The beginning of our Denmark cycling adventure was in Copenhagen! Copenhagen is a lot like Stockholm – you fall in love with the city the moment you set your foot there. It is a city that breathes health and well-being. Beautiful people, beautiful streets, beautiful buildings and, God, so many bicycles. Scandinavian dream in reality – people are jogging, cycling with a bunch of blond-angelic-children and look very healthy. In one word – an idyll. No wonder why the Danes consider themselves as the happiest people on the planet practising their very own philosophy of living called Hygge. Copenhagen is big enough to be spacious for the thousands of tourists, one can walk there for days, both in the old town and modern (on the edge of futurist) areas.
Of course, the best way to explore the city like Copenhagen is bike, so the first day we took time for walking, and the second for cycling! As usual, we’ll say several words about the sights, that impressed us the most, though the list is not going to be exhaustive.
Nyhavn
Here it is, the second most popular postcard view from Copenhagen right after the Little Mermaid. A picturesque canal with the old sailing boats, cute cafés on the quay, I just regret not coming here at a different hour to avoid the crowd of tourists. We lacked only “I<3Copenhagen” to match the place.
Little Mermaid
Lille Havfrue – of course! She is touching and tender, of the natural size with a very miserable industrial background. For taking picture we had to stay in a queue, but despite all – we weren’t disappointed at all. On the contrary – these unpleasant details add even more of sadness to her already such a tragic character.
Vestre cemetery
I best Vestre kirkegård, and namely the Greenland part can’t be found in your guidebooks. Initially we came there following Smilla’s traces from “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” and didn’t regret it at all. An important part of Danish history and we had occasion to meet real Greenlanders (both dead and alive). But the cemetery looks like a true park with people walking or even jogging, so why not having a look?
It is here that is situated the “sub-district” or rather an entire “republic” Christiania. In the 70-s, when the army left the old military barracks, they quickly became popular with eccentric people with liberal mind. At first, the government didn’t mind this “social experiment” but due to the drug trade development finally decided to intrude. But it was too late. Everyone got used to “Freetown Christiania”, so at the end, the government chose to ignore this tiny disorder. The “town” is really worth of attention – the residents even managed to create some kind of their own communism. You can see there people selling drugs in masks, which explains the prohibition to take pictures and to run in the town. Outside Christiania the dealers can be arrested, so running can provoke panic.
Still, Christiania is a cool place, we loved its bohemian decadence with half-ruined houses and non-stop parties– a sort of a Wonderland.
I do wish to come back to Copenhagen to visit all other places it has to offer, which is much more than listed in our article (which was one of the first to ever appear on our blog. :)
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Very very nice pictures, and familiar places. Interesting and informativ text. Thank.
Thank you very much :)
Copenhagen is definitely very photogenic!
I love Denmark, one time been there… love the experience… hope got an opportunity to visit again :)