Copenhagen

What an absolutely amazing city!

This was an amazing little trip away from home with my new bobble hat! Yes, Copenhagen in winter is so cold I thought I could quite possibly need a new bobble hat. 😆 So I welcomed the ‘Hat Mandu’ into my bobble hat family. This little beauty has been hand knitted in Nepal with 100% of the profits going back to the community there…………..that, I thought, gave me enough of an excuse and justification for its purchase!

I had a lovely little few days at home before I departed, and these had adventures too! Most unusually, I’ve been to the cinema a few times recently, and I have some good films to recommend……………..all different, but all good. I don’t really like going to the big commercial cinemas. I find it hard to sit still through a film as it is. In the UK we have small, locally owned, picture houses too, and I like to support those. They are really cute, art deco, historic buildings, usually with one of those big old fashioned red velvet curtains framing the screen. At my local one, ‘The Paramount’, we usually have a mid film interval where the curtain comes across, the film pauses for 20 minutes and the bar opens! 😍 So what did I see?

First up was ‘A Complete Unknown’ – the Bob Dylan story. I loved it! Possibly because I love music and I like Bob Dylan. I actually saw him live around 25 years ago with Van Morrison. It was great to see them live and Bob Dylan’s voice was unmistakable.

Next up ‘Vermiglio’ an Italian film nominated for best Oscar in the Best International Feature category. I went with a friend as a bit of homework for my Italian class, but don’t be put off by the fact it’s in Italian, there are English subtitles and the Ladin and Sicilian dialect is so strong even I had to have the odd look at them. The cinematography in this one is fantastic as it is set in the Italian Alps, in a small village during the war. It’s a film about the culture, the ripple effects of war, a love story, resilience and the struggle for a woman to find her place in such a patriarchal society. I saw this one at the lovely ‘Hyde Park Picture House’ in Leeds.

My final visit was to the Wetherby Cinema to see ‘Maria’. I almost did not go to this one as I had to go on my own but I was so glad I did. It was a midweek film in the school holidays and it was the story of Maria Callas, the opera singer. I’ve always sung since being small but none of my closest friends do and aren’t really into opera. Wetherby Cinema only seats 24 people on double seat sofas or armchairs. It was almost sold out, but they had one armchair on the front row, so I had to take that. There was a seat on a double seat sofa on the back row but I didn’t feel like snuggling up on a two seat sofa on the back row of the cinema with some random person I’d never met before. 😂 Now this film you will either love or hate, the reviews are split and there’s no in-between, it depends whether you like opera and a true love story. It is however a long time since I have sobbed uncontrollably through a film for the entire second half and still been upset when I got home. I think the last time was ‘Watership Down’ when the rabbits got run over on the railway line it’s that long ago.😆 I found it tragic and heart wrenching, but I loved it all the same. I’d read Maria’s story before, so knew of her love affair with Aristotle Onassis but Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of her was excellent and the finite details of their relationship, throughout his marriage to Jackie Kennedy Onasis (who he said he married just because ‘he had a free day’), until his death was so sad.

I’ve also had a couple of races. The most important one being Hoppits Hill race, a fell race. I loved this one, there’s nothing I like better than running through mud and cow shit on a Sunday morning.😂 I was all smiles at the start as I did not know what was to come, but the clue was sort of in the title. However, it was not quite true……………I thought that there was one hill as per the singular ‘Hill’ in the title, that’s why I’m still smiling at the top of it………..however, by the end of the third hill I was not smiling! I have suggested they amend the title to Hoppits Hills next year to avoid false advertising.🤭However, my efforts were rewarded with a bottle of wine for an age group placing and the race secured my spot as the running club Female Fell Running Champion for the second year running.

I’m bowing out now of the multi-discipline running though. The fast road running takes its toll on the joints and I don’t really enjoy it. I’m going to turn my attention to slower, longer, fell and trail running only this year…………………lots of mountains and maybe my first ultra, we’ll see. I want to be in the open, in the mountains, go slower and enjoy it.

So, onto Copenhagen, silver boots, orange rucksack……………..Copenhagen here I come! I wanted to choose a city off my bucket list which probably would not appeal to the rest of the family as I was going on my own……………and Copenhagen won. The boys and their Dad went to Italy skiing for a week while I was working. They did offer to go in my holidays and wanted me to go but the thing is, I am the Bridget Jones of skiing (if you’ve watched ‘Bridget Jones – The Edge of Reason’ you’ll know what I mean). 🤣 I’m full of enthusiasm and bravado and in my mind I’m world downhill and slalom champion all rolled into one! The reality is I’m a danger to everyone else and a liability to myself. I told them they’d have much more fun without having to wait for and rescue me all the time. I last went 6 years ago, and I only made it three days into the trip when I sprained my MCL and had to sit the remaining 4 days out in a cafe (which I obviously did not find difficult 😆), and I walked with a limp for 10 whole weeks. I am definitely safer at home, although they were lacking in the entertainment department with my absence apparently!

I almost did not make it to Copenhagen after having to rush my mini me to hospital, 10 hours before my flight, with tonsilitis (AGAIN!!!!!). This happens often when he burns the candle at both ends, parties like there is no tomorrow, no doubt kisses half the girls in the nightclub and does the things that we did when we were 21! Peter Pan is showing no signs of growing up…………he just never seems to learn and the pattern keeps repeating itself. Anyway, 4 IV drips and 6 hours later we were back home, he looked so much better, and he convinced me I should still go, so the care was handed over to Dad, and mini me promised he was going to behave for 4 whole days (which I’m sure was a challenge for him).

I made my train to the airport but I was so tired after my lost night’s sleep I actually tried to check in and get through security in the wrong terminal at Manchester! 😂Anyway I eventually made it to Copenhagen late in the afternoon and promptly went to bed. I thought, “Exploring can start tomorrow, I just need to rest and catch up on sleep!”

So why Copenhagen? Well……………Denmark is consistently voted ‘Happiest Country in Europe’, and Copenhagen the happiest city. I wanted to go somewhere ‘happy’ and see what it was all about. I thought, “How can one of the coldest and most expensive places in Europe be so happy, I hate being cold?” Well, it’s all down to ‘Hygge’. I’ve often heard the word ‘Hygge’ and thought “What is that?” Well, basically you wrap yourself up warm, in a blanket, grab a cosy hot drink, a book, your knitting or whatever, be present in the moment, and EAT CAKE! That’s it…………………that’s Hygge! That’s why they are so happy. It’s a mindset. They eat cake all day and sit around all snuggled up and read books. So I tried it………..and it works…………especially the cake part………….it makes you really happy and I was very good at it 😂. I am definitely going to continue to practice it now I am back at home.

No, seriously, Copenhagen has so much to offer in addition to Hygge. It has a great culture, amazing museums, pretty buildings, gorgeous parks, fabulous restaurants, bustling bars, fantastic shopping and a beautiful waterfront. The whole culture is based on: life in the slow lane; being at one with oneself and nature; the environment and being in harmony with it; sustainability; the community and belonging. And the art and design scene is just amazing here. I felt so safe here too………………..it’s the nature loving, art loving, cake loving, introverts paradise! So here goes………

If you are in the UK it’s a quick 1 hour 40 minute flight away, and another 30 minutes by train sees you right in the centre of the city. I bought a ‘Discover’ card for 4 days. It included entrance to as many museums as I wanted, all my transport including airport transfers, and a boat trip. I more than broke even but work out what you want to do first and see if it works for you.

It’s so easy to get around the city by metro, which is included in the pass, and the M3 line which circles the city, being opened only in 2019, means it is one of the cleanest, newest and most efficient metro systems in the world. It operates 24 hours a day and is a driverless system. You can even sit at the front and pretend to drive yourself with the little steering wheel sticker panel they’ve stuck there for children (I did not have a go 🤭). I didn’t use the metro an awful lot as I prefer to walk, and it’s a very walkable city with minimal traffic as 60% of the population commute by bike.

I stayed in an Airbnb apartment in a really cool urban area just outside the city called Vesterbro. It is one of the 10 areas of Copenhagen. At one time it was the red light district where the meat processing factories were located. It’s now been redeveloped and is a popular place for younger people and young families to live. It’s full of good independent shops, nice cafes, buzzing bars and some great restaurants, in addition to it’s fair share of green space and cool street art. All the housing is located in gorgeous old style apartment blocks. It’s a good area to stay if you want to sample the culture of the place as there aren’t many hotels or tourists, they tend to be in the area in the centre. Vesterbro is a 15 minute walk out of the centre, or 5 minutes on the metro.

The apartment was gorgeous…………….it was Hygge with a capital ‘H’. Probably because it was owned by Mette, a lovely lady a similar age to me who is from Copenhagen. She might just have had a midlife crisis like me as she has upped sticks and gone travelling and working in South America for a while, so she is letting her home out while she is away. I’ve never met the lady in person but staying in her home I think we would have got on great as it looks like we have a huge number of things in common. She’d left a little note to say make yourself at home and feel free to use anything you come across.

I felt immediately at home. It had a separate yoga space all equipped for my morning yoga and a lovely large kitchen with some fabulous cooking and baking books. The living room was gorgeous with comfy sofas, calming colours, lots of plants and lots of soft lighting and sheepskin rugs. There was a gorgeous box of blankets to wrap yourself up in and get cosy and I noticed she had a wool and craft bag at the side of the sofa. There was an amazing collection of art and travel books and she had left all her vintage dresses and shoes on display. It was like a museum to all things ‘Hygge’. She had such amazing taste in all things design related and it was a little space I could not wait to get back to and snuggle up in at night. The kitchen was so good I actually really enjoyed shopping in the market and cooking for myself on a couple of the evenings. I was so glad I’d chosen it over a hotel. I met a few of the other neighbours on the stairs and it felt like such a lovely community. They also had a lovely little roof space and a shared garden with children’s toys and BBQs and I would imagine in summer it’s buzzing with life and conviviality.

I had a lovely sleep in my very comfy bed and woke up on day one ready to explore. Light flooded into the apartment and I did my bit of yoga, had my morning coffee and wrapped myself in around 10 layers (including the ‘Hat Mandu’) to head off to the waterfront. It was very atmospheric. There was a faded pink light as the sun started to rise and light up the snow on the ground in the parks. I could not help but notice there were bikes everywhere and no-one locked their bike up. The streets were clean and uncluttered and it felt so calm and quiet compared to other capital cities I have visited. I was however, extremely cold, around minus 5, which I think immediately justified my bobble hat purchase!😆

I passed some fancy waterfront sculptures, old reclaimed warehouses turned into fancy restaurants, large boats, and eventually reached Nyhavn, which is probably the most photographed place in Copenhagen. Copenhagen is crisscrossed by canals and Nyhavn sits on the side of one of these. It has rows of 17th century, brightly coloured houses, bars, cafes and restaurants (which apparently are very expensive and of questionable quality) so I did not stop here for a drink. But you have to come for a look and a photograph as it’s really pretty. I met two lovely girls from Chicago here who were studying for a year in Florence Italy and were on their semester break travelling to Copenhagen and Amsterdam, so we did the usual taking of each other’s photos. They said that when they are 53 they hope they are still brave enough to explore on their own, and I said I wish I’d studied in Florence for a year when I was 20…………..so both inspirational to each other in different ways. They shared some stories of their travels and it sounded like they were having a fantastic time.

I headed along the waterfront, passing through an interesting sculpture which was also a walkway. Called ‘The Wave’ it was an immersive experience with laser lights moving around like waves and underwater sounds coming at you from all directions. It was really quite good. Then you pass a large replica of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and some old mechanical cranes which looked quite atmospheric in the mist. Past At Albans Anglican church and the statue of Marie, Princess of Denmark, until I came to the statue which I was looking for which attracts quite an audience.

The statue is that of the Little Mermaid. It is based on the story of the same name which was written by Denmark’s most famous literary fairy-tale author Hans Christian Andersen. I was brought up with a compendium of Hans Christian Andersen fairy-tales and it is one of the earliest birthday presents I remember being given………………….the Little Mermaid, the Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, The Emperor’s New Clothes……………they were all in there, so I was eager to see this statue. Lots of people state being underwhelmed by the statue because of its size……………..but I loved it. Yes, it’s not large but it’s to scale. It is of human size and proportion and with the mist on the water and the sun rising behind it I thought it was perfect.

So, what else is Denmark and Copenhagen famous for?………………………CAKE!!! Danish pastries to be precise and I’d already made it a priority in my pre-trip research to find the top 3 bakeries …………….. and guess what…………..one was close by, I’d walked a long way, and it was cake o’clock. The bakery in question was ‘Juno the Bakery’, supposedly Copenhagen’s finest, so I thought I’d better find out if that was true. It’s so well known it does not display a name on the outside, it does not need one, you’ll spot the queue. However in February the queue is not too long and it moves quite quickly.

The cakes looked amazing and there are so many to chose from. I could not decide between two so I bought both. 😂 I thought I’ll have one now and save one for later! I bought a Cardamom Bun, which Copenhagen is renowned for so you have to try one, and then I also bought a Blackcurrant Cream pastry, for no other reason than it looked nice and I have eyes bigger than my belly. 😆 The blackcurrant bun was devoured straight away (it was AMAZING!!!) and the Cardamom bun was taken away……………..well it lasted around 5 minutes in my bag before I could not resist the temptation and ate it as I walked. 🤭 A top tip though is that Juno don’t do coffee so if you want a coffee with your bun, nip to Prolog Coffee just around the corner, where they serve the most excellent take away coffee and take it with you to Juno as they have tables outside for you to enjoy your coffee and cake.

I then decided it was Palace time. Denmark have a Royal Family like we do in the UK, and there are various castles and palaces around the city. I chose to go to Amaliansborg Castle first of all. This is where handsome King Frederik X lives. He has only been King for a year, taking over from his mother Margrethe II who abdicated last year, after being Queen of Denmark for 52 years. So this is like the Buckingham Palace of Denmark as it is the official residence of the King.

I decided to walk there and on the way I got distracted by rows and rows of uniform, very old ochre coloured houses. These are apparently part of the Nyboder housing scheme, completed in 1758. Copenhagen was the main port of Denmark in the 16th and 17th century and also home of the Danish Navy. There are 600 houses in total dating back to this time They are still lived in now, and they were built by the state to house Navy personnel during the 18th century.

Just before Amaliansborg Castle you also stumble across Frederiks Church (also know as the Marble Church). It has a fancy green copper dome and despite its name it is not marble. It was inspired by, and its design based on St Peters Basilica in Rome. It’s very nice inside and worth a detour if you have time.

The Palace did not disappoint. I was expecting bling and I got it! First of all there’s a man on a horse outside and we all know how I love a man on a horse statue! 😆 It transpires that he is Frederik V.

Although the Palace itself is huge, the rooms that are open to the public only take around an hour to get around. You get to go in the State rooms, the very glitzy gala hall, and you see some fine pieces of jewellery, like the ‘Order of the Elephant’ which is a Danish order of chivalry and is Denmark’s highest-ranked honour. Like at Buckingham Palace there are the usual guards in little red pill boxes. I missed the changing of the guard, apparently it happens at midday but I guess if you are travelling with little ones this would be good to see.

The next place I visited I think was the highlight of my trip! The Danish Design Museum. OMG!! Go here!!! If you like design you will absolutely love it here as the Danish are the masters of design, particularly interior design. You thought a cup was just a cup didn’t you!? Well it’s not!! Someone has thought about the shape, the material, the texture, the feel, the look, the environmental impact and the function in order to design the perfect cup to enable your brew to infuse and taste the very best it can. Everything you touch and use has been designed and this colourful museum takes you through oodles of design history of simple everyday objects like the chair, cup, and the kitchen (the first kitchen was based on a scientific laboratory!).

Then there is a section on all things related to textile design and fashion design. This part of the museum is a fascinating exploration of design showcased in an explosion of colour and vibrancy……………AMAZING! Being into my interior textiles, sewing and making things I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT IN HERE!

I was only in my first day but I’d already fallen in love with the city. It’s a city that does not feel like a city. It’s not overwhelming, there is little traffic, clean air, smiley kind people and loads of green space. I’m not a fan of Paris or London, far too busy for me, but I could have lived in this City. Although 60% of the people commute by bike, no-one locks their bike! If you left your bike unlocked at home it would not be there for long!😆I walked past numerous schools in the City and they had no fences or gates, they were completely open to the public and when the break bell went all the children filed out and played in the park which was also open to the general public. At home a school is like a prison, we’ve gone mad on ‘Safeguarding’………….high metal fences, key codes and barriers to get in. If you want to take the kids out of school you have to do a risk assessment, a risk assessment of the risk assessment and another one after that to be on the safe side, if you get what I mean. The risk has been completely blown out of all proportion and the resulting actions are completely over the top…………………in my humble opinion all they do is project anxiety and fear onto children, resulting in half of them needing support with their mental health by the time they leave! It was so refreshing just to see children being allowed to be free and act and behave like children. They were half way up the trees in the park and all sorts, no risk assessment in sight! 🤭🤭

I’d then decided it was time to cross the river and go and have a look at Christianhavn which is its own little island. But on the way I got distracted by a chocolate shop! No surprises there then!😂 But not just any old chocolate shop………….that of Alida Marstrand. They’ve been handmaking chocolates here in this tiny basement since 1930. And they are so good at it they are the chocolate makers to King Frederik X. So I thought if they are good enough for him they will be good enough for my other half, so I bought a gorgeous little box of handmade chocolates for the one I’d left at home. It took me ages to choose which ones to put in the box……………………..and then of course I had 3 days left to go so I had to hide the prettily wrapped box in the apartment and try and forget I’d bought them……………….we all know what happened to the milkman’s Christmas chocolates!🤭They did in fact make it home and were confirmed as the best chocolates he’d ever had!

Anyway, I carried on over the river to Christianhavn and it’s here where I discovered ‘Freetown Christiana’, and I’d encourage you to take a look and not be put off by the descriptions or any preconceived ideas. It began as a newspaper prank in the 1970’s when a group of hippie revolutionists took over a piece of land that was an abandoned military camp over on Christianhavn. The Government allowed the squatters to stay as a social experiment…………….and they are still there! It is a self-contained commune which is self-governed and focused on tolerance, ecology and self sustainment. They do not have police or any intervention from the outside world. There are 700 adults and 150 children living in the commune. They live in all sorts of buildings, from falling down shacks, to shipping containers, and shelters that they’ve cobbled together from corrugated metal and wood. If you like graffiti and street art there is loads of it in here. Drugs are freely available here, it smells of cannabis everywhere and there seemed to be lots of men huddled around fires blazing in metal drums on the afternoon I had a wander around.

You are allowed to take photographs, but they ask you to try and not get people on them and you are advised not to take photographs on the main street where the drugs change hands, for obvious reasons they can get quite tetchy if you get your camera out here. You are also advised not to buy drugs here as although the police are not able to enter the area, they quite routinely search on the exit as drugs are illegal in the rest of Denmark. The residents earn a living through making and selling things in a multitude of craft shops and there are plenty of outlets in there selling street food, coffee and drinks. If you are a single female traveller it does feel a little intimidating and I made sure to stick close to other people so I did not look as though I was on my own and I got out just as it started to get dark. But no-one bothered or approached me and they really do welcome people to take a look at the social experiment which is their home. I am really glad I went inside for a little look.

On the way back over the river you pass ‘Our Saviours Church’. This one is really interesting as it has a 95 metre spiral tower, but the 398 head spinning steps are on the outside of the tower and you can go up them. They get so narrow at the top they virtually disappear. Did I go up…………………..NO!😂 But I read about it in the guidebook and took a photo from the ground.

Exhausted and having walked too far on my first day, I went to look for well needed dinner. I walked through the main town centre up Stroget street with all it’s posh shops………..Louis Vuitton, Prada, Illums Bolighus…………….past the high end shopping mall with all it’s colourful lanterns…………..looking for highly recommended Kristinedal Burgers, where a Bacon Cheeseburger was just what I needed!

By now it was cold, dark and I needed my bed, my hot chocolate, my book, thermal PJ’s and my fluffy Norwegian bedsocks I’d taken with me.😂 It was while I was reading that night and making plans for the next day that I discovered an article on the Danish birth rate and the worrying conclusion that the Government might have to intervene because at 1.5 children it is way lower than the European average of 2.3 children. Well, I’d been there one day and as an outsider looking in, I’d worked out a solution already……………turn the heating up! It is so cold here in winter…………….far too cold to take your clothes off! Daniel Craig could not have enticed me out of my thermal PJ’s and bedsocks without turning the heating up and it’s a physical impossibility to procreate wearing these. 🤭 I am not in the least bit surprised the birth rate is low! So it you come here in winter bring lots of layers, and if you are looking for romance………….come in summer!😂

Onto Day 2. First things first………..breakfast……..and bakery number 2. I had a little wander around the Vesterbro ‘Meatpacking District’ on the way.

These listed white buildings have been recently revitalised and the industrial area now has a trendy dining scene and a buzzing nightlife, alongside a few slaughterhouses which still operate from here.

Bakery number two was Hart bakery. Now in my opinion the Cardamom Bun here is slightly nicer than Juno’s, more well done, crispier and not as sweet. There are a number of Hart bakeries around the city but this one was in Carlsberg Byen. This is Copenhagen’s newest revitalised neighbourhood and very nice it is too.

Carlsberg Byen is all based around the original Copenhagen founded brewery of Carlsberg, founded by Carl Jacobsen in 1847. It’s a bit of old meets new……………..new apartment blocks built around the old brick buildings which showcase the wealth of the Jacobsen family, with numerous statues, follies and towers.

I left Hart full of Cardamom Bun and coffee to walk to the area of Norrebro, past the old Wulff Cigar Factory founded in 1868, another imposing building.

On the way I passed through Frederiksberg Park. It’s huge and it’s such a beautiful place! Acres and acres of woodland and park, water features, and also (if you have little ones) because it’s next to Copenhagen Zoo you get an excellent view over the elephant enclosure. Naturally, at minus 2 and with a blanket of snow there were no elephants outside today. But there were some lovely bright yellow winter aconites on display.

Through the other side of the park you eventually get to Norrebro, and this is another really lovely area of Copenhagen. It’s very cool and hip, with lots of street art and an excellent outdoor free climbing arch which my two would have loved when they were younger.

Norrebro is also home to Assistens Cemetery, which is what I’d come for. It’s a huge space but really lovely to wander around. It’s not just a cemetery. There were joggers in there, people pram pushing, it’s a cemetery that doubles up as a public park and it is here that is the final resting place of Hans Christian Andersen.

It had reached lunchtime and I’d been in Copenhagen for nearly 48 hours and not had 2 Danish staple food items……………Smorrebrod and pickled herring. I’d heard one of the best places to sample real proper Smorrebrod was a restaurant called Aamanns. Their main restaurant you have to book weeks in advance, but they have a couple of other locations in the city so I headed back to the one in Carlsberg Byen which has the same fabulous menu as the main one, focussing on Smorrebrod with fresh local ingredients. Smorrebrod, literally translates as butter bread. It’s an open faced sandwich of rye bread with various toppings. It can be hot or cold. They recommend 2 to 3 per person so I ordered one cold to start, and then followed with a hot one. My thinking was if I just had two I might have room for dessert!😆

The first one, the cold one, was delicious. It was marinated pickled herring, curry salad, egg, cornichons, spring onions and roasted buckwheat. I had a suspicion I might not like picked herring, but I wanted to try it. I was wrong………..I actually loved it…….it wasn’t too overpoweringly ‘fishy’, and all the flavours combined perfectly.

The hot one was fried mushrooms, apples, creme fraiche, marsarla wine, lemon zest and parsley. It was just as delicious as the first one and if you are vegetarian there are plenty of other Smorrebrod toppings that would be suitable. The Danish traditionally drink a local Schnapps style drink called Aquavit with their Smorrebrod but it was a little too early for that for me so I had a lovely elderflower, verbena and jasmine tea with soda which was really refreshing.

As suspected I just had room for dessert!😍 I managed to squeeze in a creamy chocolate mousse with some sort of syrupy dried fruit on top (a fig, prune or date…..I could not really tell) with a coconut macaroon wafer. It was divine.

By the time I’d finished lunch it was 3 in the afternoon so I thought I’d walk into the centre, past the markets, and whilst I was doing so, I suddenly remembered my ‘Discovery’ card included a free one hour canal boat tour. I checked the times of the sailings and there was one at 4 o’clock, giving my rather large lunch, time to settle. I walked slowly over to Nyhavn to board.

It’s definitely worth doing. It was beautiful touring the canals while the sun went down. It was however probably the coldest trip I’ve ever been on. 🥶It’s one thing walking around, but sitting still on a boat, with a slight breeze blowing off the sea and it becomes another level of cold entirely. The tour sails on the inner canals and the large outer port area of water. You can see some great architecture from the boat. There was a lovely view of the opera house and the guide was really informative telling us lots of information…………………..like the fact that in summer the Opera House roof, at 25 metres high, is used as a diving board for a diving competition into the water. It’s seriously high and being not too keen on hights and only having breast stroke and backstroke (with my head out of the water) in my repertoire it was a terrifying thought.😦

Then you sail through the ‘Glaecier’ swimming area with it’s glass fronted saunas with all the bathers in them. I have to say there weren’t a great number of them in the water, but plenty in the sauna, and given that it was crusted in ice, which you had to chip off before getting, in I’m hardly surprised!

There were lots of pretty houseboats on the canal and some impressive new building projects………like the redevelopment of the papermills into some gorgeous apartments, designed to try and address the shortage of housing in the city. The canal tour was the ending to another really lovely day.

Day 3 was the final full day of sightseeing. Bad news……………….it was raining, damp and foggy. Good news was however that that meant it was a positive figure on the temperature front…………..a lovely +2 degrees. 😆 Your face no longer stung when you went outside. First things first…………….Cardamom Bun and coffee of course, and a revisit to Harts bakery as I had discovered there was one a few doors down the street from the apartment. It was alongside a lovely little knitting shop, which had balls and balls of gorgeous wool and patterns……………..but seeing as I’m still on with the ‘pandemic fair isle jumper’ which I started in 2019 I thought I better not! I loved this shop though, because whenever you walked past it, it was full of people, male and female, young and old, all sat in a circle knitting, chatting and drinking coffee.

Then it was onwards to the site of possibly Denmark’s greatest design innovation………the one that the world could not do without……………the Lego Shop! Yes, having two boys I have let out many a cry and painful howl after stepping on a piece of Lego discarded on the floor. So present number 2 was bought (yes, they still like Lego even now)! My eldest son is now the proud owner of a brand new Formula 1 MacLaren. Probably not in the format he would have liked but I can’t afford the real version as I’ve spent all my money on cakes!

Stopping point number two was to the Copenhagen City Hall to see a very important innovation for all mathematicians and physicists. It’s free to wander in and have a look at it and it’s not all that popular……………I was alone in here but it’s quite fascinating so take a peak as it only takes 5 minutes and it’s right in the entrance. It is Jens Olsen’s world clock. It has so many gears and cogs and tells you the date and time in every part of the world. It’s in a fully glass cabinet and looks impressive from the front, but the back of the clock is on another level.

The clock shows the changing positions of the planets, true solar time, Sidereal time and the date and time in every time zone of the world. Olsen completed all his mathematical calculations for the clock in 1924 but unfortunately died in 1945 before its build commenced. His grand daughter and the King at the time secured the funding for its build and made his plan a reality.

Next site to visit was the ‘Round Tower’. This is Europe’s oldest functioning observatory. From the top of it you get a 360 degree view of the city. The spiral staircase winds up 7.5 times around its hollow core. As you can imagine this was rather a challenge for me! But I wanted to go to the top and have a look. I was helped by the fact that half way up there is an exhibition space which currently has the most fantastic display of photographs of the galaxies and solar system up there. This took my mind off the challenge ahead.

It’s quite a wide spiral you walk up but then at the top there is a small spiral, enclosed staircase that operates on a traffic light system. This was the worst bit for me but I shot up like a rat up a drainpipe when it turned to green as I was determined to have a little peep. There are a few photos of the murky view just to prove I made it………….and then I shot back down again on the green light…………mission accomplished.

The remainder of the day was going to be a palace and history day…………I’d saved them for today as I knew it was going to rain. The day’s first castle was ‘Rosenborg Slot’ and gardens. It’s on the north side of the city, is walkable, and looks a bit like a Disney castle with a moat around it. It is set in the most lovely green space. It was built in 1607 as a summerhouse for Christian IV and it’s still one of the Royal Family’s Copenhagen properties now. So whilst most of us might have a summer house that resembles a shed in the garden, Christian IV had a spare palace with lots of statues.

It’s got lots of bling and collectables inside including the ‘Treasury’ which houses the Danish Crown Jewels which you can have a look at.

It was lunchtime after my castle visit so I entertained myself in nearby Torvehallerne food market for an hour. I love a food and produce market. They are so colourful and the smells are gorgeous. There were fruits, plants, vegetables and flowers outside. Inside there was so much food………….meat, fish, cheeses…………….and it’s one of those fantastic markets where you can eat there at various market stalls for a really reasonable price.

I had my lunch a Boutique Fisk, a fish stall, which simply serves their famous Copenhagen fishcake with shrimp salad, pickled red onions and taramasalata. With a Danish orange soda it was a lovely tasty budget lunch.

Copenhagen is extremely expensive compared to many other parts of the world but it is possible to see it on a budget. It is as expensive as you want it to be. If you want to eat at the top end restaurants, like world renowned ‘Noma’, you’ll need to book months ahead and you will no doubt pay a lot of money. But you can get some excellent, fresh, good value, local food at these markets.

The final palace of the day was ‘Christiansborg Slot’. I donned my extremely fetching mandatory footwear so as not to dirty King Frederik’s carpet!😂 This one is another Royal palace but it also houses the Danish Parliament, Prime Minister’s office, Supreme Court, the official State Rooms and the royal balcony!

This one had some serious bling………………..chandeliers, thrones, colourful tapestries only 25 years old which line the State Rooms and tell the history of Denmark and Europe over the past 1,000 years. I could have stood and picked out the detail on the tapestries for hours they were so interesting. They even included the Beatles!

There was just time for a little retail therapy before heading back to the apartment to pack. Illums Bolighus is a department store and a homage to Danish design, Fashion, furniture and more! I enjoyed it here as much as the palace!🤣 I might have bought a few little tasteful reminders of my fantastic escape to Copenhagen, but flying Ryanair they had to be reasonably small. I did however manage to squeeze a full set of single bedding into my rucksack much to the amazement of everyone at home (where there’s a will there’s a way!)

After a relaxing evening I was up early the following morning to make my way back to the airport. However, I have one last discovery to tell you about. I was sort of disappointed I hadn’t found it earlier. I needed breakfast and was walking to Central Station when I saw a sign that said, ‘Sort Kaffe & Vinyl’. Having an hour to spare before my train I thought, “Oh that looks like they sell coffee and vinyl records, I’ll go take a look.” I’m a bit old fashioned…………….yes I have Spotify…………but I love music and I still have my old turntable and a huge Vinyl record collection.

When I was younger my Grandma and Grandad used to give me a little bit of pocket money each week and I used to save it up and spend it all every couple of months in one of two shops in town at the time, ‘EGS Records’ and ‘Casa Disco’. Both of them were retailers of Vinyl records and I still have my collection now. So off I disappeared, following the sign. If you like a morning coffee and you like music then go here……………………..and the bonus is there are breakfast pastries too!

So I spent my whole hour there with a lovely coffee, a cinnamon swirl, rifling through the records whilst listening to the various artists they were playing. They played some older stuff and some newer stuff: The Doors; The Killers; Prince……………….one classic tune after another. I could have stayed in there for ages and so wish I’d discovered it earlier in the week.

So would I recommend Copenhagen……………………………..YES!!!!! We all know I’m not really a city girl – I love to visit and then leave to hide back in the countryside. This is one of a small number of capital cities that I can’t wait to return to……………….you can actually be an introvert and fit in here………..it’s so calm. It’s quiet, has minimal traffic, great food, loads of history and culture, an emphasis on nature and sustainability, lots of green space, a slow pace, smiley happy people and a focus on community, kindness and friendship……………………………… you can feel the love………it’s like a great big hug of a City!

Oh……………….and the Cardamom Buns………………………….don’t forget the Cardamom Buns………..reason alone to spend some time here!❤️❤️