My trip to Copenhagen, Denmark
Today wraps my last day in Copenhagen, Denmark — the first leg of the scandinavian holiday that I’m taking while on sabbatical. Copenhagen has been amazing, it’s a complete contrast of what I was expecting with lots of wide open spaces instead of the usual spaghetti of roads that european capitals have.
First impressions
We flew out on the 4th of November from Heathrow and on landing the vibe of the country was evident when the passport officer had a cheerful chat with us about our travel plans instead of a stern grilling.
The train from the airport to the city centre where we were staying was fast and really spacious. Compared to the LNER train that we took to London from Leeds to get to the airport in the UK the train was taller and while just as wide it was laid out so that there was more space for bikes and disabled seating.
Walking to the hotel we encountered some issues, the pavements are laid out in a way that there’s two lanes of smooth pavement split up with cobblestones. These cobblestones are terrible for suitcases so we had to find ways to avoid these while walking through the Friday night crowds.
We also got told off for wearing our facemasks in public, it turns out that no-one in Copenhagen wears them which as someone who is very conscious of coronavirus and how that could up-end our holiday plans feels like a lot of risk for us to be taking just to fit into the social norms.
Some sights
On Saturday, the first full day we had we visited Ørstedsparken and Kongens Have, two very nice parks full of statues that looked amazing as the leaves changed colour.
Near those two parks is the Botanical Gardens which was closed by the time we got there on the Saturday so we went back on Sunday and visited the Natural History Museum also. As part of the Museum ticket was entry to the Palm House in the Botanical Gardens so we went back for that.
On the Monday we visited a shared office space that a colleague was working from which was in the old meat packing area of Copenhagen. The area really reminded me of Clerkenwell in London with loads of large buildings repurposed into unique shops and offices.
We had looked to visit Tivoli Gardens on the Monday after the office visit but when we got to the gate we found out that the park is closed for weeks as the seasons change. When we arrived it was halloween season but on the Sunday it closed to change to the christmas season and wouldn’t reopen until after we had left Denmark.
On Tuesday we walked to Copenhagen Zoo which while a bit of a walk from our hotel was worth the effort as not only did we get to have a fun time there but we discovered a number of small shops to revisit and a park too. The zoo itself was amazing, with really nice enclosures for the animals and even enclosures where the animals roamed freely around you.
On Wednesday we had a bus and canal tour booked so we jumped aboard to learn about the history of Copenhagen, learning that a fair amount of that history involves Britain invading or blowing things up. This was something that I never got taught about in school so was interesting to know.
While the history aspect was interesting some of the sights from the boat weren’t as good, for instance someone on the internet said that there’d be a good view of the Little Mermaid statue from the boat but the view was awful.
Thursday was an early start to do some laundry and a walk over to Søndermarken near the Zoo and then over to Fisktorvet near the meat packing area. This involved a fair amount of walking but was a nice trip around town.
And finally today (Friday) was a trip over to the Little Mermaid to get a better picture and a walk around the Kastellet before walking over to the National Gallery. We then did some souvenir shopping and headed back to the hotel to pack, ready for the next leg of the trip — Sweden.
