City sights, snow, pretty castle photos, and a highly professional critique of modern art.
Copenhagen is somewhere I have wanted to go for years. Mostly because when I was going through my hippie phase in college, I heard that they had an anarchist free town society called Christiania, and being that I was a self-proclaimed anarchist in all of my youthful wisdom, that was the only selling point I needed. Well, my interests have changed in the past six years, not that I'm not still cool and young and into anarchist societies, because I totally am, but I wanted to see the actual city as well.
Day 1
Rosenborg Castle, Botanisk Have, Church of Our Lady, & Christiania
After a very nice weekend in Edinburgh using a free two night voucher for the hotel chain we work for, Lewis and I caught a 9 AM flight on Sunday to Copenhagen. We landed a little under two hours later and caught a quick train into the city. A constant source of annoyance in Denmark was that nobody ever checked our train tickets (well, 1 out of 6 times to be exact). Stop having so much faith in your people and just come look at these tickets so that it feels like my money meant something!
We got to Central Station around noon and had very little trouble finding our hotel, which was only about a five minute walk away, and it was a perfect choice. Hours of hotel comparisons do pay off sometimes. We were staying in The Annex, a sort of hostel-like cheaper section of the Absalon Hotel. It shares the Absalon hotel facilities, but once we got up to our floor we walked past the white Absalon hallway and up a couple of steps into this cool black hallway with neon doors. The room was colorful but basic, and there were shared bathrooms down the hall. The Absalon lobby downstairs was amazing, super funky, really chilled out vibes.
After we got ready for our day and bundled up in winter gear- scarves, gloves, and hats included, we grabbed a map and headed out to explore. We walked straight through the city to get to Rosenborg Castle which I thought was open until 3. On the way, we passed through the main square, Radhuspladsen, train stations with hundreds of bicycles parked outside, and a big park filled with locals sledding on their day off.
We found the castle pretty easily, although we tried to walk straight into a military compound and had to be redirected by an armed and surprisingly friendly soldier. He sent us all the way around to go in the back entrance to the gardens. I was very uncertain about our decision to come to Copenhagen in January, but I'm actually so glad that we did. It's an attractive city and I thought it was ten times prettier covered in snow. Freezing, but pretty. We wandered through the gardens and came up to Rosenborg. It was on the small side for a castle, but it looked really nice in the center of its sprawling gardens. Unfortunately, I had my times wrong and it had closed at 2, but there was no way we could have gotten there earlier.
Afterwards, we went across the road to the Botanic Gardens. There was a giant glass building in the middle with little greenhouses all attached. We walked through two of the rooms with cactuses and flowers, probably less out of an interest in botany and more because we could thaw out in the warm rooms.
The sun was going down by now at the early hour of 5 PM, so we started back towards the hotel. We stopped on the way at a small bakery where I had, no exaggeration, the best cinnamon twist I could ever imagine. It was far from my last Danish pastry (I'm on vacation, I eat what I want), but it was the clear winner. Our only other stop on the way back was a church that we were passing which we realized was on our map, The Church of Our Lady. It was pretty simple from the outside, but the doors were open so we wandered in. Well, I was totally blown away. It was simple but really impactful. The light were all dimmed, someone was playing the organ in the back, and it just had this massive statue of Jesus on the altar as well as statues of all of the apostles lining the walls. Actually the highlight of my day.
After a short break at the hotel, we grabbed a bus to Christiania. There was a vegan restaurant there that I wanted to find which I know Lewis was thrilled about, plus, it was my college dream destination. Well, unfortunately we were there for all of five minutes. It was pitch black, and my nice, upstanding boyfriend seemed somewhat uncomfortable with all of the shady booths on Pusher Street where men in masks were selling weed from behind curtains. It may have had more to do with the fact that he says they were wearing terrorist masks, but I cannot confirm this allegation. I was feeling the "Where have you taken me" vibes from him though, so instead of asking the hippies for directions to the restaurant that we couldn't find, we just did a loop around the circle and left. I think it would have seemed a lot less dodgy in the daylight, but sadly we never had time to come back. Also, this is the only photo I could take- outside the gates- because photography is not looked kindly upon in the main area of Christiania.
Moving on from that disappointment, we headed back to town in search of a new restaurant. We happened to walk past Tivoli Gardens, the amusement park in the center of town which is usually closed in the winter, and it was all lit up for some sort of event. We didn't have tickets but I did spend a good few minutes trying to casually stroll between the two lines and get a look at the inside.
In the end, we came back to the street that our hotel is on and went into a Thai place for dinner. I made a terrible choice and ordered a rice dish, then spent my whole meal staring jealously at Lewis's noodles. After dinner, we ordered a couple of beers at the hotel, raided their game shelf and I kicked Lewis's ass at Connect 4 a few times before bed.
Day 2
Frederiksberg, Nyhavn, Marmorkirken, The Little Mermaid, and more city sights
In Denmark, most things are closed on Mondays, so I had done some research into how to best plan the day. There was one castle that was open, called Frederiksborg, that I had sworn required a train ride to get to. However, in a lapse of intelligence, I looked at my map and saw a "Frederiksberg Slot" ("slot" means castle or palace in Danish) and after a moment of hesitation at the different spelling, assumed it would be the same place. The guy at reception also told us we could get a bus there which should have been warning number 2, but we just went along and did that.
We got off in Frederiksberg after less than five minutes on the bus. It was a nice neighborhood, and before we got to the slot we saw a graveyard, Frederiksberg Kirkegard. We went for a little walk in there and it was maybe the prettiest cemetery I've ever seen. It was all gated in and each grave was surrounded by its own leafy hedges to create a personal little square just for that person.
We came out the other side and crossed the street to Frederiksberg Have, the park, which was very large, and we had to study the map because there was no castle in sight. Everything was still covered in snow and the lakes and rivers were all iced over. We eventually found our way around and saw the yellow building up on a hill with trees coming down on either side but couldn't figure out how to get in. Doors were shut at the back, and around the front it had more military signs. I was confused because I knew I had read the castle should be open, although this building also didn't look much like a castle. I was clearly having a slow day.
We gave up on getting in anyway, but we were next door to the zoo, so we took a minute to spy on the monkeys, flamingos, and pelicans through the gate, then headed to the Carlsberg brewery nearby. That was a sprawling complex of various buildings. We found our way into the main office which had a pretty sweet setup complete with waterfall, astroturf, and grates with plants hanging from the ceilings. The guy at the desk marked the actual brewery on our map and we walked over there just to find out it was of course closed on Mondays.
Anyway, we got the bus back to the city, and it was then that I pulled out the little discount card for Frederiksborg that had been in my pocket with a picture of the castle on it and realized definitively that we had been in the wrong place. I mean, the two places look absolutely nothing alike. I was really upset first of all at the poor performance of my brain and second of all because it was already about 1:00 and the castle closed at 3 and I had messed up all our plans for the day. I am a slight perfectionist and tend to let random things like this destroy my mood. Lewis is very easygoing and an angel for dealing with my neuroticism, and he insisted we go ask at the tourist info center. Sure enough, she said it was a 40 minute train ride out of the city and we wouldn't have time to see it that day. After being bummed some more and reading some informational signs and whatnot, I decided to go back and talk to her again with a new plan laid out for the next day. Looking at a map, I figured we could manage to get to Frederiksborg, then still go to the other castle and the art museum we had planned afterwards as it looked like it would pretty much be a loop to then come back to Copenhagen. Once she verified that should be possible, my enthusiasm was renewed and we continued on with the rest of our plans for the day.
We still had places to see before the sun went down, so our next stop was Nyhavn, the gorgeous canal with colorful buildings that you see in all the photos of Copenhagen. This happens to be reachable by taking Stroegett, a pedestrian only shopping street. Stroegett is also where the Lego Store is located, so we popped in there for a look around on the way. We finally made it to Nyhavn after taking our time wandering down the road, and it was a much smaller stretch of canal than I had pictured. Very picturesque though with all of the boats crowded along the sides and the multi-colored buildings in the background.
We took our photos and walked up past all the restaurants that were very expensive, then continued on north to Amaliensborg, the queen's palace. It was a big, brick-paved circle with a statue of someone on a horse in the middle and guards at their posts in large furry hats, but the building itself was nothing special.
However, we looked over and did see an impressive domed building at the end of the road, so we walked towards that. It was a church called Marmorkirken (or the Marble Church I believe) and it was absolutely gorgeous. Lewis said it was the nicest church he's ever been in.
That was a nice and unplanned stop, and afterwards we continued further north on the way to The Little Mermaid statue. On the way we saw another church, St. Alban's, that was closed, but it looked so pretty against the grey sky with the bare trees and frozen lake.
We continued around it then past a fountain of a woman driving a cart pulled by bulls- love a good statue of a badass female- then we came down the path next to the sea to the Little Mermaid. It's really nothing spectacular, but it's one of those things you're meant to see. Besides, the walk up was nice with plenty of other attractions on the way, so it's worthwhile.
We walked back through Kastellet, a military fortification. The memorial there looked very solemn in the winter weather.
By the time we made it back to Stroegett, it was dark and we were freezing, so we went into the Dubliner for a beer. It was great to have a drink and warm up, then we continued on back. After warming up at the hotel for an hour or two, we went up a few blocks to this South Indian restaurant that Lewis had chosen, then back to get some sleep.
Day 3
Frederiksborg, Kronborg, & The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Tuesday we got up, got ready for our long day out of the city, and caught a train up to Hillerod to get there by around 10:30 or something. By the way, I would suggest if you do this to buy a 24 hour train pass because we spent a lot of unnecessary money not figuring that out. In Hillerod, we saw some signs pointing towards Frederiksborg so just took off through town following those. We were further north now and at the risk of being repetitive, it was absolutely freezing. Snow everywhere. When we finally got to a square and had a view out over the frozen solid lake, we could see the silhouette of the castle on the opposite side, but it was so hazy that you couldn't make out anything more.
Once we got up close though, the castle was gorgeous!! So much detail.
We bought our tickets and spent a couple of hours exploring inside. There were so many rooms to look at, all of them so different and fancy. Lots of them had brightly colored walls and there were all sorts of paintings and tapestries and suits of armor. Even the ceilings had paintings.
The two most amazing rooms though were the chapel and the Great Hall. The chapel was a beautiful, long, golden and white hall.
The Great Hall was just so extravagant. I would like to attend a ball there. Do people still have balls nowadays? Society has gone downhill.
Anyway, overall I would say that was the best singular attraction we saw in Denmark. It was an unbelievable castle and I am so glad we didn't miss it. We left Hillerod around 2 and got the train to Helsingor, the site of our next castle, Kronborg. This one is the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet, so it's pretty famous (in the way that I had never heard of it before researching Denmark but I'd like to sound cultured). It was closer to the train station as well, we found it really easily. This castle not only has a lake but then also an added barrier within the castle walls. It definitely had a different look to it than Frederiksborg.
We entered the courtyard and saw a few doors leading inside around the perimeter. We found out which one to go in to buy our tickets, and the woman there warned us we only had an hour before the castle closed (it was 3). We got a little map showing us the four sections each with their own door to enter from the courtyard with advice on what order to do them in. We started with the main castle. I have to say, after Frederiksborg, I was disappointed. This one was just so plain. All wooden floors, white walls, and sparse and simple furniture. A few select paintings on the ceilings to break up the whiteness and some chandeliers, but that was as fancy as it got. The only thing this castle did better was provide descriptions of what each chamber was used for and what the life of the royal family would have been like there on a daily basis. The last room was the Great Hall and even that was a little boring.
On the way back down to the courtyard, we stopped in a room that talked about the history of Hamlet performances in the castle with pictures of various casts. Our next stop was an area called the King's Tapestries, and at least there were some beds, and as mentioned, tapestries here.
Our third area was the chapel, which was definitely nothing compared to the one at Frederiksborg, but much better than the parts of the castle we'd seen so far. It was quite small, but it had more going on than the castle rooms.
We only had one door in the courtyard left to go through now- The Casements, and I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but it ended up being the underground tunnels used as a storeroom and barracks. And it was by far the coolest part of the castle, almost made the whole thing worthwhile! We went down a long tunnel underground and then were in a widespead maze of small stone chambers.
It was too dark to even read any of the far-between scattered information on the walls, and there were doorways into rooms that were absolutely pitch black. Making all of this creepier, there was absolutely nobody down there. No other guests, not even a random staff member. We were totally alone. At one point near the beginning, we walked into the next chamber and I jumped because at the other end of the room, with spotlights fading in and out on it, there was just this gigantic statue of a Viking warrior ominously waiting on his throne with his sword. His name is Holger Danske and legend has it that if Denmark is ever in danger he will rise up once again to protect his country. It was pretty cool.
The rest of the passages were extremely empty which lent to the eeriness. The rooms just went on and on as well! It was so much longer than I expected! I almost started to think we were lost down there and they'd close us up in there all night. Finally after one last dark, lantern-lit tunnel, we came back up out into the daylight. I was extremely impressed with how much it had freaked me out being down there.
The castle was closing up now, it was past 4, so we made our way back to the station and caught a train down to Humlebaek to go to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Let me preface this by saying that neither of us are big art people. Lewis could not have had less interest in going to this museum, and the only real reasons I had wanted to go were because it was very highly rated and that I had seen pictures of these really awesome, colorful polka dot rooms that just looked like so much fun. Throw bright colors in my face and I'm sold.
It was dark by the time we got to the town and we were hungry. We kept an eye out for restaurants while walking and decided to go into this little Italian place called La Strada. It was a good pick. It was absolutely tiny inside and busy, but it had a nice atmosphere and the pizzas were very large and very good. The only thing was that they didn't have an English menu, so we had to do our best translating without knowing a word of Danish. I managed to figure out a few pizzas that were vegetarian, so it worked out fine.
By the time we left, it was just about 6:30, and it took around 5-10 minutes of walking down the road to get to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Well, it's obviously popular because there was a huge line out the door. Once we got in, we went left and started down the wooden corridor leading around the museum. It's meant to be pretty in the daytime because the walls are just huge windows and there's a garden outside with sculptures that you can walk around to see. We missed out on that completely in the dark, and although at one point we tried going into the garden, it was pointless because you couldn't tell what anything was.
To be honest, most of the museum was a huge let-down. Aside from the two special exhibitions which I will get to in a second, there was hardly anything to look at, and what was there was not very worthwhile. The museum just seemed pretty empty. One of the rooms was full of abstract painting that could have been painted by a kindergartner. The Danish visitors were even just walking right past all of this to the exhibitions or the cafe.
As for the exhibitions, the first one was called The Flux and Puddle by some Canadian guy. We came into a dark room and down some stairs below the balcony was a gigantic glass cube.
Inside of it he had basically just put a bunch of really random shit, including but not limited to mannequins, animals, and kitchen fruits. We went down and walked around it and it just kept getting weirder. There was a werewolf-like creature that was devolving into a puddle of goo, men growing crystals out of their insides, exploding cantaloupes, pineapples with teeth, a woman in a blue sequined dress who had a hole replacing her face, a man with an eagle head, a grape with a face drawn on it, and a pair of what looked like black charred demons praying over their dining room table.
The explanation was of course just a bunch of faux-meaningful bullshit. Sorry, hipster Canadian, I'm sure you'll take my insulting review really personally while crying into your thousands. (Hundreds? I have no real concept of what artists get paid.)
Lastly, we got to the exhibition that I had wanted to come for. The polka dot rooms!! Well, it turns out it was a huge exhibition by some weirdo Japanese hippie named Yayoi Kusama, and before we reached the polka dot rooms we were subjected to strange pieces of art like ironing boards and couches with polka dotted growths all over them along with photos and videos of her in the 60s painting polka dots all over naked people. There was also this hilariously pretentious exhibition she did in New York in the 60s where she sat amongst a bunch of metallic mirrored balls with a sign that said "Your Narcissism for Sale, $2." Oh, I bet the hippies ate that shit up.
Anyway, we finally got around to all the trippy rooms, and that part at least was what I expected. They were really cool and we had fun taking photos in them. There was the yellow and black room with a mirrored box in the center that you could look into to see a bunch of yellow polka dotted pumpkins on the ground reflected into infinity....
...the white living room that you could plaster neon polka dot stickers all over...
...and the red and white room with giant suspended balloons.
There were also two small rooms that you had to wait in line to go into because they closed the door for you to get the whole experience. The first one was mirrored and dark. You stood on a platform surrounded by water, and there were glowing polka dot lights that changed colors hanging down from the ceiling. Really pretty.
The other room they let a small group of people into all at once, and you stood on a long platform in the middle. The ceiling was white, the walls were mirrors, and the ground was covered in those strange white tubular growths covered in red polka dots, so reflected again and again in the mirrors it looked like there were a bunch of platforms of people wondering why the hell they were surrounded by fields of polka dot potatoes and what possessed them to come to a modern art museum.
After this, we headed out feeling a bit confused by the world of contemporary art and the popularity of the museum.
But at least we discovered this modern day hero.
We walked down the road and got the train back to Copenhagen where we turned in for the night after a productive final day in Denmark. The country was beautiful and we both loved it. I would just advise you to pack layers, go to Christiania in the daylight hours, and avoid Mondays. Also, visit the local info center instead of solely relying on your own research skills because you are a fallible human.