Scandinavia ’25 – Day Three

On deck early to reorganize, pack up, and attack Day Three with the walk to Schiphol departures. Definitely a short stay in the Netherlands 🇳🇱, but well worth the 24 hrs to climatize and recuperate from the flight ✈️ from Hlfx. Feeling ready, we successfully navigated security and settled in for some web updating / scrolling while waiting for the gate posting. This morning’s carrier was EasyJet, a budget airline both convenient and affordable. Flight left on time, and arrived early, so all is right!

Copenhagen Airport was easy to navigate… a long walk out from our gate but essentially a carefree trip to the eventual DSB ticket machines for the subway into the city. We popped off the metro at Christianshavn and stopped for a coffee ☕️ in Freetown Christiana at Kultur Cafeen. Christiania was founded in 1971 when hippies, artists and activists cut a hole in the fence to the military barracks in Bådmandsgade, and declared the area a free town, independent of Danish government laws and regulations. Great stop! Nearby we located / navigated a sketchy Bag Storage offering… crossed our fingers on that little piece of business 🤞!

Being close to our accommodations, we scoped out the neighborhood and put eyes on the area. We walked through Broens Street Food area and then strolled beautiful, tourist laden Nyhavn. This post card picturesque vista is lined with shops and eateries, but perhaps better known for expense 😂! Free to look at though… and I think it’ll be part of our daily hike.

This day was anchored around one main attraction that filled all kinds of buckets! City Bike Tours in Copenhagen offers a 3 hour Food & Bicycle experience that serves as a wonderful introduction to many of the fine attractions here, a solid sampling of some of the most famous Danish food & drink culture, and the added bonus of having an energetic (and sometimes frantic) guided bike ride around Copenhagen. Now how cool is that?

Here’s how it went down! We nommed on a Danish “Hot Dog” on Strøget, Copenhagen’s main shopping and pedestrian street, known as one of the longest in Europe. We sampled fish cakes and Mikkeller craft beer at Torvehallerne Market, an Urban marketplace featuring stalls with local produce, gourmet foods, beverages & desserts. Tastings of the sought after Danish open faced sandwich, Smørrebrød, not so gently chased with Denmark’s national drink Akvavit (translated as “water of life”) were had. Capped with pastries from Bagt in the Nyborder UNESCO area of the city, the eating was thankfully complemented by lots of exercise. All was accessed through that so Scandinavian of modes of transport, the bicycle. Cudos to Pasha our guide, for sharing her knowledge, good humor and “skillz” in managing to navigate our group of 10 safely through the city and back 🫣! I’d love to say the wind was in my hair, but I hung in there and still felt pretty young 😉!

Post-tour we were weary, but first had homework to do! We picked up the key to our AirBnB, secured our bags, and fumbled through gaining access to our home away from home. It was nice to cross the threshold, drop everything, and stop moving for an hour or two. We both managed a short kink and reconstituted for some evening exploring.

So we found Netto, a local grocery chain, a few blocks from our keenly located digs! With calculator in hand, we went exploring. While away, we try and keep a few things close by to enjoy into the later evening when the legs give way 😂. The bulk of our purchase was comprised of “refreshments”, and charcuterie fixin’s for evening snack.

Eating out here is expensive… but doesn’t seem to hold anyone back. It was super busy at Broens Street Food and Beer Garden. On the way home we settled into that fray, enjoying a cold one and being a local on a warm Wednesday evening. Danes believe in the concept of “hygge” (coziness) and social drinking seems an important element. Drinking culture is broadly accepted with relaxed legislation in regard to age (16 years) and licensing.

So… we tried on our best “hygge” and got some great people watching in! With interest, we viewed a bridge elevate to allow a sailboat through the canal, marvelled at the long canal boat operators navigating the flurry of kayaks, punts, speedboats crisscrossing the waterways, and listened to the conversations, music and bike bells as they rolled by in this very busy corner of the city. Very happy to sit and soak up the ambience!

At 8:30 we got “bounced” from our table in the pier area by rogue thunder & lightning in an effort to seek shelter from a very refreshing rain. We took it as a sign to trek home, call it a day, and get some well deserved rest. Day Four and its itinerary constituted a serious “lurch” into Copenhagen attractions. With history, art and politics on the agenda we thought an early to bed equation the best medicine!

… Scandinavia ’25 – Day Four