Museum Diary

Tivoli Gardens isn’t a museum as such, but as the world’s second oldest operating amusement park, it is a piece of living history and worth a mention. Known simply as ‘Tivoli’, the world famous amusement park and pleasure garden was opened in 1843 and included a variety of attractions right from the beginning. Today, Tivoli hosts a number of fairground rides and games, situated amongst the beautiful 21 acre park which includes several landscapes flowerbeds and a large lake in which fireworks reflect at night. […]

Copenhagen’s Rundetaarn – which simply translates as ‘round tower’ – has been a feature of the city’s skyline since 1642, and is part of a complex that includes the adjacent Trinitatis Church. Once home to the University’s astronomers, it’s still Europe’s oldest functioning observatory and visitors can explore the skies during the winter months (see website for observatory viewing times). There’s no lift inside the historic tower, so the only way up is by climbing up the spiral ramp that winds its way to the […]

From the moment I first visited the website of the Statens Museum for Kunst – the National Gallery of Denmark – I knew we just had to go there, and that’s not even counting all the word of mouth recommendations we’d had. If you go to ‘Visit the Museum’ and then ‘Children and Families‘ on their website, the first thing you see is a picture of a dad with a toddler. What that image said to me, is that here is a museum that truly […]

Another post from Copenhagen today. The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek had been on my radar ever since several people had recommended it, and the impressive building in the centre of town is hard to miss. If you visit their website, it takes a moment to get a handle on what the museum is actually about. On the home page you find out they have an “outstanding collection” of French Masterpieces, and the “largest collection of ancient art in Scandinavia”. They also had a modern art exhibition […]

Well, as you already know we spent our Christmas holiday in Copenhagen. I’d never been before and they have so many wonderful sounding museums there, you can imagine how hard it was to pace myself. It was a bit like a kid in a sweetie shop that’s just allowed to look in through the window. But with #MuseumBaby, the husband, and Granny Scotland onboard, it was a matter of family first. Our plan? To work our way through Mel’s “Top 5 for Families in Copenhagen” […]

I know I said Museum Diary was taking a break over the holidays, but yesterday we had a lovely visit to the National Museum of Denmark which was very Christmassy so it made sense to share it with you now rather than in the new year. Little visitors could take part in the ‘Nisseversitet’ (which they were calling ‘Pixieversity’ in English). A Nisse is a mythological creature from Scandinavian folklore (also called ‘Tomte’ in Sweden) typically associated with Christmas. It’s small, often wears a red […]