The Far Away Fox Travels....Copenhagen

 

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The Little Mermaid

So, my 16 year old self was ahead of the times. (I predicted patterned leggings, ponchos, blanket coats and many more crazy things looooong before they appeared on the high street - call me a fashion guru :-p)

For a food technology GCSE project I wrote about the as-then relatively unknown food traditions of the beautiful lands of Scandinavia (now call me a food guru).  Fast forward 12 years, and Denmark is home to one of the best restaurants in the world, Noma, having won the title a few years running, unfortunately this year it lost out to El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona. Still, its in the top 10 and Scandinavian food is well and truly on the map.

Having wanted to go for a long time and factors all adding up to make it impossible, the stars finally aligned and I booked a weekend trip with one of my favourite travel buddies - Ras - remember her from a couple of posts back about Sri Lankan Food. (see it here)



Hans Christian Anderson

It goes without saying that the Hans Christian Anderson statue, The Little Mermaid, Kastellet, Danish Parliament Building, Jewish museum, Rosenborg Castle and Kronborg Castle, were all very interesting and beautiful, but, as usual, my trip was led by my nose and stomach.
Ras is the ideal travel companion for someone like me who is very laid back. All I knew is that I wanted to see Hamlet's palace (Kronborg)  and eat Danish Pastries, she filled in the gaps of the itinerary!    She found a food market, which she knew I would love.  She also googled all the best restaurants in Copenhagen and crosschecked them with our budget. Sadly, as neither of us had much money to spare we couldn't afford to actually eat in them but we did look at them and have both made a bucket list of things to save up for - to come back and eat at Noma, obviously!

Goat Hotdogs!

As most well made plans do, ours fell apart.  The best food, we found by accident. For example, the Goat hotdogs from the stand on the first day, that happened to be outside the Rundetårn (The Round Tower). We stumbled on it just when we needed a break. We couldn't find anything as exotic as Goat or Chicken hotdogs for the rest of our trip - as odd as they sound, for the two of us, one who doesn't eat pork, and the other who doesn't eat beef or pork, finding goat was a godsend!

 This theme of luck continued and we ended up eating our dinner on the first evening on a boat!! And on the second night we ended up celebrating a theme park's birthday with fireworks - If we had left ten minutes earlier, we would have missed it.

So, back to the boat. We arrived back at our hotel from 7 hours of touristing (after a 3am start for a 7am flight - anyone who knows me can guess that I was not a happy bunny) so Ras sent me off to sleep and had gone to find someone who could recommend places for us to go for dinner - as luck would have it, she managed to find the only person not actually from Copenhagen on the whole hotel staff. (I have to point out, he was very sweet and helpful at all other times, except when it came to recommendations for food!)

In the end, we decided to take a taxi to Christianshavn, one of the five islands that make up Denmark's capital.  The very lovely Serbian taxi driver, as nice as he was, kept recommending that we eat at TGIs or the new Burger place that had opened up.  Thoughtful, but not quite what we were looking for.

Because our swim and siesta had taken rather longer than we planned, not least because we took the wrong lift back to our room and we had to scurry around the hotel in our towels looking for the right one, ending up having to scuffle through reception - embarrassing, but, what holidays are made for I guess! So, when we arrived in Christianshavn it was dark, quite cold and we were still none the wiser at where to go - then luck hit us.




 The taxi had driven us over a bridge and suggested we stop at this little floating bar for a drink before dinner - when we found it again we realised it served food as well - we had to try it.

Luckily we arrived 20 minutes before the kitchen shut so we  ordered all our food in one go, and sat to enjoy the scenery, considering it was outside on a chilly evening, there were cosy blankets to wrap round us, and the lights gave off quite a lot of heat to keep us toasty. The atmosphere was, to me, decidedly Danish, but for the life of me I couldn't tell you why!




My Bavette Steak

The food was delicious and warming, we each had a starter of Sepia with garlic mayonnaise (and what I think was pink peppercorns as decoration) and for our main, I had a Bavette steak, cooked just the way I like it, medium rare, with grilled cabbage, horseradish yoghurt, garlic and sorrel salad. Ras decided to go for the Lamb with Seasonal Vegetables, all these ingredients were locally sourced, even better. Yum! 



Ras's Lamb and Vegetables

We also shared boiled Danish potatoes.  Rather untraditionally considering we both had red meat, we both decided to have a white wine.  I have recently discovered a taste for it, so I'm having it at every opportunity!  True Foodies and Winos (winies - people who love wine?!) look away now! Everything arrived together as the kitchen was closing and they wanted to get the last few orders out, so we enjoyed the rather odd mix.



 

Badudlejning & Café view from the bridge



 Sadly, as we had arrived late we did not get to order dessert, but the plates I saw going out of Panna Cotta looked scrumptious.  If we had had time, I would have liked to go back.  If you are in Christianshavn and looking for something a bit different - Check it out.

 On Saturday, we got up early, stuffed ourselves at the breakfast buffet (Danish Pastries included!) and headed out to Helsingør, home to Kronborg Castle, as in, home of Hamlet. Beautiful!!

Kronborg Castle



Interior Courtyard at Kronborg

Afterwards, we grabbed a sandwich and headed to see the Little Mermaid, Kastellet and do a boat cruise in Nyhavn.  Can't say we didn't take advantage of our Copenhagen Cards!

The evening, was once again, spectacular, and completely by chance.  We had previously decided to go back to Nyhavn for dinner but after getting back to the hotel exhausted,  we decided to stay local.  10 minutes from our hotel was a theme park.  And not just any theme park.  Denmark is home to the world's 2 oldest parks. This one, Tivoli, was opened on the 15 August 1843 - and guess what the date was when we visited for dinner!  Unaware of this at the time, we went round taking photos and had dinner.



A creepily lit merry go round

This time we ended up eating what we could find as it was late - I had a hot dog, Ras had grilled chicken and chips - fast food at its finest!  Afterwards, we wandered taking it all in, the atmosphere was incredible.  At just before midnight our beds were calling but we noticed that certain places were being cordoned off. When we asked the guard, he said that there was a fireworks display at midnight to commemorate the Birthday. Lovely, who doesn't like a good firework display.



We waited and were not disappointed. We stood amoungst at least 500 people and  not only were the fireworks magical but the orchestra had set up in the stage in the centre of the park and played music to accompany the display.  Xylophone and twinkly sounds for the sparklers, wind instruments for the catherine wheels, strings for the shooting stars and brass for the big bangs - it was very well orchestrated (pardon the pun).

 After another great night sleep in our hotel and a hearty breakfast we checked out and headed into the center to finish the last few bits of our itinerary, we saw the ruins under Christiansborg Palace, did souvenir shopping and stormed out of a cafe (another story and not representative of the great service we received in Copenhagen!)

Gefion Fountain

We had decided to go to the Meat Packing District for  lunch as we heard there was a food market on with over 80 stores.  Maybe we got the wrong end of the stick but when we turned up there were no more than 15 stalls with a lot of what looked like shut shops surrounding the square - a bit of a disappointment but it was Sunday at 2pm and we knew the market finished at 3pm so we were happy to put that to our timing so we located some food and just sat and processed our trip over a refreshing glass of locally produced juice. We finally headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to the airport. I loved every second but I was glad to get onto the plane and sleep for a while!

I thoroughly recommend this beautiful city, I don't think the 50 or so hours we had gave it justice and I would definitely return.  I would also get a Copenhagen Card.  It saved us a lot of money on entrance fees, there is so much to do and you also get transport included. (We worked out that we saved 700 Danish Krone even in the short time we were there!)

I would also recommend the hotel we stayed in - the beds were sooo comfortable. Perfect after 12 hours a day walking and being tourists. The staff were friendly and efficient.  The breakfast was delicious and plentiful, and it was a great location.  Because of the improvement works some of the views were obstructed but you can live with this!

The mini leisure centre underneath the hotel was also a great way to relax.  Check out Tivoli's Website and see for yourself.

ps - All the photo credits go to Ras.