Flights to the US were expensive for Christmas this year but SAS (Scandinavian airlines) was relatively cheap - we just had to have a layover in Scandinavia somewhere. So we decided to spend a few days in Copenhagen since we’d never been there before. It was a little chilly, and we both had head colds, but we made the best of it.
We had a little less than 48 hours in the city. When we arrived, we were able to check into our hotel early, which was nice. We stayed at the Axel Guldsmeden hotel and it was really nice. Very cozy lobby/bar area, helpful staff, nice room. My only complaint was that the bathroom was a bit small - there was no counter space at all - but that wasn't that big of a deal. The hotel is about a block from the main train station, which is key when you're traveling with two suitcases and 3 carry-ons and you don't want to walk all over the city with them.
We grabbed lunch in the meat packing district at a burger place called Juicy B. The vegetarian burger was amazing - it was just mushrooms and onions sauteed in a sauce. I recommend going there for the veggie burger but the rest of the food (Martin's beef burger and the fries) were all a bit greasy and not worthy of a return trip by us.
After lunch we went to the pedestrian area which is fairly large and filled with shopping. It's so large that there are many duplicate stores (maybe 5-6 H&M's!). Being a Saturday in December, there were large crowds out and about finishing up their Christmas shopping. I snapped a few pictures so you can get the idea.
And these gnomes were everywhere! (the one immediately next to Martin is what I'm talking about) They must be the typical Christmas decoration for Denmark because almost every store sold them in various forms:
We also stepped inside a big church where there were lovely Christmas trees framing the altar. And the organist just happened to be practicing his/her Christmas carols at that time so we sat for awhile and enjoyed the music.
And outside the church was a group of carolers, which I didn't get the best picture of:
After wandering around for awhile, we headed back to the hotel for a siesta (recall we were sick) and later headed back into the meatpacking district for dinner, this time at a restaurant called Gorilla where you order many tapas-like dishes instead of one big main course. Everything we ate there was delicious - smoked beets, scallops, pumpkin ravioli. The one caveat is that eating in Copenhagen, in fact doing anything at all in Copenhagen, is quite expensive. I'd say almost comparable to Zürich prices but not quite. The food is for the most part worth it though - I'm not sure how they manage it but the food we've eaten in Scandinavia has always been of the best quality. Maybe we've just chosen good places but there's probably more than luck involved.
On Sunday, we got up and went out for brunch at a little restaurant called Granola. The food was good but it's also a sort of tapas-like experience (read: it can get expensive quickly). I'm not sure if somebody is supposed to survive off the dish below, entitled "Pile of pancakes"? Just 3 thin palm-sized pancakes! I had to order a second dish of eggs, toast, and sausage, which seemed to be a more normal portion size. Martin's first dish of two soft-boiled eggs with toast was also just two eggs with two small pieces of toast which wasn't enough for a meal we were hoping would be both breakfast and lunch. Again, food was really good, this is just an FYI in case you go! They did have an oatmeal dish there that a lot of people were ordering that looked really good that I'm sad I didn't try.
After "brunch" we wandered over to the street that shows up in about 90% of the pictures of Copenhagen if you google it, called Nyhavn. It's just a little street that runs along the canal leading to the harbor with lots of different-colored houses. And, in December, there's a little Christmas market set up there. Here are a few pictures from it but it's really just a street you walk down for 10 minutes then back and you're done. There are restaurants all along it and I bet in the summer it's nice to sit outside and have a drink or a meal but not so much in cold, snowy December.
Naturally, it was cloudy and gloomy the day we went here. We should have gone the day before, but, we were too tired.
After some hot chocolate and a brief siesta, we headed out to Tivoli Gardens to see their christmas lights. Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park but in November and December the entire park is decorated for Christmas with lights, fake snow, Glühwein stalls, and tons of little stalls selling various things (but mostly more gnomes! Can't escape them!). There were a lot of stalls selling wool clothing and hats and leather gloves and Martin found himself a new hat. We also bought a new star for our window to complement the 3 we already have. And, yes, the roller coasters are open in December in the below freezing temperatures.
Below are our attempts to capture the lights.
In this picture you can really see the fake snow on the trees:
Martin enjoying some gløgg (pronounced "glug"). It was a lot like Glühwein but with a subtly different flavor and raisins and almonds in the bottom of the cup. Basically the Danish version of the German Glühwein.
After finishing our wander around Tivoli, we headed back to the meatpacking district (it was near our hotel!) and had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Mother. It was really good. I think they might only serve pizza there but both of our pizzas were delicious, the wine was good, and we didn't end up spending a fortune there after each having a pizza and 2 glasses of wine. And that was all we had time for in Copenhagen!
