Mermaids, palaces, pastries

It is our last full day in Denmark so it was time to visit one of the most famous sites - the sculpture of the little mermaid.  She sits by herself in the harbour but is hardly alone, we could spot her location easily by the milling crowd of tourists.

She is just a little smaller than human size and really is beautiful but I found the tourists jockeying for photo position hilarious.

From there we had time for one last palace so we headed to Rosenborg Slot - Rosenborg Palace.  It was remarkably different from any of the palaces we have seen so far.  It really seemed like a palace for a cold climate.  The rooms were quite dark, heavily wood paneled with relatively small windows.  Some of the rooms were completely inside, no windows at all.  But they were beautiful.  Amazing painted scenes on the paneling and artwork everywhere.  Even the toilet was tiled to the ceiling with hand-painted blue and white scenes.

As well as the palace, Rosenborg is home to the treasury.  Like the Tower of London contains the British crown jewels, Rosenborg contains Denmark's.  However, unlike the Tower of London, here you can take as long as you want with each item.  They were quite different as well.  They are obviously older, the jewels have far less facets.  But along with amazing gems there is the most intricate and beautiful enamel work.

As well as the crowns there are all sorts of weapons, carved amber and ivory, and jewellery.  Oh the jewellery.  There was one particular emerald and diamond necklace, bracelet, earring and tiara set that I told S would be just fine as a birthday present.

Our final mission was, as always, food.  For our last full day one danish would not do - so we got 3!  And they were of course totally delicious.

Our time in Denmark has been brilliant, in fact our whole trip to Europe has been amazing.  Tomorrow we begin the ridiculously long trip home.  But the memories of the last few weeks will live with us forever.