Copenhagen

New country! Denmark and hoping to run into Queen Mary and catch up for a coffee or wine.

We caught the train from Hamburg and it was roughly 5 hours. Trains in Europe are pretty comfy but our carriage had a problem with its aircon and it was like a sauna. Luckily it wasn’t fully booked and we could find another seat in the the next carriage.

Copenhagen Station. Check out the people sitting up the top.

We caught the Metro next which was close to our Airbnb. Steve’s two criteria for booking is a lift or no stairs and a washing machine. Somehow he missed that criteria with this apartment. So Steve had an unplanned workout and we’re now running out of undies. But in a beautiful city of Copenhagen we will definitely cope.

The apartment was in a great position. There was a canal down the end of the street so we wandered down the canal and ended up in the popular tourist spot Nyhavn with all the colorful houses.

After a bit of a nibble we went to find a supermarket for some necessary supplies of milk, bread, tea and wine.

A unique cafe in the square.

The next day we went on the Hop on Hop Off bus. It always a good way to check out what’s around.

One stop was the Little Mermaid. It is of course based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. An interesting fact is that it was gifted to the city after the owner of Carlsberg Brewery saw The Little Mermaid ballet. It has also been a target of vandalism with its head and decapitated more than once, an arm
cut off and paint thrown on it all usually political protests.

The next stop was Tivoli Gardens. It was an unexpected and amazing place. Not just gardens! It was like a big Luna Park with the exception of it having a variety of restaurants and beautiful gardens. It is the third oldest theme park in the world opening in 1843.

Love the gate keepers uniforms.
A restaurant
Side show alley
A cute bird house in the lake.
Even the lawn mower is cute.
There was a Cakehagen shop which is a popular Danish bakery. I wanted to try them all!
This is a cake we did try. It’s called a Dansk Lagkage or Danish Layer cake. Its layers were very yummy. It was hard to share!

After the Tivoli Gardens we jumped back on the bus and then hopped off in the Meatpacking district. The area was the location of the meat industry from the 1930’s. In the early 2000’s it began to evolve into a more cultural area with restaurants, art galleries and night clubs. It was very quiet so we were thinking it definitely must have more of a vibe at night.

The sign on this says Insect Bridge. I thought it was some kind of playground. But an Insect Bridge is basically a structure trying to create different pathways for insects to move between different habitats and ideally linking them to green spaces. The aim is to create a more biodiverse and interconnected urban environment.
It looked very industrial. The venues kept the industrial facade to keep the heritage of the area.

From here it wasn’t too far to walk to our next stop…… The Lego Shop. We decided that being in Denmark we had to get some sort of Lego souvenir. So we had some fun creating a mini me Lego figure.

The next day we decided we needed a slower start.

Our first stop was a walk through the Kongdens Have – the Kings Garden.

Very tall hedges!
I loved the shape of this tree.

The Kings Garden led to Rosenborg Castle. It is a castle built in the 17th century by King Christian IV. After reading about Rosenborg Castle I think maybe we should have had a look inside. It contains the Crown Jewels some of which are worn by the Queen for special occasions. Queen Mary wore the ruby set for the celebration of when she became Queen of Denmark. As with all the Crown Jewels their history is very interesting. This ruby set dates back to Napoleon’s Coronation.

Real guns!

We did happen to be there for the start of the Changing of the Guard. The guards parade in the square and then march to Amalienborg Palace where the ceremony continues. It happens daily from 11:30.

Fun fact- their hats weigh 6kgs and cost 50 thousand krona.

After the castle we wandered back to the Nyhavn area and tried our first Danish hotdog.

It was good too.

We then headed back to the apartment to get ready for a very special night.

We managed to get a reservation to Noma a 3 star Michelin restaurant voted 5 times the best restaurant in the world. It’s unique in having a test kitchen full of amazing chefs to create the menu that changes with the seasons, with what’s around to forage in the garden and a big focus on fermented foods. It was on Steve’s bucket list so it made it so much more special and amazing when we managed to get a reservation after being on the waitlist. I knew I was in for an interesting experience but it was beyond my imagination. The creativity of each dish was amazing and definitely pushed my food boundaries!

The garden on the way in

Our menu season was Ocean. But we were on the border between Ocean and Spring, so it was more Spring. So lots of flowers. Yes, I ate flowers. There were 16 small dishes paired with wine, a couple of those were sake and some interesting nibbles in between. I think I got off easy because there was no reindeer penis or reindeer brains.

The test kitchen and part of the foraging garden.

It was a very different dining experience from when we entered to when we left. We were greeted at the door and had a hibiscus tea and were then walked down to the restaurant via the test kitchen and through the garden to be welcomed by all of the staff! They all left their area and came out to welcome us. Steve also recognised the chef who started Noma. After the meal we then had a tour of the restaurant. Noma was an experience! But, some of the food was far too exotic for me.

When we arrived the table was full of all the food and ingredients that were going to be in the dishes. Including a live lobster that also tried to make an escape.
A vase of flowers that we dipped into broth and a bit of sauce.
Shredded rose petals around bamboo which was actually quite tasty.
I could not do this one. Snail inside a leaf with wasabi. Steve’s snail was in a hurry to escape. It was just there for decoration I think.
Trying some bull rush from the garden. Bull rush is a wetland grass that was growing just outside by the canal.
Another one I couldn’t do. Seaweed on ice with ant paste and nettles.
This was a dessert. There was chocolate underneath the flowers.
Another dessert! Yes it is alight. Blew it out and ate it! Jam and cream.

On our last day we went on a boat through the canals. It was great to see Copenhagen from the water.

This is known as the Lego building.
Very tight under some of the bridges. Steve had to duck every bridge.
I had to move a little to the right on this one.
This is an amazing Danish innovation. It’s CopenHill which is basically a facility that burns rubbish to create energy with an artificial grass ski slope, rock climbing and hiking trails on the side. And a bar at the top! Next time!!

After the canal cruise we caught the metro to the Torvellhallerne market for lunch. It had fresh seafood, meat, cheeses and lots of different options for lunch. The lines were very long for the pork belly sandwich and the traditional Danish smorrebrod or open sandwich.

There were two halls this size and a flower and fruit and vegetable market in between.

We then caught the metro back to where we were staying and wandered across to the other side of the canal where we found a great street food place. It was very busy because it was also a public holiday.

We had already eaten so settled for an Aperol Spritz.

It was a beautiful afternoon so we finished our visit to Copenhagen enjoying the sun on the balcony of our apartment.

We loved Copenhagen. It was a beautiful city. Unfortunately Queen Mary had a busy few days so we’ll have to catch up next time.

One thought on “Copenhagen”

  1. Looks amazing place Denmark….I did travel there in 1989 but my photos don’t do it justice…

    Reply

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