I am a huge fan of the scandi noir detective genre and one of my favourite television series is The Bridge. A city break in Copenhagen promised to be an ideal opportunity to see this engineering marvel, with or without dismembered corpses.
I booked flights and hotel together as an ATOL bonded package with BA, remembering of course to access the BA website via a cashback site. I hope other readers do this! Our flight left without incident from Heathrow Terminal 5. Public transport in Copenhagen is seamlessly integrated, with fast and frequent services into the city centre. Our hotel was a few minutes walk from the central station, not the most glamorous area, but safe and convenient. There was a strip club opposite but, if you simply averted your gaze, you would not have known it was there.
On our first evening, we walked into town along the long pedestrianised shopping street Strøget. It starts off somewhat tacky but becomes gradually classier as you walk up it. We found a charming parallel street full of restaurants and enjoyed an upmarket burger with all the trimmings. I like pear cider in the northern countries and my husband sampled thevin du pays i.e. Carlsberg lager. People often declare that Scandinavia is ruinously expensive but, if you frequent London, you become hardened to capital city prices and the prices in Copenhagen were nothing unusual.
The next day we started our sightseeing proper. I bought Copenhagen Cards but we fitted in a trip to Sweden over The Bridge (I even think of it in capital letters) before activating the cards.
Three trains an hour cross the Øresund between Denmark and Sweden. The Bridge is only one segment of the crossing, which turns into a tunnel after the artificial island in the middle. We had a pleasant morning coffee in Lilla Torg, the ‘little square’, in Malmö, using a credit card for our single Swedish transaction. We had registered our credit card for use in Denmark and Sweden, rather than try to change £5 worth of Swedish currency. It is bizarre that the different Scandinavian countries – bastions of progressive thinking and social equality - have separate currencies.
Now it was time to activate the Copenhagen Cards, which covered all public transport in the greater Copenhagen area and a range of sights and attractions. Our first sight was the Rosenborg Palace, a royal summer house packed with treasures. The huge silver lions guarding the throne room on the top floor were especially impressive. Next was a cruise along the canals and out into the harbour. This allowed us to admire splendid civic buildings such as the National Theatre and the Opera House, not forgetting my personal favourite, the unprepossessing warehouse which hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. We have a knack of stumbling across special occasions on these trips and, true to form, we found ourselves in front of the Christiansborg (the eponymous Borgen, for scandi fans) for Flag Day. Stern security men with earpieces and piercing blue eyes scanned the crowd as various royals emerged to pay tribute to the armed services. In the evening, we met up with a Danish Mensan acquaintance from the Postcard Pals SIG. Postcards were signed over an artisanal beer or two.
Our Copenhagen Card covered the city’s premier tourist destination, the Tivoli Gardens. Much loved by Danes, Tivoli is a cross between a theme park and old-style pleasure gardens. Thousands of individual lightbulbs are used, rather than neon lights, and the effect is charming. On Friday at 10 pm there is a ‘Friday rock’ concert, earplugs recommended. On Saturday, at the same time, there is proper jive/swing dancing with a big band and pro dancers. We visited the gardens on each of the three evenings for which our card was valid.
On Saturday morning we joined every family in Copenhagen with toddlers – or so it seemed – and headed for the zoo. This venerable institution is over a hundred years old. It is modernising itself as time and funds allow. I felt sorry for the polar bear, neurotically circling round its tiny pool (in fairness, its usual accommodation was being upgraded) and even the brown bears did not have much space. But the elephants were housed in luxurious stateof–the art enclosures and an adorable elephant family frolicked happily in the pond.
After the zoo, we joined the crowds in the impossibly picturesque setting of Nyhavn, beside the canal, and then walked out towards the Little Mermaid statue. We chanced upon the Royal Yacht and waited patiently for Her Majesty Queen Margarethe and her retinue to disembark with suitable pomp. Returning via the royal palace, we couldn’t quite decide about the folded-arms stance of the guards.
Sunday was earmarked for the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. I have written about this in greater detail in another article. After a fascinating morning at the Museum, we enjoyed a delicious lunch of Bornholm herring and Greenland shrimps. I was disappointed that we could not visit the Cathedral, burial place of Danish monarchs. I wanted to see the tomb of the 10th century king Harald Bluetooth, inventor of the well-known communication technology. No, of course he wasn’t, but if you look at a bluetooth device you will see the runes for his name as its symbol. Once back in Copenhagen, we called in at the Post and Tele Museum (a must for this Postcrosser) then made our way somewhat wearily up the Round Tower for splendid views over the city. I fitted in some last minute grocery shopping, as I never leave Scandinavia without dark rye bread and lingonberry preserve. Another pleasant dinner, a last walk round a rainy Tivoli – the weather had been superb up until this point – and then it was time to go home.
Copenhagen is an excellent weekend destination, somewhat similar in spirit (and ubiquity of bikes) to Amsterdam. Let me leave you with one anecdote. The next time you buy Lurpak butter, take a look at the packaging. The lur is an archaic Danish trumpet. In the Town Hall Square stands a statue of two splendid lur players. A Danish friend tells me that, according to legend, their lurs will sound if a virgin walks past. We never heard the lurs…•
First published in VISA 118 (December 2014)
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