The Copenhagen Diaries

At the urging of many around me, I have decided to write more about my love of travel.

Fascinated by the great big world out there, I was always desperate to travel as a child. I have been very fortunate to have some incredible experiences today in magical faraway places.

Today we’re heading off to the European city of Copenhagen! I have never been to Denmark so that’s always exciting. Currently waiting for takeoff after a delayed departure and I’m reflecting on what I’m looking forward to, and how lucky I am 🍀

European cities are brimming with culture and often gorgeous architecture. A lovely day out for everyone!!

Apart from an early start, (it’s no secret I’m a night owl, not a lark) the flight and travel from the airport was straightforward. European cities on the continent always seem to be well connected with excellent public transport. I’m always jealous of their trains – lovely, easy, comfortable, clean and good value.

We arrived at our hotel – beautiful character in the building, with chandeliers, gorgeous staircases and feature furniture decorating the hallways. Our room overlooks the quadrangle garden in the centre of the donut-design hotel. The experience seems much more expensive than it actually was, which is always nice!

After relaxing for a bit, we enjoyed just having a mooch around the area by the hotel. The architecture is beautiful and some of the old buildings are amazing. City hall is a stunning example, flanked by sculptures depicting Denmark’s Viking heritage.

After a good look round and a couple of pastries, we were ready to hit the sack. Charging our batteries for more exploration tomorrow.

Day 2
Rumoured that our B&B had the best breakfast in Copenhagen, was started there. It was certainly good enough for me – incredible selection, and local specialities like pastries and cheeses. If any of you have ever been near me while I’m high on refined sugar, you’ll know that it’s difficult to tell the difference between that, and when I’ve had a few drinks! Once breakfast had gone down, we headed out to take in more sights. I was keen to get on the water and view the city from the canals and rivers.

On to the boat we went, and passed gorgeous churches, historical buildings and numerous, extremely low bridges. The furthest point of the tour was The Little Mermaid sculpture, by Edvard Erichsen, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s fairytale. As is true so much of the time, the photos don’t do this beautiful sculpture justice as all. We arrived by boat and joined the throng of people queued up to have their photo taken with the mermaid.

As you can see, she’s not really a mermaid, as in the story she gives up her tail to become human, but here she has some kind of hybrid tail and legs that give her a fishy appearance. We learned that she has been the subject of many stunts over the years and her head has actually been removed twice! The first time it wasn’t found, so a replacement had to be sent to repair the statue. While we were standing admiring this gorgeous piece of artwork, I found myself wondering not only why anyone would to that, but quite frankly….. how?? I guess we’ll never know.

We hopped back on the boat and meandered pleasantly around, admiring the variety of landmark buildings, ancient and modern, until we were returned back to land.

Once back on land, we visited the Guinness World Records Museum to admire the tallest, fattest and most pierced of people, amongst other things. Pooped by this point, in search of pastries we went (#copenhagenpastrytour2018) and found a gorgeous cafe off one of the plazas to relax and injest more sugar.

To wash it down I had a ‘summer mint’ tea, consisting of mint, lavender, ginger and lemongrass, which was very refreshing and tasted like a spa treatment.

On the walk back to the hotel, we think someone tried to rob the bureaux de change and we happened upon 4 armed police. Over as quickly as it started, we were left to make the details up for ourselves! As we do not often see guns in the UK, this is always something of a shock.

However, I’m very much enjoying Copenhagen, it’s easy to get around, clean, pretty, there’s loads to see and the people are lovely.

Day 3
We ventured out about midday, having spent a nice relaxing morning brunching and enjoying the hotel.

Off we wander again around this gorgeous city of fabulous buildings, to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum, a memoir to a man who sought out the weird and the wonderful to add to his collections for the world’s education and entertainment. Many of these artefacts and people made it into the Guinness World Records. Included at the museum is the Hans Christian Andersen exhibit, telling the story of his life, being brought up in poverty and losing his father, a cobbler, at the age of 11. Being brought up in one room, Hans’ reading time had always been precious to him, and fuelled his imagination. He eventually moved to Copenhagen as a young man, and tried his hand at acting, ballet, playwrighting and poetry before he settled on writing fairytales. Some of his most popular stories- the little mermaid, thumbelina, the emperors new clothes- are presented with animations in the museum. I’m always fascinated by the lives of creative people who’ve overcome hardships to follow their dreams.

From there I went on to the Complete Vocal Institute for some coaching – something I’ve wanted to do since discovering this cutting edge research centre about 8 years ago. After a mind blowing hour with the tutor there, geeking out about all things vocal, I met up with the others and we went to Tivoli Gardens.

Tivoli is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world, and an inspiration to Walt Disney. There is a beautiful collection of activities at Tivoli – outdoor stages and pantomimes, fairground rides, arcade games, and restaurants. A personal favourite was Gallopen, as featured on Richard Ayoade’s ‘Travel Man’ with Noel Fielding. This is an old Dutch horse racing game involving throwing a ball into a hole to win ‘moves’ for your horse. Simple but very enjoyable, good clean family fun.

Day 4
Brings us to our last day in Copenhagen. We had a few hours to kill before making our way back to the airport. Not wanting to do too much more walking after a busy day yesterday and ahead of a journey home, we took the land train tour around central Copenhagen. The driver was very funny and showed us some more of the gorgeous architecture, including the second oldest university in Scandinavia,

opposite the church with the loudest church bell, they only use it for royal ceremonies and other special occasions. With a fabulously British sense of humour, the train driver showed us more of the sights, with his brutal honesty that he didn’t really know anything about any of it. His introduction to stop two was that it was ‘underwhelming at best’ and when we arrived, he alighted to give us more information, looked at us all and just shrugged 🤷‍♀️. This tickled me pink, and off we trundled for the rest of the tour, giggling away.

On the second to last stop, our funny driver recommended that we hop off for a bit and visit a particular rooftop coffee shop. Always happy to take a personal recommendation, we were thrilled to take in the amazing view.

After and hour enjoying the architecture, fountain, artisans and street performers, we hopped back on the train and headed back to make our way to the airport.

We’ve all had a wonderful time in Copenhagen, enjoying the architecture, history, activities, pastries, and very friendly people. Looking forward to the opportunity to return.