A Long Weekend in Copenhagen

We made our way to mainland Europe for the first time since we moved, and had a fabulous long weekend in Copenhagen recently. Tim had a work trip scheduled from Wednesday-Friday and suggested we meet him at the tail end, so we went for it. We cleared it with school, cleared our weekend schedule (which was basically just football), and had the best long weekend exploring the city. Here’s a not-so-quick recap of our time! 

Day 1
The boys and I flew out Friday morning and the trip went smoothly. My airplane divas are used to the long flight between the U.S. and the U.K. and were shocked they weren’t going to get free drinks, snacks and a meal…but I reminded them the flight was 1 hour and 40 minutes, and they could make it. The Copenhagen airport is great – clean and manageable, and fortunately for us, everything written in Danish and English.

I read recommendations to purchase the Copenhagen card right from the airport, so I did, though I had no idea how much I was shelling out I was charged in Danish krone. The woman pointed me to Platform 2 to take the train into the city center. The boys and I hustled down the moving walkway and soon were on the train. In less than 15 minutes, we were at the Copenhagen Central Train Station, where we met Tim who had just finished his customer visits and arrived back to the city.

After checking in to the hotel, we stopped by the concierge desk and asked for some ideas on what to do and where to eat. When he recommended McDonalds or Burger King for a quick bite, the boys’ eyes lit up as I stared back at him, horrified. After some prodding, he told me about a food hall next to Tivoli Gardens, so we headed there. I mean, I’m not a food snob but I did not come all the way to Copenhagen to eat McDonalds! (The boys disagreed.)

The food hall was great, allowing us all to choose from different types of cuisine from Korean to Spanish to Danish. This was also our first stop in understanding that eating/drinking/activities/anything in Copenhagen doesn’t come cheap, but for the limited time we had, it was worth it.

Satiated, we walked for a bit and came to City Hall Square, a large public square on the edge of Tivoli Gardens, in front of the city hall. The Denmark football team was playing that night and the whole square was set up for a celebration – a stage with a DJ, supporters decked out in Denmark scarves and face paint, and a circular cage for children to play football. This made Bennett and Nate’s day! They waited their turn and ran into the cage to play a pick-up game and show their best moves. They also practiced saying “tak” to everyone. (We’d been watching YouTube videos to pick up a few phrases in Danish and mostly came away with “tak skal du have” – thank you.)

After pulling them away from football, we walked and came upon a small Christmas market. I love the cozy atmosphere of the Christmas market, even though between the ones I’ve been to in England and now Copenhagen, I haven’t found much to actually buy. I did however buy some Glögg, some red mulled wine served Danish style, with raisins and almonds. The boys enjoyed some hot chocolate and declared it delicious…it was liquid chocolate and not watered down at all. Vendors displayed Christmas ornaments, wool hats, and one stall was loaded with animal furs and furry boots. We wandered and browsed, taking in the start of the Christmas season.

We worked our way up the Strøget, a long, pedestrian-only street lined with shops and vendors. We’re not much for shopping, but since Denmark is the original home to Lego (the large Legoland was located about a half hour out of the city; we didn’t make the trip) we wanted to visit the city’s flagship store. Inside was walls were filled with Lego displays and Legos to purchase. The boys spent some time building, and Bennett picked out his souvenir, a small Star Wars set. I couldn’t convince him to get the exclusive-to-Copenhagen set about local boy Hans Christian Andersen. I stopped and picked up a few Christmas ornaments, my go-to souvenir from any new place I travel.

The boys wanted to go back to the square to see if the football cage was still there, but I convinced them that this place called Ripley’s Believe it or Not could be fun. It was free with the Copenhagen Card, so we went in – vowing that if they didn’t like it there, we could go.

We didn’t make it long. The first section was all about the fairy tales and stories of Mr. H.C. Andersen himself, and they found themselves unfamiliar and pretty uninterested. The second part is all about the weird things Ripley’s is known for, and some of them are just downright weird or disturbing (shrunken heads or two-headed lambs anyone?). Tim and I gave each other a few amused/horrified glances as we shuffled the boys along, breathing a sigh of relief at the exit.

Back to the square, the boys played one more football match as the party winded down (the match was starting so people had dispersed to watch), Bennett picked up a Denmark football scarf, and we walked back to the hotel for a quick swim and bedtime.

Day 2
The next morning, we were eager to explore, but our feet were a bit tired. We had seen so many bicycles everywhere and Tim suggested we rent some from the hotel. I was hesitant; it’s been a while since I’ve been on a bike, and I was a little nervous to navigate an unknown city. But we looked at the bike he would ride, with a little cart in the front where the boys would sit – and hold our gear and be covered in a blanket – and I was sold. We started off.

Bicycling through the streets of Copenhagen as the boys sang some random song and giggled to themselves will be one of my favorite memories of our time there.

We rode for about 20 minutes, down to the Nyhavn district, parked and started walking. The Nyhavn district is on the canal and known for its bright and colorful buildings. We walked through just as the stands were opening and realized the street led to another Christmas market. We wandered through, taking photos and sampling hot chocolate. We came to a spot for boat tours and decided that we should take one since it was free with our card.

The boat tour took us through the canals, pointing out architecture, talking about the city’s history, and then out into the harbour. Copenhagen has beautiful old buildings, but also some stunning new ones, like the opera house and the new library – a sleek building called the “Black Diamond” because when the sun is shining, the panels reflect the glimmering water like diamonds.

We also saw the Little Mermaid statue, perched along the coastline of the harbor. We didn’t see the front, but we did see the line of tourists readying for pictures. The tour guide proceeded to tell us that it was recently voted one of the world’s most disappointing tourist spots. We decided that our view from the back was good enough!

As the tour ended and the boat chugged back through the canals to dock, it began to rain, quite heavily. We hadn’t researched a lot of restaurants but knew it was time to eat. “Let’s go away from this street where it’s pretty touristy and probably expensive,” I said, and Tim agreed. We walked in the rain looking for spots, but they seemed either too fancy or too bar-like for the boys.

I hopped on my phone and said, “Hey, I found a good seafood spot with good ratings and OK for kids,” and I led us…in a circle…exactly back to the street we had come from. Whoops. It was a little nicer than we had planned on, but the boys continued their trip tradition of eating mussels, and most importantly, we came in from the cold rain and warmed up over a wonderful meal.

After lunch, the rain pressed on. Tim took advantage of the card and popped the boys into the Guinness World Records museum while I sipped some more glögg and browsed the markets in the rain.

Eventually, we came back to our bikes. If, in the dry, optimistic morning the boys were singing and Tim and I could practically be heard yelling “Wheeeeeee!” pedalling through the streets, most of that glee had gone. We rode back with the cold whipping rain in our face, but we had plans.

Finally, the moment the boys had been waiting for arrived: Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli Gardens is the second-oldest amusement park in the world and has been noted as an inspiration for Disneyland and other famous amusement parks. Fortunately, we had come on opening weekend for the Christmas season, and it was completely lit up with white Christmas lights, fake snow, trees and animals. It was breathtaking and magical. The rain had paused for the moment, and we entered, trying to get a sense of where to begin.

Rides. That’s where.

Bennett has been to small carnivals and fairs, and even at the Wisconsin State Fair, been able to do a few smaller rides, but not a real rollercoaster. He was READY. This surprised me a little, because randomly he’ll say that he’s scared of heights, but nothing was stopping him that night. He went with Tim for the first time and loved it, dragging me on next while Nate found some rides to do. If I won’t forget bicycling, I also won’t forget sitting in those roller coaster seats, shoulder harnesses pressed down so we can’t see each other, screaming my head off while Bennett grinned beside me. I kept one hand gripped to his arm, just in case, because I’m his mom no matter how big and brave he gets.

We spent the night riding away, pausing to eat the simplest meal we could find, hot dogs and fries, huddled under little tents because the rain had started again. The night was winding down and we decided to a ride with all of us. The ride took you on a little wooden boat through dark tunnels of water, as you pointed lasers at targets to try to earn the most points. As we neared the end, everything stopped. The boats stopped. The woman running the ride looked down toward us. Two boats in front of us were loaded on the ramp but weren’t far ahead enough for the people to get out. She announced something over the intercom in Danish. We didn’t know what she said, but we knew we were stuck.

After a while, the Tivoli Gardens police came. They too looked down the ride, made another announcement in Danish, and talked to each other. We were back in the light and could see the end, so I felt fairly calm about it all…though it was a bit cold. But I said to Tim I might be freaking out if we were in the pitch black back part of the tunnel, with no clue as to why we weren’t moving and no understanding of the Danish announcement.

After about 10-15 minutes, we saw a man arrive (Tim says with a knowing certainty and pride, “They brought in the engineer.”) The man opened the door to a side room, worked on some things, and after a few minutes we were going again and hopped off the ride. The police gathered everyone off of the ride and said, “Please wait here.”

The boys thought for sure that we had done something wrong, but when the police came back to us he said, “Would you like some hot chocolate or coffee? Let’s take you into a café to get everyone warmed up – follow me.” He led everyone on the ride through the park to a café with tables, and told us all to find a seat, and then order hot chocolate, coffees, cookie, cakes or whatever we wanted up at the counter. The boys were thrilled and we could use the time to warm up. He then came back over and apologized for the inconvenience and that these things happen time to time. We told him it was fine and thanked him.

Is this where I get into the discussion of hygge? The concept of hygge has made its way out of Danish culture and into pop culture, with the help of the chunky blanket/candles everywhere/mugs of steaming drinks photos that barrage Instagram. From my limited knowledge, it’s the idea of being cozy, warm, celebrating the simple things and the special moments with family or friends, despite – and in fact in celebration of – the cold weather. Everywhere we went, outdoor patios laid out candles, warm blankets, heaters.

This felt like a hygge moment. It would have been simple enough to give a curt apology and send us on our way, but they took the extra time to take us somewhere to give us a positive memory, warm us up both literally and figuratively. I think it’s hard as a tourist to go to Copenhagen specifically in search of hygge…but hopefully you come away with it. The night ended with one more roller coaster (we had to end on a high note), and a cold but happy bike ride to the hotel.

Day 3
Sunday morning, our last day, was much less scheduled. The sun shone just briefly, but at least there was no rain! Tim talked to the front desk about letting us take the bikes out for another day, so after breakfast we hopped back on. The goal was just to get the boys to a park and let them play.

We biked out of city center, coming to Fælledparken, the largest park in Copenhagen and a beautiful area with tons of outdoor spaces, trails, green space and playgrounds. We made our way to the playground where the boys had one thing on their mind – football. They were disappointed I hadn’t packed one (how dare I not pack a round, inflatable ball in our tiny carry on baggage?!) but lucked out and found an abandoned one in the corner and started to play. A coffee cart came by, providing a caffeine boost for Tim and I and more hot chocolate for the boys (I lost track of how many they had on this trip; I think that’s at least three now?!) and we enjoyed the peaceful moment.

We debated what to do next – we briefly tossed around the idea of taking the train or ferry over to Malmo, Sweden, which is very close. But instead of packing in another full itinerary and rush to travel, we wanted to take it easy and enjoy the city. I had read about a children’s museum and I volunteered to navigate and we set on our way.

The museum was a bit farther than we had planned, but it was by the waterfront, which provided great views of the sea during the ride back. Experimentarium is a wonderful hands-on science museum. The building is modern and new, with copper-clad, helical staircases in the entry winding around each other and up three stories. The boys enjoyed the activities – from weather-related experiments to learning about the human body by crawling through a tunnel of the five senses. We grabbed a quick lunch and the boys could have kept going, but the thought of the dry weather and unexplored city had us itching to leave.

At this point, the bikes lost about a little of the novelty. We were about five miles away from the hotel and had one more stop we wanted to make, the Church of our Saviour, a beautiful church with a black and gold helix spire at the top. It is supposed to be a beautiful view of Copenhagen and we thought it would be a great way to end our trip.

Unfortunately, my Google Maps navigating skills on the bike trails failed us and I took us the wrong way, and we had to go over several narrow cobblestone streets, which didn’t make a particularly comfortable ride for anyone.

Eventually we made it, and looked up. It would be the only view that we would get, because I went to the door to see a sign posted: “Concert in progress. No sightseeing.” Ah well, I suppose we saved ourselves from having to climb the 400 steps up!

We headed the hotel, turned in our bikes, grabbed our luggage and promptly hailed a taxi. Our legs deserved a rest, and we needed food. We made our final stop at a Vesterbros Original Burger Restaurant, piling in our luggage and sitting at a large table, ordering delicious burgers including the Danish specialty, Bofsandwich, a ground beef patty inside a sliced bread roll, with pickles, onions and doused with brown gravy. Tim and I toasted with a mug of beer and the boys toasted with delicious Oreo milkshakes.

It was a perfect way to end our trip, and as we walked by the, uh, adult-themed shops on our way to the train station (seemed to be a part of town in transition, but the boys didn’t notice, ha) to head to the airport, we were tired, happy, a little cold, but filled with new memories that already have us dreaming of our next location. Skål, Copenhagen!