COPENHAGEN
Norway & Denmark Diary : Day 1 to day 4 - 31st March 2019 to 3rd April 2019
The Scandinavian lands are accessible from India in more than one ways. However, considering the cost factor, the air fares from our own Bengaluru to Copenhagen, were cheaper during our “planning" period. This caused us to consider the India-Denmark-Norway route.
Further, the proximity of Copenhagen city to the southern most tip of Norway & Sweden coupled with affordable transport modes, gave more reason to stick to this route. The planning process lasted longer than expected. I decided to go with the idea of covering more of Norway in three weeks instead of adding visits to Sweden & Finland resulting in seeing less of each country. The ideas slowly took shape.
Finally, Denmark was included as a 4 day visit in the itinerary. After all, it would be a sin not to visit to this beautiful terrain after having utilised it as a transit point to get further north.
From Bangalore to Copenhagen
The outlay of Copenhagen
The much raved about Copenhagen city exposes one of its boundaries to waters of the ORESUND, a strait formed by the North Sea and the Baltic Sea touching fingers at the southern tip of Sweden. As such the city is at just a 40 minute driving distance from Malmo in Sweden, where the ORESUND BRIDGE links both countries by rail and road. This fascinating rail-cum-road bridge runs for nearly 8 kms, caving into a tunnel in the waters.
Titled as the capital of Denmark, where more than 50% of its population uses bicycles as a regular means of transport, COPENHAGEN is home to the longest shopping, “pedestrian only” street in the world - the “STROGET” . It also hosts a sizeable number of MICHELIN STAR restaurants. This ravishing city is incredibly eco friendly and has also been awarded the title of GREEN CAPITAL in the recent past. It is one of those cities in EUROPE which desists the EUR currency and uses its own Danish Kroner as a medium of exchange instead. It ranks second to Amsterdam in the number of canals and is therefore referred to as “LITTLE AMSTERDAM”. Apart from this, the city is also known for its world renowned bakeries, the TIVOLI gardens, beer breweries and umpteen historic attractions.
Day 1- 31st March 2019
MURMANKSGADE, NORDHAVN
Our entry into the city happened late night, as there was substantial delay in our flight schedule. We reached the Copenhagen (Kastrup) airport on 31st March 2019 by 9 pm. (A couple in our group had arrived earlier that afternoon, directly from Amsterdam )
A taxi drove for about 30 minutes get us to Murmanskgade, Nordhavn. The first looks of the city drove me completely crazy. The entire city was shimmering in soothing, dim, mild yellow lighting. Beautifully structured houses & buildings of strikingly uniform nature, featuring low roofs, all coloured in chocolate brown were neatly stacked up on either side of roads & bridges that we crossed. I can never forget that scene. There was absolute silence at that time of the night and the stark clean roads were free from traffic. It was a fairytale set up. Breeze blew on our faces as our heads peeked out of the taxi, trying to slurp all what we saw, at once.
Before long we reached our abode. The well-designed layout of Murmanksgade showcased residential & office complexes, mostly cubically shaped, stationed next to one another. The taxi came to a stop at the southern most tip, beside a water body. We had booked ourselves through booking.com at STAY SEAPORT. (Click here to check their website. It is sure to leave you spellbound). The brown coloured, cubical apartment stood literally atop a water body, under the black night sky, showcasing the lights in Sweden at a far away distance. During our entire stay of 3 days here, the wind blew so heavily, with a capacity to sweep off any light-weighted person.
The stay for 10 individuals was split between 3 Apartments - 6 in one and a couple each in the 2nd and 3rd one. The only downside was that we all stayed in different apartments in the same building. Nevertheless, we put our act together and co-ordinated beautifully.
The NETTO supermarket right behind the apartment complex, the NORDHAVN Train station at a walkable distance, a local bus stop not far away, and the completely sunlit apartment of ours with big windows and balconies, made our stay a memorable one.
The beautiful Sunrise and Sunsets from our balconies were the added bonus. It wouldn't let my camera pause even for a minute. The various colors of the skies were so attractive.
The interiors of the apartment for 6 of us, as you can see in the pictures, was spacious and welcomed the sunlight from all corners.
As we were at the end of the Wharf, we were probably lucky to spot MALMO. There were these 40 minute ferries plying between the two countries from the wharf area. We never had the time to try one though.
We settled in our flats and rested to regain our energies, well aware of the power packed city tour coming up the next day.
Day 2- 1st April 2019
The city became our own in just 3 days. The effect of travelling like a local paid off.
We set out at quarter past 10 for some exploration. A City Pass covering unlimited usage of all public transport for 24 hours, meant for zones 1 and 2 within the city, was purchased online, well in advance and loaded onto the mobile phone for quick usage. A 10 minute pleasant walk was all it took to the nearest bus stop. A little wait there, in the chilly weather was fun.
We soon hopped onto a bus that reached Sondre FRIHAVN stop in about 10 -15 minutes. We got off the bus, climbed our way through a well maintain garden right there, finding ourselves amidst inviting green vistas. A less than 5 minute walk through this area got us to the LITTLE MERMAID.
