Copenhagen is a city that has always fascinated me, perhaps because despite the very (too?) cold climate it has always given me warmth and welcome. Modern and historic at the same time, it is the essence of Scandinavian style, it is a palette of colors, it is rich in historic buildings and design. It is certainly a city on a human scale, as we like it, and can be visited easily on foot on a long weekend.
Here is our 4-day itinerary between Copenhagen and Malmö.
Day 1: Tivoli Garden, Strøget and TorvehallerneKBH
Let's start our first day with a visit to the Tivoli Gardens. Opened on August 15, 1843, it is the second oldest amusement park to have survived intact to this day. When Tivoli was built, it was located outside the western gate of the city, but today the Town Hall square is a few minutes' walk away and the Central Station is across the street, so it's very easy to get to.
Tivoli manages to combine exotic architecture with historic buildings and is full of lush gardens. The attractions, so different from each other, adapt perfectly to this parallel world of fantasy. Some are spectacularly nostalgic like the oldest ride in the park, the 1914 wooden roller coaster, one of seven roller coasters in the world where there is still a person on board who manually takes care of the braking. Others are super modern and moments of pure adrenaline like the Vertigo which reaches a speed of 100 km/h and I can assure you gives even the most fearless a hard time. These days it is decorated with a Halloween theme, which makes the experience even more magical and exhilarating. Needless to say, Paolino and I feel like children again and let ourselves be carried away by the wonder of the place and its atmosphere!
Hours: Sunday - Thursday: from 11:00 to 23:00; Friday and Saturday: from 11:00 to 24:00. Summer opening from 4 April to 22 September; opening for Halloween from 11 October to 3 November; Christmas holidays opening from November 16th to January 5th.We leave the park happy and smooth and head towards the centre. Let's cross Rådhusplads, where is the Copenhagen City Hall – we will return here in the next few days to visit the interior and the tower – and from here we take the Strøget, a pedestrian area in the heart of Copenhagen. It is the set of several streets in succession that make up the longest pedestrian street in Europe. At the other end is Kongens Nytorv and in between an infinite number of shops – only a few are typical Danish (particularly the designer shops), while the majority are the big international fashion brands – numerous bars and restaurants.
We end the day at TorvehallerneKBH, Copenhagen's largest indoor food market. Opened only in 2011, it consists of two pavilions and a large outdoor space where there are many stalls and shops of all kinds. It offers a wide range of fresh local foods including herbs, smoked meats, fish, cheeses and coffee. Like all markets, it offers a characteristic and colorful environment, full of life even if very modern and tidy. On Fridays it stays open until 8pm, so after a nice tour around all the stalls we sit at the counter and have a bite to eat while sipping some good wine at the end of a wonderful first day!
Hours: Every day. Monday - Thursday: from 10:00 to 19:00; Friday: until 8pm; Saturday: until 6pm; Sunday: from 11:00 to 17:00.Day 2: Rosenborg Castle, Kastellet Fortress, the Little Mermaids and Nyhavn
The second day begins with a visit to Rosenborg Castle, in the green lung of Copenhagen. A real fairytale castle made of moats, drawbridges and lots of greenery, it immediately strikes you with the contrast between the walls made of red bricks and the roof, the towers and the green copper spiers.
The castle was built between 1606 and 1624 as a royal residence at the behest of King Christian IV of Denmark. After the reign of Frederick IV of Denmark, the castle was used as the home of a royal family on only two other occasions, both of extraordinary emergencies. The first time was in 1794 when Christiansborg Palace burned down, and the second during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. Since 1833, the King's Castle and Gardens have been open to the public. The Danish Royal House has transformed the palace into a large museum where the crown jewels and treasures are kept, spanning a period of four hundred years, from 1500 to 1900. The interiors are, in our opinion, the most striking part for the rooms of astonishing beauty: rooms with frescoed ceilings and furnished with period furniture, prized art collections of the Royal Household and evocative cellars where the Crown jewels are kept.
Hours: January - April: Tuesday / Sunday from 10:00 to 14:00; May - June: Monday / Sunday from 10:00 to 16:00; June - August: Monday / Sunday from 09:00 to 17:00; September - October: Monday / Sunday from 10:00 to 16:00; November - December 22: Tuesday / Sunday from 10:00 to 14:00; December 27 - December 30: Tuesday / Friday from 10:00 to 16:00.Around the castle are worth a visit Royal Gardens, or Kongens Have, built in the 17th century, at the behest of Christian IV. These gardens represent the oldest park in Denmark. A vegetable garden was also created inside them, useful for providing supplies to the castle court. In the park there are several statues of well-known figures, Kings and Queens, including that of the famous Danish writer Hans Andersen.
We then reach the Kastellet Fortress. Also called "the Citadel" it is an ancient military fortification, star-shaped with bastions at the corners and surrounded by the waters of a moat. The Citadel has two main entrances to access: the King's Gate on the south side, facing the city, and the Gate of Norway – the one from which we choose to enter – on the north side of the fortification, both dating back to 1663 as part of the original citadel. They are built in the Dutch Baroque style and are on the inner side flanked by gatekeepers. Inside it is made up of tidy red houses with sloping roofs. The main reason for our visit is the very famous Windmill located at the southwestern corner of the citadel. It dates back to 1817 and is the only mill left standing. In 1800, in fact, 16 mills had been built on the ramparts to guarantee safe supplies of food to the fortified city.
Finally, leaving the Kings Gate we admire the Gefjon Fountain, depicts the legend of the birth of Zeeland, the island on which Copenhagen is located. Legend has it that Gefjun had asked the king of Sweden for the land and that he had promised her a kingdom as large as the one she could plow in one night; the woman transformed her children into oxen and dug up an enormous quantity of earth, which was poured into the sea, creating Zeeland. The statue of the fountain represents Gefjun who encourages his children transformed into oxen to work. Next to the fountain stands the majestic St Alban's Church, in neo-Gothic style.
Hours: Every day from 6:00 to 22:00.The next stop is the undisputed symbol of the city, the very famous one Little Mermaid of Copenhagen. For those who aren't aware, it is a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen inspired by the protagonist of the fairy tale of the same name by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. It was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, which represented the fairy tale of the Little Mermaid on stage. The sculpture is located on a rock on the Langelinie riverfront, at the entrance to the port of Copenhagen. With her gaze turned towards the sea, the Little Mermaid scans the horizon, awaiting the hopeful arrival of her Prince Charming.
However, we also want to dedicate some time to her less famous but equally beautiful sister, La Genetically Modified Little Mermaid. It is a work by the artist Bjørn Nørgaard, created for the Danish pavilion at the Hanover World Expo in 2000. In 2006, however, it was decided to place it on a small island on the surface of the water in a new square next door at one of the old warehouses in the port of Copenhagen, 'Dahlerups Pakhus'. It is part of a group of sculptures called 'The Genetically Modified Paradise'.
This second day has also come to an end and we are heading towards Nyhavn, the ancient port of Copenhagen. The central point of the city's tourism, it is already animated in the afternoon by the lights of the cafés and clubs of all kinds and warmed by the heat of the mushrooms on their terraces. We stop to drink something hot and thanks to the dim light of the candles, the smell of cinnamon, a little glogg (the local mulled wine) and sweet background music we discover and become familiar with theHygge, a sentiment so loved by the Danes.
Day 3: Malmö
One of the most interesting attractions in Copenhagen is the Øresund Bridge, which dives from the Danish capital into the Baltic Sea and reaches the shores of Sweden. This engineering masterpiece crosses the water and connects Copenhagen to Malmo, in about an hour.
We therefore dedicate a day to visiting Malmo, located in the extreme south of Sweden, the third largest and most populous city in the nation. The characteristic feature of the city is repres