My Love-Affair with Copenhagen
November 19th, 2008 by Zofia
From the moment I got off the airport train and started walking towards the hostel I knew that Copenhagen was a place I would enjoy spending time in. I can’t really explain why, it just made a really good impression on me.
Arriving on a Friday late afternoon, I was pleased to discover that the hostel I was staying in was walking distance from the main train station and was very centrally located. Before I left London I had booked a ticket to go to see the Royal Danish Ballet at the Royal Opera House on the Friday night so once I has settled into the hostel I went about working out how I would get from where I was on Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard to the island of Christianshavn and the Royal Opera House. Thankfully Copenhagen has a very easy city to get around and the bus system proved to be very straightforward – getting me to the Opera House nice and early so there was time for exploring the surrounding area and getting some dinner before the ballet started.
The Royal Opera house is an experience all on its own, it is a remarkable piece of modernist architecture, it was all curves and straight lines and glass – very impressive. The ballet I saw was Cinderella (or in Danish, Askepot), it was beautiful! Going to the ballet was a very good decision, so nice to absorb some local culture, I even struck up an interesting conversation with an American couple sitting next to me during the one of the intermissions, they were from Alaska and were in Copenhagen visiting their daughter who was living and studying there.
By the time I got back to the hostel it was after 11pm but Rachel wasn’t due to arrive from the airport until after midnight so I explored a bit more of the city by night, keeping to the main part of town it was very well lit up and there were a lot of people around so it felt very safe to be walking around on my own. Eventually I met Rachel at the train station and walked her back to the hostel so she could check in.
Saturday morning in November in Copenhagen was very crisp – coats, scarves, hats and gloves were a must. First order of business was breakfast which was danish pastries and coffee in a local cafe. Then it was on to a canal boat for a tour of Copenhagen by water. The city is fascinating in the way it incorporates incredibly old buildings with very modern buildings and still maintains harmony. It all fits together nicely and doesn’t look like the complete miss-match that it could look like! It must be that famous Danish Design that just works 
The canal boat tour is a great way to get a feel for the city and all the sights you will want to go back and take a closer look at. My favourite spot on the tour was Nyhavn which was a canal street lined with colourful houses (including the one Hans Christian Andersen lived in) and is today a popular place for restaurants, cafes and bars – apparently in the summer months the people spill out onto the street and it is a very lively part of town.
After getting off the canal boat the walking began. Copenhagen was a great size for walking everywhere, and in one day in the city we covered basically all the main tourist attractions.
We went to Amalienborg Slot which is home to the current royal family (Queen Margrethe II and her children) and I was struck by how close you can get to their residences – very different from Buckingham Palace for example. Amalienborg Slot comprised of 4 buildings around a square. You can just walk straight into the square and almost right up to the front door of the residences! From here we watched the changing of the guard and then continued on our way towards Kastellet and the infamous Little Mermaid Statue.
The Little Mermaid statue is just that, a little statue of a mermaid, not overly exciting really, but apparently very popular with the tourists. The more interesting sight was Kastellet, a star-shaped fortress that today has 18th century army barracks and a historic windmill. You can walk right around the top of the fortress and take in the sights of the city, it was very impressive.
Rundetarn was probably the highlight of the tourist attractions for me. A 35m high round tower built in 1642 for King Christian IV. When you enter the tower you expect to see stairs to climb to the top but what you are presented with instead is a cobbled spiral ramp! Tsar Peter the Great rode his horse all the way to the top once and according to legend someone drove a car up there in 1902! It is quite a steep incline and watching a lady push a double buggy was mildly amusing, as were the children who were having fun running down the ramp at great speeds! The view from the top was hard to beat, a 360 degree view of Copenhagen all the way as far as the eye could see, taking in the bridge that links Denmark to Sweden. There is also the oldest functioning observatory in Europe at the top, where the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe made many observations in his lifetime. Unfortunately it was not open while we were there so I wasn’t able to follow in Brahe’s footsteps…
The rest of Saturday was spent wandering in and out of local shops in the main shopping area of town Stroget (which is reputedly the longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe. Here you can find all the good staples of Danish design – Georg Jensen, Bodum, Royal Copenhagen Porcelain, and Illums Bolighus to name a few.
Something worth trying while you are in Copenhagen are their sausages wrapped in bacon and sitting in a bread bun from a local street vendor – they have them all over the city and they make a delicious and quick lunch!
Sunday started with a leisurely breakfast at the same cafe as the day before and then once we were fully awake and full of coffee and danish pastry it was off the Rosenborg Slot, the Renaissance Palace that now houses the crown jewels of Denmark. The inside of this historic palace was richly decorated and very impressive, and the crown jewels in the basement were also very impressive.
Sunday’s happen to be a good day to visit the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek as entry is free. The Glyptotek is a stunning museum of sculpture which also houses a Winter Garden at the centre of the building. Unfortunately I didn’t get much time to explore this museum but what I saw would motivate me to go back if I had more time.
The only other sight that I would have liked to have visited was the famed Tivoli Gardens – basically a giant fun park. However it had closed for the winter season a few weeks before I arrived in Copenhagen so that will have to be experienced on another trip.
Overall Copenhagen was an easy-going and relaxed city. The people we encountered were friendly and the places to visit were amazing. I hope I get to go back there again sometime!