Spoiler alert – the next two “Christmas in Copenhagen” posts aren’t about Copenhagen at all. Scandalous.
Our weather luck ran out on Christmas Day 2 (aka Boxing Day) and we awoke to drizzly rain. We never worry too much if there’s bad weather (blizzard-mageddon has put everything into context for us) so out we went after breakfast – on the metro to Nørreport where we’d change for the train to Helsingør.
The train journey up the coast was super easy, but I will admit that we gave up trying to work out how to buy a return ticket and got two singles. We probably spent more than we needed to, but I couldn’t figure out how many ‘clips’ to get. Just give me a button on the machine to press! The train itself was huge and very comfortable – we sat in the quiet carriage which was actually dead silent (unlike the noisy UK).
Within 45 minutes, we were at Helsingør and into Kronborg Castle. Those of you who know me well will appreciate that history really isn’t my thing, and I genuinely thought we’d have a quick once-around the castle, and then we’d have a wander round the town.
How wrong I was – I completely loved the castle and we spent HOURS there. So long that we didn’t have time to explore the town.
We got there just as an English (free!) tour was starting, so we followed our guide through the underground casements. I particularly loved how dark it is – if it had been in the UK, there would have been floodlights, health and safety signs, chained off areas. Not here. Go where you want! You want to go in that mega dark bit which has no natural lights? Knock yourself out. Literally as some of the ceilings were quite low.
We spent half an hour with our guide down there, and at the end of the tour she announced another English (free!) introduction to the castle so we followed her around for another half an hour. Our guide was genuinely funny and informative, and I could quite happily have trailed after her for the entire day, but I think she had another job to do so we left her to it.
The ballroom was my favourite room, and was decked out with a huge Christmas tree. This photo doesn’t actually do it justice – I’m stood in the middle of it to get a good tree shot. It has huge windows which allowed natural light to pour into the room. Imagine how great it would be to get married in there. It was also very cool to see Sweden, only 4km across the sound. If it wasn’t for the rain, I would have got some good photos.
We had a coffee at the cafe, where bizarrely someone was sat with a pet rabbit on their shoulder, and I had my very first Danish flødeboller. It was bloody lovely. And then back on the train for another easy (and silent) trip back down the coast because I was particularly keen to get back for dinner this evening.
The best thing I ever did when we visited Copenhagen for the first time in 2011 was research burgers. All evidence pointed me in the direction of Halifax and I have been obsessed ever since, to the extent that I have two Halifax posters up in my kitchen. I can’t remember how many restaurants they had back then, but they now have seven, all of which were closed for most of the time we spent in Copenhagen except for one in Frederiksberg which happened to re-open on 2. juledag. YES!
We haven’t ever visited this area of the city before but even in the dark it looked very trendy, so next time we’ll definitely visit in daylight. However, our mission for this evening was burgers and I am happy to say it was mission successful. I had the brand new Åmål burger with sweet potato fries, and I have no idea what was in it but it was GOOD. Husband had his usual Lonestar which was all BBQ-ey. We had a great waitress who we tried to convince to get puddings put on the menu as we needed something sweet for afters. She tried to convince us to get some more sweet potato fries for the way home which we declined, and then instantly regretted as we left.
Goddamnit, we need a Halifax in the UK.
untold blisses 