Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen

We spent the morning of the third day wandering around in Freetown Christiania.

Everyone knows this one, the iconic mural of Christiania

Cops with guns on roof tops, stalls on Pusher Street with nothing interesting for sale,  trash and graffiti everywhere. Could be we did not venture far enough into Christiania but what we encountered made me want to get out fast. 

I did like this large metal butterfly, now that one I would have bought in a heart beat. But not ten horses would be able to bring me into this 'museum'

Museum?

We did follow the advice of travel websites recommending Nemoland, but even for an early lunch that place was disgusting at best. They only accept cash. tables and benches were filthy. food was a joke. Not even the beer was memorable.  

Alright, on to better things :-)

Tivoli Gardens

Tivoli, best to visit in the evenings that's when the park becomes magical with all the lights. In June the days are very long and we got too tired to wait for nightfall,  but certainly it is a charming place anytime of the day. 

The Moorish Palace The Nimb is the only Hotel in Tivoli

This is cute, a lawnmower dressed up as rabbit, but ....

... this statue of a Pierrot is creepy 

Whimsical Pierrot drawings were hung on walls to show that behind them is construction going on

Tivoli Gardens is the second oldest amusement park in the world and we could clearly see how Walt Disney found his inspiration for Disney Land and Disney World at Tivoli Gardens. Disney World in its overwhelming superlative is like the child that outgrew its parent but one can definitively see the resemblance. 

The flying suitcase (= It's a small world )

This park is more like a fairy tale version of what we expect of an amusement park nowadays, with a mix of fun rides ...

... sweeping flowerbeds and beautiful water features, and all is clean and well manicured. 

There is definitely an old world charm.

The rides, restaurants, stages, shops, everything is linked by paths under mature trees and surrounded by picturesque gardens and lakes. 

Of course flowers were everywhere I looked.

I bet kids love to eat at this Pirate ship restaurant

Tivoli was joyous and a gentler, less commercialized experience for me 

We had a delicious dinner of lightly fried local plaice (flounder) with fried capers and butter potatoes, a Danish specialty, at the Groften restaurant where we had one of the best tables in their garden view section at a window. So beautiful to watch the lights come on in the park as it got dark.

And I am ending this post with yet another picture of a dragon

the Hanging Dragon in the Asian part of Tivoli