Bicycles!

In my travels the most bike friendly I've yet to visit has to be Copenhagen, Denmark. They have have bike paths and lanes everywhere. The image below is in the central part of the city near the indoor/outdoor market. I sometimes forget where I've parked my car at the mall. How hard would it be for me to find my bicycle? I love the chaos of this image. I used a high f stop to get the depth of field I needed to get as many of the bikes in focus as possible. It was created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200mm lens at 63 mm. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 200, F 18.0 at 1/40th of a sec. God's blessings upon your week, chris

Quick Visit to the Kastellet

Landing early in the afternoon in Copenhagen Lenore and I went for a quick walk to the Kastellet a couple of blocks from our hotel. The Kastellet is a star shaped earthen walled fortress surrounded by a moat. The walls were constructed in the form of a star shaped pentagram. There are walking trails all around the top of the fortress walls. The military still uses it as base which strangely enough is open to the public with the limitation that most of the interior of the buildings are off limits. We were surprised to see that there was a concert being performed on the parade ground by a drum and fife corp. We sat and watched them for close to an hour. Their finale was amazing and totally unexpected as it was a techno fusion number that was distinctly non military. We had a great time and it was a nice way to decompress from being stuck in a plane for ten hours. God's love and blessings to all, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D mkII. #TeamCanon

Playing Tourist at Amalienborg Palace

While in Copenhagen it is fun to watch the changing of the guard at the Amalienborg Palace. Amalienborg is the home of the Danish royal family. It is made up of of four identical classical palace façades set around an octagonal courtyard. There are different types of ceremony of the changing of the guards depending upon which of the royal family is in residence at the royal palace in Copenhagen. The Royal Guard and the mounted Kongelige Livgarde (Kings Life Guard)are on duty for 24 hours. Notice that the guards are armed with modern weapons! The types of ceremonies are as follows Kongevagt (King's Watch) when the Monarch is in residence the Guards are accompanied by the Royal Guards music band. Løjtnantsvagt (Lieutenant Watch) when Prince Henrik, Crown Prince Frederik or Prince Joachim are residing at Amalienborg in the capacity of regents the Guards are accompanied by flutes and drums. Palævagt (Manor Watch) when the Crown Prince or Prince Joachim are in residence but not in the capacity of regents or the Palace is uninhabited the Guards march through Copenhagen without musical accompaniment. We got to watch the Løjtnantsvagt (Lieutenant Watch) when Prince Henrik, Crown Prince Frederik or Prince Joachim is in residence. We followed the mounted Kongelige Livgarde (Kings Life Guard) down the city streets to the Kastellet. The Kastellet or Citidel in English is a fortress where the horses are stabled and trained. The fortress is rather unique because it is star shaped when looked at from above. It has a large moat inside of which there is a tall dirt parapet. On the inside of that there are barracks, a windmill and a church. I felt really sorry for the soldiers that were assigned the KP duty of cleaning up the horse droppings from the flagstone. The day was rather dreary but we really enjoyed watching the pomp and circumstance. God bless, chris All images were created with a handheld Canon 7D mkII

Market Place or Eating Our Way Through Copenhagen

It was our plan to go on a "Food Tour" of Copenhagen while we were there. But after checking in with the hotel desk we arrived at the conclusion that a visit to the market place close to the Amalienborg Palace would end up accomplishing much of what we wanted at a cheaper price. The market place was visual treat. I felt like a little kid in a candy store. Of course candy was being sold by a chocolatier there as well.There were butchers and cheesemakers etc. and best of all a deli that sold an amazing variety of open faced sandwiches one of the most popular and common foods in Denmark.We had a fabulous time and I highly recommend it. The market place was both indoor and outdoor with two glass enclosed buildings with vendors stalls as well as outdoor with fruit vegatable and flower sellers on the outside. It was well worth the visit. The sandwiches were delicious! God's love and blessings to all, chris All images were photographed with a Canon 7D mkII. #TeamCanon

Admiral Hotel

When we were in Copenhagen we stayed at the Admiral Hotel which was a converted grain storage building built in 1787. Our room was very warm and comfortable. It had huge wooden beams supporting the ceiling which gave the room a historic feel. We had a room on the second floor with a little balcony that had great views of the harbor with its working boats, water taxis and sight seeing boats. The lobby had large scale model ships in glass cases scattered about adding to the nautical theme of the building. This was important as the building is right on the harbor and ships could pull alongside the pier to load and offload their cargo. The hotel was centrally located and was two blocks from Nyhavn one way and three blocks from Amalienborg Castle the other. It was also just across the bay from the opera house. The hotel was originally built as two warehouses for the trading company, Østersøisk-Guineiske Handelskompagni. It was later taken over by the trading firm by Pingel, Meyer, Prætorius & Co. The buildings were finished in 1787 to designs by engineering officer Ernst Peymann. The building was taken over by the Swedish Crown in 1788 and put into use as grainaries. The two buildings were later connected together in 1885 to make one long building. It was converted for use as a hotel in 1978 and remodeled in 2004. We had a good time photographing our hotel and the views from it of the opera house and of the new ski slope being built across the bay. Can you spot the ski slope? Its the truncated cube. A large silver building behind the workboat in the images below. Lacking mountains for a ski area they decided to build one. Have a great day and God bless, chris All images were photographed with a Canon 7D mkII. #teamcanon