June 22nd – Our day began a bit earlier today given that it was check-out day at the hotel. All our bags had to be boarded onto the bus since the final stop on our tour was our ship. Today’s tour was around Copenhagen with the first stop at the Amalienborg Palace. Built in the 1700s, the property includes four different residences – one for Queen Margarita, one for Crown Prince Ferdinand, one for his brother, when he is in town, and the fourth for the Queen’s sister. The residences are built in an octagonal shape around a large square anchored by a domed church called The Marble Church. Our time in the square was shortened by an unexpected downpour.

Our next stop was the Rosenberg Castle, home to the Crown Jewels. Even though we had an hour here, it wasn’t long enough to get more than a glimpse of all the artifacts in the museum. It was also crowded in some places making it difficult to see and hear.

During our drive we passed the new Opera House donated by Mr. Maersk of shipping fame, the new theatre, a unique residential area called Christiana, the Christiansborg Palace, seat of the Danish Parliament, and many others points of interest. We agree that we’d like to come back and spend a few more days here.

Our last stop was a quick one to photograph The Little Mermaid, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s tragic love story. Then it was off to the ship.

We were quite impressed by the speedy boarding process compared to others we’ve encountered. Given that we booked an upgraded suite, we found our room ready when we arrived. After lunch, we unpacked and had a short rest before attending the Go Next welcome reception where we met others from various Canadian Universities. We struck up a conversation with the Smiths from Ballantrae – he is a retired accountant but serves as a municipal Councillor. We invited them to join us for dinner and spent a delightful evening finding many common points of interest.

We returned to our room and celebrated the beginning of our cruise with champagne compliments of Oceania Cruise Lines.