Copenhagen's beautiful glass market; everything and more that you could possibly expect to tempt the taste buds, in fact all the senses at Christmas. The presentation beautiful and quite outstanding.
Sumptuous italian hams, salamis, baby tomatoes, olive oils and breads.

Gingerbread hearts for sale

which could be personalised for your loved ones.

Olive oils and spirits inspired from all over the world.

Danish open faced sandwiches.

Incredible meat markets, offering, amongst other things 'little pig' sausages!

Chocolates like you have never seen, including the Danish speciality Flødeboller

My favorite, Christmas flowers and wreaths

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The beautiful Tivoli Gardens in central Copenhagen are transformed into a Christmas spectacle each December.
Tivoli, Copenhagen’s famous 21-acre park amusement park and pleasure garden opened in 1843. It is the second oldest amusement park and second most popular theme park in the world. Beautifully landscaped with fountains and flower beds and more than 111.000 custom-designed lights to illuminate the park at night. At Christmas it becomes a magical winter wonderland complete with its own Christmas market.
Sparkling white twinkling lights strung along the Christmas market 'streets'.

Christmas market stores, knitted Danish hats, gloves, scarves and sweaters, Danish Christmas decorations, and handmade chocolates amongst the many temptations.

The Nimb Palace Hotel is light up better than a Christmas tree! Moorish in style with magnificent towers and minarets, its graceful Christmas swans sit before it.

Santa's sleigh and reindeer complete the magic. Tivoli, the ultimate Copenhagen Christmas destination!

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The splendid Rosenborg Castle in central Copenhagen, no longer a royal residence, is home to some other royal treasures, the Danish Crown Jewels. The stunningly beautiful royal jewels are still used and worn today by the Danish royal family on state occasions.

Rosenborg Castle was built in 1606 as a country summerhouse by Christian IV , evolving into its present condition by 1624. It was used as a royal residence until around 1710. After the reign of Frederik IV, it was only used as a royal residence twice more.The first time was after Christiansborg Palace burned down in 1794, and the second time was during the British attack on Copenhagen in 1801

It is often very humbling when visiting other countries to learn about their impressive history and culture and you rapidly realise you know very little about it. School day history lessons seem to focus on huge empire builders through the centuries and although most of us know that the Danish can lay claim to the Vikings we certainly knew very little else.

The priceless treasures at Rosenberg Castle were gathered together at a time when Denmark struggled with the balance of power in Scandinavia against its close neighbour Sweden. Despite many bloody battles Denmark failed to claim control of territories held by Sweden it believed belong to them. As the years melted away the fighting ceased and much like most of western Europe the two former enemies found peace.

Denmark played its part in World War II and although occupied early by the Nazis it had a brave and significant resitance force. Unlike many other occupied countries most Danish Jews were rescued in 1943 when German authorities ordered their internment as part of the Holocaust.
Rosenberg Castle stands in all its grandeur  as a tribute to Denmark's rich past. Impressive state rooms, art work, tapestries. A small snap shot of Danish history, a place to return to for sure!

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We arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, on a crisp afternoon. The sky heavy but bright, full of 'prospective weather', which at this time of year in Scandinavia meant more winter storms! It was the type of day that make your cheeks sting and rosy after just a few minutes but at the same time you feel refreshed and healthy as if cleansed by the biting cold air!
Grandiose buildings in a typical Scandinavian style, with lots of stories, speckled with small windows, painted in a myriad of warm shades mostly from a warm pallet of oranges, yellows and creams. One of these included one of Copenhagen's most famous residents's, Hans Christian Anderson.
Long, grand streets strung with bright white lights every so often opened up into impressive city squares.

A canal boat tour enabled us to see some of Copenhagen's splendid buildings. The old stock exchange and the Danish Parliament buildings.


A trip to Copenhagen had to include a visit to the Lego flagship store.

Fresh flower stalls seemed to be on every corner. At this time of year they also offered beautiful spruce trees, wreaths, bunches of mistletoe and an assortment of Christmas greenery for the festive season. Bright bunches of berries, fat candles and a somewhat surprising offering of giant straw penguins, long necked geese and tulips! The air fragrant with burnt carmel and sugar from toasted almonds, hand roasted and tied up in prettily gathered paper bags and ribbons.

Carol singers everywhere contributed to the atmosphere, Christmas so close you could almost touch it!

This festive, enticing table seemed to be common place outside Copenhagen's many restaurants, tempting us in where we enjoyed Danish fare of delicious open sandwiches and grog!

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