This is a lovely weekend trip if you enjoy drifting through streets enjoying what a city has to offer. Copenhagen is clean, kind, gentle, and smart. It’s known for great food, furniture, fashion, and art.
Eating
Before we go any further, you must have a small plates breakfast at Møller – Kaffe og Køkken in Nørrebrogade. They open at 9am which is a good time to arrive because not surprisingly the lines get long. The eggs are deliciously herby and the hot chocolate is knockout. I recommend only getting the sourdough bread (rather than the sourdough + rye combo). The bacon and dates were rich and wonderful wherease the brie was underwhelming. The avocados weren’t super ripe but I still enjoyed them and the table next door ordered the peppers (Spanish tapas style) which looked amazing. Have fun, indulge, and enjoy! It was like having some goooood San Francisco-style eating which can be harder to find in some parts of Europe.
We didn’t try to eat at Noma. But my friend said “Relæ was a standout, get a reservation if you can, oh my god. It honestly was in different ways as memorable as Noma, and way more accessible from a reservation and price point perspective.” Our trip was too short to try but I trust all his food recommendations.
But at some point we stopped looking up recommendations because everything we ate was wonderful and adorable. Also had a tasty (but missable) breakfast at Mirabelle and an incredible cocktail at. Spise\Bar no. 20. A friend told me visit Bagelman if you want a big hearty salad. You can also visit Torvehallerne the which has many little stands for lunch (but not dinner) or get a hot dog in Red Square Park at the food trucks:
I highly recommend riding a bike, even if just for the day. My friend and I rented these bright orange Donkey Bikes. They have pick ups all over the city and are very soft, smooth, comfortable drives. You’ll instantly feel more local and will spend your energy getting around much better. The taxis are not cheap. They say you don’t need an internet connection (just bluetooth) but my friend had trouble loading the lock and unlock screen sometimes so she would hotspot from my phone just to load the one screen.
Louisiana Museum
Next stop is that you must take a day to go to the Louisiana Museum (especially now that you’ve rented a bike). Take the 45-minute train from the city center to the Humlebæk St. station. Google will suggest all these bus routes, ignore them and take the train. Then it’s a boringish 10-15 minute walk which is why it’s great if you have your bike. It sounds like a schlep but it’s one of the best art museums I’ve been to in the world and it reminded me of a mini Naoshima.
The queue to get into the Louisiana is a bit long so arriving early helps. There are also a few special tickets you can get that lets you jump the queue. Read more about that here. Enjoy the museum, explore, wander, and spend time gazing over the ocean in their sculpture park. My main tip is to make time to visit the Kusama Infinity room. So if you want to take photos in there (which is fun!) plan to go at least twice so can get a little lost in the lights.
Music
We didn’t go to any parties in Copenhagen, but there’s a nice techno community there. The local house heads pointed me to Culture Box and a few other places. We went there to see Louis CK at the Forum. Make sure to check out the lineups because it seems like all kinds of great acts come through the city all the time. We biked on a pier and found a tiny little lounge party that was also a real treat.
Where to stay
We stayed slightly outside (and slightly cheaper in Nørrebrogade. Copenhagen isn’t a huge city so it wasn’t too out of the way and definitely not a big deal with the bike.
Very sorry to say we also didn’t make it to Christiania but I’m told if you go there and past all the touristic sights there are some interesting houses and more to see. Enjoy!
Wander, enjoy, sit on soft couches, and enjoy all the friendly blonde people!
