Travelling to Copenhagen
As mentioned in my last post, four weeks ago, this year's holiday is in two parts. The wonderful time we had in Devon in July/August and now, in September, a trip to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.
Why Copenhagen
I realise as I reflect on our decision to come on a short break to this City that there are at least three distinct reasons.
The first, the reason which inspired the trip, was Drew telling me he was getting regular emails inviting him to do the Copenhagen Half Marathon.
The second was my awareness that Copenhagen has been for the last two decades the go-to place for innovative modern European food.
The third reason is that for the last decade we have been fans of the genre known generically as 'Nordic Noir' indeed our taste for such TV began not with an authentic Nordic Noir - which might imply some murder or other dark mystery - but with the political drama Borgan, that we began watching on BBC4 tv in February 2012. Having enjoyed Borgan so much we continued to look out for Danish (and Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic) TV and in the Danish tradition we have watched The Killing, The Bridge, Below the Surface, Follow the Money, Darkness – Those Who Kill and others I can't immediately recall. With all these programmes based in Copenhagen (though in the case of the Bridge also in Malmo, Sweden) it feels to me like I know this City even before I came to visit. So, I look forward to seeing how the reality matches with the expectations built up by TV of a pretty City with many canals and waterways.
The Journey to Copenhagen
As usual on days we are travelling I wake up early, it was 3.30am UK time. We had already packed everything bar the last-minute items, like our toothbrushes, so I used the time to catch up with emails and listen to some podcasts on BBC Sounds.
We left the house at 8.40am for the 8.48am 132 bus to Cardiff. The bus arrived a few minutes late. We had a pleasant journey down to Blackweir then a delightful walk through Bute Park, which is still bright and fresh even after the heat of this summer. The last few days of light rain seems to have revived the plants and trees.
We arrived at the National Express bus station in Sophia Gardens at 9.45am ready for our 10.30am coach - yes, we are always early. [Co-pilots note: I just follow him, so I'm always early because he is!!]
We boarded the bus and were on our way to Bristol Airport with Drew reading his Kindle and me listening to some downloaded podcasts.
We arrived at the Airport exactly on time at Midday and went straight to EasyJet bag drop, which worked simply and easily - once we worked out to hold the phone screen up not down for their machine, amusingly we had to hold it down at the gates to security.
We were through security in ten minutes, the usual issue of taking laptops and kindles out of bags, but that was no different to before COVID. Just remembering the processes that used to be so familiar, but which we have not done for over 3 years was the challenge.
We headed to Starbucks for lunch, sausage butty and an americano for me and ham and cheese panini with Dijon mustard and a latte for Drew.
The gate announcement happened, as planned, at 2pm so far so good! A short stroll to the gate and we were bused to the plane. After the horror stories of the last few months (including of two friends in the last seven days) it was good to get to board the plane and leave a couple of minutes after time at 3:00pm.
We land at 5.55pm CET (an hour later than UK BST). Given the pandemic period this is our first time flying to Europe since Brexit. So it was no surprise to find a long queue for 'all passports' compared to the EU, EEA, CH line which was short and fast moving. At times it was completely clear. By 6.25pm we were through passport control and had a stamp on our passports for the first time in ages (though common when travelling to the US or Canada, this had ceased to be a thing when we had free movement into the EU).
We were at bag collection by 6.30pm and thankfully, given our previous history of bags which have often travelled to more exotic places than us, were both there.
We went straight out of the airport and on to the Metro system. We had earlier purchased on our DOT app a City Pass (five day ticket for all buses, trains and metros in the City) so used it to travel along the M2 line to Kongens Nytorv station then on to the M4 line to København H, the metro station beside the Central Station in København.
We only had to walk one block (100 metres) to the entrance to our hotel - the Axel Guldsmeden on Colbjørnsensgade.
We arrived at 7.15pm and were greeted enthusiastically by the receptionist who gave us a run-down of the hotel services and then told us the way to our room, I quote: "go out through the garden door, across the garden and into the building at the opposite side of the garden, the lift is on the left" It was to dark to take photos of the garden, but I'm sure some will appear as the week goes on.
We are in block 2 room 215 in the hotel. A lovely room, with a balcony.
We spent some time unpacking and becoming familiar with the room's many eco-logical features (sorry, but I'm using my electric toothbrush and not the chewy tabs and bamboo sticks provided!).
Dinner
We headed out for dinner at 8pm. Drew had suggested he fancied some Pho, well we seem to be in the perfect place for it, as the area around our hotel has three Pho restaurants along with a wide range of Chinese and Japanese eating places.
We opted for Pho Hanoi, which was up a block and across the major road - Vesterbrogade. This road gives this part of the City, Vesterbro, its name.
The restaurant was very busy but had a seat for the two of us. While the table we were on was closer to other tables than we might have been comfortable with in Covid days, it was a perfect place to pick up the lively vibe of the city.
Drew began his meal with Pork Spring Rolls with fish sauce, the rolls were crispy and much lighter than equivalent ones we have had in the UK.
I had Fried Wanton with chicken and prawns with a sweet chilli sauce, these were plumb and delicious. The sweet chilli sauce was for less sweet and much more chilli rich than I have had before. Perfect for my tastebuds.
For Mains we both opted for Pho. Drew going for the Pho Hanoi Ga (ga meaning chicken)
while I went with the Pho Hanoi Special (which had beef and meatballs)
As is conventional in Pho restaurants the pho was served with a herb and bean sprout side with fresh chillis and limes - the herbs included, basil, coriander and parsley along with saw coriander, a form of the herb I don't remember eating before, with its much stronger coriander flavour.
We got back to the hotel via a 7-11 store, to buy a bottle of soft drink each, and after a day of busy, though thankfully successful, travel were both tired enough to go to bed at 10pm CST.
A lovely start to stage 2.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was great that everything worked so well.
DeleteBrilliant start, you gave yourself a good 3 hours at the airport then. Good to hear it all went without hitch, I've heard/experienced only positive stories this Summer so trust this continues for you. I feel all the signs are pointing me towards a Vietnam trip now, the idea has been building this year. But will immerse myself in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen with you. It was my first 'independent' travel to the city (sort of) when I was 17 we did an Exchange with a school outside Copenhagen when I was in Gorseinon College. Let's see how many of the same sights you see. It was a bit of a 'coming of age' trip for me in terms of nightclubs and nights out so perhaps that angle not so much!
ReplyDeleteHi Lloyd,
DeleteHave you been to Vietnam - we visited Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) back in 2006 on a Cruise which included Cambodia and Thailand. A place with an amazing history, but I suspect if I went back I'd want to go to Hanoi too. Be interesting to see if you make it next year.
I agree that we may not see the nightclubs you did 33 years ago - but some of the other sites are a lot older than 33 years - so I hope you managed some of them.
Good to see you on the road again. Nice pictures on Flickr.
ReplyDeleteThanks Robin,
DeleteOn day 1 the blog was ahead of Flickr, but given the photogenic nature of the city, yesterday (Tuesday) Flickr got ahead of the blog - I'm just starting on the latter now - 5.30am on Wednesday morning.