Wonderful Копенгаген. Wonderful Copenhagen.

I apologize for the lengthy review. I wrote for several days. I hope that those who read to the end will extract for themselves some "bonuses" as practical advice : ).
The plane landed safely and busily rolled to the airport building. Behind the glass of the porthole, dull pictures are slowly floating by, generated by the harsh northern nature: dry orange land covered with stunted vegetation; somewhere, almost on the horizon, one can see a piece of gray cold sea. . . With such an inhospitable landscape, we were met by the country of the "oldest monarchy" and "the world's oldest national flag" - Denmark. The border guard looks at the cover of the Ukrainian passport with genuine interest, studies all the visas in it for a long time and carefully, finally stops at the page with the Danish Schengen. . . Big blue eyes look at me over the glasses in surprise: "The purpose of your visit to Denmark? " - "Tourism! : )" - "For four days?!!!! " -- "Yes". In the air there is a characteristic pop of the affixed stamp: "Velkommen! "
Denmark is an unpopular destination for domestic tourism: it is expensive, far away, cold, incomprehensible, and until recently, there were problems with the issuance of Danish visas to Ukrainians. Therefore, despite the action of the SAS airline, which allowed us to fly to Copenhagen at a very reasonable price, and even receive a 24-hour COPENhagen card as a gift, my husband and I are almost the only Ukrainian tourists at Kastrup airport.

The hotel in which we stayed is called "Opera", - you can say that it is located literally "in the courtyard" of the Royal Theatre, two minutes from Kongens Nytrov (New Royal Square), 5-7 minutes walk from Nyhavn (Nyhavn ) and Strö get (Stroget) (these are such local attractions). The cozy hotel is decorated in the "English" style. In the lobby of the hotel, guests are greeted by a bronze copy of the famous Little Mermaid and a basket with umbrellas. "Opera" is located in an old house, a wooden wine creaking (! ) staircase leads to the upper floors, there is also an elevator in the hotel, which is not so easy to find the first time - it is hidden behind an ordinary painted door. The room surprised... the lack of air conditioning, safe, and even a mini-bar! The room is equipped with shabby leather armchairs with metal rivets, an "ancient" bureau-secretary, no less "ancient" bedside tables, an excellent double bed and a plasma TV. It seems that all the furniture in the room (except the bed) was bought at a flea market, before it has a shabby and worn look, and the window frames certainly remember Hans Christin Andersen, who lived in the house next to the hotel; nevertheless, the room is perfectly clean (later it turned out that the bed is changed daily! ), and the bathroom has new sanitary ware of modern design. "Mdyayayayayay. . . " - we thought and, leaving the travel bag in the room, went to explore the surroundings.
Copenhagen turned out to be an amazing city, it has a rather extensive historical center ("Old Town"), which is also the modern center of Copenhagen. It was somehow unusual to see that ordinary people live in old houses, schools are located, a basketball net is screwed to the wall of a 16th century house, and a mini-stadium is located in an old courtyard. Usually, when you enter the historical center, you still feel that you are in a museum, that, in principle, here - in these dollhouses - there is nothing but hotels, restaurants and offices. No one cooks porridge in a medieval kitchen, does not sit at a desk in a parochial school, and an old woman reading a prayer book on a wooden church bench arrived here by tram from a new residential microdistrict.
In Copenhag, everything is different: the "old city" has lived, lives and will live a full life. In houses with attics and tiled roofs, people fall in love, quarrel, raise children, visit, drink beer and date each other on Amagertorv Square (the oldest square in the city). And if in other cities, in order to see how the “locals” live, you need to at least move a little away from the central streets, then here it makes no sense to do this. Copenhageners are in full view in front of you: they are sitting at a nearby cafe table in Newhavn, mincing next to you to catch up with the Glypotek, which is open once a year for free for visiting, kissing on the observation deck of the Round Tower... In general, they enjoy life in THEIR a city that is madly loved and proud of. The Danes turned out to be great aesthetes. In each window you can see an integral attribute of the interior - a floor lamp - and always some picture on the wall, a pot of flowers on the windowsill, and, of course, candlesticks with candles burning at any time of the day. Subtle connoisseurs of art, they will certainly decorate their apartment with some statuette in the "antique" style or great-grandmother's photograph in a dusty frame. Despite the fact that all the buildings of the old city are residential, you will not find a single plastic double-glazed window and air conditioning here... It's amazing how, with such an active exploitation of the housing stock, the townspeople manage to keep their houses in their original form. But one should not think that the benefits of modern civilization are alien to the people of Copenhagen. Despite their pronounced love for vintage, they are at the forefront of modern technology : ). First of all, this is expressed in the local architecture, where the Danes do not tolerate compromises. No, they will not restore a dilapidated building, trying to give it its original appearance (for example, the building of the City Hall was rebuilt 5 times! ), They will not erect "pseudo-historical" buildings, trying to "integrate" into an already existing architectural ensemble. Build so build! With the use of advanced building technologies and the latest design trends! One of the clearest examples of this approach is the new building of the Royal Library, popularly referred to as the "Black Diamond", and the modern building of the New Royal Opera House. The "Black Diamond" is a building with a predominance of simple geometric shapes of glass and granite on the waterfront of Copenhagen; it was unsentimentally attached to the old building of the Royal Library, designed in a medieval style. By the way, the Danish Royal Library is considered the largest library in Scandinavia, founded in the 17th century by one of the Danish monarchs. Fellow amateur photographers at night, I warn you: "Black Diamond" is not highlighted at night, so do not waste your time. Although, from the "Brilliant" side, a rather nice view of the new opera opens up, for which Copenhageners do not spare illumination.
The townspeople live a measured life, everything is on schedule, according to plan. The most massive festivities take place on Friday evenings: the center is crowded with people, all places in the pubs are occupied until late by noisy companies, and Saturday is the time for family evenings. Elegantly dressed ladies and men in jackets sit in restaurants. It can be seen that families dine - adult children with elderly parents or single couples. They talk decorously, slowly sip wine from thin-walled glasses... Candles are burning, waiters walk beautifully. It’s somehow inconvenient to tumble in here in jeans and sneakers, as you can afford, for example, in Istanbul. On a Saturday evening, walking around Newhavn, noticeably deserted after Friday, one involuntarily succumbs to the temptation to look in some window. Lights are lit in old apartments, tables are laid, people gather - parents, children, friends. They laugh, talk animatedly and even sing! This idyll is observed in almost every window. At 10 pm on Sunday, the city freezes and even the homeless on Strø get go to bed early - after all, they have to work on Monday! until 9-10 pm.

In the city center there are several large supermarkets and many small shops. Most of them are concentrated in the Strø get area - this is the famous Copenhagen shopping promenade, consisting of 5 streets. We limited ourselves to visiting one of the supermarkets - "Shop du Nord" (Magazin Du Nord) - the oldest department store in Copenhagen and the most expensive! It is located a stone's throw from the Opera Hotel. I do not advise people with weak nerves and modest material wealth to come here - spoil your mood and impression of the city, you will have a strong desire to lock yourself up in your room and not go anywhere in order to save money for the return trip. : ) For small grocery purchases, I advise you to turn attention to the many small shops located a little further from the main streets. For example, if you want to drink beer, somewhere at Gammeltrov or Amalgert, you will hardly find anything cheaper than 25 crowns for a bottle or 35 crowns for a glass of Carlsberg, while in a small shop not far from You can buy beer at the Marble Church for 9 crowns per bottle ($1 =5.4DDK). A trip to the museum will cost you from 25 to 80 DDK, if you are a happy owner of the "cOPENhagen CARD", then many museums and public transport in Copenhagen (which is very well developed) are at your service completely free of charge (the cost of a 24 hour "cOPENhagen" card is 31 euros ). As I said, we got the Copenhagen Card for free, but I can't say that we used it "to the fullest". We just went to the Ripley Museum (with a 25% discount), the Andersen Museum, visited the Round Tower and took a ride on the subway. If you do not have this card, I advise you to spend money on only two of the above attractions - the Round Tower and the subway. From the Round Tower (Rundetaarn) a wonderful view of the city opens up, the story connected with the visit of this tower by Peter I is also interesting - he entered the observation deck of the tower on a horse, followed by his August wife in a carriage. No one allowed himself such a thing either before or after the Russian tsar : ) The Copenhagen metro was opened in 2002 and is one of the youngest in Europe, but it is interesting not because of this, but because it is fully automated. Subway trains run. . . without a driver! : ) Having taken a seat at the windshield of the first car, you will fulfill your childhood dream of sitting in the subway driver's cab (for sure, many children dream about it, especially boys; ). The Ripley Museum and the Andersen Museum are located in the same room, to the left of the City Hall on the first floor of the Palace Hotel. The Ripley Museum has a collection of curiosities from around the world. In principle, if the entrance is free for you, then you can go, especially with children - they will have a lot of fun, and it makes no sense to go to the Andersen Museum without children. In general, both of these museums reminded me of the "laughter" and "fear" rooms in Lunapark. : )
If you are an impressionable person, like walking and came to Copenhagen, like us, just for a couple of days, then, of course, you will be sorry to waste time visiting museums. There is something to see from the street, and completely free : ). For example, for the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace (daily at 12.00). A queen lives in Amalienborg; when Her Majesty is at home, a flag flies over the palace. The palace is located in the city center, about 10 minutes walk from Kongens Nytrow. The royal guards wear big funny bear hats. According to tradition, hats should be natural. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of fashion, the black bears that once lived in Europe were completely exterminated, and the Danes specifically buy black bear fur from Canadians in order to preserve the tradition. It is very pleasant to stroll through the park near the Rosenborg Palace (Rosenborg Slot), the palace itself now houses a museum and an art gallery, the last monarch moved out of here at the beginning of the 19th century. The palace is surrounded by a small lake where ducks and swans swim. You can feed them if you take a piece of white bread with you : ). Immediately, next to the palace, there are the barracks of the royal guard, from here at 11:30 a detachment is sent to change the royal guard, which I wrote about a little higher : ). I was completely delighted with the Nyboder quarter, where we got by chance, leaving Rosenborg and getting lost in search of the Marble Church. Charming one- and two-story houses, standing wall to wall, as in the picture. Pots of flowers at the threshold, shrubs climbing up the wall. . . The hostess came out of one house - a young woman in a blue terry dressing gown and disheveled hair. When she saw us, she smiled and waved her hand in greeting... Somehow everything here is simple, at home : ).
Unfortunately, we could not find a guide to Copenhagen in our homeland, and we could not afford a guided tour. But we bought a Russian-language guide without any problems in one of the souvenir shops on Strø get (58 kroons). Once again I am convinced that a good guide is an excellent alternative to a standard excursion. By the way, about souvenirs: the cheapest souvenirs can be bought at the Danish Souvenir store at Frederiksberggade, 2 (Streget). There are really very good magnets here, key rings at a price of 15 to 40 kroons, while in other places the price of a magnet starts from 25 kroons, a large selection of trolls, cups, pens, T-shirts and other tourist crap. Come in and buy without hesitation - you will not find cheaper prices. Although, of course, there are exceptions for certain positions. On traditional porcelain dolls, for example. In Danish Souvenir, they cost from 200 to 500 kroons, and we, quite by chance, going into a shop near Amalienborg, bought two porcelain fairies for 100 kroons each, but this is rather an exception. Magnets and caps are cheaper than on Federiksbergade, 2, we have not seen. When buying from 300 kroons, you will be issued a special check TAX FREE. Information on how to return TAX FREE can be found on the envelope of this check in Russian. I was very pleased with the local bookstores. It turned out that the Danes are a reading nation. Here and there you can see people enthusiastically leafing through book pages, and they are by no means all pensioners, as, for example, in Vienna. On the showcase of the "Academbook" near Vor Frue kirke (Church of the Virgin), we noticed an amusing edition - "Capital" by Karl Marx, designed in comics in the style of "manga" : ). And from the store, located in the building of the newspaper "Politiken" on the Town Hall Square, my husband had to take me out by force, having previously taken away the credit card. : P. Here I bought three magnificent "folios" of the publishing house "Taschen" for only 50 DDK (70 UAH) each - I usually buy such books only in Odessa for 120 UAH per piece : ).
Another burning question is where and what to eat. To be honest, I haven't fully clarified this question for myself. We ate the biscuits and cheese with pineapple (! ) bought on the very first day at Du Nord (! ) for 2 days, washing it all down with wine purchased on the plane (by the way, you have to buy food and drinks in SAS, and the food itself is expensive and tasteless ) and whiskey bought in Kiev "Dutik". On the first evening, before we had time to get used to the area well, we went into some kind of grill bar at the beginning of Federiksbergade Street. I don’t remember the exact name . . Either “Vikings Grill”, or “Scandinavian Grill”, in general, some kind of American food in the Scandinavian style. The portions are large, the average price of a dish is 30-60 kroons. Everything is tasty, satisfying, but it can be called a "traditional Danish dish" with a big stretch. In Copenhagen, a system of various bistros is well developed - the townspeople often have a bite to eat on the run. Therefore, there are many food trucks in the city selling all kinds of hot dogs, beer, coffee, etc. But, nevertheless, I wanted to try something "authentic" and at least once dine in a normal environment. In search of "authenticity" we went to the well-known among tourists "Det lille Apotek" (Little Pharmacy). This nice place is located a stone's throw from the Round Tower (St. Kannikestraede, 15) and is famous for the fact that since the cafe opened here (in 1720), its interior has never changed. G. Kh. liked to drop in here. Andersen, Ludwig Holberg (who earned himself the fame of the "Danish Moliere"), the famous Danish philosopher Kierkegaard. A rather strange feeling when you sit at a table and think: "But Hans Christian himself once sat here, and he looked into this painted window... ". However, the bill brought for lunch will quickly return you to the harsh reality : ))). "Lunch": two dark beers 0.5, a portion of a salmon sandwich, "Holberg Plate" (recommended to me as "Vary Danish Dish", consists of 4 types of starter: pork bacon, deep-fried fish, herring in honey and sauce) cost us at 301 DDK ($55). If we went to the "Pharmacy" "on a tip" from the Internet, then we found the next place on our own. Here we finally tasted the vaunted Danish Sö mmerbrod! This oasis of gluttony is called Restaurant Biblioteket "Lauras Kokken" (Restaurant-library "Laura's Kitchen"), address: Toldbodgade, 5 (Nyhavn). This restaurant is very popular with locals (isn't this the best recommendation for an establishment? ): a cute homely interior, painted wooden walls, checkered tablecloths, old kitchen utensils on the walls. In the cramped space between the tables, the hospitable hostess herself fusses. The phone in the kitchen is literally torn - customers are calling, asking to reserve a table. The disadvantages of the restaurant include a rather long service (since there are many customers, and the hostess is one), but believe me, you will be rewarded a hundredfold for your patience! The food is just excellent, the beer is wonderful, the portions are impressive. Two huge dark beers (the so-called "ship beer", something like ours unfiltered) and two giant summerbrods cost us 250 DDK ($46).

Interestingly, in Denmark it is not customary to leave a tip - they are already included in the bill. If you, in a fit of generosity, wish to reward the waiter, then give him a tip in his hands. Some waiters asked to leave them a check if we do not need it. It was noticed that the “tips” left on the table will certainly migrate to the piggy bank at the bar, apparently they are equally divided between the shift of waiters after the working day. If there are several waiters in the establishment, each of them will serve you: one will find a table, the second will take the order, the third will bring, the fourth will calculate. Therefore, such a “piggy bank system” seems quite logical. On some of these piggy banks, a blue cross is drawn - a donation fund for the poor.
In Copenhagen, you can easily pay with a credit card. But! If there is a YOUNG man of “eastern appearance” behind the counter of the store, prepare cash; ). His terminal will either be broken or set up exclusively for cards issued by Danish banks, and change will be issued without the participation of a cash register. : (
I’ll say a few more words about “free” municipal bicycles. Usually we saw them only at dusk, when no one needed them anymore. In principle, the idea is good - there are bikes in the public parking lot, usually they have bright colors and a map on the steering wheel. You drop a coin of 20 crowns into the castle and ride (riding is limited to the city center, leaving the center is considered theft and is punishable by a fine of 1000 crowns). When you get bored, put the bike in the parking lot, snap the lock, take the coin. But we didn’t ride - we didn’t have time to analyze the bikes : ).
By the way, do not believe the rumors that local women wear only jeans and sneakers. Stylish coat, miniskirt, boots with heels - this is what many Copenhagen cyclists look like; ) And a lady in an evening dress with bare shoulders, drinking a large mug of beer with a cigarette in the open air of Newhavn at a temperature of +8 - well, - where else are you see? =)
Unfortunately, we did not explore the Christianshavn area, where the famous Christiania, a hippie commune city, is located. True, we observed some residents of Christiania in the city center: they either sell souvenirs with the image of Bob Marley, or just walk around.

We preferred a trip to Sweden, to the city of Malmö , which is only 35 minutes away by train, rather than a walk in Christianshavn. Trains (trains) in Malmö run daily, every half hour. Tickets can be bought at the station at the box office or special ticket machines. It is possible to buy a ticket online through the Swedish Railways website and ride on a printout. The ticket price is approximately $13 one way. I plan to write a separate short report about Malmö .
. . . Once again, waking up to the cries of seagulls and the singing of birds, looking out the window overlooking a small front garden on the roof and a nice bike parking, I feel like a Dane : ). Chilled to the bone on the first night, we unraveled the "mystery" of the lack of air conditioning in the room. Like real Copenhageners, we turned on the batteries at full power and opened the windows - it was warm and fresh : ). Vintage furniture and a personal coffee pot at breakfast in a small dining room brought tears of emotion : ). Drinking coffee, chewing a salad of cheese with basil. . . Fragments of English speech from the next table reach my ears: “My wife and I are in Copenhagen for the third time and we stay at this hotel all the time. For Copenhagen, this hotel is what you need! ” I instinctively nod my head in agreement, the location of the hotel, its arrangement and staff contributed a lot to our discovery of the city. We could partially try what we saw on the street in practice, listening daily to the creaking of the wooden steps of the spiral staircase and practicing opening the metal hook on the old window frame. : )
40 minutes later, we're running around the lobby of Kastrup airport, looking for our luggage. Well, how can one explain to the Danes that a seemingly ugly bag wrapped in plastic wrap, upon arrival in Boryspil, retains its appearance, contents and nerves to its owners? This is beyond their understanding, there is no luggage packaging. We buy a huge bag for packing wheelchairs and with the help of our "hostess" Mila Kozlova, we somehow pack our small bag.
In the customs queue, I think about places we haven't seen: the Little Mermaid monument (it was taken to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai), Tivoli Park (the season starts on April 15th, and we flew out on the 12th), Christiania, Elsinore ( Helsingor). . . A picture from three days ago pops up in my memory: blue eyes, a surprised look over glasses - "For four days?!!!! ". . . Really, it's strange. What can you see in Copenhagen in just four (in practice, two and a half) days?: )

I wish you all pleasant travels and vivid impressions.