Friday 23rd June, 2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark

Covid meant that I hadn’t seen my colleagues in Copenhagen face to face since January 2020. It also meant neither of us had been anywhere outside the UK for three years. A week long workshop at HQ in Copenhagen was going to be my first trip and provided the perfect excuse for us to take a long weekend ahead of the event. And so, for the first time in a very long time, we found ourselves flying out of Heathrow on Friday morning (or rather it should have been – a series of delays meant it was well into the afternoon by the time we arrived in CPH). Baggage collected and passports stamped (thanks to the utter stupidity that is Brexit), we flagged down a taxi to the hotel. Normally, I would get on the Metro, but it was a hot, sticky mid-summer day and the idea of lugging bags around held absolutely no appeal. A taxi it would be. Unfortunately, the entire city seemed to be on the move because most people were off on holiday for the next month, and thus were on the roads leading to and from the airport. At least those that weren’t already in the airport building. It was a very slow trip in and the cost came out at twice as much as usual, so much so that the cab driver was apologising to us as he dropped us off at the Hotel Danmark. I’d chosen the Danmark because it’s central and I always stay there if I can when going to the office. As a result, I had enough stays logged to get two free nights, so that was most of the weekend paid for upfront, including breakfasts.

I had hope we might be able to do some touristy things in the afternoon, but by the time we’d unpacked there really wasn’t a lot of point. The tourism could wait. We needed to unpack, get clean and consider where to have an aperitif ahead of dinner. Also, we wanted to dip into the hotel’s wine o’clock, which does what it says on the tin. The house wine is available by the glass for free between 5pm and 6pm, which, given the price of alcohol in Denmark, is a very generous deal. If you don’t mind spending money, you also have the option of the rooftop bar in summer. I’d been up there precisely once, when it was November, because it’s very rare that we ever have fact-to-face workshops in the summer, so seeing Copenhagen in glorious Nordic sunshine tends not to be a thing. It was an opportunity not to be missed. It was also alarmingly breezy, but that’s something that Copenhagen does. The wind howls in from somewhere over the Steppes I suspect, and it doesn’t encounter much so when it does it can be a bit of a shock unless you are used to it.

We stuck it out through an aperol spritz and then decided to walk to our restaurant for the night, Anarki. Michelin says “An unassuming and proudly run neighbourhood bistro, set just over the water in Frederiksberg. The regularly changing menu draws its inspiration from the season, the best quality ingredients available and the mood of the chef – and the bold, rustic dishes are bursting with flavour, with some great wines to match.” That was certainly my impression when I had been there before, and I’d wanted to introduce Lynne to some of my favourite places in Copenhagen, while keeping the prices somewhere within reason.

On the way we stopped off for a walk around the area known as The Lakes, or at least part of it. The total perimeter paths work out at somewhere slightly over 6 km which would have been a bit excessive for a pre-dinner stroll! We settled for a lap of Sankt Jørgens Sø (Saint George’s Lake), which is two basins divided by a levee that serves as a foundation for the Kampmannsgade. This part of what was originally just a stream was developed into part of the city’s defences in the 16th century. Later it was used as a reservoir for Copenhagen and was a backup reservoir until 1959. It is now very popular with people out for a walk and with runners, and I can see why. Needless to say, it’s also popular with wildlife, especially avian wildlife.

It’s very attractive on a long summer evening, and, because we were early, we decided to stop and grab a glass of wine by the water. There was a very pretty building on the  Gyldenløvesgade bridge which seemed to contain a bar and restaurant with lots of outside tables, Restaurant Babylon. We settled in for a while and were entertained by some sort of filming of a band going on out on a jetty jutting out into the lake. It was all a bit weird because we had no idea who any of the people involved were, and neither it seemed did anyone else, but they obviously thought they were incredibly important.

Eventually it was time to head for Anarki, and dinner. It’s in what seems to be an otherwise suburban neighbourhood, which had made it tricky to find the first time I went, but was less of a challenge in broad daylight. We settled in, studied the menu, and made the easy choice. We would have what they describe as the family style menu of six servings, with an accompanying wine pairing of six glasses, and as much water as we might need. They claim not to be geographically constrained, though to me they lean towards the southwest of France and northern Spain, with a lot of the food very reminiscent of the food we have eaten there in the past. There are croquettes, there is duck, and there are duck hearts, there’s salt cod; it’s all a bit of a giveaway to me, even if they are doing it unconsciously.

During the meal there was a great deal of noise outside for what is a quiet side street. A look outside revealed a lorry full of revellers, blowing horns, playing music, shouting, cheering and chanting. What was all this about, some people were wondering. I knew because it had been explained to me during the previous week by colleagues with teenage children. It was graduation time for all the 18-year-olds, and this was the Studenterkørsel where the class (or more likely their parents) hire a tractor with a trailer or a lorry and, wearing the customary graduation caps, travel round to all of their parents, stopping off at each house on the way. In some areas, those who graduate with the highest marks have to run behind the vehicle to the first house on the route, presumably as punishment for being too smart. It all seems to be very good humoured but also very noisy, especially when one lorry encounters another.

Everyone cheered them on their way and then we settled back in to finish an excellent dinner that was a lot more substantial than you might expect of six “small plates”. Full of food and happy to be here, we left the restaurant quite late and walked back to the hotel, where the north facing room was a lot cooler than the rest of the hotel. We flung the windows open and fell into bed.