Copenhagen, Denmark

We have officially arrived in Copenhagen, where we plan to stay about a month.  We are delighted with our Airbnb apartment.  It couldn't be more centrally located -- just a ten-minute walk to most of the top sights in town, including the famous Nyhavn waterfront.

Our "neighbor" is Queen Margarethe of Denmark, who lives a ten-minute walk away in Amalienborg.  We haven't run into her in the grocery store yet (haha), but we did see the ceremonial changing of the guard outside her palace.

Amalienborg is actually four nearly-identical palaces arranged in a circle around a central plaza.  The Queen and her husband live in one building, the Crown Prince and his family in another, one is used as a guest house for visiting dignitaries, and the remaining palace houses a museum.  As you would expect, the interiors are extravagant.

A ten-minute walk from us in the other direction is the Rosenborg Castle, which is a former royal residence that is now a museum.

Rosenborg's interior is also lavishly decorated, with over-the-top displays of wealth that seem to clash with the current Danish minimalist trend.  Even the ceilings are covered in embellishments.

The crown jewels are kept under lock and key in the basement of the castle.

Whew!  After the gaudy decor of the palaces, it was actually a relief to come back to our minimalist and tastefully decorated apartment!