Copenhagen, 2024: Tivoli Gardens and The Little Mermaid
There were two options to get to Copenhagen from Berlin, train or plane. We didn’t really want to spend 6+ hours on a train, so we opted to take the one hour flight. Before we left for the airport, we decided to try the breakfast buffet at the hotel. It turns out that my status with Hilton gave us free breakfast…at least we used it one of the mornings we were there.
I was still quite full from dinner the previous night, but I did get a coffee, while the others got some food from the buffet. The food selection was pretty standard with various pastries, hot items, and an omelette station, but nothing like the buffets we enjoyed in Japan. However, as a free perk, we were still appreciative that we could get a quick breakfast before needing to leave for the airport.
Berlin airport is huge, and it took a while to figure out where our airline’s counter was in the check-in area. Security also seemed a bit slow, partly because there were people looking at every tray full of items, and asking questions of the passengers in order to make sure that everything was correct. They weren’t rude about it, unlike TSA agents in the US, and while it did slow down the process a little, because they were able to correct any mistakes before the tray goes into the X-ray machine, the screening part went faster.
After our short flight to Copenhagen, we needed a taxi. It was easy to find the taxi line, and we were impressed with the taxi cars: Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, BMW, etc. We had a Benz for this ride to the AirBnB, and while there was a bit of a delay in getting the keys, we eventually made it to the AirBnB.
We took a quick break to settle in, and then headed out to Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world and also part of Walt Disney’s inspiration for Disneyland. We decided to walk there and quickly realized just how prevalent biking is in the area. At one point during our walk, we needed to cross the bike lanes to get to a bridge, but the constant bike traffic in both directions made it a little difficult to do so. We noticed a break in the flow of bikers and ran across successfully. On the bridge, instead of locks being tied to it, we saw these:
We’re not sure what the pacifiers mean in this context, but there were multiple clusters of them on the bridge. We also stopped to appreciate the view from the bridge, and the yellow water taxi:
Continuing on our way to Tivoli Gardens, we walked past the IKEA, where there were multiple rows of bike parking in front of the entrance:
And then we noticed a sign indicating that there was a rooftop green walk, so we headed up the stairs to take a look:
It was a decent size, and we could imagine that if the greenery was in full bloom, it would be wonderful, but it seemed like some of it was a work in progress. But the rooftop deck offered some nice views of the city, including Tivoli Gardens in the distance.
The rest of the walk wasn’t as interesting, as it went down a street that was under construction and not particularly inviting for pedestrians. But we eventually made it inside Tivoli Gardens and one of the first things we saw was this large fountain:
Just from the first few minutes, it was pretty easy to see how Tivoli Gardens was part of the inspiration for Disneyland. We would have spent more time exploring the park, but we had a reservation for a restaurant in the park, and Nick and Tiffany wanted to go on one roller coaster before dinner. They decided to go on the most exciting coaster in the park, the Demon.
It took a few minutes to figure out how to buy tickets for it, and also there were many kids in the park, which seemed odd on a Tuesday night. But then we realized that it’s a large amusement park in the middle of Copenhagen, next to Central Copenhagen Station, so getting there is easy.
This meant that the line for the Demon was quite long, so Mike and I took a seat on the nearby bench holding Nick and Tiffany’s bags and waited for them. The ride itself seemed pretty short, about two minutes or so, which meant that the line moved fairly quickly, and after 30 minutes, we saw the two of them on the coaster as they whizzed past above us. Unfortunately, we weren’t prepared to take a photo of them, but Tivoli Gardens did:
We still had a few minutes before our reservation, so we walked around the gardens a bit and it was very pretty:
For dinner, we went to Grøften, one of the oldest restaurants in the park.
The menu is full of traditional Danish dishes, and I couldn’t help but try one of their sampler platters, which includes pickled herring and roast pork and a lot of bread. Nick got another schnitzel and then shared a traditional apple dessert:
The food was quite good, and we were also happy that the outdoor area of the restaurant was heated. Once the sun started to set, it was getting quite chilly outside.
After dinner, we wanted to wait until 9:30 because there was supposed to be a light and music show on the lake. We headed over there and found a spot on the bridge, and soon the lights in the area turned off and an announcement was made that the show would begin.
It’s a small water show with lasers, music and some pyro, and I think it’s about 15 minutes long, but it was cool to watch. As I mentioned earlier, it was cold, so my hands stayed in my pockets—this was the only photo we took:
And since it was nighttime, the park lit up some of the various buildings, so we decided to check them out, including the Nimb Hotel:
While we were generally not well dressed for the cold, we were still happy to stay until dark to be able to see the beauty of the park at night. Also, the many children at the park had gone home, so it was much quieter, making the walk through the park easier.
We were ready to go back home, so we left the park and crossed the street to Copenhagen Station, where many taxis were waiting. One of them started to drive forward and signaled to us to get in the car—I guess they all have a system of who’s the next in line because it wasn’t entirely obvious to us.
The next morning, we decided to try out Nors for breakfast. The cafe was really cute, with green decor and fun art. The people there were friendly (a stark contrast to the service we experienced in Berlin), and the coffee and food were delicious:
This gave us the needed morning energy to start our day of exploring Copenhagen. Our first stop was to walk to Nyhavn, the famous area of the city with the colorful homes on the river. On the way, we happen to find ourselves near Christiansborg Palace, which appears to be the center of the Danish government. While we didn’t book a tour of the palace, we were able to walk around the grounds, which were still quite impressive:
We continued our walk to Nyhavn, and enjoying the various buildings of Copenhagen:
And we finally arrived, and as expected, Nyhavn was full of people (primarily tourists like us who wanted to see the area). Before attempting to navigate that chaos, we first walked down a side street to find Farumhus for a quick pastry and coffee. Earlier during this trip, we joked that we should get a danish from a Danish bakery, but then Nick found out that what we call danishes in the US, the Danish call them Vienna Bread. In any case, we actually ordered something else, a cinnamon swirl pastry that was amazing, but everything else there also looked wonderful:
After our short pastry break, we started our walk down Nyhavn. While the homes and their various colors were cute, it was hard to appreciate it all when hundreds of people were also walking in all directions and taking photos. We decided that it would be easier to take photos from the other side of the river:
It was soooo much better on the other side of the river, and from that distance, you actually had a better view of all the homes. Unless you were planning on eating at one of the many establishments there, we’d suggest just walking down the street across the river from the homes for the best views and fewer people.
Our next stop was Amalienborg Palace, the official residence of the Danish monarchy. When they aren’t staying in the palace, you can buy tickets to go inside, which we did. Nick was particularly excited because it’s rare to be able to go inside a still functioning palace for the royals. We still had a few minutes before our timed entry, so we took some photos of the large central plaza:
Similar to Buckingham Palace, there are guards stationed outside each of the four palaces, and there’s also a changing of the guard ceremony at some point during the day, but we missed it.
Inside the one palace that we could go in, we were expecting to see many different rooms with grand decor. Instead, the first floor we entered was essentially an exhibit about King Frederik the Tenth, who recently became king after his mother abdicated earlier this year. While the event of a new king is historic, we weren’t as interested in his life story as much as the palace itself. Fortunately, the middle floor offered a small walking tour of the palace:
After visiting Potsdam, we were left a little underwhelmed by Amalienborg, but learned more about King Frederik the Tenth than we thought we would.
From here, we wanted to go to the other big tourist trap in Copenhagen, the statue of The Little Mermaid. It was still about a 30 minute walk or so, and on the way, we came across Gefion Fountain:
It was quite majestic with the church as the backdrop, and if you looked closely at the statue, the expression on Gefion’s face and the aggression in the whip made for a violent scene.
Continuing on the path, we eventually made it to the Little Mermaid statue, as did many other people (as we also expected). Fortunately, most of them were part of various tour groups, so they didn’t stay for too long. In fact, while we were there, a tour bus drove up and dropped off a large group of tourists. They stayed for about 10 minutes, and had to rush back onto the bus to go to their next destination. Unfortunately, there were around 7-8 tour buses when we were there, so we couldn’t fully escape the crowd, but Nick tried his best to get a photo of her:
For reference, this is what the viewing area actually looked like:
We had walked quite a bit at this point, so we headed back home to get ready for our highly anticipated dinner at Geranium!