Exploring The Second Stop In Scandinavia | Travel Diary: Copenhagen, Denmark

And I am off to the next city! After spending five wonderful days in the beautiful city of Stockholm, it was time to go to Copenhagen, Denmark. It has been a few years since I had been to Copenhagen so I vaguely remember stuff but not everything. That’s what got me excited because now I would remember everything and are able to share it with you as well. In this blog post you’ll read all about our trip to Copenhagen and everything we saw. I hope you’ll enjoy this travel diary!

DAY ONE | Saturday 6 August, 2016

The first part of what would be our first day in Copenhagen actually started in Stockholm. Since our train would depart around noon, we could still have a late breakfast at the hotel. Just before breakfast I enjoyed the last long shower in the rain shower (can I please have one in my future home?). Of course we already packed most of our stuff the night before but after breakfast we got all of our stuff and had to check out of this beautiful hotel. That’s when we walked to the central station of Stockholm. It was only a ten minute walk from our hotel, which wasn’t so bad. Here we did have to wait a little to see where our train would depart from. This is when I took some time to get started in “The Girl On The Train”. How appropriate right? Anyways, after a little while we could board our train and started our journey to Copenhagen, Denmark.

After five hours (yes ladies and gentlemen, five hours) of being on the train, we finally arrived at Københavns Hovedbanegård, also known as the central station of Copenhagen. Just besides the station would be our hotel, Astoria Hotel. After five hours on the train I was definitely ready to get all of my stuff into my room and go out to have something to eat. But unfortunately that didn’t happen. When we were checking in, it took them about ten minutes to say something to us (instead of talking in Danish to each other) about what was going on. They couldn’t find our reservation in the system but we had all of the documents needed to check in (that is why your reservation copies are a definite travel essential). After a long discussion with the guy at the reception, we could finally check in to our rooms. I definitely wasn’t happy about what happened when we were checking in but I tried to let that not ruin the rest of the evening. When we entered our room, it definitely didn’t look like the photos on the internet. If you look up reviews, you can see what I am talking about haha. Anyways, we left our luggage in the rooms, got a bit freshened up and then decided to walk around to find somewhere to eat.

Our hotel was located in Vesterbrø. Copenhagen has lots of different neighborhoods and this is one of them. We walked around for a bit because we didn’t know what was nearby our hotel and what kind of things we might end up finding. We saw some stores we might want to visit again (when they’re open of course) and then saw some different restaurants at this little square. Café Phenix looked like a good place to have dinner after a long day and it was. My brother and I both got this chicken burger with lots of french fries. Something I definitely felt like having after such a long train journey. When we all finished our food, we went back to our hotel, watched a little of the Olympic Games and went to sleep.

DAY TWO | Sunday 7 August, 2016

On our first day we didn’t really get to explore much of Copenhagen. So when we woke up, we went downstairs to have breakfast and then discussed what we wanted to see on Sunday. On Sunday a lot of stores were supposed to be closed but we did think it would be nice to walk through Strøget and then see where we would end up. Before getting to Strøget, we firstly passed Tivoli. This is a famous amusement park in Copenhagen, which they also have in Stockholm. Since we didn’t feel like going on rides in Tivoli, we didn’t go into the park. From here we walked to the City Hall. From the last time I went to Copenhagen, I can’t even remember everything was so close to each other because we only had to walk one minute from Tivoli to the City Hall. I thought it was a very impressive building and you can see it in the photos underneath.

Around the City Hall are lots of different streets you can enter and one of those is Strøget. When you look up places where to go in Copenhagen, Strøget will definitely come up. This is one of the biggest shopping streets in Copenhagen. You’ll find lots of different stores here, from souvenirs shop to a Tommy Hilfiger store. As you can imagine, we did want to spend lots of time here but on Sunday not all of the stores were open. That’s why we did walk through it but didn’t go into any stores (that were open) yet.

At the end of Strøget we crossed a road and ended up seeing a little of Nyhavn. But we actually had to walk a little faster because we planned on going to Amalienborg to see the changing of the guards. If you’ve read my Stockholm travel diary, you might know that we also went to the changing of the guards in Stockholm. This was completely different than what we experienced there. I can remember a bit from when I was little and while the changing of the guards was going on, I got some flashbacks to the last time I was there. At the same time people were being really rude. While I was calmly watching, there were some people that were pushing and didn’t listen to the police officers so it was kind of chaotic. Even tough all of the struggles, I did get some lovely photos while the changing of the guards, which you can see below.

After that, we decided to walk by the water until we ended up at The Little Mermaid. Last time we went to Copenhagen (just only for one day), I can remember how shocked I was about the fact how small The Little Mermaid is in real life. On photos on the internet it looks pretty big but nope ladies and gentlemen, it is pretty small haha. Below you can see the photos I took of The Little Mermaid. It doesn’t look that busy but that is because I cropped all of the people out of my photos. In reality, lots of boats go by and people stand in front of it to take a selfie.

We all took some photos of The Little Mermaid and then decided to walk back a little. On the way to The Little Mermaid we passed a water fountain and church. I think I already talked about this is another blog post but my family and I like to burn a candle in churches when we are on holiday. This way our loved ones (alive or in heaven) are with us as well. In Churchillparken was this small church where we sat down for a little and of course we burned a candle.

At some point, someone had to get hungry. So around the Churchillparken were lots of cute streets we decided to walk around in. When walking around this like, you always find lovely spots and stores. Since we were alle pretty hungry we went into one of the first food spots we saw. It was called Emmerys. I had never heard of it but they had lots of different Danish baked goods. In the photos above you can see everything we got. We got a bit carried away as you can see but there were so many things we wanted to try. Everything was delicious, especially the one in the bottom left.

In the afternoon we didn’t really know what to do and since the weather kind of transformed to grey rainy weather, we decided to walk to Amalienborg again and visit the Marmor Kirken just across from it. As you are able to tell in the photos, the ceiling in the church was so beautiful. The name of church actually says it all. The whole church is made out of marble and has lots of detailing all over. When we wanted to leave the church, it started to rain really hard so we waited until it passed and then went back to our hotel. Here we spend some time to get ourselves ready to go out for dinner. We actually wandered around for a bit and then ended up having dinner at Luna’s Kitchen. I would really recommend eating here because all of our food were delicious!

DAY THREE | Monday 8 August, 2016

When we were having breakfast on Monday, we made a plan for the day. We did check the weather forecast because we knew it could sometimes rain the days we were in Copenhagen. For Monday the weather looked okay. It would maybe rain so that’s when we decided to go to Nyhavn. This is one of the only things I can remember from the last time we were in Copenhagen so I was very curious to see if I remembered everything correctly. It turned out I thought everything was so much bigger in my head than it actually was haha (maybe it was because I was so young when we were here the last time). If you don’t know what Nyhavn is, it is a harbor in the middle of Copenhagen. You can recognize it by the colorful houses around it. It is one of the biggest sights in Copenhagen and I think everyone should have at least been here once in their lives.

While I was taking lots of photos of Nyhavn, I suddenly saw a very dark grey sky approaching us. Since I didn’t feel like getting rained on, I made sure we crossed the bridge to Chrisianshavn in time so we wouldn’t get wet. And we crossed it just in time because it started raining so hard. There was this cafe just across the bridge and we waited here until the rain stopped. I was looking through the window to see if the weather got a little better and it didn’t. I did see an elderly couple looking for cover from the rain and since no one went to help them, I sprinted outside in the rain to help them to get into the cafe. Sometimes I don’t get how people won’t just put their ego aside and help someone else. Anyways, when the rain stopped, we started walking around Christianshavn.

In one of the books my mom read before we went on our trip, she read something about this hotspot called Sweet Treat. It looked like such a cute spot so we sat down to have somehing drink and maybe even have a sneaky snack. Above you can see and understand why we liked it so much. I didn’t get a snack because I wanted to save my appetite for ‘real’ lunch. But my mom got this cake and I still don’t know what was in it but it was definitey delicious.

We walked around Christianshavn for some time and then got back to where we were by crossing the bridge. When we crossed the bridge, we saw the Christiansborg Slot. It looks like a pretty impressive building and we could walk through it to see the other side. I took so many photos here because the building looked really pretty in the sun, don’t you think?

And yes, again at the end of the afternoon we went back to our hotel. I think I may have taken a powernap because walking all day makes you really tired. I also looked at all of the photos I took during the day and put them on my phone. Then we had a little family meeting discussing what we would do for the rest of the afternoon and dinner. We wanted to explore Norrebrø since we hadn’t been there yet and that is what we did.

I believe we did have to walk a pretty long time before getting to Norrebrø. When we finally got there, I felt like entering a couple different part. The atmosphere was very different from the rest of Copenhagen and I liked it. We walked around and then saw this cafe called The Laundromat Cafe. I thought it sounded and looked cool so we decided to have dinner here. The Laundromat Cafe is a cafe where people also can do their laundry. So while they are waiting, they can just sit down and have something ro drink or eat. Such an awesome concept! Well, I got something from the ‘All day breakfast’ menu and that was… blueberrry pancakes! They were so good. When I see the photos, I just want to go there again and again.

DAY FOUR | Tuesday 9 August, 2016

Tuesday would be our last full day in Copenhagen so of course I already made plans for what I wanted to do on this last day. Those plans started with having breakfast with my family and then go back to Strøget to go shopping and buy lots of fun souvenirs for my friends and myself (of course). During breakfast I suggested what I had in mind and everyone agreed so that is how our day started.

After we got some lovely souvenirs (and other things, which you could have seen in this blog post), we entered some of the streets around Strøget. My mom knew that around here was the Rundetaarn. The name alreasy explains a bit more but it is a round tower and you can go on top of it to look all over Copenhagen. We were all very interested to see what it would look like since it was round and what Copenhagen looks like from above. You do have to pay to get into it and I have to be honest, I think it is very overpriced. Plus students didn’t even get a discount and with all of the other sights (where you have to pay) students always get a discount so yeah. Anyways, to get on top of the Rundetaarn, you actually have to climb or hike a little. In the photos below you can see what it looked like from the inside. So as you can inagine, I was glad when we finally reached the top. That’s when we got to enjoy a lovely view over the whole city. I believe we sat here for a pretty long time because the weather and view were so nice.

Let me tell you, going down the Rundetaarn is so much better than going up haha. When we got down again, we decided to walk around a little and have lunch because walking up the Rundetaarn makes you hungry. So we went back to this square we passed earlier to have lunch at Restaurant Italiano. Today we would do a real Scandinavian thing: have a big lunch and small dinner. The staff is hilarious and the pizzas are amazing. I actually ate the whole pizza, which rarely ever happens.

After we ate ourselves into a foodcoma, we walked back to our hotel so we could check in for our flight. We had some sruggles with it but fortunately KLM answers Twitter questions really fast and our problem was solved. We were able to check in and printed our boarding passes at the hotel (always ask if you can do that so you don’t have to wait in line at the airport). For our last ‘dinner’ in Copenhagen we went to Espresso House. I really wanted to try a piece of this pie they had and it was really good. Why not have cake for dinner, right? Back at the hotel we all tried to pack as much as possible so we wouldn’t have to do that in the morning because then we would go back to The Netherlands again…

DAY FIVE | Wednesday 10 August, 2016

When I woke up on Wednesday I was kind of torn. On one hand I really wanted to go home because I missed my bed and Macbook but then on the other hand I also wanted to stay because we had a lovely time in Scandinavia. After breakfast, we packed up the last stuff and stalled our luggage in the hotel because we wouldn’t be leaving until 2 PM. So we decided to explore around our hotel area. My mom and I discovered a fabric store where I bought a cacti printed fabric for a DIY. I am so excited to create this DIY. After that I saw there was also a Scientology church just around the corner! I have seen so many documentaries about it that it was funny to see one in real life. Anyways, we wandered around Vesterbrø so more and ended up sitting down at Granola for something to drink before we had to go back to the hotel. It was really busy here and the menu looked really good. No wonder why there were so many peoples waiting to be seated.

And then it was time to get back to our hotel, get our luggage and grab a taxi to the airport. At the airport we didn’t have the greatest experience but we landed safe and sound in Amsterdam after a one hour flight. I just wanted to end this blog post by saying how grateful I am that I got to take four amazing trips over the past two months. I don’t know if I am the only one but traveling and exploring cities really inspires me. I see so many things I haven’t seen before and I am definitely adding some of these cities to my ‘favorite cities’ and ‘visit again’ list. Have you ever been to Copenhagen? What did you think of all of the travel diaries?

Love,

Neeltje