Day 3: Halløj fra København
The perfect start to my time in Denmark
June 18, 2022
It was my first full day in Copenhagen and the official start of my program! I had tossed and turned a bit the night before - mostly from what may have been nerves of up until that point was my first “solo” trip - and also the fact that when I had looked out my window around 3 am the sun was rising and birds were chirping (a courtesy of Scandinavian summers!).
I ended up waking up around 7 am, since this time I was determined to (actually) find the Little Mermaid sculpture before my noon checkout and meeting up at our group hotel. Using the hotel wifi, I mapped out exactly where I needed to go, and knowing that I had more of a time constraint than the night before decided it might be best to take the metro to the closest stop - which ended up being a better idea than expected since it was slightly drizzling on and off the whole morning.
On the Hunt for Mermaids (Part 2)
Taking the M3 red line from Kongens Nytorv to Marmorkirken - a short 5-minute ride, where upon exiting I was greeted by Frederiks Kirke (Fredrick’s Church), a marble evangelical church and the largest dome in Scandinavia.
Stopping briefly at a nearby 7-Eleven, I grabbed a quick coffee and a bit to eat before heading toward Kastellet, a pentagon citadel/fortress that was built in 1664. Along the way, I was amazed by how many buildings had facades covered in roses, and how many restaurants had outdoor dining options along the street.
Kastellet
At the edge of Kastellet, I found a map of the area, showing the star-shaped formation and where the Little Mermaid sculpture was. Walking through the park just outside the walls of Kastellet, a few runners and people were walking their dogs, however, the morning rain seemed to be keeping most people inside. Closer to the gates of the citadel, I saw the same church spire I had seen the night before - St Alban’s Church which was framed by the cloudy skies, water, and rolling green grass.
Crossing a wooden bridge and entering the interior walls of the citadel felt like stepping back in time. With one main cobblestone road leading from the walled entrance to the exit, it felt surreal to seemingly have the whole space to myself, except for a few guards who were patrolling around one of the gates.
Without having too much of a set agenda on where I was headed, I wandered around for a bit, finding a windmill (Kastelsmøllen) situated at a higher vantage point, where I continued to follow the path that ran along the star-shaped ramparts. Once leaving the walled fortress, I found a few signs pointing towards the Little Mermaid sculpture and found my way to a street that seemed to wind down towards the water and a marina, where I ended up finding a new friend, a little fox!
The Little Mermaid
After taking a few photos from across the road with my camera, I kept following the paved street until I finally found the iconic Copenhagen landmark and tourist attraction, Den Lille Havfrue (I had always heard how small the statute was so I was honestly expecting it to be much smaller than it was!).
Maybe due to the time of day (about 8:45 am by then) or rain, but I had the rare opportunity to have the whole area to myself. After taking some photos and hanging out for a bit, I decided to head back to my hotel so I could get ready for check-out, heading back this time along the harbor.
Danish History
Passing by a few parks and monuments, it was refreshing to see so much greenery seeing how I had spent the last 5 years in Arizona. I admired the flowers and green roofs on bistros along the waterfront and took a quick detour to get a closer look at St. Alban’s Church outside Kastellet, and stumbled upon a fountain with an impressive sculpture of oxen pulling a plow with a woman on it - which I later found out was the Gefion Fountain depicting the Norse goddess Gefjon who was credited in mythology to have created the island of Zealand, where Copenhagen is located.
Along the canal, I soon realized I was virtually retracing my steps from the night before, but this time since it was during the day I stopped for a bit at Amaliehaven - briefly walking through the waterfront park and walking through the palace plaza. Passing by Frederik’s Church once more, I headed along one of the streets intending to stop briefly back at Nyhavn to look for some souvenirs and potentially a hat since it seemed like it would rain on and off the whole week we were in Denmark.
Nyhavn & Giftshopping
Before reaching Nyhavn however, I saw a small shop that was selling postcards and decided to pick one up as a gift. Back at Nyhavn, I took photos, surprised by how quiet it was still, and soon found a souvenir shop across the canal where I had planned to try to find some more gifts. After finding some magnets (one of Nyhavn and one of the Little Mermaid sculpture), I decided it wouldn’t be the worst idea to also pick up a hat - since it seemed that it would rain on and off during our time in Copenhagen and most of the time we would be on bikes (not the most raincoat-hood friendly activity if there was a lot of wind).
When I was nearly back to my hotel, I saw another spiraled tower (The Church of Our Saviour) that caught my attention and didn’t seem too far away - on the other side of the main canal - so I thought I could quickly walk over to it and get some photos. After quickly snapping a few photos, I walked back over the Knippelsbro, a large drawbridge, to get back to Gammelholm, whereby around 10 am at that point - blue skies had begun to break through the clouds.
On to the Next One
After getting back to my hotel, I made sure my bags were packed and mapped a route to the new hotel, where I was supposed to meet the rest of the group. Since I had purchased a metro pass earlier that morning that was good for 24 hours, I figured it would be easiest to take the metro, especially since would have all my luggage with me.
Since it was around rush hour by the time I got to the metro station, it was much busier than I had seen it before with a lot of people also with luggage. Within a few minutes, I traveled from Kongens Nytorv to København H (taking the M3 line westbound) and followed the Google Maps screenshot I had taken detailing my route from the subway stop to where I was supposed to meet the rest of the group.
Meeting the Group
Arriving at the Comfort Inn Vesterbro at noon - a little later than I would have liked to have gotten there, but once again cobblestone and wheeled luggage didn’t make the best combination - I met up with the group for the first time officially (all our prior meetings had been over Zoom for our classes). Once I got my room key and dropped my bags off - feeling relieved that I had reached my “final destination” (at least for the week) - I went back down to the lobby where we were all met up for our only official activity of the day, getting our bikes that we would be renting for the duration of our stay in Copenhagen.
Our 25-minute walk to Rosenborg Cykler took us along bustling roads, through Københavns Universitat (The University of Copenhagen), and through pedestrian-only shopping streets whose atmosphere screamed a quintessential scene in a European city.
Once arriving at the bike shop, picked up our bike, and got a few alterations done, those of us that were already in Copenhagen were ready for the adventure to begin. Seeing how we didn’t have anything else scheduled for the day, some of us decided on a short, impromptu bike ride in order to orient ourselves with our new bikes and the city in an almost trial-by-fire, throwing ourselves in the city bike lane’s during rush hour. Ironically, we ended up deciding on biking back to some of the same areas I had seen that morning - Kastellet and the Little Mermaid sculpture, but I thought it would be interesting to see it from a new perspective. Initially, I was a bit nervous about jumping straight into biking in the city since I admittedly hadn’t ridden a bike in at least 5 years at that point, but I was quickly introduced to the ease of biking in Copenhagen.
Following a different route from what I had done that morning, we biked along streets through the city rather than the waterfront, all of which had protected bike lanes or bike paths buffered with parked cars to protect riders. By the time we got to Kastellet and the Little Mermaid sculpture in Indre By/the old part of the city, it was a bit past lunchtime (around 1:30 pm), and - presumably, since the clouds had cleared - the area was swarmed with crowds of people all clamoring for their picture with the iconic sculpture (which looking at its size now with a large crowd made me better understand why some people were initially underwhelmed by it).
Since we were in the area and our bikes were parked at one of the public bicycle “parking lots”, we walked through Kastellet - although just keeping to the main drag - and then decided it was time to find somewhere to get lunch. Since one of our professors had heard about a spot with a lot of different street food options not too far away on Amager, the neighboring island where new developments for the city and the airport is located, we decided to head over.
Backtracking a bit, we had to cross the Inderhavnsbroen, a car-free bridge in the inner harbor, and surprisingly got caught in a bicycle traffic jam! With it being the middle of the summer and some of the final days of Copenhell, a heavy metal music festival, that happened annually at Refshaleøen - which previously served as a historic shipyard, but now hosts cultural events and eateries - it made sense why there were so many people out that day. In about 10 minutes, we reached our destination, Reffen - a sprawling area with vendors and street food from around the world (which unbeknownst to us at that time would become our go-to lunch spot in Copenhagen).
Reffen
After walking around a bit, taking in all the options, I decided to stop at République, a French food spot, where I got moules frites with remoulade before picking up a “yellow juice” that contained apple, pineapple, lemon & ginger from The Green Garden.
Finding a table, we all sat together to eat, comparing and contrasting our travel stories to get to Copenhagen and overall just getting to know each other better. Once we were done, we wanted to check out the area a bit more, so we walked towards the waterfront area where there was sand, more seating, skating areas and a bit further away even a bungee jump! Closer to where we had parked our bikes, we found a creatively-made bicycle “parking lot” with a sign made from tied-together wood pallets, with an outdoor rock climbing wall a little off to the side.
With those of us that had gone to Reffen deciding to disperse to explore whatever we wanted before we planned to meet up later that night for dinner, I decided I wanted to make the most of the day metro pass and use it a bit more to get around the city. Remembering the gardens I had found the day before at Slotsholmen, I thought to return there to do some reading (after all I had brought some books with me and I didn’t want to come back without actually getting any reading done, and who could pass that opportunity up!).
Reading in the Gardens
Back on Slotsholmen - the islet in the inner-city - I walked a bit around Christiansborg Palace, finding a map directing me to the gardens, and also noting what other notable areas there were around the palace, such as the royal stables and chapel. Once I got back to the gardens (Bibliotekshaven), I found a chair to sit in and was able to get lost in my book, The Love Hypothesis (which I got after seeing it show up every day on my Instagram explore page that summer), surrounded by greenery and birds - feeling like I was living in one of my idealized Pinterest boards.
After about an hour, I saw a few messages from my group members in the group chat saying they were going to informally meet at a microbrewery, a few blocks from our hotel. Since I had stayed out a bit later at the gardens, I figured once again it would be quickest to use the metro pass I still had and picked up the subway to Rådhuspladsen, where - once exiting - I found myself in a large public square that featured a highly ornate building (which I later realized was Copenhagen’s City Hall) a few blocks away from the restaurant.
Dinnertime
Once meeting up with the group at BrewPub, a bar, and restaurant that was tucked away in a 17th-century building, I ended up getting a burger and later on tried herring for the first time (and actually liked it)! We all sat and talked for a few hours, before collectively walking back to our hotel, passing by Rådhuspladsen again. Although I wanted to take some pictures of the plaza, it had gotten darker by then, so I knew most of my pictures might not come out properly. However, once I realized how close our hotel was to the square, I thought I might venture out the next morning before breakfast and our scheduled activities to get some pictures of City Hall before the crowds came out for rush hour, so with my breakfast slot reserved and my plan for the next morning in place, we all called it a night, ready for our study abroad program to really start the following day.
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