I may be spending three to four weeks in Copenhagen this July or August. My girlfriend (fellow doper F.Pu-du-he-pa-as) is very likely going to be awarded a research grant for a two month study there. I should be able to get a month of leave from work to spend with her.
She will be working roughly eight hours a day on weekdays, leaving me a sizable amount of time to amuse myself during the day. Additionally, the opportunity cost will be quite high: $1000+ round trip airfare and an entire month’s pay. Still, I think spending a month in Copenhagen would be a great life experience, especially when I get to spend evenings and weekends with my wonderful girlfriend (who usually lives 2,500 miles away from me). Here are my questions:
Is this an objectively bad idea? Am I likely to go stir crazy trying to fill the hours and possibly end up putting undue pressure on our relationship?
What is there to do in Copenhagen? Specifically, could I find enough to keep myself occupied eight hours a day for four weeks?
Are there any dopers who live in or near Copenhagen, who might be willing to hang out?
Any enlightenment from the distributed doper cloud intelligence will be much appreciated!
Tivoli Gardens has live music throughout the summer months—Jazz, Blues, Rock n Roll, Big Band, all sorts of good stuff, and I think it’s only a small admission fee.
Have spent a lot of time in Copenhagen and I think you may be in for a treat.
So far I see that the most obvious attraction has been mentioned, the Tivoli Gardens. Worth more than one visit.
Take a stroll starting from Kongens Nytorv down the walking street Strøget where you will find street entertainers and shopping. This will lead you to Nyhavn where you have a number of overpriced restaurant. If you walk a bit further you get to the Royal palace (Rosenborg Castle) where you’ll see soldiers in bearskin hats. (Similar to the ones found in London). Continue along the water and you eventually get to the Little Mermaid.
If you are a doper, in this case, to mean enjoying an occasional marijuana, you could spend a day in Freetown Christiania. An odd little enclave in Copenhagen enjoying a somewhat autonomous status. Because of this they sell cannabis openly and legally. Although the Danish government are trying to bring this community in to the mainstream so it could be gone soon.
Denmark is a small country so you could also take a train out to other towns and cities.
Helsingør or Elsinore of Shakespear’s Hamlet fame has a wonderful castle Kronborg, which is worth a visit, if you’re into that sort of thing. Across the straight is Helsingborg, Sweden and it’s the narrowest part of the straight between Denmark and Sweden. Helsingborg has quaint little streets and is worth a visit, although both Helsingør and Helsingborg are usually packed with tourists during the summer.
From Copenhagen, you could also take a ferry or even the train now over to Malmö, Sweden for the day.
The Roskilde Music Festival starts in late June early July. A quick train ride from Copenhagen to Roskilde and if your visit coincides you could enjoy four days of music. Not sure when it’s starting this year, but I’m sure it’s easy to find with a quick google.
Oh yeah! You’ll find sausage vendors all over the streets of Copenhagen. I love Rød Pølse (Red Sausage), can never get enough of them when I’m in town.
Could you fill a month? Not sure and I guess much has to do with your budget. There’s a lot of things to do, but eventually it does come down to how much you have to spend.
I’ll come back if I can think of anything further to do.
Quick update on the Roskilde Music Festival. This year it will run from June 30th to July 3rd and will feature about a 100 acts. Top billings: ARCTIC MONKEYS (UK), IRON MAIDEN (UK), KINGS OF LEON (US), MASTODON (US), M.I.A. (UK), PJ HARVEY (UK), THE STROKES (US).
A number of less known acts as well. You can check out the details here.
Thanks, everyone! On behalf of my dear and wonderful boyfriend, I should also ask explicitly-- where are the good places to get beer? Any breweries that offer tours? And where are the good places to take long and lovely walks?
Carlsberg Brewery do daily tours and beer is found just about everywhere, even the sausage stands sell beer. I had mentioned the overpriced restaurants in Nyhavn, but you can just sit down for a beer. Nyhavn literally means New Harbor and the restaurants are all lined in front of the harbor where you have old fishing boats tied up. It’s a great place to relax with a beer at sunset. When I was a kid, Nyhavn used to have a lot of tattoo parlors, from the time when it was catering to sailors off the boats, but the harbor is much too small for the size of ships today, so most of those tattoo parlors are all gone, although I think there may still be one or two left in the back streets.
Any walk around Copenhagen is lovely. I’ve already mentioned Strøget, a walking street where you will find a lot of street entertainers.
Another romantic walk you could try is the Botanisk Have, (the Botanical Gardens) in the center of Copenhagen.
A trip by train to the northern suburb of Klampenborg will put you in Dyrehaven, (Deer Garden), the entrance is right next to the Klampenborg station. It’s one of the biggest forests in Denmark dominated by oak trees. In the center of the forest is the Ermitage castle. There is also an amusement park in Klampenborg, also near the train station. You can take long walks there, or if you are feeling really romantic, you can take a horse and carriage ride through the forest.
Oh no, I’m starting to feel nostalgic. My last visit was in 2009. I never lived there, but because my father is originally a native of Copenhagen, I do visit quite regularly. I think it’s time for another visit.
Beer & nice walks are plentiful here! And Copenhagen is a great place in the summer. If you are lucky you’ll be here for the jazz festival (sometime in July). I’ll be happy to show you guys around - mail or PM in profile.
Also: IIRC you study Hittite or near-eastern archeology. Any chance that you’ll be spending time at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute (I have good friends there)?
Thanks for all the suggestions! I think I will end up spending two weeks there. A whole month is too much considering that I only get the evenings and weekends with the lady.
I say do it! I would go for the month, not just the two weeks. Plan your stay aead and make sure you have to do more then just paly tourist. Check out volunteer work or summer courses there.
And don’t forget there are cheap ways to get form Copenhagen to other main European cities. Amsterdam and Prage are just half a day’s ride away. You could take your girlfriend to Prague for a weekend. If you don’t have a car, check out cheap bus travel agencies. They come with stays in hotels and are very affordable.
I’ve lived in Copenhagen for 24 years and somehow managed not to go completely bonkers, so I think you should have a good chance of getting through a couple of weeks here, without sustaining any permanent injuries. Off the top of my head, here are a few time-killing suggestions for you:
Davids Samling (David’s Collection) is a grotesquely underrated museum situated in a beautifully renovated building just opposite King’s Garden and Rosenborg Castle. On display on the top floor is one of the world’s finest collections of Islamic art and Indian and Persian miniatures.
I think someone already mentioned the Botanical Garden; it’s a good place for stroll when the weather is nice. There’s a cafe, charming victorian-style green houses, and a pond full of released ex-pet turtles.
As I don’t drink I can’t vouch for the quality of their beer, but there are a few restaurants/pubs-cum-breweries in Copenhagen, e.g. Brewpub in Vestergade, Nørrebro Bryghus in Ryesgade, and Apollo by the main entrance to Tivoli.
Glyptoteket houses a nice collection of sculpture and art, and the museum itself is quite stunning, especially the conservatory which doubles as a café/confectioner. If you like sculpture you should also visit Thorvaldsens Museum where most of the work of the (somewhat) famous Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen can be found.
Ok, I’m going to stop before I turn into a guidebook, but if you have any particular interests, I’m sure I could come up with something that might suit you, so please feel free to ask.