Copenhagen Day 2

We started off our day stopping by the church in Copenhagen that has Thorvaldsen's original Christus statue as well as statues of all of the twelve apostles.  (The statue of Christ at the visitors center in Salt Lake is a replica of this statue).  When we went there was a children's choir concert going on, so we snuck into a back row and looked around.  It is a beautiful chapel.  Later in our trip we came back and were able to walk up and down and look at all of the statues in detail.  It was really neat. 

After our stop at the church we decided to go to the Thorvaldsen Museum.  He donated his collections to the city of Copenhagen.  It is a really amazing collection.  So many impressive sculptures. 

After a quick trip through the museum we headed to Amalienborg Palace to see the changing of the guard.  The Queen lives here and she was actually at home while we were there which meant the changing of the guard was quite a spectacle.  I guess when she's not home the new soldiers just walk in and replace the others, but when she is home they bring a marching band out and it's quite the ordeal...it was seriously about 40 minutes long.  We left early and checked out the royal apartments/museum they had in a building across from the palace. 

After checking out the Queen's palace we got on a train and headed outside of Copenhagen to see Frederiksborg Castle. It is an amazing renaissance castle.  It was built in the 17th century and has the most beautiful castle with a bunch of Carl Bloch paintings inside.  It was huge, and truly feels like you are stepping back in time when you walk inside.  For one, very few rooms had electric light, so we were giving some flashlights to take with us as we explored.  The girls were actually pretty nervous once we got into the castle.  I think they thought it seemed a little creepy, with the sun setting and it getting pretty dark inside.  Marcus really loved this castle.  It was Gigantic.  Marcus brought up a good point about what a disparity there must have been in the country at that time that there were surfs, and so many people that couldn't even own land, and then a palace like that.  It was pretty amazing to be able to walk through that place.  After the palace we walked through the cute town it was in and got some lunch and hot chocolate to warm up.

After the palace we went back to Copenhagen and enjoyed some more Christmas markets and fun.  The city was decorated so fun for Christmas we enjoyed walking around and having some yummy treats.