Saturday 24th June, 2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark

After a good night’s sleep, I was all set to go and parkrun somewhere in Copenhagen, preferably at Amager strandpark. I sorted my kit out and looked up the route I’d use to get there (about half a dozen stops on the metro), downloaded the DOT app to pay for my fare, and then figured I had time for a cup of coffee before I set off. I was minding my own business when I realised that, having paid for my ticket, I only had 90 minutes from the time I’d paid for it to actually use it. I wasn’t expecting that, as I’d fully expected I would have to tap in at the station, and that my ticket’s validity period would start then. Lesson learned, I set off immediately. As it turned out, it was just as well, because although the station is close to the centre of the park, the actual start line is at the far end of the park and it will take you around 15-20 minutes to walk there.

The park itself is lovely, perched on the edge of the Øresund strait, with views over to the bridge that links Denmark to Sweden (and which you might want to avoid if you don’t want to get murdered, at least in fiction). From the name you may have guessed that it’s on the island of Amager and it’s very popular due to its 3 miles of beaches, and the artificial island that was added in 2005, and which encloses a lagoon full of wild birds and wild swimmers. There are a lot of facilities for various sports, as well as some good toilets that make life better for potential parkrunners. What there isn’t, on and out and back course around the lagoon, is any significant shade and it was already very hot by 9am. I’m not fast these days, and I am used to running in the last third of the pack, with all the other runners who finish in around 35-40 minutes, the average time these days being over 32 minutes. That memo clearly hadn’t got through to the people gathered that morning. The Run Director shouted go, and 76 runners took off like rockets, most of them finishing inside 30 minutes. I only saw any of them again after about the first 300 metres when they were coming back the other way! That left me to complete the course in 39:20 having run out of steam in the heat, and the only two people slower than me were walking and came home 20 minutes behind me. It was my fastest time of the year so far and I was more than a little dispirited by it. Between that and the lack of any volunteers out on the course to encourage me, it’s not something I want to do again, despite how beautiful it is there. I walked back to the metro and headed for the hotel to shower and breakfast.

After breakfast (eaten outside in the courtyard area to the side of the hotel), we set out to investigate some of the places we’d missed the last time Lynne had been in Copenhagen with me. One of the obvious places to start was across the road in the newly opened Museum of Copenhagen. This proved to be far more interesting than the name suggested, tracking the development of the city over the centuries. In addition, down in the basement, was a fascinating exhibition of the work of Ib Antoni, a poster artist whose work may well be familiar to you even if his name isn’t. Included in the better-known works are his smiling mermaid and a friendly royal guard, both of whom turn up in his “Wonderful Copenhagen” poster. I bought the jigsaw because I simply had to. It’s one of the most beautifully packaged jigsaws I’ve ever seen. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating exhibition, and we took a short coffee break after it to fortify ourselves for the rest of the museum. The building is glorious and feels like it should have been someone’s home but is actually an old government housing office. I would never have guessed. It’s been very carefully and sympathetically restored.

There is a suggestion that you could get round the entire museum in 30 minutes. Well, maybe, if you’re not paying attention. It took us a good couple of hours between the Viking age and now. There’s a lot to see and a lot to listen to and watch, which on our visit included a documentary on the foundations of Christiania back in the 1970s which we couldn’t tear ourselves away from. we hadn’t planned the rest of the day, but the tickets for the museum also entitled us to visit the Thorvaldsen Museum a couple of blocks away. To the soundtrack of more graduates partying on tractor trailers around the city, we decided to go and take a look. An iced coffee at Katz was essential first though to let us recharge our batteries ahead of more culture.

The Thorvaldsen Museum is dedicated to the art of Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), despite that fact that he spent most of his life in Rome. The museum is located on Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen next to the Christiansborg Palace and the building is at least as interesting as the collection it contains. Perhaps it’s unusual that the idea of a museum in Copenhagen was being floated while the artist was still alive, and in fact it was also opened while he was still alive. It is no coincidence that he’s buried in the courtyard of the Greek and Egyptian styled structure. Inside, the coloured walls and ceilings also grab as much attention as the sculptures. What is truly amazing about the sculptures is not just the technique, but the sheer range of sitters. Everyone who was anyone back in the 1820s and 30s seems to have found their way first to Rome and then to Thorvaldsen’s studio.

Scattered in between the art works, there was a secondary exhibition, Flora Italica, which was inspired by the story that a meadow full of Italian plants sprang up in the garden outside in the 1840s, because the seeds had come back with the sculptures in the packaging that had simply been left outside and then germinated. It’s fair to say there are elements of truth in the story as well as myth. Again, it just added to the interest, which I don’t think either of us were expecting.

The museum also contains Thorvaldsen’s own collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiques, drawings, and prints but we didn’t manage to see all of that before the bell rang for everyone to leave and we were unceremoniously bundled out of the side door! We had assumed, as it was 4:45 pm, that it was a 15-minute warning. It wasn’t and we had to go.

As it was pushing 5pm by then, it was time to go back to the hotel to shower and change before dinner. We made it down in time for wine o’clock, or Wine Hour as they now seem to be calling it. We had the one drink before setting off towards the evening’s dining destination. However, first there was a stop to make at the spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) Nimb hotel. It’s a wonderfully mad building, and although we can’t afford to stay there, we can afford to have a drink in the bar. In fact it’s often the best way to see the inside of a really grand hotel, just going in for a drink. We were soon settled in on the terrace overlooking Tivoli.

In addition to people watching, you can also be entertained by the peacocks that live in the gardens and that seem to roam at will around the grounds, even attempting to get indoors at one point. The cocktails arrived and proved to be lovely to look at and very tasty. I was much taken by the ice cubes having the hotel name on them!

We settled for just the one drink, though it was tempting to just sit there enjoying the weather and the ambience. However, I needed to take Lynne to my absolute favourite Copenhagen restaurant. On pretty much every trip I’ve made since discovering it, I have always eaten in the fabulous Kødbyens Fiskebar at least once. It hits the spot, and if you love fish, it’s in that sweet spot of not being so painfully expensive that I worry about staying inside reasonable limits for expenses, but it also always feels like a real treat. I recommend it to anyone who asks me about the best place to eat, and I’ve raved on about it so much that I had to take us there on this trip. They have a seasonal and imaginative cocktail list, an interesting selection of wines by the glass, and their fish is out of this world good. If you take my word for it, go, and make sure that, whatever else you order, you have the fish and chips among your selection of small plates.

We were soon comfortably seated and glad we’d booked, especially given the size of the queue outside of would-be diners hoping for a table. A couple of cocktails (a Flemming Collins and a Summer Spritz) and the restaurant’s incredibly good sourdough bread with seaweed butter and we were set.

We ordered a handful of plates including the aforementioned fish and chips, but we started with a spectacularly good cod’s head croquette with bottarga and beetroot each. They were dangerously hot if you went in too quickly, but oh my they were good.

The trout tartar and the scallops were delicate but delicious, and after that the fish and chips really hit the spot.

The restaurant uses lightly smoked cod, and they make their own remoulade sauce which I think is much better than tartare sauce with the chips. The chips are properly crisp, soft inside, and seasoned just right. We finished off sharing a plate of Danish cheeses which were also excellent, properly kept and served at the correct temperature.

We drank, for those who are interested, a 2021, VDF “Macération” Domaine de Bellevue that was just right for pairing with fish. Unfortunately, I can’t currently find any for sale in the UK but I shall keep looking.

Happily fed now, we walked part of the way back to the hotel but, as it was still hot and sticky, opted to take the Metro the two stops back to the City Hall square towards the end of the evening. We were entertained by the ticket inspectors stopping a young woman who was insisting that she would have bought a ticket, but her phone was out of power. I’m guessing the inspectors see a lot of that because you can simply go into the station and get on a train with nothing to stop you.