Denmark continued.

Day Four/ Day Five/ Day Six/ Day Seven.

Wednesday:
We activated our three-day Copenhagen Cards on Wednesday morning. This included free public transport, so we took the Metro into Copenhagen. We began our day at Christiansborg Palace, the executive home of the Danish monarchy. We had to wear blue plastic bags over our shoes, so we didn't dirty the carpets. Then we visited the ruins under the castle too. Afterwards we walked up the Round Tower, visited the Workers' Museum and the Amber museum and took the bus to IKEA. Here we had tea - Danish Swedish meatballs and chips - and bought some bits and bobs for my dad's flat.

Thursday:
On Thursday we took the train to Roskilde, despite the heavy-lying snow. We went to the cathedral, but it was shut until the early afternoon due to a service. In the meantime, we walked down to the harbour and the Viking Ships Museum located there. We watched a short film about the history of the ships and then we walked about among them. There was ample opportunity for dressing up, to my delight and another short video, which documented the voyage of a reconstructed Viking ship, which sailed from Denmark to Dublin in 2007. I bought several Viking souvenirs in the gift shop, then we walked back up to the cathedral, the town museum and a small cafe where we warmed ourselves with hot chocolate and a rare Danish pastry (or wienerbrød). (I fell over about here. Ouch!) In the evening we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Copenhagen and Josh added another pin to his collection.

Friday:
Another snow storm made Friday's plans uncertain, but the trains were running when we reached the station, so we soon set off for Helsingør. Here we visited another town museum - a speciality in Denmark, it would seem - and Kronborg castle, home of Shakespeare's Hamlet. With such a busy schedule there was no time to go in, but it looked very pretty situated on a snowy rise and set against a murky sky. We stepped quickly into the courtyard, where we saw two men in the throes of a film shoot - one can only presume for a Hamlet adaptation. Afterwards, we visited the Karen Blixen museum in nearby Rungsted. It was very inspiring, what with its cases of handwritten notes and early stories, and I went away penning small sentences in my Miffy notebook. We finished the day with a visit to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, where we saw a Max Ernst exhibition.

Saturday:
Our Copenhagen Cards ran out at 12 o'clock, so we had an early morning dash into the city centre. We whizzed through the Hans Christian Anderson museum, then made our way across to Rosenborg Castle, home of the crown jewels. Here, we witnessed the changing of the guard. The band was playing, which meant that the Queen was in residence. After we had finished our tour of Rosenborg we went to see the Little Mermaid statue. Unfortunately she was smothered in Russian exchange students, who insisted on climbing the rock, despite the warning signs. We left after a couple of photographs and paid the Danish Resistance Museum a quick visit. It warrented longer, but there was still more to do, and soon we arrived at the National Museum. Here we saw artifacts from the Bronze Age religion, Chariot of the Sun and bogmen, among other things. We also visited the Children's Museum, a moment before closing time. In the evening we watched Son of Rambow, until a power cut put an end to our entertainment. We packed once our electricity returned and then we went to bed.