“Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree! How lovely are your branches!” The Christmas trees in Denmark are particularly lovely during this festive season! Very hygge!
Tag: Denmark (page 2 of 2)
Giraffes at Tivoli
This is my last Copenhagen post for this visit. We explored two new spots this time and some old haunts as well. The Arken Museum for Modern Art and Frederiksborg Castle have been on our list for awhile. We had beautiful sunny days on both occasions so the walk around the lake and on the beach in both instances were breathtaking.
A visit to Copenhagen never seems to be complete unless we stroll around Tivoli’s beautiful gardens. The night we were there we hit the dance floor and took a spin along with the Big Band that was playing. They were fantastic! Afterwards we stayed to watch the fireworks and stayed cozy under the heaters, while sitting on sheepskin rugs and drinking hot chocolate. It was a perfect evening.
Oh Copenhagen, as always, I can’t wait to return!
Arken Museum, Homage to the Hunters from Mande, Abdoulaye Donate
Arken Museum, Lady with Anemone, Gerda Wegener
Arken Museum, Circle of Animals, Ai WeiWei
Arken Museum, National Career Lamp, Olafur Eliasson
A stroll on the beach outside of the Arken Museum
Frederiksborg Castle
Frederiksborg Castle, Fountain
Frederiksborg Castle, Ballroom
Frederiksborg Castle, Zodiac Globe
Frederiksborg Castle, Door entryway
Eating candy and watching the sunset
Watching the sailboats in the Sound
A full moon
Lights at the Tivoli Candy Store
This was a rainy day discovery on our last visit to Copenhagen. They were closing up and we promised ourselves we would return to check it out. We did return the following day, but we were too late. There was only a slice of apple pie left.
So with this visit we made sure that we arrived early and boy was it worth it! We should have been good and each made a different choice so we could share. But that s’mores pie just looked so delicious that we both wanted it!
Happiness is a pie with chocolate…
Going,
Going,
Gone…
This visit to Copenhagen brought some new discoveries and visits to old favourites. Heading to Warpigs, Neighbourhood Pizza and Juicy Burger is always a must. As well as a trip to the Torvehallerne.
This time we discovered Jagger, a fabulous place for fried chicken and cheeseburgers as well as Kaffe & Vinyl. The perfect hideaway for coffee and whatever the barista is DJ-ing (usually Jazz).
One of our favourite lunches this go-round was at the Aquarium. However it did feel slightly wrong to be eating fish while we were looking at fish, but we just ran with it.
After finishing up a cup of coffee at Kaffee & Vinyl one morning we headed down the street and turned to the sound of an old fashioned school bell ringing. We realised that unlike the musical tunes that our ice cream vans play in England, in Copenhagen, the Ice Cream man rings a bell to announce his arrival. It was beyond charming!
Torvehallerne Seafood
Torvehallerne Pastries
Chocolate Dipped Ice Cream at Tivoli
Dinner at Jagger
Juicy Burger
Records at Kaffe & Vinyl
Breakfast at Kaffe & Vinyl
Nordic Apple Pizza at Neighbourhood
The General’s Mac ‘n Cheese at Warpigs
Chicken and Hush Puppies at WarPigs
Shrimp and potatoes at the Aquarium
Fish & Chips at the Aquarium
Do you know that scene in Adventures in Babysitting, where they end up in a night club and once on stage are told by the band that “No one leaves this place, without singing the blues!”? That is how I feel today, I’ve got the blues, the Monday morning blues.
I have so much fun during my weekends, I just want it to keep going! I’m sure I’m not alone in this feeling?
Mr. Michie was sick this weekend, so we were quiet. There was music, candles, movies, homemade chicken soup and fresh bread. We stayed snuggled under blankets and rested. After such a hectic first week back to school, it was a wonderful way to spend two days together, even though Mr Michie was under the weather.
Enjoying the art of everyday living is something that the Danes have completely figured out. Mr. Michie and I feel like Denmark is a second home. It is a magical place. Heading out to find breakfast in the morning, you will find coffee shops with candles lit in their windows and blankets laid over the outside seating to keep yourself warm. Everything is cozy. And the Danes have a special word for that: Hygge (pronounced hue-gah). There is not an exact translation. It is more about a feeling; the ritual that comes from taking joy in the simple pleasure of everyday living; in making the ordinary – extraordinary. We try to do this at home. From the moment we wake-up at the weekends, candles are lit, music is on, and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee permeates the house.
I feel that making things cozy becomes even more precious to me when the sun is late to rise and early to bed. I love the Winter, but I like it on my own terms. I want to be able to go for walks; to bake cookies and bread; to stay indoors and be cozy. What I don’t like is leaving for work in the dark and journeying home in the dark. However, following our “Hygge Mantra” makes for a happier household and definitely fends off some of the Monday morning blues, no matter how dark and cold it is.
We have extremely varied musical taste in our household. We seem to go through phases. Right now, there is a lot of Jazz being played.
It was on our last trip to Copenhagen that we visited the Museum of Copenhagen, and it wasn’t until I walked into one of their exhibits that I discovered that Dexter Gordon was a long time Copenhagen resident. His song Tivoli, just gets to me.
Tivoli Gardens is one of our treasured places to visit. Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s my current book of choice, but I have “itchy feet” as my Nana would say. I’m ready to travel, get a little dust in my shoes and move about another place.
It’s brisk here today and I know it’s cold in Denmark too. So maybe, if I was in Copenhagen, I would bundle up and walk along the river, over one of my beloved bridges, down into the City. Stopping somewhere for a drink, wrapping myself in the thick fleece blankets that are stacked up by the door to ward off the chill.
Maybe I would watch night slowly begin to fall as the glow of candles fill the streets. Maybe I would stop for pizza at the restaurant we like tucked down the alley and grab a bottle of wine from Irma’s and return to our apartment. Maybe we’d sit and eat and laugh and watch the water buses go by and the rainbow of reflections shimmer in their wake.
And maybe we would listen to Dextor Gordon and we would simply be.
It’s only February, I’m not too late to share this post with you, right? Well, I hope not, life is just whizzing by me at the moment and I have yet to manage to get this post finished and out. So, I’m crossing it off of my To-Do list and sharing my love of Copenhagen with you, because after recent events, Copenhagen needs all the love we can give it.
I’m sure you guessed from some of my previous photographs over the month of December and my opening statement, that we in fact, spent Christmas in Copenhagen.It was BEAUTIFUL! It snowed on Christmas day and little bits here and there after that. It was frosty, there were paper stars lit and hanging in everyone’s windows, Christmas trees twinkling in front of apartment buildings and shops. It was magical.
We walked and walked and walked and discovered and explored some areas we had not been to previously. We visited Tivoli and their magical Alpine Christmas market. It was even more dazzling as it had snowed the day before and fresh snow blanketed everything in sight. All of the Christmas Market shops were set up in little chalets and on the back of them a bird house was attached with silhouettes of birds and hearts and stars. These “bird houses” were the boxes that housed the smoke machine that would send smoke plumming out of the chimneys on the little shingled roofs like a real house. It was very cozy, indeed!
There were Christmas trees lit around the Alpine Christmas village. The lights twinkling out from the snow laden branches. We stopped at Andersons to taste the famous pork sandwich that they only serve during this festive season and of course we picked up some mandelhorns for dessert! We saw the water and light show in the lake, scored to The Nutcracker and picked up a few surprises for family and friends.
When we felt too cold we would grab a hot chocolate or find a coal pit they had set out in various places of the park to stand with others and warm our hands. We finished our evening with a strawberry jam and sugar crepe from a charming little stall and sat in a sleigh to eat it, very romantic! Oh, these are the things that dreams are made of!
We visited the Louisiana Museum again and I got to walk in The Riverbed! I made it! It was also a red letter day because I finally got to see a Louise Bourgeois spider in person, it has become a running joke with us, as every time I have had the opportunity to see one in person we have missed it for one reason or another.
I love museums but I do have a few favorites and the Louisiana is in the top 10! Of course looking at all this gorgeous artwork builds up an appetite and we needed to stop for a snack! I chose this amazing looking apple roulade. Needless to say, I ate every single bite!
The Louisiana at night:
We made a few more discoveries this time, playing get lost and winding through beautiful neighborhoods and shopping districts. We feasted on delicious food and went to Emmery’s for hot coffee and fresh chocolate cinnamon buns for breakfast. We watched the snow softly fall while we sat bundled up on the couches, with the view of the river stretched out before our floor to ceiling windows. The riverboats going by were strewn with lights and one of the water buses even had a little tree perched on the back of the boat.
I think that Denmark is a land of dreams. It is a place I could quite happily pick up and move to without a second thought. As soon as I leave, I long to return. Hopefully it won’t be too long as I hear those streets calling my name.
This was our view as we were packing up to leave:
Of course when checking out, you have to write your name on the wall:
Somehow a stowaway managed to get into our luggage. We found this little nisse bundled up in our bed!
Well, I have a secret to share. We celebrated 10 glorious years of marriage last week in the breathtaking city of Copenhagen. Mr. Michie and I decided to have a true break and stepped away from our computers. I normally write on the spur of the moment, but last week I planned two posts to go out and we quietly slipped away to Denmark.
It was a welcome little mini-moon and I didn’t want to come back! I have so much to share with you and I don’t want to bore you to death, so I am going to attempt to summarize our trip over 2 posts. The above picture was from the dreamy Nyhaven section of Copenhagen where Hans Christian Andersen used to live!
Stay tuned, there’s more to come…