We flew out of Manchester, and landed at around 11am. After a bit of a lengthy walk from the plane to passport control, we were through and with our cases ready to really get the holiday started. Our first question was how to get to Copenhagen city centre from the airport, and it turned out to be pretty easy. We followed the signs for the trains, and I used the DOT app to book 2 tickets to the centre which cost around £7 for both. I would *highly* recommend having the DOT app on your phone if you're travelling to Copenhagen.
The train only took around 10-15 minutes, and it was really spacious with plenty of seats and room for our luggage. I then used the maps app to direct us to the hotel, which was around a 3 minute walk from the station (or it would have been, had we gone out of the correct exit). We checked in, early thanks to our complimentary upgrade (!!), and freshened up before heading out to explore some free things to see in Copenhagen.
We decided to head out on foot to get our bearings and see what we could see, and walked in the direction of Nyhavn. This took us down Strøget, one of the longest pedestrian shopping streets in the world - if you're after H&M, Tiger, souvenir shops, Pandora, the LEGO shop, Gucci, Uniqlo... it's all there! We also saw some nice fountains and a church, as well as some street performers. Our plan for the whole trip was to just have 'snacky' meals as Copenhagen is so expensive, so we each got a ham & cheese panini from 7/11 (they're literally everywhere) which was actually quite tasty.
At the end of Strøget we reached Kongens Nytorv, a cobbled square with a statue in the middle and some really picturesque buildings around it. There is a metro station here too, and that's where you would get off to visit the famous canal area known as Nyhavn. We walked on and turned right to see it for ourselves: the colourful houses, the sail boats, and of course the masses of people waiting for boat trips or generally admiring the area. We walked down one side and back up the other (one of the best free things to do in Copenhagen), snapping the obligatory photos, before deciding to get out of the Sunday afternoon crowds and head back towards Strøget.
From here, we wandered left down some smaller streets with bars, cafés and galleries on either side. This led us to the Latin quarter and Centralhjørnet - which claims to be the world's oldest gay bar! Of course we stopped here for a quick drink before making our way back in the direction of our hotel. It was a Sunday and we are creatures of habit which meant we needed to find somewhere to watch the football; we'd spotted both an English and Irish pub, next door to each other on Vesterbrogade, and knew at least one would have the matches on. The Irish pub did, so we settled in for the afternoon - Carlsberg is only around £2 here, as it's local, but if you want cider that'll set you back around £7 a pint.
After we'd finished watching football (both the Liverpool and Newcastle games) we headed back to the hotel where we had a final drink, ordered a pizza and had ourselves an early night, after having been up since 1am... I felt like we'd had a pretty good first day exploring some free areas of Copenhagen and relaxing ahead of the next few days!
If you liked this post, be sure to keep an eye out for the next few Copenhagen diary posts coming soon.
Thanks for sharing, your diary of your first day in Copenhagen, my tip for a quick cheap lunch is use a local bakery, and supermarkets, and make your own sandwiches :)
ReplyDeleteNic | Nic's Adventures