after very slooooooowly dragging ourselves out of bed (having spent at least 10 minutes arguing who should use the bathroom first, so that the other could claim 5 more minutes in bed), we were both rudely awakened by the shower - where the temperature fluctuated between freezing us and burning us - I hasten to add, this happened to both of us.... separately! a quick glance out our window to confirm favourable weather conditions and we dressed for the day ahead, finished packing the bags and headed for breakfast. Fruit, a danish and a couple of cups of tea later we were ready to face the day and headed back to the cabin to grab the bags and our tickets before heading off ship.

Our trip was called Country, Castle and Copenhagen. Try saying that after a few glasses of wine! A mixture of history, countryside, city, sight seeing and shopping. We quickly found our bus and claimed some seats and were pleasantly surprised when everyone for the trip arrived early and we were able to head of ahead of schedule. We had a little over an hours transfer to the fairytale Renaissance castle of Frederiksbog situated in Hillerod; home to the kings and queens of yesteryear and is advertised as being the most beautiful castle in Denmark. With no guide to enlighten us until we got there I caught up on some sleep - along with everyone else on the coach (not that I'm trying to make myself feel better or anything.....)

The castle was built between 1588-1648 but most of it had to be rebuilt and restored after a fire in 1859 and since 1878 has been Denmarks Museum of National History - founded by the managing director of Carlsberg (yes, the drink). Like so many of the properties we visited on this cruise, we saw but a tiny percentage of the whole site but what we did see was mind blowing and breathtakingly beautiful.

The level of detail was beyond exacting and the amount of gold!!! I'd be rich beyond my wildest dreams if I had a tenth of the gold from one of their rooms! And don't even get me started on gushing about the ceilings - I swear from Frederiksbog to the end of the cruise, I spent most of my time looking up at gorgeous ceilings. If I thought for one minute I could have got away with lying on the floor to photograph every one of them in detail - well I would have done! as it turned out though, there was no way I would have been able to do so and Claire is probably very thankful she didn't have to disown me for such bizarre behaviour!

From the castle we drove for about an hour through the beautiful forest and countryside to Copenhagen, learning about the rulers of the country, the impact of various wars and political takeovers, key people of note and current political and business affairs. It was a pleasant hour, although I own to having spent more time watching the scenery than listening to the guide.

When we arrived in Copenhagen, our guide went into full scale information overload - every building, every street, he had a story to tell us - it was incredible! our first stopping point for photos however, was the world famous little mermaid statue in the harbour. I don't know what I was expecting when I saw it, but I guess possibly something slightly bigger.

Despite it's small stature it was very pretty to see sat in the cleanest harbour I think I have ever seen! From the little mermaid we toured round various gardens and aspects of the harbour front, hearing numerous tales about battles involving Lord Horatio Nelson. From the gardens we moved onto an area known as palace square, where the royal family and numerous wealthy aristocrats had winter residences built in a great circle, which to the east lead to a great domed cathedral and to the west, the harbour.

We had a few minutes in the royal square to wander round before heading back the coach park and so Claire and I decided to nip over the road down to the harbour front and walk back that way. I'm so glad we did as we spotted the most awesome sand sculptures being created on a floating basin in the harbour! it was obviously something to do with the summer festival we kept spotting posters for, but whatever their purpose they were so cool!

It was a short hop from the coach park to our dropping off point in Copenhagen itself. We had a little over an hour to wander around, shop and eat and so we followed the tour guides suggestion and went down the main shopping street of the city. We shouldn't have listened to him. The main shopping street is just like every other major metropolitan city in the world! seriously disappointing. By the time we'd walked most of its length (only stopping for a lunch of freshly cooked waffles - healthy, I know!) we'd already wasted half an hour. Turning back we decided to walk back the water front and have a look in the amber museum's shop - there is always room in the collection for another piece of amber jewellery, at the right price. Sadly, Baltic amber - with their 25% VAT is not at the right price!

Nevertheless, we'd had a fabulous time in Denmark. The sun had kept its appearance from the day before; Frederiksborg was a hidden gem and whilst I'm not sure I'll ever go back to Copenhagen, I was glad we'd chose to come into the city, rather than stay by the port. Back on board the coach, our guide made his goodbyes and left us in the capable hands of the driver for our hour and half transfer back to ship. So guess what we did? yes, we slept! Well, if we were going to keep our late nights, early starts, long days going for the full length of the cruise, then napping on coaches was also going to essential! lol!

We were late back to port though, as we suffered bad traffic on the motorway, but we weren't the only coach - we beat the last one back by a couple of minutes! But as we disembarked and hurried aboard we were sent on our way by the Ruds Vedby Garden Drum Majorettes.

We dropped the bags off in our room and went to get a much needed cup of tea and stood on deck, watching as the ship pulled out of harbour, sending us on our way to Riga. We stayed on deck, lazily watching the world go by before finally settling on getting a fresh cup of tea on our way back to the cabin to wash up and get ready for the night ahead. The ever essential 'what are you wearing' issue resolved the bigger issue of the night was actually the hair. Now, you may or may not have noticed I have fairly long hair. In fact, my hair sits about the middle of my back and is thick - really thick and thus is more often called the travelling birds nest then actual hair. It also means that the vast majority of hair styles require an extra set of hands as my arms just don't bend that far back!

Some swearing later, Claire managed to tame my hair into the style I wanted and we settled hers quickly enough too, clean and simple that night,  unlike what I knew was to come the following evening for formal night. We left for dinner a little later than planned and having clearly not been filled by waffles for lunch - who knew they weren't suitable substitutes to real food? we ate 4 course for the first time since we'd come on board.

Feeling suitably fat and trying not to let the moaning of our fellow passengers get to us - they really were a grumpy lot that night! we headed back to the cabin to retouch the makeup before we made our way up to the Broadway for that nights entertainment; Tuesday Night Live with Maurice Grumbleweed.

Now, forgive me, but whilst I feel old I'm not actually old enough to remember Maurice from his hay-days as part of the Grumbleweeds. Claire and I were in the distinct minority group in that regard and he was warmly received by the vast majority of the passenger's on board. Not that having never previously heard of him was an issue; he actually is one of those comedic entertainers that appeals across all ages with his brilliant mix of stories, one liners and music. Some of my personal favourite jokes were to do with Saga Cruises; be nice and comment and I might tell you one or two ;). I have to say that whilst Maurice did have me in stitches with laughter for nearly an hour the thing that really stuck with me was a poiniant story he told of going out to entertain our troops and a song he had subsequently written for them called Hero's - you can listen to it here.

After Maurice had finished his set, Richard came out to speak to us - as is tradition on the ship after the shows. He asked if we'd all enjoyed our day in Copen-hagen-haagen-hagen...... I have no idea why he said it, I can only presume it was because someone pulled him up on prenounciation but now I have it stuck in my head, I honestly can't just say Copenhagen any more! it's earning me some very strange looks off friends. Oops!

Show over we headed up to High Spirits as usual but the nights main game show was still in full swing so we headed out to deck to enjoy some fresh air and take a couple more pics.... as if we didn't have enough from the day!

A little after ten we headed back into High Spirits to listen to the band and claim good seats for that nights Cabaret - Laid back and live, which was to be performed by one of the show teams vocalists, Rob.  Much like Alistair's show the night before it was a mixture of some of Rob's favourite songs from artists such as Dean Martin, Neal Diamond and Matt Munro. He was great, a completely different character in his cabaret to on stage and we had to love him somewhat as he was from our neck of the woods! small world and all that! Half an hour of up-beat, larger than life songs later and the night was over.... well, as far as live music was concerned and Claire and I were never ones to stay inside for the late night disco.

We headed out to claim our usual seats out on deck and shortly after were again joined by Alistair, who had finally finished his official duties for the day. Talk turned to our trip, the next day's formal evening and the fact we had already spent an exhuberant amount of time discussing hair styles, what Alistair had to do the next day and when he was due to appear in one of the main shows. Time passed pleasently by as people came and went to talk with Alistair and we finished our drinks and a little after 1 we parted company in search of our cabins and the hope of a lie in the following morning!

Oh and the little thing we'd forgotten.... the clocks went forward by an hour as we went to bed! Urgh!

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