Travel article: Copenhague

First stop in our Eastern Europe roadtrip : Copenhagen.

We loved it ! It’s the happiest country of the world and we sure can see why.

The Providence state, the atmosphere, the biking culture, all the little cafe where you can brunch in the sun, the food, the long summer nights, our Airbnb in Norrebro- the hipster suburb with its shops with minimalist design, everything was perfect! We loved the “Hygge” attitude!

Just be careful a Dane is really nice until your cross his biking lane and in this case he becomes a Biking Viking !

Speaking of Vikings, we went to the the National Museum hoping to discover the history but we didn’t see much of it. However we went through the centuries from the start of the Monarchy, the permanent exhibitions on all cultures (a bit like the Quai Branly in Paris) and the Danish culture. A nice museum but don’t expect to see anything on the Vikings!

We landed and went straight to the pub!  no it’s not in our habits to do so but France was playing against Denmark in the World Cup and we couldn’t miss that ! Being the only 2 French people in the pub, we didn’t show off at all!

Copenhagen is a royal city with some royal traditions like the Change of the Guard everyday at 12pm at the Royal Palace on Amalienborg Place. A good show calibrated to the second. We recommend it.

Funnily enough the princess is Australian having met the future King when he was travelling to Australia for the 2000 Olympics.

We visited the Parliament and the Tower which offers us unlimited views on the city and its orange brick roofs. Denmark is apparently the only country reuniting the Parliament, Prime Minister house and the Supreme Court in one place.

Speaking of politics , Denmark count 9 political parties but be careful, their names are quite confusing with one having left in its name but tending towards right ideas, the greens not representing the environment, the radicals not being radical, etc !

We also got to discover the:

-  Torvehallern: a food court selling the famous Smorrebrod sandwich among other things!
- The Royal Botanical Garden with its glasshouse unfortunately closed...

• Oldest street (Magstræde) where in the 18th/19th century a young boy was paid to unload the bucket of shit poured in the street. It’s today quite nice don’t worry !

- the shopping street Stroget with its cobblestones little streets and the LEGO store where it took 4 people full-time for one year to build a dragon!

- the city hall built 5 times due to fires through the years due to the construction made in wood. One day they decided to stop the construction of wooden house, smart!

- the Rosenborg Castle surrounded by parks where Danes gather to celebrate summer and their degrees

- the famous Nyhavn harbour (the postal card of the city!) with its coloured houses and sailing boats. It used to be the place where drunk sailors met after their shifts and now a touristy & trendy place.

-Christiana free town, an independant Town with its own system (well actually I wouldn’t dare to call this a system considering they fight the system !) with today 900 permanent residents. What we thought would be a place with many art houses, a place to debate and develop something alternative was actually a bit shady with drug dealers all around the neighborhood and people too smashed to undertake any projects.

- the national library in a building having the shape of a diamond

- the opera house (not as nice as our dear Sydney opera house) built by the richest man in Denmark and being a fierce opponent of the free town Christiana close by. Funnily enough the architects found a way to put a flag of the free town in the opera house that we can see at night with some lights/water effects !

- Christianshavn with the street food markets, the walk by the canals looking at the many people sunbathing and just enjoying summer

- the icon of the city : the little mermaid in memories of Andersen. Not really impressive but the walk by the canals is nice.

And finally one night we went to Tivoli, the oldest and beautiful amusement park from which Walt Disney got inspired to build his empire. Cedric took a pass to do all the roller coasters but after 9 he had to surrender as he got sick! Poor him (he was turning as white as a Dane !). I have to say the roller coaster were impressive and scary...not for the faint hearted.

As for me I just played my favorite game, the horse races! Remind me of « la foire du trône » in Paris!

That’s it for Copenhagen! A beautiful city, clearly one of the most liveable city in the world and we are planning to go back soon to keep discovering it!

Some recommandations:

# we rented a room in an apartment in Norrebro. Perfect suburb to do everything by foot or bike. Besides the cafe culture here is nice.

# we tried California Kitchen and Jager burger:  so good and in a minimalist design as we like!

# the Parliament tower is free, don’t miss it

# national museum: 85 krones

# from the airport, take the metro to the city for 36 krones

# don’t miss Tivoli! The atmosphere is so nice and the roller coasters great! 230 Krones for the unlimited rides and 110 krones to enter the park.

# we recommend the free walking tour. We had a great guide

# don’t miss the Change of the Guard at 12pm in Amalienborg

# just enjoy getting lost in the streets, we loved it !

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