Copenhagen - Day 1

We had a much needed early night last night, so we're up early for a run. It's 6:30 on a Saturday morning and there's really nothing like seeing a city before everyone else is up. And also having cool running maps from all over the world on your Strava 😝

We run through King's Park and then up the hill to the castle we forgot to see yesterday. Nice view of the city, we take a few snaps and head back to the hotel along the canal. We shower and then head down to the buffet to feast on waffles, eggs, yoghurt and muesli. At least we've earnt it this time. We finish packing, check out and walk over to Central Station for our 9:30am train to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Its an easy 4 hour ride where we catch up on some blogging and reading. The train gets pretty busy as we get to Malmo and closer to Copenhagen. We go over the bridge of the TV show The Bridge fame and we're very excited. There's not much to see as we're under the road of the bridge, but we're pumped regardless. We notice lots of wind farms along the way too.

We hop off the train at Copenhagen Central Station and waltz out into Denmark. Despite coming from another country there is no form of passport checking or customs or immigration. Cool. 

It's a short walk to the hotel we're staying in in the Meatpacking District. It seems a little rough and may or may not be the red light district of Copenhagen. We check in and our room is oddly huge, but no complaints here. We change into shorts as it's another glorious day in Europe.

We take a short stroll from our hotel and arrive at the famous Tivoli Gardens. It's the 3rd oldest operating amusement park in the world, opened in 1843. This means we won't be going on any rides, but there is also a food and drink festival happening there at the moment, so we buy a non-ride ticket and head in. We're immediately impressed. It doesn't have the tackiness and general dodginess of the Royal Adelaide Show. There's a lake in the middle and lots of green and trees. We make a beeline for the beer tent, which is part of the food festival and are served by an Aussie! Her husband is Danish and they are both brewers. Probably not a coincidence that these are some of the better beers we've had on the trip. She was relived to hear that the "Hazy IPA" craze is dying down in Australia, despite being in full-effect here.

Jeff plays some Gallopen (a respectable 4th and 3rd, but who's counting) and we wander around the lake and past patches of grass where people are chilling out and listening to the jazz band. It's great here. We've worked up an appetite so head into the Tivoli food hall for some Mexican. Jeff has a burrito and beer, Courts opts for burrito bowl and a frozen marg. 

We say goodbye to the gardens and continue our way through downtown. We walk through town hall square (which we recognise from The Killing) and down the main shopping strip. Jeff finally buys a soccer shirt (go FC København!). 

We come out the other side and enter into Nyhavn (new harbour) which is a strip along the canal with lots of restaurants and bars. As it's such a nice day there's plenty of people at the restaurants and many just sitting on canal edge with BYO beer and wines. We must join in. We purchase a couple of cans of beers and take a seat in the sun. This is what it's all about. We get through a few beers while ChatGPT serenades us on the history of the place and the the life of Hans Christen Andersen, the fairy-tale author who was from Denmark. In fact, some of his living quarters were right near where we are sitting!

Can't sit around drinking beers all evening. We continue our wandering and reach a park with a famous castle surrounded by a moat, which is full of carp who are literally killing themselves trying to get food being thrown to them. Eep. It's Saturday evening in Copenhagen and seeing as the sun never seems to go down in this part of the world people are well and truly making the most of it. Drinking and playing various games involving wooden sticks. 

We're headed to a brewery and see lots of party buses along the way. Copenhagen popping off on a Saturday night. And so many bikes! There is pretty much always dedicated bike lanes and they are wider than the car lanes.

We make it to the brewery for one more drink and get chatting with the publican. Very friendly, he's a lab technician working on testing carbon capture technologies. Coincidentally he's also from the same island that the Aussie brewer kept referring to when she said she "married a Dane and moved to an island". The island is Bornholm, which we learned has a lot of history in the doco we watched, having been won and lost by the Danes a number of times given its strategic importance being on a key trade route.

Its pretty quiet in the brewery for a Saturday night, we think. We walk back to the hotel through another park with a lake at its centre. Gorgeous. We get a hotdog from the 7-Eleven (surprisingly good) and hit they hay.