Copenhagen trip
Aug. 9th, 2025 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12My mum and I were in Copenhagen for a week, and arrived back in the UK this time last Saturday. It was a glorious holiday; Mum and I are very compatible travel companions, in that we like the same activities (swimming, walking, eating, and art galleries) in roughly the same balance. Copenhagen was a good (if expensive) venue for all these things, with the added bonus of being extremely walkable and with a straightforward, well served public transport system. We were staying in Vesterbro, about midway between the central railway station and the hipsterish foodie meatpacking district, which worked perfectly for us — I'd recommend this as the ideal location to anyone else thinking of visiting.
I didn't keep a paper journal during this trip (I brought it, and then ... just didn't put pen to paper for a week). This summer has completely burnt me out, and I've found myself lacking in mental energy for long stretches of time, even during holidays. Therefore, rather than being a transcription (like my Shetland write-up), I'm just going to group everything under headings and talk a bit about what we did — assume the activities were spread roughly evenly over a week.
Walking
One of the first things I did, in fact, was meet up withnerakrose in a cool independent bookshop/cafe/bar, and then wander around the city centre, taking in the harbour, some nice parks, and various historic sites. It was great to meet up, and nerakrose had given some excellent advice about getting around the city, things to do, etc, all of which proved invaluable in shaping our experiences.
Mum and I walked almost everywhere, including doing half of the harbour ring walk (about 8km), and then the other 5km of the ring on two separate occasions, so we got to experience the harbour from all angles, and all kinds of neighbourhoods — ranging from industrial buildings and building sites to family friendly apartment quarters, and from the park in front of the opera house to the touristy stretch around the palaces. If you enjoy getting to know new places on foot, this is the best way to do it (or you could rent a bike and join the throngs of cyclists), and my only regret is not bringing my swimming gear, as there were a lot of good swimming spots along the way.
Galleries/museums
We went to four of these, limiting ourselves to one venue per day, as we are not people who enjoy packing a day with multiple museums. These were the Design Museum, which houses a sort of history of Danish design (lots of great modernist pieces, including a whole room filled with iconic chairs) and some temporary exhibitions, the Louisiana contemporary art gallery (this is outside Copenhagen about 45 minutes' train ride away, and be warned that it gets progressively more crowded as the day goes on; it has temporary exhibitions and an amazing sculpture garden overlooking the sea), Glyptoteket (an art gallery that was originally the collection of the Carlsberg brewing heir, filled with his rather idiosyncratic tastes — Impressionist paintings, antiquities, and a bunch of hideous neoclassical sculptures, plus an amazing indoor conservatory with tropical plants and a fish pond), and the tiny MACA contemporary art gallery (be warned that this is completely inaccessible if you have mobility issues as all exhibitions require you to climb various flights of stairs).
I enjoyed these firstly because their collections were interesting and visually pleasing (especially the design museum), and because they were on a small enough scale that I didn't feel mentally exhausted and overwhelmed — I find that 2-3 hours actually looking at exhibits in museums and galleries is my limit, and all four places worked in that regard. It was possible to either see them in their entirety, or see all I wanted to see before I started to feel tired.
Food
We ate extremely well; it would have been possible to eat at a different highly recommended bakery every day and still not exhaust the possibilities. Honestly, if I'd had the money and not been travelling with my mum, it would have been possible to do a trip that was entirely devoted to food and drink; as it was I feel I got a great sampler of culinary Copenhagen. Highlights include three different bakeries within walking distance of us (Rug, Brød, and Hart, the latter of which has multiple locations throughout the city), Kihoskh (a cafe/bar/supermarket owned by the same people who run Brød), the amazing (but very expensive) fish restaurant in the meatpacking district, and a kind of quirky upmarket canteen-type place where we ate our final dinner of the trip.
Swimming
It's possible to swim in various places in the harbour, and I did so in two of them, which was a wonderful way to cool down after a hot day (we were extremely lucky with the weather). But to be honest the swimming (and overall) highlight of my trip was the morning we spent in the Kastrup sea bath, which is a few stops along the metro line outside the city centre, and which was transcendentally restorative. I shared the water with all sorts — children hurling themselves off the diving platform, asking their parents to film their acrobatic feats, a group of teenage boys who entered the bathing area, immediately stripped off and started doing push-ups, and then joined the kids on the diving platform, with much greater hesitancy when it came to jumping off, and adults of various ages, many swimming completely nude (including one woman who was nude except for a snorkel, which seemed to work for her but was very comical to observe).
It was absolute bliss to be in the water there. The sun was bright and warm, the sea was cold and clear, and I stayed in for hours, until I felt that I had almost merged with the water and sky.
Until I visit my family in Australia in a few months' time, that's it in terms of holidays and travel for the year, and I feel extremely fortunate to have had the chance to visit Copenhagen, and have such an excellent time. If you have access to Instagram, most of the recent posts at my![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
ronnidolorosa are photos from the trip, pretty much echoing what I've written here.
I didn't keep a paper journal during this trip (I brought it, and then ... just didn't put pen to paper for a week). This summer has completely burnt me out, and I've found myself lacking in mental energy for long stretches of time, even during holidays. Therefore, rather than being a transcription (like my Shetland write-up), I'm just going to group everything under headings and talk a bit about what we did — assume the activities were spread roughly evenly over a week.
Walking
One of the first things I did, in fact, was meet up with
nerakrose in a cool independent bookshop/cafe/bar, and then wander around the city centre, taking in the harbour, some nice parks, and various historic sites. It was great to meet up, and nerakrose had given some excellent advice about getting around the city, things to do, etc, all of which proved invaluable in shaping our experiences.Mum and I walked almost everywhere, including doing half of the harbour ring walk (about 8km), and then the other 5km of the ring on two separate occasions, so we got to experience the harbour from all angles, and all kinds of neighbourhoods — ranging from industrial buildings and building sites to family friendly apartment quarters, and from the park in front of the opera house to the touristy stretch around the palaces. If you enjoy getting to know new places on foot, this is the best way to do it (or you could rent a bike and join the throngs of cyclists), and my only regret is not bringing my swimming gear, as there were a lot of good swimming spots along the way.
Galleries/museums
We went to four of these, limiting ourselves to one venue per day, as we are not people who enjoy packing a day with multiple museums. These were the Design Museum, which houses a sort of history of Danish design (lots of great modernist pieces, including a whole room filled with iconic chairs) and some temporary exhibitions, the Louisiana contemporary art gallery (this is outside Copenhagen about 45 minutes' train ride away, and be warned that it gets progressively more crowded as the day goes on; it has temporary exhibitions and an amazing sculpture garden overlooking the sea), Glyptoteket (an art gallery that was originally the collection of the Carlsberg brewing heir, filled with his rather idiosyncratic tastes — Impressionist paintings, antiquities, and a bunch of hideous neoclassical sculptures, plus an amazing indoor conservatory with tropical plants and a fish pond), and the tiny MACA contemporary art gallery (be warned that this is completely inaccessible if you have mobility issues as all exhibitions require you to climb various flights of stairs).
I enjoyed these firstly because their collections were interesting and visually pleasing (especially the design museum), and because they were on a small enough scale that I didn't feel mentally exhausted and overwhelmed — I find that 2-3 hours actually looking at exhibits in museums and galleries is my limit, and all four places worked in that regard. It was possible to either see them in their entirety, or see all I wanted to see before I started to feel tired.
Food
We ate extremely well; it would have been possible to eat at a different highly recommended bakery every day and still not exhaust the possibilities. Honestly, if I'd had the money and not been travelling with my mum, it would have been possible to do a trip that was entirely devoted to food and drink; as it was I feel I got a great sampler of culinary Copenhagen. Highlights include three different bakeries within walking distance of us (Rug, Brød, and Hart, the latter of which has multiple locations throughout the city), Kihoskh (a cafe/bar/supermarket owned by the same people who run Brød), the amazing (but very expensive) fish restaurant in the meatpacking district, and a kind of quirky upmarket canteen-type place where we ate our final dinner of the trip.
Swimming
It's possible to swim in various places in the harbour, and I did so in two of them, which was a wonderful way to cool down after a hot day (we were extremely lucky with the weather). But to be honest the swimming (and overall) highlight of my trip was the morning we spent in the Kastrup sea bath, which is a few stops along the metro line outside the city centre, and which was transcendentally restorative. I shared the water with all sorts — children hurling themselves off the diving platform, asking their parents to film their acrobatic feats, a group of teenage boys who entered the bathing area, immediately stripped off and started doing push-ups, and then joined the kids on the diving platform, with much greater hesitancy when it came to jumping off, and adults of various ages, many swimming completely nude (including one woman who was nude except for a snorkel, which seemed to work for her but was very comical to observe).
It was absolute bliss to be in the water there. The sun was bright and warm, the sea was cold and clear, and I stayed in for hours, until I felt that I had almost merged with the water and sky.
Until I visit my family in Australia in a few months' time, that's it in terms of holidays and travel for the year, and I feel extremely fortunate to have had the chance to visit Copenhagen, and have such an excellent time. If you have access to Instagram, most of the recent posts at my
ronnidolorosa are photos from the trip, pretty much echoing what I've written here.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-09 03:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-09 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-10 05:04 pm (UTC)Re: new skies, new seas, one of my favorite parts of traveling anywhere is seeing how the landscape really does Look Like That after I've been primed to expect it from art. One day I'll see, for example, if the skies in the Netherlands really do Look Like That!
no subject
Date: 2025-08-11 11:30 am (UTC)I know, right? It's really amazing. I've been to the Netherlands three times (twice to Amsterdam, both in the winter, once to Rotterdam in the summer) and travelled through it countless more times on the train en route to my in-laws in Germany, and I can confirm that the sky really is Like That! I hope you get to see it some day.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-10 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-11 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-12 04:18 pm (UTC)I find that 2-3 hours actually looking at exhibits in museums and galleries is my limit
Me too! I don't know how people can spend all day in one! Your museum rounds sound lovely!
I love hearing about your love for water!
no subject
Date: 2025-08-15 06:46 pm (UTC)I love hearing about your love for water!
💙
no subject
Date: 2025-08-15 07:43 pm (UTC)What a wonderful trip! I'll bookmark it for future reference if I ever make it to Copenhagen.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-16 02:11 pm (UTC)