COPENHAGEN & MALMO

For our October 2021 rendezvous, my sister from Rome and my daughter and I from London needed a place within easy reach of both of us and with minimal risks and complications of the Covid variety. Of course, it also had to offer some culture, some history and enough entertainment for the youngest member of our travelling circus. Not sure how the land of Saga and Hamlet, the Vikings and Lego, the notoriously expensive Scandinavian capital, presented itself as our perfect destination, but it ticked all the boxes and in no time we were ready to go.
Our plane from London arrives in Copenhagen on a rainy Monday evening. Everything seems easy: the flight, the passport and Covid pass checks, as well as the navigation around the nearly deserted airport. At the main Information desk, we purchase the Copenhagen Card which includes free travel and entry to just about everything worth seeing in the city and its environs.
Although there are numerous options for transport from the airport to the centre, we opt for the Metro. It takes us around twenty minutes and an easy interchange from M2 to M3 to reach Copenhagen Central Train Station. From here we can walk to our hotel. The weather is exactly like the one we left behind in London; not extremely cold but with fine, persistent rain. Hotel Tivoli is a playful building with colourful lights from the outside and with check carpets, images of aeronauts and harlequins scattered across long corridors. Our room – a double bed and a single sofa bed – is slightly smaller than I would have liked it but hey it has everything, it didn’t break the bank and it’s very central.



DAY 1: Experiments, Zoo & Fun park

Next morning the sun is out in full force and the temperature unbelievably pleasant. We arrived prepared for cold and gloomy Scandinavian weather but now we are sweating under various layers of clothes, including thermal vests and the thickest jackets we own.
M and I find a nearby stop for the 1A bus which takes us all the way to the science museum, the Experimentarium, located in a rather affluent suburb called Hellerup at the opposite side of town. The place is incredibly busy and extremely noisy, as if half of Copenhagen’s school children are visiting on this very day. We wander around and immerse ourselves in the simulation of a storm at sea, follow the global routes of containers and marvel at the magic of electricity and magnetism. After all of that, we feel quite peckish and are ready for some food. Having a lunch in a museum of experiments might not be the best idea ever but nonetheless we order an “experimental” completely black hotdog. Both the frankfurter and the roll are made with excessive amounts of squid ink and placed on a bed of bright white shredded prawn crackers… It looks more like a modern art installation than a palatable dish but I kind of like it; it tastes like a normal hotdog with a moderate flavour of squid. M finds it repulsive. She takes a few shreds of crackers and then announces that she is off food for the rest of the day, maybe the rest of this week, possibly even forever…




By early afternoon, D arrives from Rome and we devise a rather ambitious plan for the rest of the day; first the Zoo and then the fun park, Tivoli Gardens. The A7 bus from outside our hotel takes us all the way to the Zoo. We walk around enjoying the sight of sleeping polar bears, adorable pandas munching away on bamboo branches, cheeky monkeys jumping around and giraffes posing as if they were in a fashion show. The leaves are brown, the trees nearly naked and as the sun fades, the cold gust of wind announces a significant drop in temperature. And now we are content with all the layers we wrapped ourselves in...

We reach Tivoli Gardens with the first lights of the evening. M is about to combust from excitement. The oldest theme park in Europe is decorated with illuminations, pumpkins and other Halloween paraphernalia yet still has some unique, rather vintage look. We opt for a mixture of old-fashioned rides – the classic Ferris wheel with balloons and the merry-go-round – and more frightening, more modern rides like the rocket train, the Harry Potter-esque lift consisting of flying high in the sky with a broom sticking from the back of your seat and the mountain ride through dark tunnels… And yes, we also go to the scariest of them all, the dæmonen ride that treats us to a vertical loop, an Immelmann loop (a half-loop followed by a half twist and then exit travelling in the opposite direction), a zero gravity roll and speed of 77 kilometres per hour. I admit – I kept my eyes closed during the whole ride. And now I am a total embarrassment to my adventurous eleven-and-a-half-old daughter… Ah well…
We leave the fun park with extremely wobbly legs and confused head and with just enough energy to find an eatery and stroll back to our hotel.


DAY 2: Castles of Kronborg and Frederiksborg

We wake up to a rainy, windy and grey Copenhagen. We grab Danish pastries at the central station and jump onto the train to Helsingør (Elsinore), the site of Kronborg castle and home to the classic Shakespearean hero Hamlet, the most famous Danish prince in the history of the written word. We travel with a group of school children, slightly older than M, maybe thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds who carry large bags and are no doubt spending a night or two somewhere in the proximity of the castle.
Kronborg Caste was built almost 450 years ago, as a gift by Frederik II to his wife Queen Sophie and their son Christian IV. Apparently, the castle looks today almost exactly as it looked during his reign; its décor is extremely modest, the walls are mostly undecorated with occasional tapestry, the thrones are basic chairs with red upholstery, all together not far removed from the simplicity of today’s Scandinavian design. The Casemates – the castle’s underbelly and its protective shelter, are dark tunnels underneath the whole of the castle… Poorly lit with sparse lamps resembling candles and many openings in the wall, this place makes a fantastic labyrinth for the scores of giggling school children who arrived on the same train. As long as I do not lose sight of my own child…



From Helsingør we take the train to Hillerod, the site of our second castle of the day, the Frederiksborg. In contrast to the modesty of Kronborg, this castle is pure baroque, with over-the-top decorations, impressive carvings and excessive chandeliers. The grounds are carefully landscaped and although overpowered by the autumnal colours and dying circle of natural life, this place is still breath-taking. An older lady offers to take our photo and just like all other Danish people we meet, is friendly and helpful. We are all – apart from M – fully vaccinated and anyway, the levels of Covid infections are so low in Denmark that no one is bothering with masks. When it comes to keeping a distance, that seems to be the natural state in this kingdom. Crowds do not exist.



Back in Copenhagen we have our dinner in a little Danish pub: roast pork, Caesar salad and penne pasta for the youngest member of our trio. The “Danish” pork with potatoes and thick gravy tastes pretty good, the salad is very generous with the amount of chicken and shreds of parmesan cheese but the pasta, ooh pasta, the pasta leaves us speechless; it’s a few overcooked penne swimming in large amounts of cold cream with traces of paprika and thick pieces of raw peppers and mushrooms…
Never, ever, order a pasta in The Kingdom of Denmark…



DAY 3: Across the bridge

At the Central Train Station we buy a family day return ticket to Malmö, that comes to a surprisingly inexpensive 33 pounds for 2 adults and one child. We depart Copenhagen on the 10.07 train. We cross the famous scandi-noir bridge in no time and reach Malmö in thirty-five minutes. Sweden welcomes us with bright sun and warm temperature.



Does it feel like another country? Yes, actually, it does. At first glance, Malmö is much smaller and much quieter. We stroll through the centre visiting places on our list; St Peter’s Church, The Museum of Modern Art and the Form/Design Centre. We feel like the only tourists in town and we probably are.
In a small restaurant called Siesta we stop for lunch. The place is empty and there are only two options on the lunch menu, both written in Swedish. The waiter struggles to translate it into English, but he can tell us all the ingredients in perfect Serbian (second generation immigrant). We order two fish and one Swedish meatballs in rich gravy as mains and get free bread and butter to start and coffees and cake to finish.



Still a few hours before heading back to Denmark and we meander through the beautifully landscaped park towards Malmö Castle. This place hosts the aquarium, the natural history museum as well as the castle, the tower and its underground rooms that used to be prison cells. There is also a modern art exhibition but by then we have run out of energy and are ready to jump on the train.



DAY 4: The old and the new

The weather likes us in Copenhagen. Although most mornings we wake up to a gloomy and grey city, the sun soon comes out and brightens our day. It’s our last full day in Copenhagen and we want to pack in as much as possible. We walk on the sea front to the modern extension of the Royal Library: Den Sorte Diamant, the black diamond. It is an amazing piece of modern architecture, an extension of the old building that reaches out onto the water. It’s an airy, bright and welcoming place and one can easily imagine reading and studying at one of the many desks scattered around the building.



Our next destination is the Christiansborg Palace, the residence of the Danish Royal family; parts of the building are still used by the current Queen, Margrethe II. At the entrance we are asked to put blue bags over our shoes, those paper-thin overshoes used in swimming pools. As we stroll through the luxurious rooms and walk over immaculately polished wooden floors we realise why. Hm, maybe all old castles, palaces and mansions should have the same rule? The royal reception rooms are superbly over the top; with green marble pilasters, golden silk wall coverings, luxurious tapestries and overpowering crystal chandeliers. The Danish Royal family is not only the oldest in Europe but by the look of these rooms, also one of the wealthiest. My personal favourite is the room dedicated to the first queen Margaret I and the story of fake Olaf, a man who presented himself as her long missing son. The story is both tragic and fascinating at the same time and it was recently made into a movie.
After the splendour of the reception rooms, we descend to the kitchen and stroll through the dark corridors of the ruins underneath the castle.



At Ved Stranden we jump on a canal tour – another perk of the Copenhagen card – and for the next hour slide through the canals and duck under very low bridges, looking at the maritime and colonial history of this city alongside samples of fascinating modern architecture. We pass the new Maersk headquarters, the Opera and the theatre buildings and all the way up to its most visited sculpture, the Little Mermaid.
At a terrace of a little eatery by the famous Nyhavn canal we grab a late lunch of Smørrebrød, the open sandwiches with various toppings. We order the toppings of hard boiled eggs and prawns, potatoes with traces of caviar and bacon and with roast beef. M orders calamari but they are too stringy and tough and eats hardly any.



After the food, we walk back to the Little Mermaid as just glancing at her from the boat did not seem right. Although the most visited spot in Copenhagen, the area around the sculpture is not too crowded. There is something rather magic and timeless about the bronze statue of the Little Mermaid turning into a human, based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Her face depicts a concerned yet excited soul.



A close view and many photos later, we are on our route to the last monument of the day, the Round tower, Rundetårn. This building is a 17th century tower that was built as astronomical observatory and famous for its so-called “equestrian staircase”, a helical corridor leading to the platform at the top. I actually prefer this ascent to the classic stairs. It seems easier to climb and the platform on the top offers amazing views of the city.
On the way back to the hotel we take a small detour to the Lagkagehuset bakery for a selection of large choux pastries with various fillings: strawberry and rhubarb, raspberry and mocha… Delicious.



Day 5 – The Freetown of Christiania
With our flights in the afternoon and a few hours left, we head to the famous alternative commune of Christiania. It’s a weird and wild settlement of shabby houses (former army barracks), loud graffiti and small tables with people selling bags of cannabis. Unaware of what’s going on I take a photo of one such exchange and get shouted at with a rather angry instruction that photos and video are not permitted in here and I must delete it… Ok, ok, calm down… This place is certainly stuck in some other times or in a parallel universe, so incompatible with the rest of this highly organised, functioning and uniform city and country. You can smell cannabis in the air. I explain the weird whiff to M. She thinks we will get drugged from it and wants to leave the place as soon as possible. We find our way out through narrow passages and in between colourful buildings.



At the Christiania Metro, we wave goodbye to D whose flight departs earlier than ours.
M and I walk to the Danish Architecture Centre (Dac), situated in the unusual building called BLOX that resembles Tetris blocks. Apart from the building itself there is not much to see as many rooms are cordoned off for reconstruction or renovation. The only open gallery displays examples of the world-famous Danish simplicity. The chairs and tables are stripped of any decorative elements and reduced to the form of extreme simplicity. The same is true of the spoons in the exhibition, if you can get spoons any simpler that what they already are. With still one hour left and our Copenhagen card still active, we pop to the Glyptothek. The building – with painted ceilings, mosaic floors and a rather exotic winter garden courtyard as its central point – is very impressive and quite exotic and the Danish art, unfamiliar to us, doesn’t disappoint us either.

But we must rush as we have a plane to catch… So, Farvel København…