Day 1.
So although my “head office” is in Copenhagen, I have only had the opportunity to visit twice, and both of us have wanted to have a proper nose around, so this year, for our regular end of year break – we decided to head off over to Denmark so a long weekend.
Weekend started on the Weds, setting off from Bristol early doors – we arrived with no checked in baggage and breezed through security for a change, and before we knew it we were having a beer at about 08:00 in the morning – isn’t it just soo daft that all these wierdos in the airport bars are supping ale at stupid o’clock in the morning – what on earth do we do it for????
Great flight of two hours with some grub and a couple more beers, just watched a movie, and it was time to land. Bit of a queue at passport control, as it always seems to be now, then we were minding down the concourse looking for the train.
I had not used the train from the airport before, and didn’t really check what happens, what I had not realised that we should have taken the train, and not the metro, as we headed into Copenhagen I had assumed the vehicle would be going to the central station, but as it was a tube it didn’t – and I wasn’t too sure what the next stops were so we got out “downtown”, which meant a half hour, very chilly walk to the hotel – but at least we got to see the place a bit. It was snowing….
Arrived just after 14:00, and the room wasn’t quite ready, but after a few minutes we were in!
Slightly odd rooms in the CitizenM, supposed to be all the same, with a massive bed in the window, which means some clambering, and the shower “pod” is sort of in the room, so you can vaguely see the person in the shower – but for us – it was great, and pretty central.
After checkin, we thought we’d get the lie of the land, so set off towards the indoor food hall at TorvehallerneKBH, which had a load of food places, including the famous open sandwiches – Smørrebrød. Although there were no queues, it didn’t seem the right time to eat, so we had a nose then walked back into town along Frederiksborggade past the Round Tower, and down into the center.
Made it back to the big square – Kongens Nytorv, had a look at the Christmas “market”, then down, probably the most photographed part of Copenhagen – Nyhavn, where it was getting cold.
So, landmarks done – it was time for some beverages – first up was a very small place called Charlie’s Bar. It was small, and the bar man seemed drunk, but we found a little table, stripped off a bit, and listened to a lot of Danish, punctuated with many fucks and other associated British swear words – something to get used to in Denmark, the locals seem to swear, a lot.
After a few pints of the local lager here, we ventured out to see some more streets and ended up in one of our favourite places – the Drop Inn, which promised lots of live music, sadly all after our bedtime. After a bit of an initial confrontation here which the bar man, as I failed to speak properly when trying to find a “normal” lager and not something dark – we had many beers.
After drinking enough to make standing a problem, we decided to head over to the place that sold a million beers – The TapHouse. Gosh – luckily not too busy, so spend some time with the bar staff finding two lagers I would like, out of the wall full of them, then had another couple or so…
We then realised we hadn’t eaten, so went to the classic Danish cuisine restaurant – Jagger (think Danish Maccy D’s) – where apparently we had another drink and a tasty burger (only realised after looking at the photos the next day ;o). Then knackered, we played with the colours in the room via the supplied iPad and went to sleep.
Day 2.
I had decided to go to the office on the Thursday (today), but as I managed to drag myself out of bed at 09:00, with a very slight! Hangover, it didn’t seem such a good idea. Anyway, headed over to the office for about 10 to start my day – leaving Sian to have some fun strolling around the city without my moaning.
Office was fine, and we went for a spot of lunch with some of the team, then I headed back to find Sian, I whatsapped here a few times, not realising that her data wasn’t working, so she only got the messages when she stumbled passed free wifi from a pub – so she sat and pinged me where she was, so popped over for a very expensive Stella.
All that walking had taken it’s toll, even Sian had walked about 50 miles, so we had a few restful hours in the hotel, and decided to have an Indian. On the way we passed the No Stress Bar, which was a pretty cool place, mostly doing cocktails, but also okay lager – we had quite a few, Sians favourite being a Chilli Margarita – which was a bit spicy. Then we went to Indian swaad – which was shit. I think we just went home then, but not sure ;o)
Day 3.
Had a busy day planned for Friday, starting off with a Walking Tour by Politically Incorrect (which seems difficult to find on bing search for some reason) which was promoted as an “adult” tour of the city. Our guy was a bit hyper, swore a lot and said some funny stuff – also gave us some Viking history and a tour of most of the places we had mooched past on the first day, ending up with the changing of the guards – it was pretty damn good – so we booked the next one for Saturday.
This tour finished a bit late, and so rather than just get a train, we walked the two miles over to the Carlsberg factory for our tour. On the way we planned to pick up another famous bit of nosh, again a burger, from the Gasoline Grill – we passed one, in a rush, ordered – and luckily she said it would be 10 minutes, 10 minutes we didn’t have, so we left.
Got to Carlsberg just about on time, had a faff with the tickets, but got into the self guided tour just about in time. This was reasonably interesting, and although the tagline is …probably the best beer in the world – they are lying. Even the free lager at the actual brewery was not that great.
But, they had a Gasoline grill near by, so we got our burger – and by damn it was nice!…
Had a stroll back into the town in the cold and the dark, and decided to have a nose around Tivoli Gardens, you have to pay to just look around, and it’s pretty rubbish. I guess it was nice to see it, but I wouldn’t go back – ever ;o)
Afterwards we nipped over for a beer in the Drop Inn again, in case of music. Then we headed over to the “Scottish Bar” as they did have some live music, and we sat and listened and had at least a few beers – then went for a Chinese… We may get to Danish cuisine eventually.
Day 4.
First thing in the morning was the canal tour – which I had been on something similar when I came to Copenhagen with work, but this was nice, other than two British birds behind us talking non-stop – it actually took us close to where we were to walk to later in the day. Then we did a bit of walking around to get an appetite for the open sandwiches we had planned for lunch, but we got to the market and the queues were sensational! So Sian would have queued – and then ate on the go, but not me, no way pal, even though I was starving, I wasn’t hanging around – we walked back and thought we would try somewhere we had seen previously the “app restaurant”.
It’s apparently a chain, and you just sit down, download the app, and order your drinks and food – no interaction required ;o) It was surprisingly good – great choice, and the tables have a weird bit of iron-mongery on them, but this is where they place two wooden boards that hold your food in the middle.
We couldn’t hang around tho, as we had booked into the next “free” tour – of the hippy commune on the side of Copenhagen – Christiania. I’ll start by saying that this was the worse thing we did, the tour was poor, but the actual place it’s self was appalling – really not my thing, it was full of dirty wierdos and the alley where you can buy your drugs was just hideous. I am not a prude by any means, but this was like something out of a post apocalyptic film, shanty shite. I hated it.
We left, cold and a bit pissed off with the experience – so we went and got pissed back in the Scottish Bar and had a kebab.
Day 5.
Leaving day – I really don’t like hanging around, but our flight wasn’t until 21:00, so we had a full day to fill – so we had an early lunch at the open sandwich bar – fak me it was expensive, I think about £50 for four open sandwiches and a drink – it was pretty good, but I prefer my sandwiches enclosed so nothing can escape and then we did finally go up the round tower.
After lunch we checked out, and headed for the train – to get the train to Sweden! Now unless you know a bit of geography, this doesn’t seem very cool, but there is a sea between Denmark and Sweden – and it not only has a tunnel, but also a Bridge – I know, how cool is that, driving on a bridge, that disappears into the sea and into a tunnel for half the crossing…
Over in Sweden we first stopped at Lund, which seems like quite a nice small town, slightly olde worlde which a big church – then on to Malmo which is big, and dark when we got there and cold.
We had to get back for the flights, and I couldn’t drink, so unfortunately we mostly walked around a lot, Lund was especially busy in the “bars”. But atleast we had now set foot in Sweden, which was nice.
Back on the train straight to the airport, which was handy, then a bit of a hang around and then home.
So that was Copenhagen, it was pretty nice, great time of year with the cold and the snow – it is very expensive, probably nearly double the UK prices – but a nice November trip all in all. I guess I’ll only go back, if it’s with work….