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Smørrebrød

 

We’ve just had a wonderful, delicious, 36 hours in Copenhagen, Denmark!

Last night we arrived and got right to exploring the city. 

Lake behind our hostel

First, we went to the old Meatpacking District where there is now lots of trendy restaurants and art galleries. We were in search of Hija de Sanchez, a highly rated Mexican taqueria! We got their taco trio, two meat ones for Liam and a veggie one for me… and wow these were the best tacos I had ever had.

Amazing tacos!

We got caught in a bit of a downpour after our tacos, but were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow afterwards.

Beautiful rainbow after a downpour

Once the sky cleared, we walked through the old town a bit, exploring various store, especially the Lego store. Lego was created in 1932 in Denmark and the name is derived from the Danish phrase “leg godt”, meaning “play well”.


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This morning we started our day early to see as much as we could! First, we came upon The Round Tower. This 17th century building is the oldest astronomical observatory in Europe, and it’s still used today.

The Round Tower

Modern observatory at the top of the Round Tower

Since most of the buildings in Copenhagen are quite low, this tall tower provides beautiful views of the whole city. It was fun to get a birds-eye view of all the places we’d go to next!

Looking over the cloudy city

Watching the sun come out

Our next stop was the Rosenborg Castle, one of the residences of the Danish Royal Family. I still find so interesting and almost… whimsical that most the Scandinavian countries still have royalty. 

The castle protected by a moat

Lovely castle gardens

I quite liked this Castle, the tall spires made it seem like it was straight out of a fairy tale.
Enjoying the fairytale castle

It wouldn’t be a morning in a new city without a pastry, so we went to Hart Bakery to fulfill our pastry needs. We got two delicious treats. The first was a cardamom croissant, and the second one was called tebirkes. It was a pastry dough with remonce filling and poppy seeds… and it was my absolute favourite!

Cardamom Croisssant

Tebirkes pastry

Just across from the bakery was Fredricks Church, a stunning marble church. By this point, you could tell we were in a touristy area because the streets were crowded. I was quite surprised by the amount of tourism in the Scandinavian cities that we visited… I guess folks are trying to escape the summer heat!

Fredricks Church

Enjoying the Copenhagen squares

We continued walking through town towards Nyhaven. This region of town is extremely packed, but for good reason. Right along the canal, there is a line of brightly coloured houses which reflect onto the sparkling water. This was one of my favourite views in all of Copenhagen. 

The colourful Nyhaven houses

Loving the views!

Another one of my favourite views was from the Kastellet. This citadel is one of the best preserved fortresses in Northern Europe. I wish I could take a picture of it from above, because it’s in the shape of a five-pointed star.

A very cute church and cool fountain by the fortress

Bikers crossing the moat into the Kastellet

The fortress is still in military use today! Luckily it’s partially open to the public, so you can walk around the top of the sloping green walls. 

Wonderfully defined walls of the citadel

By this time, we were ready for lunch! One thing I knew we had to try was Smørrebrød, a traditional Danish open-faced sandwich. Essentially, it’s rye bread with butter which is then smothered in interesting topping combinations. We had two traditional ones: the first with herring and the second with potato and cottage cheese.

Enjoying our traditional Danish smørrebrød

Both were great and much more filling than I expected!

After lunch we spent some more time wandering through the old town, really trying to soak up everything that we could in this beautiful city. 

One of the buildings of the Copenhagen University

Looking out at the Copenhagen Opera House

We came across Botanical Garden, which I adored. Just a nice big green space full of interesting plants, rock gardens, lakes, and trees.

Cute pathways in the botanical gardens

Tons of greenery

Wandering through the rock garden

Afterwards, we crossed over a bridge to a neighbourhood called Christianshavn. Here, we walked along the water admiring the views of the old town from afar. 

Crossing over one of Copenhagen’s canals

Our last stop for the day was at an organic hotdog stand called DØP. We had a really tasty and affordable dinner here. The kind hotdog vendor even gave me more pickles after I dropped mine while escaping from an aggressive wasp who really wanted my veggie dog. 

Fantastic hotdogs with pickles, onions, and sauce!

Even though we were here for such a short amount of time, I really loved Copenhagen. It seems like such a nice city to live in with lots of green space, access to water (which you can swim in), and tons of great food spots. 

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