Valentine’s Day this year, Jonathan and I decided to not bother with presents or cards. We wanted to save the money and maybe go for a lovely country pub instead. But then, all of a sudden, we’d booked a trip to Copenhagen. Oops.
We came up with the idea while cooking breakfast on V-Day, and by the time we’d licked our forks clean, we’d booked a twenty-four hour trip to Denmark. It happens.
Day One
Lunch in Copenhagen
We arrived at the Copenhagen airport at 10am. The airport is SO well connected to the city centre- we took a tram into Christianshavn, which takes 15 minutes and costs 36 krona (about £4)
By the time we walked through town to get to our AirBnB on the edge of gorgeous park Ørstedsparken, jumped up and down on the bed and freshened up a little, our Pret breakfast was beginning to fade into the background and we had our hearts set on some lunch. We stumbled across Torvehallerne, which blew our tiny foodie minds.
While there were plenty of options at this bustling food market, the choice was pretty easy for us. We wiled away our lunchtime tucking into the incredible smorgasboard open sandwiches, watching fresh ones made in front of us by busy hands, and pondered our next move. Of course, we gave the market’s two halls a thorough browse first, and picked up an epic dessert to take on our travels with us.
Afternoon in Copenhagen
We took our peanut butter chocolate slice for a walk round the parks. Exploring the parks and architecture of this city, it’s easy to see Copenhagen’s beauty, even in grizzly weather.
We wandered the parks, got upfront with the lions and marvelled at the regal, smooth style of the buidlings (and the people!). Come mid afternoon, both Jonathan and I were pooped, and being the grannies we are, retreated to our AirBnB for a mid-arvo nap.
Evening in Copenhagen
Feeling like we had a whole extra day in Denmark, we jumped out of our nap and straight into our finest walking shoes to see the city by night. We’d heard so much about the famous Tivoli Gardens, so donned our umbrella (which was suitably useless, I abandoned it after a particularly bolshy gust of wind) and head to one of the oldest active fairgrounds in the world.
Tivoli Gardens are an absolute must if you’re visiting Copenhagen. In the earlier evening you could see very cute Danish familes gleefully spinning around in teacups, and towards the later evening they were replaced with swathes of teenagers and adults enjoying the screamer rides, many bars, and idyllic scenery. The famous Peacock theatre hosts a ballet with the slightly terrifying clown Pjerrot which attracts big crowds, even in the rain. We didn’t go on any of the rides (it was raining- we were going for a nice meal afterwards and didn’t want to show up soaked wet through), but we had a good go on the traditional games- where, instead of winning me a teddy, like all films say he should, Jonathan won himself a toy motorbike. What even.
For dinner, we went to the highly rated TIGHT, where our waitress, Maria, was literally the best waitress ever. For once in my snap-happy life, I put my camera away and didn’t take a single snap- this is a holiday after all…
Read Day Two here: Views, Exhibits, Perfect Coffees and Long Lunches.