A city break to Copenhagen
I recently wrote about our city break in Stockholm which you can read here and here.
After three nights in Stockholm we boarded the train to Copenhagen, which was a 5 hour journey through the pine tree covered Swedish landscape. The country is vast with so much open land, dotted infrequently with the traditional Falu red painted wooden and corrugated metal houses, that are so familiar in Sweden.
As you approach Denmark and copenhagen the train crosses the Oresund bridge, which connects Sweden and Denmark and was made famous in the TV crime drama The Bridge.
Disembarking in Copenhagen central station, it was a short underground journey to Fredericksberg, the upmarket residential area of Copenhagen, where we'd booked our Air bnb for 2 nights.
We actually had 3 nights in Copenhagen, which was broken by 2 nights on the coast, and I'll link the hotel where we stayed for our last night further along in this blog.
The Air bnb was absolutely perfect for a short stay in the city. Seven minutes walk from the underground station and around the corner from one of the main roads running through Frederiksbeg, with plenty of restaurants, shops & bars along it.
The interior was bright and spacious, with patio doors opening onto a small front garden, a large open plan lounge and kitchen/dining room perfectly equipped with everything you could want for cooking and a great coffee machine, a double bedroom, with a really comfortable bed and those crucial seperate single duvets I mentioned before and a bathroom with a large walk in shower & washing machine, should you be staying for longer and travelling light.
Frederiksberg is often described as a city within a city. It's central to Copenhagen and so is a great place to be located for a short trip. It's full of restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, parks and has a weekly flea market every Saturday morning starting at 9.00am. I'll break down this blog as always into where we stayed, ate, shopped and what we saw. As my main focus of any trip is often food lets start with where we ate.
Eat
Vaernedamsvej
One of the areas within Frederiksbeg which we walked to on our first evening and was a short 15 minute stroll, is called Vaernedamsvej or locally known as "little Paris" for it's very French influence. It's one street which has been pedestrianised except for the many bikes that are ridden by everyone in Copenhagen and it's lined either side with restaurants and pavement cafes, some of the cities hippest shops, florists and specialist food shops. It feels very different from the rest of Copenhagen and has a village vibe. We ate take away pizza in a cardboard box with a couple of beers outside the pizza shop just watching the world go by but there are some fine dining restaurants on this street, the most popular being Les Trois Cochons.
Refshaleoen
Refshaleoen is a former industrial site in the harbour of Copenhagen and is now one of the hippest areas in Copenhagen for great food, craft beers, festivals and music. If you live in any big city you'll recognise the formula of industrial containers housing various types of food vendors with communal eating areas and live DJ sets, but this place felt much bigger than any I'd been to before and the fact that it's set beside the water and the sun was shining definitely made if feel very relaxed. There is a make shift beach with deck chairs facing the water front as well as lots of other areas to eat, a Mikkeller brewery and bar, if you like craft beer and just a great atmosphere. Word of warning at busy times you will wait a looong time for your food order to be prepared and you don't get given a buzzer to take away with you while you enjoy your drink. You literally have to stand in a queue and wait. We waited for over an hour for 2 burgers and fries so don't go if you're absolutely starving hungry and can't wait that long. I'd highly recommend a visit to La Banchina which is a bar and restaurant with an outdoor pool for wild swimming. It's one of the first restaurants you'll see as you enter Refshaleoen and next time we go we'll eat there. This time we just had a beer and watched the sun set. It was so peaceful and beautiful. If you cycle there as we did, make room in your ruck sack for your swimming clothes, you can thank me later.
Absalon Vesterbro
Absalon in Vesterbro district is a former church which has been converted into a social space for the residents and visitors of Copenhagen. A popular meeting place for the locals, it's open from breakfast through to dinner, with a licensed bar, table tennis, bingo and movie nights. We called in for lunch which is a casual affair. There were two home made dishes of the day served canteen style straight from the pan, along with hot dogs and an assortment of cakes. Dining is at long communal tables which makes for a very friendly atmosphere. It's a hang out for the creative community and families of Vesterbro and is a cheap and cheerful alternative to the many other more expensive eateries in the area. The place to truly feel like a local rather than a tourist.
Absalon vesterbro
Meatpacking District
This area is the former meat packing and abattoir area of Copenhagen in what was once the run down area of the city, Vesterbro. This area has now become the hippster part of the city and the white meatpacking area, which is huge and spans over 800,000 square feet is now home to restaurants, bars, galleries, artists studios and bowling alleys and crazy golf hang outs. The distinctive blue and white 1930's buildings, many still complete with their tiled interiors for hygiene purposes, made the area feel slightly imposing for me. Maybe that's because I was a vegetarian for 10 years and am an animal lover? However, it was an interesting place and is very popular with gastronomic trendsetters,so don't let me put you off. It's definitely worth a walk around though. We stopped for a drink in one of the many bars and there's lots of outdoor seating for the warmer days and there's so many different styles of food to choose from. The area is now a protected area and is one of the national industrial memorials in Copenhagen.
Copenhagen Meatpacking district
Breakfast
If you're not staying in a hotel and are in an Air bnb I would definitely recommend eating out for breakfast at least once during your stay in Copenhagen. Every cafe and a lot of the bakeries with in house cafes, serve the most delicious home made offerings. From fresh fruit and yoghurt, to over night oats with peanut butter and the most delicious omelettes with fresh bread, it is all amazing. In Frederiksberg the area we stayed in there is a very popular bakery called Hart Bageri who have grown their popularity in Copenhagen due to their exceptional sourdough bread and pastries. They have branches around Copenhagen. Opposite Hart there is Meyers Deli which we ate in and was amazing and also Pollys on the same street is fabulous for breakfast through to dinner.
Shop
This might surprise many of you, but I don't really like shopping that much and when I do go shopping, I always prefer to be on my own. So as I was with Mr B on this trip we didn't really look in a lot of shops. What I can tell you though, for those of you that do like shopping is that there are many many amazing places to shop in Copenhagen. From beautiful boutiques to some of the best vintage and second hand clothes shops you'll find anywhere in Europe.
Some of the shopping we did do, which will come as no surprise to any of you that know I have an online antique shop, was vintage, antique shops and flea markets. As i've mentioned before Frederiksberg has a weekly flea market, every Saturday morning starting at 9.00am, which we visited . I'll attach the link here. There are also lots of antique shops in Frederiksberg. Many don't have websites and so you'll have to walk around and discover them for yourselves but there are plenty so you will.
Vesterbro is also a great area for vintage clothes and antique shops. The two main roads where you'll find the majority of them is Istedgade and Sonder Boulevard. There are also lovely lifestyle and interior stores along here.
One of my favourite shops that we discovered on Istedgade was A door slow living boutique. It's a lifestyle and clothes concept store and beautifully curated.
Another fantastic clothes shop we went in located on Istedgade was Donn Ya Doll. They have so many Danish and Scandinavian casual street style clothes and I did try on a few items, but they were all a variation on a theme of items I already have in my wardrobe and so trying to be more ethical and minimal in my buying, I didn't purchase anything. If you're looking to add to your wardrobe though, this shop is not to be missed.
Have you even been to Copenhagen if you don't visit Hay? As an interior designer and stylist I've loved their colourful and practical designs for a long time but being in the UK I have only ever been able to shop at small concessions within other stores. To visit the Hay department store, which is over three floors, was an absolute treat for the senses. The only thing we bought, having only hand luggage to take back on the plane with us, was a neckerchief for our sons dog Ruby, but that's the type of product that they have here and no where else other than Copenhagen. She'll be the envy of her dog training class i'm sure :)
See
Nyhavn
If you're going to visit Copenhagen, the most photographed area is Nyhavn. The famous colourful painted buildings which line the waterfront are now mostly bars and restaurants and quite touristy, but the area is lovely and although busy, not to be missed.
Just around the corner from the waterfront are some of the early houses built for the shipping merchants of Copenhagen. Built in the style of the brown stone buildings in New York, they are now listed and protected and are absolutely beautiful if you manage to find them.
The Little Mermaid
Carry on along the water front and you'll eventually come to The Little mermaid statue, probably the most famous landmark in Copenhagen. It was Commissioned in 1913 by the head brewer of the Carlsberg factory who fell in love with the character, after watching a ballet performance of the story. It's quite underwhelming when you find it as it is literally hidden from view on the banks of the waters edge and much smaller than I anticipated, but never the less, if you're in Copenhagen it feels almost obligatory to visit it. From across the water you'll see the site of refshaleoen if you've not already been. Unfortunately we were hoping there was a water taxi to take us across, but there's not, so we grabbed a Bolt electric bike and cycled around the peninsula which took around 40 minutes. I've mentioned how to use the elctric bikes dotted on virtually every street in Copenhagen, further along in this blog.
Carlsberg Factory
As I've already mentioned Carlsberg "Probably the best lager in the world" (giving my age away here if anyone remembers that famous line from their adverts?)
I would also recommend a walk to their factory which was built in 1847 and is a beautiful building with an imposing entrance flanked by two carved stone elephants. You can take a tour of the factory and are rewarded with a freshly pulled pint of their lager at the end. Also within the factory building is Aire ancient thermal baths which is a spa experience in which you bath in the thermal baths and then have a massage of your choice, from hot stone to relaxing or intense. We didn't visit the spa or do the factory tour as our time was limited, but after walking around the building, we definitely will do next time we visit.
Finn Juhl House
As an interior design student I really enjoyed studying and researching different periods of design and architecture and became fascinated with the early to mid 20th Century designers. So it was such a delight to visit the house of architect and furniture designer Finn Juhl. He isn't really a household name in the UK but is very famous for his Poet sofa design in Scandinavia and apparently Japan. His house is located in a park in Ordrup, an upmarket residential area outside of Copenhagen which is a 1/2 hour train ride out of the city and then a bus journey to the park. I became aware of Finn Juhl's house from the portrait painting of his partner, Hanne Wilhelm, which he commissioned from Danish artist Vilhelm Lundstrom. It's striking in it's colour palette and very contemporary in it's style for the time and I've always loved it. I won't go on too much in this blog about the house, as I'm aware that this is a blog about visiting Copenhagen, but I will dedicate a seperate blog to it another time, as it deserves that. What I would say if you love design or architecture and have the time during your visit to Copenhagen ,it's well worth the effort to visit. I'll attach a link here so that you can check the opening times.
Finn Juhl House
Ordrupgaard Gallery
Within the park where Finn Juhl's house is located you'll also find Ordrupgaard gallery which houses the largest collection of post impressionist French art and Danish art in Denmark. The gallery is housed within a period Danish country house built between 1916-1918 and many of the rooms are furnished in their original Gustavian style, my favourite room being the traditional Danish country kitchen. There is a modern extension designed by architect Zaha Hadid which contains a cafe and gift shop and substantial parkland around the building to walk and picnic in the summer months.
One of my favourite artists, Vilhelm Hammershoi art exhibited in Ordrupgaard.
Tivoli Gardens
When I told an art director, I was working with, that I was visiting Copenhagen she said "you must visit Tivoli Gardens, it's magical." Not being a fan of theme parks or fairground rides, I wasn't entirely convinced but as we have very similar interests and tastes I trusted her judgement and visited and she wasn't wrong. Built in 1843, it inspired Walt Disney after his visit in the 1950's, to open Disney land. Because of it's age and history, which has been preserved in many areas of the park, it doesn't feel tacky or gaudy like many more modern theme parks do. There are pretty lights in the trees, so visiting in the evening makes it even more magical,there is a boating lake with boat houses, upon it, that now house quality restaurants, giving it a Central Park feel, there's a band stand with live music events and a beautiful 5 star hotel modelled on a moorish palace. Traditional hand painted carousels twinkle in the dusk and fountains grace the manicured lawns. We walked around and had a beer while we listened to the live music event and although it's not our usual choice of an evening out, we definitely enjoyed our few hours there and we're glad we went. It has an old school charm about it and is utterley enchanting.
An ice cream cart in Tivoli Gardens
Getting around
The quickest and easiest way to get from Copenhagen airport to the city centre is on the underground, which takes around 15 minutes, depending on the district you're staying in. The underground network is regular and efficient. You'll need a zone 3 ticket. They don't operate a tap in and tap out system for travellers, like the underground in London. The best way to buy tickets is on the Dot app or from the ticket machines in the stations. We used the app which was really easy. there is a link here.
If you're staying in Copenhagen for more than a couple of days, I would definitely consider hiring a bike as it's the mode of transport everyone in Copenhagen uses. You can hire them for a few days from many of the bike hire companies online. I've attached a useful link here. If you just want to hop on and off a bike occasionally during your visit,there are multiple electronic bikes located on many of the streets which you can just pick up once you've downloaded the app. The most popular in Copenhagen are Lime or Bolt.
So after two nights in Copenhagen we broke up our stay up with 2 nights on the North Zealand coast, staying at a seaside town called Tisvildeleje. I'll keep this blog post to just Copenhagen and write a seperate post about Tisvildeleje, as I realise it's maybe not relevant for most people travelling to Copenhagen.
After two nights on the coast we returned to Copenhagen for another day and half, as I didn't want to be too far away from the airport as I wasn't sure at the time of booking how regular or reliable the trains from the coast back to the city were. I needn't have worried as they were regular and efficient and it was only a 1.5 hour journey back to the city. I'm glad we did choose to stay for our last night at Grand Joanne Hotel as it was very central, right next door to Tivoli and gave us the time to visit there and spend our last day of our holiday at Finn Juhl house and Orprudgaard gallery at our leisure. The hotel was also excellent, beautifully designed and good value for such a central location. The breakfast was amazing and there was also a restaurant and rooftop bar. A definite recommendation from me if you prefer Hotels to self catering options. One word of warning though, we booked a cosy room to keep the price to a minimum as it was only for a one night stay, but the room was very small and restrictive, so I would definitely not go for anything less than a standard next time. The cosy room would be perfect for a solo traveller but not ideal for a couple. Other than that though it was faultless.
So to summarise Copenhagen, i'd say it's the cleanest, safest city I've ever visited in Europe. The people are very friendly and English is spoken by everybody. The food is expensive but delicious and great quality everywhere, so no complaints at all. It's stylish and interesting, with lots of open spaces which make it feel expansive. It's a city of bikes, beer benches and roses. Roses were everywhere, around every door way, making it super pretty and I can't wait to go back.