Copenhagen

Arriving in Copenhagen, and as we navigated our way into the marina, we wondered what we had done by choosing this marina… All around there was construction, industry and things were looking a little bleak. Little did we know, this is simply a façade, and we found ourselves in the vibrant and ever changing east side of Copenhagen, with its street food markets, farmers markets, saunas, 5 star restaurants and constant streams of happy people eating, drinking, swimming and sunbaking.

Our first day in the city was really all about getting our bearings. We grabbed the dog lead (and Bernie) and headed off towards the city proper, making our way through the university and then straight into Christiania, a little unintentionally…

If you don’t know about Christiania, it is an area in Copenhagen that is officially sectioned off for those who wish to live an alternative lifestyle. It was founded in 1971 by some free thinkers who basically squatted in the area. They declared it “Free” – free from the Danish law. It started with a small group, and there have been various conflicts over its time there, but they are considered independent of the Danish rules and laws. The conflicts are typically due to the large number of drug sellers that line the main street. No one is allowed to take photos here so please enjoy some images from our walk outside Christiania.

We wandered through briefly down the main street aptly called “Pusher Street”, feeling the eyes on us (there are cartels here) and decided we’d have a quick look, then exit and save a longer look for another time. I popped into a lovely shop and found my mandatory Christiania magnet!

After this much excitement we were up for beers and lunch at a local street food market and an afternoon nap!

The following days were spent exploring and doing some boat jobs. We also met our wonderful marina neighbour who offered to take us for a ride around town in his car. He is a local of 25 years and knows the area well. We locked in his unofficial tour for a few days later.

We found a wonderful restaurant called Øens Have which boast the largest urban farm in Copenhagen so we enjoyed the Chef’s choice lunch there which was delicious.

Naturally, we saw Copenhagen’s famed little mermaid, albeit from across the water. We considered getting a little closer, but the crowds of peering tourists, people jumping the fence and even people hovering in their boats encouraged us to appreciate her from afar. And we did so, a number of times from another gem street food market called Reffen during the long midsommar evenings.

A couple of days later, our unofficial tour was here! Our neighbour, Morten, drove us down the coast, passing quaint town after quaint marina after quaint town!

We headed inland and visited Roskilde, where they have the Vikings museum and a rather large cathedral that houses the remains of a number of Danish royals.

We also visited Rungstead Harbour, a place of opulent delights, and had some icecream before heading back to the marina and our floating homes.

No rest for the wicked I say, I was dead keen to visit Tivoli and so we did the very next day. It was fabulous and I love rollercoasters and these didn’t disappoint. Adrian as ever was my diligent photographer, scary ride researcher and queue checker for the next ride. Its a beautiful theme park with something for everybody.

Prior to arriving in Copenhagen, I had been at a bit of a loss as to how to celebrate Adrian’s birthday. Not knowing where we would be, and not really being near shops or having a delivery address makes things a little tricky. When I knew we would be in Copenhagen, I got to planning.

Adrian’s birthday started the day before which was the Wednesday (this will be relevant later) with coffee in bed, and then up for a quick dog walk. Once Bernie was happily panting, we left him to sleep it off in the boat, and we jumped on our bikes into town.

Breakfast was cinnamon scrolls from Copenhagen’s oldest bakery. These are the “Wednesday” scrolls as they only make them on Wednesdays (hence starting his birthday a day early) and they sell over 4000 each Wednesday. They were as delicious as their manufactured scarcity would suggest and we rode to a nearby park and enjoyed them with coffee under a tree.

Next up was the Rosenborg Castle, originally built by King Christian IV in 1606 as a summer house, it was eventually converted to a large trinkets cabinet in the 18th century, housing all sorts of amazing artefacts and collections owned by the various Danish Royals. The Crown jewels are also located here in all their extravagance. It was a really interesting castle and we’re glad we took the time out to visit.

I had more plans for this birthday! Onwards towards the Round Tower, aptly named, as to get up to the top you need to ascend the spiral ramp going around and around and around. This was the observatory, and also housed a library. The ramp was so that the horses could take up equipment and books to the top of the tower. Beautiful views of Copenhagen!

One more stop before we went home, to Copenhagen’s oldest patisserie where Adrian chose some cake for his birthday the next day.

Dinner was at a beautiful restaurant called Amass where we had the full menu, inclusive of wines, and at the end I literally tried to tip the staff the same price as the dinner. Basically I tried to pay double the cost – I guess there were a few courses with lovely matching wines and maybe I was a little confused by the machine… Ooooops!

The next day, Adrian’s actual birthday, I had fantastic plans to do some more tourist-ing, but as it turns out, a 10 course menu with basically full glasses of matching wines doesn’t bode well for energy levels the following morning for either of us. So we stayed in bed a little longer than usual, and took it easy that day. We even ended up just eating the cake for dinner, and called it an early night.

Over the coming days, we settled into a nice routine, and felt the familiar pull of the inertia. We were getting comfortable. We had places we liked, we found shortcuts to things (mainly through Christiania) and had discovered the road less travelled in a lot of places. In Christiania, we found some of the most quaint waterside homes far away from the dealers on Pusher street, we also found near us Michelin starred restaurants, farmers markets, quaint bakeries, saunas and more.

But our Swedish residency permits had arrived in the mail like a well timed signal.

So we planned to leave finally after 2 weeks. The washing was done, the boat was packed away ready to sail, the magnet board was getting heavier, Bernie enjoyed his few extra doggy walks, and we had a date forecasted with good winds to head to Sweden.