We were lucky to be in Copenhagen for the city’s annual culture night, where over 250 museums, churches, theatres, libraries, city buildings and businesses host a public open-house. After going through the list of participants, we selected a tour of the world-wide headquarters of Danish shipping company A.P. Moller – Maersk and the Copenhagen Opera House as our top attractions. Both were excellent and unique experiences, and we took in few others as well, including the spectacular Mirror Ball at Royal Danish Library, pictured above, and the Royal Cast Collection.

Below are trip highlights from the evening of October 11th, 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps.

Maersk Position: 55°41.27’N, 12°35.86’E Here we are standing in line to visit the top venue on our list, the headquarters of Danish shipping company Maersk. We arrived about 15 minutes early for the 6pm opening and at least fifty people were ahead of us. By the time got in around 6:15 the line snaked way behind us in the distance. It’s a popular event—Peter and Pia said this is the first year Maersk has participated and the building is of course, not normally open to the public.

Maersk Headquarters Position: 55°41.26’N, 12°35.89’E Learning about container shipping inside Maersk headquarters.

Captain Position: 55°41.26’N, 12°35.89’E A large number of Maersk employees were on hand to present and answer questions for the Culture Night event, including ship’s captains.

Maersk Museum Position: 55°41.28’N, 12°35.84’E After touring the Maersk headquarters building, we visited the excellent Maersk Museum. The private museum is not normally open to the public and had wonderful displays and models depicting the company’s past and present. We spent ages speaking with one of the knowledgeable Maersk representatives.

Royal Cast Collection Position: 55°41.16’N, 12°35.84’E After the Maersk visit, we stopped in at the Royal Cast Collection that includes casts of such famous statues as Venus de Milo. We were intrigued by the purpose of the castings and were given a great explanation by one of the curators. In the past, castings were taken of famous statues so that replicas could be made and distributed to museums around the world. Nowadays people want to see the original, not a copy, but in the 18th and 19th centuries travel was less of an option and a copy was still worth seeing. Today the casts are less-popular, and often discarded, but a large number have been brought together in this collection.

Copenhagen Opera House Position: 55°40.93’N, 12°36.04’E Our next Culture Night stop was the Copenhagen Opera House. Here is the view from inside.

Auditorium Position: 55°40.93’N, 12°36.04’E The spectacular auditorium in the Copenhagen Opera House. Normally photography isn’t allowed inside, but the rules are laxer for Culture Night.

Orchestra Position: 55°40.93’N, 12°36.04’E The orchestra getting read to play in the Copenhagen Opera House.

Opera Position: 55°40.93’N, 12°36.04’E We thoroughly enjoyed a 15-minute mini-opera in the Copenhagen Opera House.

View from Opera House Position: 55°40.92’N, 12°36.03’E View south to Copenhagen from the Opera House. A heavy rain has been falling all night, but it didn’t seem to damper the enthusiasm of the Culture Night attendees.

Mirror Ball Position: 55°40.40’N, 12°34.93’E Our final Culture Night stop was the Royal Danish Library to see the spectacular “Mirror Ball” display inside the Black Diamond atrium.

Reading Room Position: 55°40.46’N, 12°34.93’E Normally on library patrons can go inside the Reading Room in the Royal Danish Library. But it was open on Culture Night, so we had a chance to go inside.

Tank Position: 55°40.68’N, 12°35.28’E The final Culture Night display we saw was a modern military tank. You can see how hard it is raining. We were drenched when we got home, but had a fabulous time. Thanks to Peter & Pia Moller for alerting us to the Culture Night event.

Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise. On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps.