Copenhagen seems to remind me a lot of my home city – Melbourne – a very culturally orientated family city with a good mix of multicultural aspects, cafes, bars, it’s people are generally friendly, but in addition, it is a much more photogenic city, although much colder.
I loved its train system, the Copenhagen Pass was well worth it if one is going to visit a few museums and catch a few trains to almost anywhere on the main island. The trains were clean, not crowded, and even catered well for cyclists, although few seemed to catch the train while I was there. The trains have WiFi, and even a “silent” part of the carriage where people are not allowed to talk or make noise – how nice is that!
I stayed at the Scandic Copenhagen Hotel which is very close to the city (only a 10 minute walk to the Central Station, even closer to Vesteport station), but far enough away to be quiet. I highly recommend this hotel, staff were friendly, room very clean, and the Junior Suite was extremely roomy at 46 sq. m (instead of the usual 26 sq. m and 14 sq.m in some hotels) with lots of windows to take in the views, and not overly expensive by European standards, particularly when you have free WiFi in your room and full buffet breakfast included! Just be warned, breakfast can be very busy and noisy as there are a lot of guests, but there was never any major issues there, and I loved it so much, I extended our stay there to 9 days.
Another little aspect to be aware of is that the hotels in Scandinavia seem to give you adjoining two single beds with an individual doona on each when you request a double bed. Now this was actually conducive to a better night’s sleep – or perhaps I just did a LOT of walking every day!
Here is the view from my window looking west, away from the city, one late afternoon after a few showers had passed (Panasonic GH-1 Micro Four Thirds with gradient filter to bring out the cloud detail):
Most of our time though in Copenhagen was filled with sunny days, albeit only 8-10deg C, just a touch warmer than Stockholm, but one still needed a coat, hat, gloves and scarf when the breeze picked up or the sun went down.
Ameliaborg palace in Copenhagen:
And, a view from my hotel room at dusk:
Copenhagen seems to be a great compromise between the Scandinavian cultures, level of tourism, safety, cleanliness and cost effectiveness, it is just a pity it is so cold, and those damn bikes clogging up the pedestrian access everywhere.
Perhaps they need to make a computerised multi-storey bike park where cyclists can drop off their bike and a computerised transport system stacks them away out of the public’s way?
