A City in Phases: Copenhagen

(August 30/31, September 7 - 10, 2013)

Phase One:
We arrived in Denmark one day before embarking on our cruise with our coach tour group. Here are the highlights from that extremely busy 24 hours.

from the bridge between Malmö, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark:
wind turbines in the middle of the water!

Lunch at Thai Flavours was so yummy that Joe and I actually returned a week later when we were back in town. We found it by accident the first time, but went back because it was dependable and relatively inexpensive for a sure thing.

Our hotel, located in what is basically the red light district of Copenhagen, kind of freaked us out and gave us a weird impression of the city. The area around the hotel is in a state of growth and is becoming very hip, but Vesterbro also has more than its fair share of shady folk who made us feel very out of place after dark. We stayed at the Scandic hotel across from the Tycho Brahe Planetarium (more on that later).

swings in the lobby!

Our Room: urban cosmopolitan graffiti

modern trees in the lobby

Manicia's Room: Eco Graffiti

taking advantage of the window seat

We took an afternoon city tour with Greta, who seemed to me like the Danish grandmother I never had, and who was very good and keeping the Danish kings straight even though they were all named either Christian or Frederick for about the last 600 years. The most interesting one we learned about was Christian IX, the so-called "Father in Law of Europe." Of his 6 children, 4 sat on the thrones of other monarchical countries, including the United Kingdom, Russia, Greece, and of course Denmark. One of his sons was offered the crown in both Bulgaria and Norway but declined both times. His grandchildren were heads in Russia, Greece, the UK, Denmark, and Norway. Even now, most of Europe's reigning (and ex-reinging) royal families are directly descended from this one man (including the current Queen of the United Kingdom). 

We also visited the statue of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid.

Afterwards we were meant to go to Tivoli Gardens with the group, but we opted to save our tickets for when we returned to Copenhagen after our cruise, hoping that we could go earlier and that perhaps it wouldn't be pouring rain. We used our evening instead for finding and enjoying a drink at Mikkeller Bar. (The beer was really good and unique according to Joe, but the atmosphere was far too cramped and stuffy for what we were in the mood for that particular night.)

The next morning we embarked on a Castles Tour that included Christiansborg Slot and Kronborg, better known as Elsinore from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Christiansborg Slot (where the Father-in-Law of Europe gathered his family)

real antlers in the frescos!

Greta telling us about Saxo Grammatica, (possibly) the first to write down the legend
of Amleth in about 1200 AD, which may have been turned into Shakespeare's Hamlet.

My favorite room in any castle: navy blue, octagonal, astrological globe room

English teacher moment! It's Hamlet's castle!!

Phase Two:
After the cruise (a week later) the four of us felt liberated. We got to our hotel in Østerbro at about 9 am and by 9:30 we had rented bikes from the lobby and were out exploring the city. We rode to Kongens Have, the King's Garden, and found ourselves directly in front of Rosenborg Slot, the castle of Christian IV, and the royal treasury (which displays the Crown Jewels when Queen Margrethe isn't wearing them). One especially cool feature of the royal sites in Copenhagen is their self-guided tour, wherein tourists are given the information to login to the Danish Royal Collections webpage on their smartphones and follow along as the app guides them from room to room, explaining details of the creation and history of many individual features within that space. 

In addition to hosting bike rentals at their front door, Adina Apartment Hotel also offered
Joe and I something we couldn't have been more thankful for: in-room laundry machines!

random feature of Rosenborg: 17th century royal high chair

Crazy detailed frescos in the ceiling that depict Danish history.
Imagine the entire ceiling of a huge ballroom done this way - breathtaking!

We then headed to Amalienborg, a palace that was inhabited by the Royal Family as recently as the 1970s. 

booties to protect the carpeting

We then headed back to our hotel to meet up with a private cycling tour guide, with whom we headed into a lot of areas of the city that we couldn't photograph. Some were people's private courtyards and neighborhoods, so it would've been inappropriate, the other was Christiania, a part of Copenhagen that lives below the law and so it is absolutely forbidden to take pictures. (We had asked to see this part of the city, which is widely known for its availability of drugs; our guide seemed to think that our goal was to sample the wares and kept trying to give us the opportunity...) 

He did take us into Vor Frue Kirke (Our Lady's Church), an unassuming building from the outside that is actually the site of five coronations and the most recent royal wedding. The most impressive part of the church was the collection of statues by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. The robes on these sculptures were so realistic, they looked as if they would ruffle if a breeze blew through the church.

We left our guide and headed to dinner at Wagamama, a noodle bar on the edge of Tivoli Gardens. Though this chain restaurant was recommended in our Eyewitness Top 10 book, we were happily surprised by how much we enjoyed it. From there we headed into Tivoli Gardens, the last stop on our tour of Copenhagen as a four-some. It is said that Walt Disney first got the idea for Disneyland after visiting Tivoli Gardens 

of course, Joe found the beer bar first

carnival-type attractions

when at a carnival, one must eat carnival food. (candy floss!)

the rides and attractions at night.

my favorite map of Tivoli

We rode our bikes back to our hotel at nearly 11 pm; we were exhausted and the wind blew through our thin clothes, but we were supremely satisfied with the day. For good measure, we played one last game of Euchre and then said farewell to our friends, our last bits of home before we began our European Adventure on our own.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to travel with Alicia and Manuel. The two and a half weeks we spent together were easy and fun; we rarely disagreed on where to go or what to do and actually continued to enjoy each other's company despite being together nearly 24 hours a day. We hope that this is just the beginning of a lifetime of shared vacations and explorations with you two! Love you both!

Phase Three:

Though we were sad to see our friends go, Joe and I were excited to begin our "solomoon" and travel a bit as a newlywed couple. We slowed our pace, relaxed our schedule, and considered what sites and experiences were most important to the two of us. On our first morning, we slept in. (In fact, we slept in every morning from then on.) We took our worst cab ride to date from our hotel in Østerbro back across town to our new hotel (the driver went to the wrong hotel, then cursed under his breath like it was our fault and charged us more for his mistake). From there we ate a leisurely lunch before finally heading over the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek where I had seen advertisements for a Degas exhibition the week prior. Since Degas is my favorite painter and Joe was interested in the museum's French Impressionism collection, we were both incredibly disappointed to learn that not only had the Degas exhibition ended just days before, but the entire wing of Impressionist painting was closed for reorganization for the rest of the month.

Still, the museum is free on Sundays (the day we went), so we decided to give it a shot anyway. Glyptotek literally means sculpture gallery, so it shouldn't have surprised us quite so much that the rooms dedicated to 19th century Danish sculpture were so stunning. I've never been a big fan of sculpture in the past, but these were the most moving and overwhelming examples of this art form I've ever seen in person. And yes, I've seen the David in Florence and the Pieta in Rome. Maybe it's because these tended to be portrayals of the human condition, not necessarily religious stories.

Antonin Mercie, "Memory"

Elna Borch, "Death & the Maiden"

Laurent-Honore Marqueste, "Perseus Slaying Medusa"

Weird side note: Since Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is so near Tivoli Gardens (literally across the street), it is possible to hear people on the rides at the park screaming from inside the gallery. This adds a kind of ethereal, creepy effect to the viewing of this art.

A drink at Fermentoren after our museum visit. 

Joe and I got lost when we tried to find Fermentoren on our first night in Copenhagen, but we were both glad that we tried again (in the light) on during this part of our trip. Fermentoren was the perfect place for us to relax, savor a drink (beer or cider), and enjoy each other. The beer selection was the best we'd seen thus far, so Joe was happy. In fact, we made sure to schedule time the next day to go back again.

It was still too early to turn in for the night, so we did something most travelers don't even consider: we went to the movies. Literally the next building over from our hotel was the local movie theatre, where at least half a dozen movies were playing in English. We chose this one and enjoyed the vacation into the familiar for the evening.

English, California, Mac products

On our last full day in Copenhagen, a frizzfest kind of mist fell almost all day, sometimes graduating into actual rain. Despite that, we rounded off our tour of the city with all of the things we still wanted to do and see:

Torvehallerne Farmer's Market might be my version of heaven. The fresh produce invites you in with a rainbow of color, the bakeries and butchers offer myriad tasty treats, and I could snack at the prepared food stalls all day long. Joe thought we'd be there for 10 minutes, pick up something for breakfast and head out. I wanted to live there. (Instead, I just convinced Joe to buy enough produce to provide us with fruity, healthy snacks for the next 3 days. When you lack a kitchen, you have to take what you can get.)

an abundance of olives! gorgeous, juicy olives!

various something-on-toast tapa-type snacks (some a bit scarier looking than others)

Sarah's breakfast!

Food Rainbow!

Next we headed to this astronomical clock inside the town hall. While it may not seem that exciting, it was definitely worth a detour into Rådhus (across from Tivoli gardens and visible from within the park) for a look-see. We were only there about 10 minutes but we would recommend it to anyone who is interested in astronomy or the planets.

We had seen Vor Frelsers Kirke from both bus and bike and finally decided it was worth a climb. Joe and I love a view from on high and will pay good money almost anywhere we go to climb a whole lot of stairs to see one. It's become a theme of our travel, actually, so that we now feel somewhat obligated to patronize any site boasting a panoramic view of the city we are visiting.

Vor Frelsers Kirke is known for its twisted spire, particularly because of the external staircase that allows visitors to ascend (almost) all the way to the top on the outside!

almost straight down, so you can see the spiral stairs and a bit of the city, too (kind of dizzying)

the last stairs were VERY narrow

We took a twisted route from here back to Nyhavn for lunch. There aren't any pictures because it was raining and I was cold and wet and tired. This is also when I realized that I had a puncture in the bottom of my only rain-worth shoes, meaning I spent the day with a very cold, damp right foot. This lunch was uneventful, but it's worth noting that the lunch we'd had here two days earlier (at the restaurant in the green building in the first or second block on the Northern side) included a shellfish soup that was absolutely amazing. I'm not a big fish fan and I still fought Joe for the last sip of broth at the bottom of the bowl. If you're going to Copenhagen, it's worth searching for this place (even though I forgot to get the name of it - sorry!)

Our last major site was the Tycho Brahe Planetarium, which Joe had been looking forward to since before we even got to Copenhagen. I'll be honest and say that we were a bit disappointed, partly because most of the information was in Danish and did not have any translation available, and partly because the Hayden Planetarium in New York (which we visited in 2011) was so spectacular. The highlight was the IMAX showing of Samsara, a beautiful but haunting movie about the wonders of our world "from the mundane to the miraculous."

With that we were ready to bid farewell to Copenhagen and journey to our next location: Berlin!