That means Hello Copenhagen! The next port of call on our adventure! And guess what we found here…the sun! 

The day started very early! Our flight was at 630am, so that room we took was for about 5 hours! Enough to get a few hours of sleep, a shower and early breakfast. This was better than sleeping at the airport. Easy getting through the airport, onto the flight, WOW Airlines again, super cheap. And the best part…we were both unconscious shortly after take off! that helped with the rest of the day.

We arrived about three hours later and or hour ahead of Iceland and to a very sunny city! We had to pull our sunglasses out! I took them with me everywhere in Iceland, I’m a hopeful girl! The first order of business, exchange our Icelandic currency for Danish and then the Copenhagen Card. This is the local city pass that gets you entrance, either free or discounted into attractions, museums, tours and public transport, it’s a great thing to do, they are deeply discounted and when you use it at one or two attractions, it pays for itself. CKM and I did this when she came to Chicago, it saved us a lot of money!

After the pass, we got a hotel. The Hilton is right there at the airport, 15 minutes on the Metro to get to the city center and using points, free! Score! 

Now it’s time for adventure! Let’s go see Copenhagen! On the Metro we started chatting with a guy who lives in Rome, originally from Sweden and was meeting friends here in Denmark, whew. We chatted about travel, he gave us some pointers and some good suggestions on where to go, add that to GES and ACS’ recommendations for this city and we’re set!

And Oh my what a beautiful city! the photos are all true! We started off at the city center or Nyhaven, which translates to New Harbor. Originally a Viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century.

Just walking around was such a different feel than Iceland, this city has energy and is full of life. What I mean by that is Iceland is a very green, get outdoors, very in tune with nature feel, look at your surroundings and Copenhagen is more cosmopolitan, look at me. We toured the country of Iceland and here, we may just stay in the city, there’s so much to do. Both beautiful in their own way. 

We tried to get some lunch at one of the restaurants along the canal, almost every restaurant and pub had a tent or two set up, heat lamps and blankets at every seat, the weather doesn’t stop anyone. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time because we did wear we found out was a must to start your visit…a canal boat tour! 

The boat was low, we went inside and each seat had a great view and you could open the windows to get a better picture, there were also heaters along the edges! if the person behind us would have closed their window…it might have been a bit toastier!

Oh, but the tour! We saw the royal residences, the castles, the towers, the Opera House, [bottom left photo] isn’t it fabulous! The statues represent immigrants and the mermaid is an icon of the city and has been waiting a very long time for her love to find her. 

After the tour we went to Kunsthal Charlottenborg, an interesting museum with several art installations, all very different and all interesting. One dealt with war, another poverty, another trash and one with two guys creating their own municipality, pretty much the entire world, hmm…

Now it was time to eat! Well, first, a pub for tea and beer, tea for me and a porter for PSM, go figure! They gave me the tea in a tall glass, this was a first for me, it worked. We have some of our best and most intimate conversations when its just the two of us over a drink, awe…

Then we went in search of food, who wasn’t taking reservations and we found the Heering Restaurant. It was cosy, pretty warm and intimate. One of the things we love when we travel is all the different accents that you hear. 

We ended up ordering only from the appetizers for a variety of tastes. There was courgette soup, this is made from zucchini with creme fraiche, mushroom risotto, hors I asparagus [a tarte with chicken and asparagus] and a smorrebrod, basically a board with choices [prawns with avocado, some smoked cheese thing and a pork tenderloin with horseradish and pears] and yes, I tasted them all. The drink was a Copenhagen Cocktail, not sure what was in it, but it did have fruit and alcohol and fruit rind. For dessert, a rhubarb tarte with fruit and soured vanilla creme, don’t ask me why they do that, they just do. 

After dinner we walked to the Metro station, which is right near a beautiful shopping centre, all done up for Christmas, the windows reminded me of the Saks and Tiffany windows in NYC, makes me a little homesick for Christmas in NY!

And how did I end my first day in Copenhagen? Called my dad, it was the first time I spoke with him since we left, what? Too long!

So far, Copenhagen has been pretty good, what adventures await us tomorrow!? I’ll let you know!