Friday 12th June, 2026 – Copenhagen

This was not a planned journey. It was in fact more than a tad unexpected. After months, nay years, of being told we couldn’t travel for work, we finally got the go ahead to meet as a team at HQ in Copenhagen about two months before the only date we could really all manage. A quick check of my remaining holiday allowance, and a conversation with Lynne later, and we decided we’d go for a four-day long weekend ahead of me needing to go to work. It coincided with British Airways having an offer on upgrades to Business Class which also appealed. And thus we found ourselves staying overnight at the Crowne Plaza at Terminal 4 at Heathrow once more, especially as they had a pretty good offer on a one night stay and up to 8 days parking that was way cheaper than any other deal I could find. We nearly got something of an upgrade on arrival when we arrived at the hotel, and had obviously been given the wrong room. Very nice, but I don’t recall asking for balloons or KitKats!

We were hoping to go and eat at O Calhau over on Staines Road the night before again, but they were closed for what looked like pretty heavy duty renovations, and had vanished behind a veil of scaffolding. So we opted for the rather “traditional” as in “we’ve been doing it this way since the family came over from Bangladesh and we see no reason to change it now” Indian restaurant next door, the Indian Palace. The food was perfectly fine, and there was wine despite them having no license (don’t ask, it seems). Well fed we made our way back to the Crowne Plaza for a stupidly early start the next morning… Note to self. Do not book a flight at 07:15 if you absolutely don’t have to in future.

The following morning we caught the Hotel Hoppa bus to T5 at the ungodly hour of 05:15 and sped through the bag drop and fast track security (well worth £12.50 each I would say) and were soon happily parked in the Business Lounge. Of course having opted for a Business Class upgrade we were first on the plane, we fed a very pleasant breakfast, and plied with Champagne. I’ve missed this style of travel. The flight actually left on time, and landed early, which was just as well given what happened when we got to passport control. We were pretty confident that we’d already been registered in the new EES system when we flew into Athens two months previous so I was a mite surprised when the woman behind the desk took my photograph and fingerprints all over again. Turned out that nothing was registered against my passport and I had apparently been in Greece ever since we arrived. It was all well that they’d actually stamped my passport on the way out. Cue much grumbling about having to do the Greeks’ work for them from the passport official. She wasn’t impressed, especially as the whole process took at good 10 minutes, and then had to be done all over again for Lynne. I wasn’t impressed either, because with the whole 90 days in the Schengen area out of 180 I could have been in some difficulty if I was still flying as often as I used to. Also, if I was still in Greece for almost 60 days, you’d think I’d have enjoyed it more!

Finally reunited with our luggage – which was piling up along with that of three other flights where the passengers had also been forced to endure the EES queue – we picked up a pair of Copenhagen Cards, activated them, and hopped on the Metro to the city centre. We were staying at my favourite Copenhagen hotel, the Hotel Danmark, which is within a stone’s throw of the Rådhuspladsen station, which is, as you might expect, right in front of the City Hall. They were expecting us, and I had arranged an early check-in at 11:00, which was just striking as we reached the reception desk.

The weather forecast had been on the bleak side when we’d checked, but the sun was shining and so we decided that we would first unpack and get organised, and then go out to visit the Botanical Gardens, and the Natural History Museum, rather than the Glyptoteket which had been the original plan. It was forecast to rain on the Saturday now, so Friday was looking best for being outdoors. First, however, we needed some sort of light lunch, or at the very least a coffee. We found it in the grand dame of Copenhagen stores, the Magasin du Nord, on the same level as the passageway that leads between the two lines at Kongens Nytorv Metro station. It’s been here around 150 years, and the food level alone is a place of wonder. Anyway we had a scone (which was not a scone as I know, especially with blackcurrant jam and creme fraiche)  it but was good) and an iced coffee and then changed metro lines to reach Nørreport station and the gardens.

The sun was out when we arrived, our Copenhagen Card included entry, and we wandered happily through the various sections, enjoying the rock garden in particular,  the rhododendrons being pretty much past their best by mid-June. The gardens otherwise were looking pretty good to me, and I spent some time sneaking up on various blue, purple, and white blooms to steal ideas for our garden, which is very much a work in progress after last year’s remodelling. Also in the grounds is the splendid Palm House, where we found ourselves wondering if being this overheated was really good for us.

The Palm House was constructed between 1872-74, with the backing of J. C. Jacobsen (the man to blame for Carlsberg beer and a lot else in Copenhagen). Its architect was inspired by London’s Crystal Palace, which was built for the Great Exhibition in 1852, and although it’s a lot smaller than that was, it’s still a beautiful building. The really heated section is the central rotunda, where there are some very tall palms, as you would expect. I made the mistake of climbing the spiral stairs in this section to get to the platform up in the roof space, overlooking the fact that heat rises! By the time I got up there both my glasses and my camera lens were so fogged up as to be useless. It’s impressive, but I can’t prove it to you. It’s also, despite very clear signage, a one way system, with one staircase to go up and the other to go down, whatever some idiot tourists were trying to claim…

The next building to get our attention was the Butterfly House, a long orangery-type building. This is full of plants that appeal to butterflies, including passion flowers and pineapple plants. It’s also full of butterflies. They are everywhere, and while we were there they were very active, making them unbelievably difficult to photograph. We did manage to spot the tiny frogs that are used for pest control in there, which may be very small but which have mighty loud voices. The Museum of Natural History is also within the grounds of the gardens, and we were all set to go there, but not before an ice cream break where we were amused by a magpie trying to intimidate people into feeding it their ice cream cone remains. It and the Nordic jackdaws were everywhere in Copenhagen, and didn’t seem especially afraid of people.

The museum itself is due to move soon to a larger building, and based on what we saw, it can’t happen soon enough. There are a lot of cases full of rocks, basically, showing different types of minerals, and another lot full of various animals from across the globe. Most of it is not currently captioned in anything except Danish, and it’s not that informative. I assume that the move will also lead to a more modern display set up, and more context for the visitor. That said, we did thoroughly enjoy the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which was a) include in the normal entry fee and b) much quieter than it would have been if we’d gone to see it London. It was fabulous, with some really stunning shots.

After we’d finished in the museum the weather looked as if it was about to turn, so we made our way back to the Hotel Danmark, arriving just in time to indulge in “wine o’clock” and get ready to go out for dinner.

I made a couple of calls to my lovely colleague Karen arranging to meet her on Saturday, and then we headed out in search of a pre-dinner cocktail. The Visit Copenhagen website, which is a cut above most “tourist information” organisations, had a list of suggestions and on the grounds that they’ve never steered me wrong in the past, I checked to find a cocktail bar that was close to our restaurant for the evening. I found Gaia, which was about two doors along from the restaurant on the other side of the road. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but it had the most imaginative drinks you could wish for. I opted for the Black Pearl, described as a “captivating tiki treasure inspired by the iconic Pirates of the Caribbean -but beware, this cocktail contains the cursed gold of Cortés…” Made with angostura 5 bitters, crème de mûre, lemon, raspberry, pineapple glitter and a candy pearl, it looked relatively harmless, but then I brought the elements together and the result was all smoke and possibly mirrors. It tasted good too…

Afterwards, we found ourselves in a restaurant attached to a sister hotel of the Danmark, the Sankt Anna, in restaurant Vækst. It’s a touch unexpected with what is in effect a greenhouse in the middle of the room. They claim this creates “an atmosphere imitating a Danish summer evening which never ends.” It’s part of the Cofoco group of restaurants, some of which I have already been to.

The meal proved to be, as promised, “based on fresh Nordic vegetables and herbs”, but also including elements of “great steak, seafood, and fresh fish”. As is so often the case, we were served some fantastic sourdough bread and butter, before getting into the main part of the meal. Standouts were the “saltet” scallops, which were deliciously plump, fat, and fresh. There was a glorious fillet of plaice with white asparagus, and the beef was also just as good as you could hope. Feeling very tired by the end of the meal we walked slowly back to the hotel and fell into bed to catch up on missed sleep!