Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If it's chilly, you'll find plenty of
Mamma Mokka
coffee take-away
stands. If you get a drink “to go,” you'll pay an extra 5-kr deposit for the cup,
which you can recoup by inserting the empty cup into an automated machine
(marked on maps).
▲City Hall (Rådhus)
—This city landmark, between the train station/Tivoli
and the Strøget, is free and open to the public; you can wander throughout the
building and into the peaceful garden out back. It also offers private tours and
trips up its 345-foot-tall tower.
Cost and Hours:
Free, Mon-Fri 8:30-16:30; you can usually slip in Sat
10:00-13:00 when weddings are going on, or join the Sat tour; closed Sun.
Guided English-language tours-30 kr, 45 minutes, gets you into more private,
official rooms; Mon-Fri at 15:00, Sat at 10:00. Tower-20 kr, 300 steps for the
best aerial view of Copenhagen, June-Sept Mon-Fri at 11:00 and 14:00, Sat at
12:00, closed Sun and Oct-May. Tel. 33 66 33 66.
Visiting City Hall:
It's draped, inside and out, in Danish symbolism.
The city's founder, Bishop Absalon, stands over the door. Absalon (c.
1128-1201)—bishop, soldier, and foreign-policy wonk—was King Valdemar
I's right-hand man. In Copenhagen, he drove out pirates and built a fort to
guard the harbor, turning a miserable fishing village into a humming Baltic
seaport. The polar bears climbing on the rooftop symbolize the giant Danish
protectorate of Greenland. Six night watchmen flank the city's gold-and-green
seal under the Danish flag.
