2011-06-09 Copenhagen 3 Christiansborg Slot

2011-06-09 Today we visited the Christiansborg Slot (palace) http://www.ses.dk/da/SlotteOgHaver/Slotte/ChristiansborgSlot.aspx. It's an important government building, serving Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Supreme Court and has the Royal Reception Rooms. The Reception Rooms were open to the public, and are very impressive. The rooms are spacious, with very high ceilings that are decorated with paintings and chandeliers; the floors are parquet in complicated geometric patterns. The walls are decorated with huge paintings or tapestries, many woven especially for the palace. The rooms are still used by the Royal family for State functions (dinners, receiving ambassadors, etc.). Then we went around the corner to the Thorvaldsen Museum www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk. Bertel Thorvaldsen was the pre-eminent Danish sculpture, lived 1770-1844. He designed the museum and bequeathed his works to it when he died. It's a very pleasant exhibition of marble sculpture, much like the Roman or Medieval, but the works are complete – not headless or armless. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant, but it was somewhat disappointing. The cooking style was not as sophisticated as we are used to. After lunch we went to the
For dinner we had a Margerita pizza, mixed salad and two 250cc beers for DKK 232 or about $46. Fortunately it was all very good, generous portions and good draft Tuborg. Photo is one of the many elephants, each of which is painted in a unique manner.