Copenhagen

Sorry for the lack of posts recently! Since I got back from Copenhagen I have had so much paperwork to deal with from work, and this has been the first weekend where I've cut off the umbilical cord between my laptop and myself (well until now to do this post aha)! 

Copenhagen was such a captivating city; it is definitely up there with one of my favourite European capitals and I hope to visit again one day. It is often said that the Danish fairy-tale author, Hans Christian Andersen was inspired by Copenhagen as the setting for many of his stories. Whilst walking through the quaint cobbled streets, it is not hard to understand why.  

Flights to Copenhagen are RIDICOUSLY cheap! I cannot say how cheap as this was the Christmas present for my boyfriend, but put it this way: you can pay more on a round trip to London than I had to for Copenhagen! We stayed at Hotel Danmark, a 10 minute walk from the central station. This was very handy as the airport has a direct link to Copenhagen via train, so we did not have to lug our suitcases much further. The hotel itself was average; the rooms were rather small (the bed was literally touching the wall) but it catered for our needs seeing as we spent very little time there. An amazing perk of staying with Hotel Danmark was that they had 'Wine Hour' from 5.00pm - 6.00pm daily, in which you received one FREE glass of wine. What's better than free wine?! We stayed in a good location as the main buzz of restaurants and bars was only a five minute walk from the hotel.

On the first morning in the Danish capital we climbed up the city's main tower, the Rundetaarn. If you recently watched Richard Ayoade's Travel Man, you would have witnessed him and Noel Fielding clambering up the Round Tower too. Most unusually, the round tower possesses very few stairways, and most of the interior is made up of spiraling ramps. The never-ending walls made the building somehow seem to be a fortress of purity. The view at the top was very spectacular (but also very windy) and encapsulated the moorish architecture of the Danish buildings.

Later that day, we visited Rosenborg Slot, an enchanting palace that was orginally built as a summer house in 1606. The brick work of the castle almost makes it seems like a delicious ginger-bread house. Though a small building, the level of wealth is evident inside the castle. The decadence the Danish royalty indulged in is unreal; one room which was explained to be their entertaining hall was probably equivalent in size to my house! Rosenborg Slot is also surrounded by gorgeous gardens that looked magical with the touch of frost we experienced on the first day.

After that we did the cliched photos by Nyhavn, a popular entertainment district along the harbour. We did indeed eat at Nyhavn on one of the evenings, in a quirky restaurant that I no longer remember the name of, so I am unable to review it. If you are planning on eating at Nyhavn, I did note that the prices for food and drink along the popular waterfront were considerably more expensive. 

The remainder of the day was spent mooching around on our way to Kastellet. Walking around Kastellet was one of my favourite points of the mini-break. It is a really interesting structure, as it is a star shaped fortress. The area still houses some military activity, but it is most popular as The Little Mermaid resides within it. Of course I has to get into the queue (yes there was a queue) to get my photo taken with the iconic statue! There was also a really cute windmill in one of the corners of the fortress that I got a few snaps with.

The following morning we woke up and it had snowed! Although there was very little within the city, we had decided to venture to the outskirts on this day where it was much more wintry. We had a bit of confusion with the public transport (it is not very clear in Denmark so be warned) as I desperately wanted to visit a palace called Frederiksborg Slot. I had done my research on google prior to our trip and discovered we needed to take a train out of Copenhagen for fourty minutes. At the station a local tried to help us, so I explained to him we were trying to get to Frederiksborg. He told us to take a ten minute tube, which didn't seem right considering what good old google had told me, but we went with it. We ended up at another place called Frederiksberg (see that little 'e' makes all the difference) which although had some beautiful, snow-covered gardens (above), it was not where we were trying to get to. 

Thankfully, when we went back to the station, the tourist information desk was able to tell us which train we needed to catch to get to Frederiksborg Slot (although still nearly going to the wrong platform; fail!). Finally, we got to the magnificent palace, surrounded by vast frozen lake. We took a leisurely walk around the lake, viewing the beautiful building from every angle. After nearly missing out on seeing Frederiksborg Slot, this was a lovely way to end the trip.

I would definitely recommend visiting Copenhagen, as it is an awesome city with lots to see and do. However, it is not so big that you would need to take a week to get around all of it! Should you decide to go, try and find The Downtown Hostel, who happily put extra smiles in your drinks ;)