Copenhagen -more inspired

A visit to Copenhagen wouldn’t be complete without two of its finest jewels, the Rosenborg Slot [castle] & the Carlsberg Brewery. Both were spectacular.. but on our way there we were drawn into the botanical gardens owned and maintained by the University of Copenhagen and what a lovely spot! The first few pictures below are of their Palmhouse [glass greenhouses] and ponds…

The Rosenborg Slot, built starting in 1603 ! was turned into a museum in the early 1800s and houses an amazing collection of furniture, jewelry art and the plunderings of fallen enemies over a few centuries. These pictures will never capture the amazing depth of the collection(s), they really need to be seen to be appreciated.. That said, that the time on some of the ivory carvings to look at them full size and scroll down. They were impossibly detailed and fine and there were dozens and dozens of them! The same can be said of the jewelry and the glass and porcelain and last, but not least on my list, their wine cellars!

The Rosenborg wine is served at the Queen’s New Year banquet and for special occasions in the royal household. At the present rate of annual consumption there is sufficient wine for at least another 300 years.

The wine was formerly kept in wooden barrels, the three oldest of which, was from 1598! In 1659 these barrels were taken as war booty by the Swedes, but after they had been loaded onto ships for transport to Stockholm the wine was re-conquered by a Danish privateering ship.

The barrels were then taken to Copenhagen Castle, from where the contents of the castle’s wine cellar were transferred to Rosenborg in 1731. During several hundred years the Rhine wine in these and the other barrels was carefully topped up with other sugar-free wine so that the new wine came to have the character of the old. By 1982, however, the old wooden barrels had deteriorated to the point where it was necessary to transfer the wine to steel tanks and bottles.

Mastering the mass-trans in Copenhagen we braved the metro and bus systems and made out way across town to the Carlsberg Brewery. They claimed to be closed on Mondays but we managed a walk through the brew house, the sculpture gardens and garage and even found a handful of open taps and enjoyed a pint with some lunch…