Copenhagen Travelogue Nr8: Best of Copenhagen

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY MONIKA CSAPO

I wish that there would be a magic machine which could transport me any time to the Central Railway Station of Copenhagen where my journey and summer holiday started approximately two weeks ago and make the time infinite. But until something like this is invented I will keep these two weeks as precious memories and finish this article as the closing piece of "Copenhagen Travelogue"-s.

I will list the places here I liked the most during my current stay. I already wrote an other article last autumn which contains tips and I wrote also the Copenhagen Travelogue-s with the intention of give you a taste of the city. I hope you enjoyed reading them and will find them useful when you plan your next trip to Copenhagen.

I have to start my list with the places I liked the most last time: Thorvaldsens Museum and The Black Diamond. These two places represent great architecture and inner architecture. The reasons to visit Thorvaldsens Museum are: the sculptures displayed, the great presentation of Greek mythology and the beautiful inner spaces. The reasons to visit The Black Diamond are: the permanent exhibition, the view from inside and their great art and design bookstore.

But let´s go back to the present.


The absolute winner of my current trip was Bertels Salon. Me and my new friends simply LOVED this place. They advertise themselves as "best cheesecake in town" and it is absolutely true. We had a friend, Bee from Australia who kept talking about this place and when we visited it finally we were all already a bit skeptical about what can be so amazing in a cheesecake. Well, there was no reason to be! I returned to this place two more times during my stay and it was almost always full.

In the same street (Ladesrstraede) was Mant which is a home decor and flower shop. Speaking of home decor and design my other big favorite was HAY. They have two stores in the center, one at  Ostegrade 61- this is their bigger store and a mini market at Pilestraede. In Pilestraede I liked the surrounding fashion stores as well. Even looking at the shop windows there can be a big style inspiration.

Speaking of shopping: my favorite stores among the commercial brands were Vero Moda, Monki and Pilgrim Jewellery.

Shopping and window shopping is great and so is biking in Copenhagen. There can be a big price difference between renting a bike at the hostel or at a bike shop so it is worth to ask around a bit and compare prices. I rented my bike from Uptown Bikes and was satisfied with their services. I paid 300 DKK for five days while at the hostel six hours cost 90 DKK.
My favorite biking places were: the city center, Vestebro, the bridges and lake shores around Nørrebro and Fredriksberg. In Nørrebro Jaegersborggade has a really cool atmosphere. It was 
mentioned on Visit Copenhagen as one of their favorite streets in Copenhagen. In my 
writing about Nørrebro you find further recommendations if you plan to visit this neighborhood and
want to eat out or go for a coffee.

If you want to see something besides Copenhagen you might enjoy a day trip to Helsingør or Hornbaek. Both trips can be done by buying a one day tourist card for 130 DKK.

Hornbaek

My favorite restaurant in Copenhagen was RizRaz because of its super tasty vegan lunch buffet. As one of my friends said: the food is so good here that even meat-loving men can`t resist to like it My favorite coffee shop was Risteriet Halmtovert. I especially liked that they had a lot of design and fashion magazines what you could read. I enjoyed sitting by the window drinking coffee reading newspapers. As a concert experience Nemoland was interesting, also because there were so many  locals at the concert.

Risteriet

Besides the above mentioned Bertels Salon the other big finding of my latest trip was Davids Samling. It is a museum which is based on the private collection of the late successful Danish lawyer and business man called Christian Ludvig David. The collection consists of different exhibitions such as Danish porcelain and luxury ware, Chinese room with handmade and hand painted Chinese furniture, mirrors and home decoration items from the 17-19th century. There is also a French and English room and the most unique collection is that of Islamic art with two thousand items displayed dating to the 5-20th century A.D. It tells a lot about the uniqueness of this collection that Louvre which is one of the most prestigious museums in the world has three thousand items in its Islamic art collection.

Depending on what is what you are looking for may it be shopping, design, sightseeing, history or food culture I am sure you will find what you are looking for in Copenhagen. If you have friends who have been there - just like I did- you will be surprised how many good tips they might give you.
But above all I recommend you to go and rent a bike at the beginning of your stay. Ride around in the city center, look at the people, drink a good coffee. When you already got a feel of the place go and see the main sights. 

PS.: You find the photo albums of the two trips and the CPH Open 2015 on fb.