3.5 Days In Copenhagen Denmark and Our Favorite Photo Spots
Copenhagen was the first and last stop of our 2022 Scandinavian trip. Why did we choose Copenhagen instead of Oslo as our entry point, given our main destination was Norway? Well, after almost 3 years in the pandemic, living and traveling mostly in remote places, we craved some urban and foodie scenes. Copenhagen was perfect with those offerings.
With 18-hour multiple modes of transportation, 9-hour jet lag, we arrived in a beautiful Airbnb apartment in downtown Copenhagen. Our 5 yo was the only one who took a nap on the plane.
The first 24 hours in Copenhagen was a blur. Our boys fell asleep on the dinner table in our first restaurant. We didn’t know how we spent the rest of the evening, but did remember a sleepless night playing puzzle with our 5 yo until dawn, and going straight out before sunrise.
Perhaps due to lack of city life over the past few years, or due to the unique charm of Copenhagen, or likely both, I clicked 600-700 shutters just in the first morning.
We were steps away from Tivoli, the 3rd oldest amusement park in the world, a must-stop for children. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season (wait till the end of this post for a surprise). Nevertheless, there were plenty of scenes within easy walking distance.
Christiansborg Palace
It was pretty early when we walked past Christiansborg Palace, a palace and government building housing Danish Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark.
Over the years on my photography journey, golden hours have been my top favorite hours to photograph. However, I devoted most of the quality golden hours to landscape photography, and among those, mostly during sunset.
Photographing my kids during golden hours was rare, not to mention during sunrise. Thanks to jet lag, we got the prize right outside Christiansborg Palace!
Nyhavn & Canals
Known for its canals, Copenhagen presented many waterfront scenes. Nyhavn was the city’s best known landmark. The 17th century harbor were lined with colorful buildings, offering countless choices of cafes and restaurants for short-term visitors like us.
As we came out early, no cafes or restaurants were open. Occasionally, there were some delivery trucks passing by. We had no comparison of other experiences, but the busy harbor was peaceful to us.
To our great surprise, one restaurant in a small side street off the harbor was open. Even it was a random find, our breakfast was perfect.
Rosenborg Castle and Palace
A Renaissance landmark and once the royal residence in Copenhagen, Rosenborg Castle was surrounded by gardens meticulously maintained.
We spent a good chunk of time in the garden, enjoying its colors and landscape. Our boys were even patient enough to walk several rounds for my family selfies.
We decided to take a short nap at our Airbnb and continue our city walk in the afternoon. That was a miscalculation. By the time we woke up, it was already dinner time.
Marchal
I reached for my camera and literally dashed out our apartment within seconds. It turned dark pretty quickly. Everyone was hungry. As much as I wanted to see and photograph more of Copenhagen, we didn’t seem to have options other than to have dinner.
We walked in Marchal at Hotel D'Angleterre. First of all, we didn’t know the restaurant was part of a hotel, nor a Michelin star restaurant. It looked very nice from the street, and it was close by.
We had no reservation, but was lucky to be seated as there happened to be a table available. In hindsight, I am not sure if I would walk in a fine-dining restaurant with our super casual tourist outfit, and a 9-hour jet lag. The food was exquisite but in tiny portion. You had to be very patient for each dish to show up. We faired better this evening - at least nobody fell asleep at the table.
Strøget
We didn’t plan to shop but happened to stay just a few steps away from Strøget, Copenhagen’s major shopping street. We walked past it at least twice every day, and at one point, had to stop at a Lego store. Just in case you didn’t know, Lego was invented in Denmark, and was our boys’ favorite toy.
We were not big into gift shopping as travelers. Plus, it was only the beginning of our trip, so by all means we wanted to avoid extra weight in our luggage. In the Lego store, our 5 yo insisted that he want a Lego camper van. “If you write your name here,” I offered him a piece of paper on a table in the store, knowing he never wrote anything before, “mommy will buy you the Lego camper van.” To my astonishment, this little guy wrote down his name with perfect spelling for the first time. Wow! Oh wow! I had no choice but to buy the “camper van”, and lugged it around for the rest of the trip.
Lessons learned. Never underestimate your child’s ability! Never make an easy promise.
Torvehallerne Food Market
We started our second day late in the morning. Our first stop was the buzzing Torvehallerne Food Market, where you could find anything from gourmet coffee, chocolate, pastries, flowers, to fruits and vegetables, both indoors and outdoors. It was a perfect place for breakfast, brunch or snacks. We loved it!
Frederik’s Church
On our way to Amalienborg Palace, we made a brief stop at this architecture landmark. It was supposed to have a great view of the Copenhagen from the dome. As a landscape photographer, how could you miss any vantage point like this? Unfortunately, the dome top wasn’t open on the day of our visit. But the namely Marble Church was still worth the visit.
Amalienborg Palace
The official royal residence. We walked on the octagonal square surrounded by four identical palaces. The statue of the palace founder, King Frederick V, was in the center of the square. There was supposed to be guards change at noon everyday. We never attempted to make it as time management was a bit challenging while traveling with two children with jet lag.
Kastellet
A citadel in Copenhagen. A well preserved fortress in Denmark. It took some time to stroll through this waterfront area, but if you planned to see the famous “Little Mermaid”, you had to be there.
Perhaps the bronze statue of Little Mermaid was overrated, but who didn’t know the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen? I was surprised to see how many people were near the statue, trying to take selfies with it. Honestly, everywhere else we visited in Copenhagen was more picture worthy.
Bistro Boheme
As suggested by our Airbnb host who lived in London, Bistro Boheme was worth visiting. It wasn’t a Michelin star restaurant, not anywhere as known as the world’s top ranked Noma, which I seriously contemplated booking. Knowing the rest of my family had two severely picky eaters, and another severely nutrition but not taste-driven eater, it wasn’t wise to spend 3 or 4 digit dollar amount on a dinner.
Bistro Boheme was perfect! We arrived early - way before anyone else did in the evening - and got a table without reservation. The food was great! I tried a new drink - a flower or fruit drink that had a subtle sweet and beautiful taste. It was my new love!
Unfortunately, our dinner had to be cut short as our 5 yo wasn’t behaving in the right time zone.
Church of Our Saviour
A baroque church with spiral winding staircase on the outside all the way to the top.
This was my 3rd attempt to get a sky view of Copenhagen, after failure at Frederik’s Church and Round Tower, another structure closed to public when we visited. It was on our 3rd day in Copenhagen, the day we had to check out our Airbnb and fly to Norway. Fortunately, we were successful this time.
The last time we climbed to the top of a church, it was in Quito, Equator, 3 years ago. (Check out our 9-week trip in South America)
Tivoli
Fast forward in 2.5 weeks, we came back to Copenhagen. We had less than 24 hours this time and stayed in an airport hotel. Luckily, Tivoli was finally open to public. So we took the train back to the city center and spent the entire night there.
Our kids got almost 4 hours of ride in the amusement park, oftentimes as the last rider. Had we known we’d stayed this long, we could have bought the ride pass or package from the beginning.
If our Scandinavian trip were to be made into a kid’s movie, you could simply skip the rest and fast forward to the happy ending of Tivoli. It was probably the main, if not the only, part of this trip that our kids would remember for a long time.
This wrapped up our 3-week 2022 trip in Copenhagen and Norway. One thing was for sure, we all had a blast, and certainly brought back truly great memories that would last for a long time.
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