When: 01/06/2012 – 04/06/2012
Where: Copenhagen, Denmark
Stayed: Best Western Mercur
When I think about Copenhagen I picture thousands of locals on older style commuter bikes sitting bolt upright with baskets on the front, riding single file in a peaceful and civilized fashion. In reality, that’s exactly what it looked like. With 36% of people riding to work it’s no wonder you have to be equally wary of bikes as cars.
Copenhagen is frequently touted as a city with an incredibly high quality of life. It’s not all that hard to see where that claim has come from. If I could easily switch between 2 languages, had my very own bike lane complete with traffic lights, could walk clean and safe streets at any time of day and eat at some of the best restaurants in the world (including Noma – world’s #1 restaurant) and look at jaw dropping architecture as part of everyday life I reckon I’d be pretty happy too.
As well as a good quality of life, Copenhagen is famous for being expensive. Of course if you ate every meal on the tourist trail you would have this experience. I can speak with authority on this because we found out the hard way – inevitably. Day 1 we moseyed through the city to Nyhavn (New harbor) which is a bustling al fresco area full of restaurants and cafes lining the water. Getting a bit rapt up in the excitement we chose the rockstar position on the water for lunch followed by a couple of local beers and an open sandwich – the traditional Danish lunch. 65 pounds later we felt like we’d been robbed and post-purchase regret kicked in. Turns out, one street back off the water, you can get the same lunch for 20 pounds. Yep, chalk that one up to experience.
The city is easily accessible from the airport by a 20min train direct to central station. Our accommodation was located about 8mins walk from the station. Sadly, unless you’re a comatose sleeper and get lulled by the roar of a passing train, the proximity was pretty much the only good thing about our accommodation. Unfortunately, hotels are probably one of the most expensive things about Copenhagen -needless to say beggars can’t be choosers. However an amazing cafe nearby (Estate Coffee) went a long way towards redeeming the situation. The pedestrian pace of the service is far outweighed by the attention and precision of the barista. Divine.
We’ve decided that the best way to see Copenhagen is on a boat or bike. We gave both options a work out which provided 2 quite distinct views of the city. Despite the ferocity of the wind and rain on the canal, it was really interesting to see the unique and diverse architecture across the city. The Opera House, Play House and Royal Library (black Diamond) dominate the inner harbor scene and are quite spectacular with their contemporary designs.
At the other end of the scale, Nyhavn contains beautiful multicolored buildings dating back to 1680’s – many of which have barely been altered. Famous residents including Hans Christian Anderson have lived here. Similarly, set back off the water, Amelienborg Palace (home to the royals), consisting of 4 identical buildings around a courtyard is considered to be derived from some of the best architecture in Denmark from the 1700’s. 
It’s not hard to see why this fusion of the old and new in Copenhagen is probably best experienced from the back streets as well as the front row seats of the canal.
In all our travels we’ve noticed that pretty much every city has a tourist attraction that’s grossly overrated. In Copenhagen that honor went to the Little Mermaid. It is one of the most photographed statues in Europe but unfortunately in our opinion, it’s reputation is not befitting the reality. The Little Mermaid was one of my favorite stories as a youngster and even I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for this relatively small and insignificant looking figure that required some serious elbow-to-rib action to get close to it.
I’ve always perceived the Danish as being a pretty trendy sort of population. Walking the world’s longest shopping street – Stroget- reaffirmed this view in spades. 1.1km of pretty much every designer and high street brand in the world coupled with boutique homewares shops saw me mentally sell the house to stock up. Retail therapy to the point of destruction.
Once we figured out where NOT to eat in Copenhagen we really found our foodie stride. We had an exceptional meal at trendy Nimb opposite the Tivoli Gardens, ate with the uni students at Paludan’s Book & Cafe in the city, had lunch with the locals at Cafe 22 on the river and had drinks / tapas at Falernum near a surprising number of strip joints in Vesterbro. All very different but each having beautifully fresh ingredients, unusual flavor combinations and willing staff ready and waiting to translate the menu. All in all, we found the Danish people to be incredibly friendly, the city easy and interesting to navigate and the restaurants very impressive. With 100’s of cities still to be explored across the globe, this is one we’d definitely go back to.
Cathy & Justin Abroad 