When we were planning our flights for the cruise, we found that making a stop in Copenhagen on the way back from Bologna was just as cost effective as if we tried to book directly from Bologna (we would still have had to layover somewhere). Our early afternoon flight out of Bologna brought us to Copenhagen around 3:30 pm. From the airport we took a train into the city center and made a short trek to our hotel (Axel Guldsmeden Hotel). The hotel had many green initiatives to try to reduce their carbon footprint and be more environmentally friendly.

Since we didn’t have a ton of time in Copenhagen, we dropped our stuff and immediately headed out the door to do some exploring before our dinner reservations. The biggest change, a huge welcome one, was the weather. We left southern Europe where it had been 90+F with humidity to a high of low 60s F and drizzly/rainy.

We didn’t have a ton of time before dinner so headed east northeast toward Strøget, which is an area with stores and restaurants. Along the way we passed by Tivoli Gardens, which is an amusement park and the inspiration for Walt Disney to create his parks. Just past this we arrived at City Hall Square, which had a cool fountain and a nice picture spot of City Hall.

We then walked through the shopping area and hooked back around toward the hotel to make our way to dinner. Along the way we also passed by Wallmans Cirkusbygningen (Wallmans Circus Building) and stopped for a picture at Saint George’s Lake (Sankt Jørgens Sø).

D had made reservations at a restaurant called Maple Casual Dining, listed as a place with homemade food in a casual, cozy setting. This description was spot on and they had both yummy cocktails as well as delicious food. Ironically the main was a steak from Colorado.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep as we had an action packed morning prior to checking out and heading back to the airport by noon. We had planned to check out at least one bakery since they are well known for their pastries (hence the “danish” pastry that is popular in the US). D had found one place that was well known called Hart Bageri. Right across from this location was a coffee shop that I had been recommended (my cousin is a big coffee person). We woke up early, got ready and went to both Hart Bageri and Prolog coffee, which was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. This was in the opposite direction of the sights we were planning that morning but overall I found Copenhagen proper to be a very walkable city. There were also tons and tons of people on bikes everywhere with many bike lanes/lights set up.

After some delectable pastries and coffee, we made our way to Rosenborg Slot (Rosenborg Castle). This castle was built by Christian IV during the Dutch Renaissance and served as the royal residence until the early 1700s. Now it is filled with many historical artifacts along with the crown jewels. We wandered through the Castle and then went into the basement/armory area where the jewels were kept along with weapons and wine.

We then made our way to Nyhavn, which is a 17th century waterfront and canal area with colorful building facades. Lots of tours were at this location taking pictures. We took some quick pictures and moved on, passed by a large square, Kongens Nytorv and The Royal Theater’s Old Stage. A quick pick me up at Coffee Collective and then a stop in Illum Department Store. The prior day we had also stopped at the flagship Hay House (a great place for interior designers).

The sky opened up as we started back toward our hotel as check out time was looming and we also had to make our way back to the airport for our flight back to the States. We were able to quickly dry off and then take a train back to the airport (we initially got on the wrong one but at least we had time to get on the right one). We had a layover in Paris before flying back to LAX (it was interesting as it was July 4th so there were fireworks going off all around us as we made our final approach and landed).

And that concluded our almost 3 week Europe trip. Definitely a good time in our first big trip post-COVID.

-StewsCat