June 25 (Tuesday) – The tour that wasn’t and the tour that was.

We dutifully reported for our tour of the city at the nearby Tourist Information Center.  However, the guide never showed up.  A follow-up phone revealed that our voucher had the wrong meeting point.  However, just as we were despairing of a guide, one showed up.  Hans Christian Anderson (of fairy tale fame), AKA Richard Karpen.  Complete with full early 18^th century garb, including a top hat.  Richard runs a couple of independent tours so we decided to join his walking tour of the old city.

As Hans Christian Anderson (HCA) he explained a lot about the history, culture, and people of Denmark as we wandered around the old city.

We stopped at the Church of our Lady, one of the few Catholic Churches in a Lutheran country.

The tour took us through various city squares.  We stopped at one where he treated the group with Schnapps (and coca cola for the tea totalers).   

After the tour we headed down to the Nyhavn Canal where we took a boat tour out through the canals.  The cruise took us past the (new) Royal Danish Theater,

opera house,

the headquarter of Mærsk, the largest shipping company in the world,

the ski slope (that is on top of a huge waste treatment plant),

lots of statues,

Frederik's Church in the distance,

the brick building holding the Royal Cast Collection (statues),

spiral tower on the Church of Our Saviour,

the Little Mermaid (from the back side, with a mob of tourists photographing her),

and a lot of other sights.

Once back we decided to eat along the Nyhavn Canal.  It is so colorful and is a really lively area (mostly tourists).