Øresund Aquarium

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope, that you are all doing just fine!

In this article I want to tell you about my visit to one of the well-known aquariums of the university of Copenhagen, which is situated in Helsingør and I was there during my visit to this place, when I also saw the M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark and this amazing Kronborg Castle, which they say is the Hamlet Castle, because this was the castle, which was dedicated to the Hamlet, I mean, it’s this castle, which Shakespeare tells us about in his poem.

Well, this place is called the Øresund Aquarium and in Danish you may find it spelled as  Oresundsakvariet. To be honest, I didn’t really plan on visiting it until I saw, that it was included in my Copenhagen Card, which allowed me to visit it free of charge, so that I could visit it anytime during those hours of my Copenhagen card, which was 120. Well, I would have bought more hours, I guess, however, it was the longest hours _ those 120 hours.

About the Øresund Aquarium

Anyways, the aquarium is not very large, I mean, the building is not huge or something like that, it’s just a normal aquarium for the visitors.

The aquarium is located in Helsingør and it’s just nearby the harbor, so that you won’t have to walk too much to get there. Its address is Strandpromenaden 5, Helsingør, Denmark. And it’s a part of the university of Copenhagen’s museums and , at the same time, it’s a saltwater aquarium. It was opened in 1973 , however, it has just been renovated.

The aquarium is usually open from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m.,however, on weekends it’s open till 5 p.m., so that it’s better to visit it on weekends, but still, it’s not that big of a deal when you visit it. The thing is, that mostly people are at work on weekdays and the aquarium closes at 4 p.m., so that it’s easier for them to visit the aquarium on weekends. You should also know, that the aquarium is closed on 22-25 December, 31 December and on the 1-st of January.

Well, for those, who don’t have the Copenhagen card or something like that, I will share the information about the admission to the aquarium. Children are not obliged to pay any money, if they are under 3 years. Then, children from 3 to 11 years have to pay 49 DKK each. And the adults pay 69 DKK, which is not very cheap, as you know. there are also the family tickets available, which includes 2 adults and 2 children and the price is 210 DKK.

You can also get some annual tickets for children or adults, which cost 120 DKK for children and 170  DKK for adults. It also includes 10% discount in the souvenir shop and 2 free events.

Inside the aquarium

Well, there are lots of fish and other things in the aquarium and you will enjoy your visit there if you like such things.

For example, there you will find the Greater Weever Trachinus draco, which is a very beautiful fish, however, it carries venomous spines on the first dorsal fin and the opercula and it’s really dangerous. But, you should know, that the venom is broken down in hot water. However, I don’t really know what temperature it is to be a hot water enough to break down its venom.

You can also see the hermitcrab in the aquarium. It’s a very strange thing and it has this abdomen which is protected by a salvaged empty seashell into which its whole body can retract and hide there.

There is also an octopus in the Oresund aquarium, or at least, there was this one when I visited it and it was pretty different from what I imagined. And it had this huge nose or mouth or whatever it was.They said, that usually it’s hiding, however, it was out when I was there and it was pretty cool, I must say.

There were also many small jellyfishes in the aquarium and they were really lovely. They were transparent, however, they were like emitting light or something like that. Those were the Aurelia Auritas and they had these 4 circles inside, which were kind of the eyes or something. To tell you the truth, 95% of jellyfish is water and that’s why it’s jelly-like.

Except from the fish in the aquarium, which are behind the windows and you can not touch them or feed them and you can just look at them, there are some things, which you can touch there. There’s this aquarium nearby the entrance, which is kind of open and it’s decorated with sea stones and plants and things like that and there are some different types of fish, which won’t come out of water and you can touch them without anything. There are, for example, starfishes, which, I’m sure, every child loves and that’s because they have seen it in the cartoons, and, here in Oresund Aquarium you can touch those starfishes and see what they are like.  There are also some other things there, however, I only touched the starfish there,if you want to know the truth.