Like Riding a Bike… Sort Of

This city is crazy! We read that Copenhagen was a bit of a party town, but were surprised when it actually lived up to the description. We must be getting old, because we were kind of amazed by the scene! We arrived on Saturday night and quickly found out there isn’t an open container law in this city – or any drinking age from what we could tell. Our first stop was Stroget, the longest strolling/shopping street in Europe. Mayhem! Drunk people were everywhere – singing, yelling, dancing, shot-gunning beers, and throwing bottles on the ground – it was crazy!

On Sunday morning we had the city to ourselves for a while as the population recovered from Saturday night. We decided that we wanted to relax a little more than we’ve been doing on the trip thus far, so most of our day was spent at a coffee shop and then later drinking beers at the New Harbor canal/waterfront (see video below). That was our favorite place in the city!



Our plan on Monday was to sample some local pastries (YUM!!) and walk to the Tuborg Brewery for a tour and tasting. After a 7 km walk, we arrived at the “brewery” to discover that it either didn’t exist or was closed for renovations. Disappointing! We drowned our sorrows with more pastries and then took the bus back into the city center. We found a really awesome microbrewery called Brewpub (very creative name) and had dinner at their restaurant, along with a couple of their beers/ciders. We highly recommend this place for anyone visiting the city. The beer was great and Heather claims the cider was the absolute best she’s ever had!

Yesterday we grabbed two free “city bikes” and planned to visit many of the remaining sites around Copenhagen. Well, that didn’t go exactly as we thought it would. Apparently it isn’t impossible to forget how to ride a bike – just ask Heather! It took a while for her to get on the bike to actually “ride” it, and just after she finally started getting some momentum, she crashed into metal scaffolding on the sidewalk. Finally, she pulled it together and we were off and riding through one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. Now we know who will NOT be teaching our children how to ride a bike!


Our first stop of the day was the city’s most famous attraction – The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid statue, situated on Copenhagen's waterfront, represents a character from a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tail (the basis for Disney’s The Little Mermaid movie). When we finally arrived at the site, we discovered the statue was in China for the World Expo. In its place was a non-functioning multi-media installation designed by the same person behind the Beijing Olympic stadium (we found this out while being interviewed for a Chinese newspaper).


On our bike ride, we also stopped by several of the city’s castles and palaces. One of the stops we made was at the Rosenborg Castle and gardens – located in the middle of one of the largest parks in the city center (see picture below). The scene was absolutely crazy – kind of like Panama City during Spring Break (seriously). There were about 500 middle and high school kids running around drunk and causing pandemonium. It felt like a bad after school special! Again, we must be getting old because we were shocked!


Last night we had a picnic dinner at New Harbor, followed by drinks at Heather’s favorite bar in the city – Library Bar. We would definitely recommend this bar to anyone visiting the city.

All in all, this wasn’t our favorite city so far, but we definitely enjoyed our time here. Today we leave for Amsterdam!

Beer List:
• Tuborg Green (a pilsner that is essentially a Miller Lite/Bud Light in Copenhagen)
• Brewpub Cole Porter (a deep black microbrew porter)
• Brewpub Armstrong (a microbrew IPA)
• Brewpub Rose (the cider that Heather claims is the best ever)