Den Lille Havfrue

Nyhavn (New Harbour) is an inlet off the Inderhavnen. Brothels and bars for visiting sailors once dominated this seedy area, but now the multicoloured, 17th-century gabled buildings accommodate bustling restaurants and pavement cafés serving traditional Danish food beside a pedestrian thoroughfare and the masts of traditional yachts. Children's writer Hans Christian Andersen lived at three different houses here. It is a very pleasant walk from Nyhavn along the waterfront via Amalienborg Castle to the spot in the northeast of the city where Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid) stares wistfully out to sea. Erected in 1913, the statue commemorates the Hans Christian Andersen heroine and has become a global symbol of Copenhagen.