My wife and I went to Copenhagen and Oslo on our honeymoon three years ago. Oslo was okay, but yeah–Copenhagen was wonderful. My only gripe about the city was that it was very difficult to find same-day lodging there; twice we ended up staying at the crappy city youth hostel. I suppose it’s a victim of its own popularity–or, rather, we and our non-planning-aheadness were victims of its popularity.
If you go there, try to track down the Lejre Research Center, probably the coolest history museum I’ve ever been to. It’s really impressive.
That might be a little strong, but Oslo does suffer from being a teeensy old town that was massively expanded by urbanisation and oil money at the end of the seventies, when all architects seemed to be operating on the principle that ‘if it aint shit-ugly it ain’t a building’. Most of it looks like it belongs in New Jersey. And it does indeed cost a godawful amount to do anything other than walk around.
Parts of Helsinki are also a bit ugly, but there are also a lot of nice bits and the people seem very friendly. Some of the old pre-war parts are beautiful.
Stockholm is much bigger than those two put together. more cosmopolitan and very very nice - I reccommend it to everyone.
Only ever been to Copenhagen airport. The city looks pretty flat.
I spent two days walking round Copenhagen on a dislocated ankle, which I think proves that either I’m a sadist, or that Copenhagen is an incredibly easy city to walk round.
My husband and I just went to Copenhagen for the first time this winter and loved it. Our room was booked for us by a conference organizer and at first, I was put off by how tiny and non-descript the hotel seemed to be. We stepped out of the taxi, almost (accidentally) knocked over a bicyclist in the bike lane, and then ventured tentatively into an archway leading to a courtyard with a small door bearing our hotel’s name. Once inside, we squished into a single-person closet elevator to ride up to the main floor. This turned out to be a small series of rooms with a reception desk tucked away into one corner. There were tables with votive candles, refreshments, bookcases, indy music and plenty of people talking and laughing. Our actual guest room was very romantic with a four-poster bed, french doors opening out onto a balcony in a courtyard, etc. All in all, it made for great memories.
If you do go to Copenhagen, buy a bus pass. (I know you can buy one at the tourist center opposite the Tivoli Gardens, and I’m sure there are plenty of other places too.) It’s cheap and the bus system is efficient and well-labeled. One of the things I found interesting about the city was how few cars there are. A native told me that there’s a pretty high tax (maybe even 200% or more) on automobiles, which is why you’ll see most people riding bikes, even in the snow. (Sin/nanny taxes seem to be fairly common there. A glass of pepsi in a pub can cost you as much as $5-6 with no free refills!!)
When not at the hotel or conference, we ate at restaurants on the same street (Tandlaegerne?), and eventually ventured out for a Saturday of sightseeing which took us to the Little Mermaid and other touristy spots. For what it’s worth, every person we met spoke English, so we didn’t have to worry about learning Danish.
