Copenhagen's Best
This Summer we hopped across the pond once again - this time to Denmark and Ireland. We spent 5 days in Denmark and 5 days in Ireland, and had a blast. Spending 10 days in 50/60 degree weather in the month of June is a phenomenal way to kick off the summer.
Our favorite things about traveling to new places are:
1 - Getting to know new people. Riane is a lover of people and she thrives on the moments of getting know new people, often from new places and making lasting relationships that begin with simple “hello”s and “where are you visiting from…”? Every time we go somewhere new, we meet a new friend which most of the time ends up in allowing us to experience even that much more of the local culture.
2 - Finding new places to eat. We love food and we love finding new “favorite” places to eat and share our finds with our friends. Copenhagen was no different than our other trips in finding great foodie spots.
3 - Experiencing new cultures. Getting to see how other people live, what’s important to them, how they spend their time and energy is always enlightening. Riane and I would both say, we always seem to learn more when we travel than any other time. It always allows us to turn off the crazy and gives us room to think and breath - Europe provides us with endless opportunities to learn from those we meet.
Where we stayed:
Axel Guldsmeden - B-
I found the 2 hotels we stayed at this round much like I always do. We don’t like breaking the bank, but we also don’t like staying in cheap hotels. We love clean boutique hotels with good food and fun people who run the joint. The Axel is a newer boutique hotel literally across the street from the train station, a 5 min walk to Tivoli Gardens and is about a mile walk from great restaurants, shops, gardens, castles, coffee shops, etc… The Axel takes organic to a whole new level - like that’s their thing. Which is fun. We are all about organic fruits, veggies, conserving energy, recycling, and saving the planet… And at the same time, you don’t have to make your sheets and towels out of recycled material. Which is how far the Axel takes things - But the pillows were super soft, like sleeping on a cloud. Overall I give the Axel a 7.1 on a 0-11 scale. It was clean, a great location, the pillows where awesome and there service was good but not phenomenal. The b-fast is ok, but too expensive for what it is and the gym is roughly the size of a shoe box, again with an organic approach. The Axel Guldsmeden was a nice place to stay, but if we were going back I would try a new location.
Wins - Location, clean, pillows, great fish for dinner.
Not Wins - Bfast, gym, “C” grade for friendliness. (They were nice, it just wasn’t a “fun” place to come back to.)
Favorite Foodie Spots:
The Hungry Dane - A+
Nominated the best burger in Copenhagen. We met Peter the owner when we walked in and immediately had made a new friend. He is super friendly and extremely passionate about his burgers. His wife also happens to own one of the most famous sweets shops in town which we also made a stop at. (see below: La Glace). The Hungry Dane is a great foodie spot - gourmet burgers that are more like a brisket sandwich, but it’s really good and the sweet potato fries are amazing! They don’t have ketchup, which for me is always a must with sweet potato fries or any fries, but regardless the Hungry Dane was a great stop for us and a great way to start off our foodie week in Denmark.
Gasoline Grill - A
Oddly enough, has also been marketed as “The best burger in Copenhagen”. There are 2 locations in Copenhagen, both of which are food truck feels. We went to the one in Broens Gadekokken food market just over the Inderhavnsbroen bridge. We actually grabbed pasta, beer and then a burger making the rounds through the open air food court. This burger was delicious. In part because I’ve spent the last 18 months eating burgers with no buns or sauce, so this was my first jump back into a full fledged “order it like you make it” burger and was a perfect burger to indulge in. The Gasoline Grill is extremely popular, so there’s a bit of a wait, but is well worth the walk and the wait! (FYI - this particular location does not serve fries - so if you are wanting fries with your burger make sure you go to the original location.)
Conditori La Galce - A+
This cute little cafe/bakery feels much like Laduree. The building, the color of the walls, the old timey coffee shop feel, the deserts. It’s all very similar - and it is just as amazing. The hot coco comes in this little tin pot that you get to pour into your coffee cup and the pastries are delish. Riane had her fancy hot tea as well, and once again we made a new friend while we were there. This is another really popular location, so there’s a line out the door and people waiting for tables in the middle of the day because it really is that good. If you like coffee/tea/hot coco and pastry time on your getaways, definitely stop here! It’s right down the street from the Hungry Dane so you can hit both in the same meal time window if you’d like. @laglacedk
Herkules Pavillonen - A+
The Pavilion is in a beautiful garden next to the Rosenborg Castle and was by far my favorite thing we did. We had cappuccinos and blueberry poppyseed cake and round 2 we had cappuccinos and a strawberry coffee cake - both snacks were incredible but my favorite part was relaxing and reading in their outside seating area. The cafe is set in the gardens as I said earlier, but this was maybe the coziest spot I’ve sat to read a book in years. They have built in benches with pillows and blankets - we sat for at least an hour both times reading and snacking. This was the most relaxed I was during our time in Copenhagen and it would be a weekly spot for me if we lived there.
Vaffelbageren - B+
After dinner our second night we stopped at this little ice cream shop on the harbor walk aka “Nyhavn”. The Gelato is always better in Europe and Denmark did not disappoint. They had this banana chocolate gelato that I mixed with the Pistachio Almond and is maybe the best ice combination I’ve ever had. The only reason I give Vaffelbageren a B+ is because when I went back two days later for my favorite combo, they no longer had the banana chocolate - and I have a hard time adjusting when it comes to food once I have something in mind.
Best Things we did:
Bike Tour - A+
This is one of those Riane things that she loves doing so we did. I think this was the most enjoyable tours I’ve been on and was a great way to see the city and get an idea of where places we wanted to go were. Copenhagen has done a great job in making the city bike commuter friendly, so it’s one of the safer cities to ride all over. If you’ve never done something like this: Copenhagen is a great place to give it a go - We got some exercise, got a quick road map of the city and made some great new friends who we ended up having dinner with that night and strolling around the city.
Stroget - A
Stroget is a pedestrian street that has a ton of shops, restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, people watching, and The Round Tower - which has a great view the city from the top. We love walking all over cities when we travel, people watching and doing some shopping… So Stroget was a great place for us to hit. It kind of feels like Paris/Milan/New York - but smaller and not so intimidating.
Tivoli Gardens - A
This is the place that inspired Walt Disney to open a theme park in the States… Now Walt far exceeded anything that Tivoli has to offer, but it is a really fun place to spend an evening, grab some dinner and ride some fun rides playing like you are 18 again. Make sure you purchase your tickets before hand and check the entrance time on your tickets. ;-) Riane had to work her magic because we were like 2 minutes late for our entrance window. Tivoli isn’t like 6 Flags or other smaller theme parks in the states. The food is really really good, it’s super clean and just feels nicer than any other theme park I’ve ever been to. Not that I have any thing against theme parks, they just aren’t known for being excessively clean. We had pizza in the food court and then grabbed an amazing bowl of chili and cornbread at another little spot right next to the park area where there was a live concert going on. Again, made for great people watching and a fun easy evening.
Copenhagen was really fun and we had blast getting to know the city and it’s people and would give anyone two thumbs up who is considering a trip there. After Denmark we jumped over to Dublin and will be dropping “Dublin’s Best” on the blog this next week!
happy travels