The Highlights of Copenhagen
You cannot visit Copenhagen without taking in the harbour front. The city flocks to the edges of the sea to enjoy outdoor cafes and restaurants as well as people watching. Nyhavn is where it all happens and is at the very end of Strøget, the main shopping street in Copenhagen. It’s a great place to start exploring the city as you can take off in any direction from there. Across the bridge gets you to Christiania, left brings you past the 15th century fortress and to the famous little mermaid and the Danish design museum (where would any living room be without a Danish modern chair). Right from Nyhavn takes you along the waterfront to the meat packing district, the funky new center of Copenhagen dining and nightlife, formally the red light district, which was right around the corner from our super cool apartment. We also explored some of the funky neighbourhoods, Nørrebro being one of the coolest. I had a chance to have lunch with some colleagues I worked with during my last visit here and really enjoyed catching up with Claus & Faisal.
Bicycles
It would be impossible to talk about Copenhagen without mentioning bicycles: there are more bicycles than there are people in Denmark! The city completely caters to the bike commuter and it really works. People of all ages move freely through the city with virtually every street having bike lanes on both sides of the street. The sidewalks are littered with parked bikes and they don’t mind the clutter. We rented bikes the first day in Copenhagen, but the city bike rentals are restrictive as you must return the unit to an assigned spot for recharging (oh did I mention they are electric bikes).
Electric Scooters
The newest craze in Europe, and especially in Copenhagen, are the ride shares with stand-up electric scooters. They are found nearly everywhere, parked randomly throughout the city and easy to locate with the free app. Once you secure one through the app, (like CarToGo) you are charged by the minute. You are allowed into the network of bike lanes so you can really make time getting across town. They move along well too, between 18-23 kms an hour top speed. We were hooked after one rental and used them most days to get to and from distant points. Then we could drop the scooter virtually anywhere and walk the local neighbourhoods. I could see these working in Vancouver on the seawall and bike lanes, but they would be a menace on the streets I believe.
Everyone is Happy
We had heard that the Danes are the happiest people on earth: we concur. They pay high taxes but don’t complain because most everything is now taken care of: healthcare, schooling including university, universal pensions and virtually no homelessness. It is refreshing in a world that seems full of negativity: this is a culture focused on what’s good.
Café Culture Alive and Well
The weather was great while we were there, which meant every Dane was on the street: biking, sitting at cafes, picnicking in the park or sitting on the edge of the waterfront eating pizza and drinking wine or beer. We were also very fortunate to arrive in Copenhagen just as the Copenhagen Jazz Festival got started. As we scootered through neighbourhoods, we inevitably bumped into a free music venue in the parks or at a local café. If you didn’t want to pay to eat, you joined the locals on the front steps of the apartments across the street and had a cold beer from the local grocer while taking in the live entertainment. We had at least 5 of these experiences while in town
Freetown Christiania
Freetown Christiania is Copenhagen’s alternative neighbourhood. Christiania is a mix of homemade houses, workshops, art galleries, music venues, cheap and organic eateries, and beautiful nature. It is still a society within a society. We walked around Christiania for a few hours and really enjoyed the vibe of the place. People are openly selling, and smoking weed (even though it’s NOT legal) and there are markets and vintage stores throughout the maze of streets. Artists seem to be the biggest visible group in the neighbourhood, but it is also now a tourist destination and they are offering all the trappings a visitor could want, from cold beer to clothing and jewellery. When I visited this site fourteen years ago I didn’t notice the level of commercialization. We wonder if the locals are liking the changes as this neighbourhood is counter culture at its core.
The West Coast of Sweden
Leaving Copenhagen we took the less travelled route north having experienced to Orland Bridge/Tunnel on arrival. The slow road north was beautiful, and we took the ferry across from Helsingør Denmark to Helsingborg Sweden. It is a gorgeous seaside route, which was a preview of our next three days. The west coast of Sweden is very much like the sunshine coast between Gibson’s Landing and Lund. We stopped many times to admire the little towns on the coast that serve mainly for those with summer homes now, but were fishing towns for many centuries. We found the Swedes to be very warm and approachable: but why am I surprised after witnessing the Sedins in action? The weather behaved for the most part, just a few showers, but the roads were terrific. We stayed in hostels for both nights, Gothenburg and Stromstad: warming up for the Camino.
Not So Fun Fact
One kroner is not the same as the other! On the ferry from Poland to Sweden we googled the currency exchange to find out that the Swedish kroner is approx. 7 to 1 Cdn dollar. We simply forgot to revise that mindset so went through our Copenhagen days thinking everything was quite reasonably priced: at 7 to 1 it would have been, but the Danish kroner is 5 to 1…so everything was about 45% more expensive than we had thought! Then we had to throw that out the window as we got back into Sweden for a few days (at 7 to 1) and then on to Norway where the kroner is about 6.5 to 1. BUT more on the price of Norway in the next post…Art might have to go back to work if we stay here any longer.
Bellissimo Travels 