The City

My host family went skiing in Northern Italy for the week. Jealous? Tell me about it. Well I avoided going home as much as possible aside for having some friends from school over for home made pizza.

With the host family away there was no excuse to wander around Copenhagen and freeze my butt off. An that’s exactly what I did for three hours, looking at various architectural and historical buildings. Aside from turing into a block of ice and attempting to familiarize myself with the city’s layout, I learned Christian IV was quite the developer, in fact the rule of thumb is when in doubt on the construction of any old building Christian IV is a safe guess. Honestly it works 95% of the time. Take that art history test!

Tivoli unfortunately doesn’t open until April. Speaking of construction, its everywhere in Copenhagen! They’re putting in a new metro line which won’t be done till 2016. So we get to enjoy some ornamental orange cones and concrete barriers wherever we go.

The movie theater

Typical merchants house

New trendy buildings across the harbor

The Black Diamond

Repurposed storehouses in Christianshavn, which is a city created out of the water by Christian IV specifically for traders and merchants.

The Royal Library by Christian IV

The houses on this street are the oldest in Copenhagen spared from huge fire way back in the day.

You’ll have to do the translation for the street’s name. Let’s just say they didn’t have plumbing back then.

Hey look we’re in Italy! After the fire the city was rebuilt by an architect who was very much influenced by the Italian renaissance style.
Staying in town as much as I could meant finding food and somewhere warm. As you can tell from the steamy windows St. Peders Bageri was not only warm but also intoxicating with the smell of possibly the most tasty wienerbrØd in Copenhagen (That’s danish for danish).

Another food find in the city is the Glass Market, next to the busiest train stop, it is conveniently situated to allow kroner to disappear from your pocket. The market is a fusion between an open air farmer’s market and classy boutique foodie stalls. Even if your not foodsnob there’s enough eyecandy and scents to make you droll from: bakeries, to choice cuts of meat, to cheese, to beer, olive oil, kitchen ranges and ice cream (if you dare, some did).

“choice cuts”

Keeping it classy meant a visit to Rosengborg castle built by one classy gentleman who…you guessed it Christian IV. The castle was a summer home for Denmark’s royalty and now home to the crown jewels as well as other shiny, old, fancy stuff.