LateDeparture.com » Copenhagen

How to see Copenhagen in 4 hours

Tom — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 06:51:49 +0000

It’s early morning and you just realized that your travel department booked you on a flight with a four hour stop-over in Copenhagen in contrast to the direct flight you normally get. You may think this is another one of those ridiculous cost saving tasks recently implemented by your company. We disagree and think, someone really liked you and gave you a well deserved mini-break for free. We think so, because Copenhagen is one of the cities that are so accessible, you can see a good part of it in a very short time.

You don’t believe us? Well, we tried it ourselves and produced a minute by minute report:

4 pm
My flight lands at Copenhagen Airport (IATA: CPH; LD hub page)

4.15 pm
I approach one of the two currency exchange booths in the arrival hall and get a few krone

4.30 pm
I take the metro line M2 to Kongens Nytorv for DKK 36 (3 zones for 2 hours)

4.45 pm
The metro arrives in the station, I exit it and briefly consult my previously downloaded iPhone map to check for the directions.

5 pm
I get to the city’s most photographed sight: the historic Nyhavn canal lined with many colourful Dutch-style townhouses

5.10 pm
After taking a few pictures and having had a good look at the canal and the townhouses, I continue my walk and get to ‘Emmerys‘, a bakery and buy a small Danish snack to keep me going.

5.15 pm
I arrive at the second feature stop of my short visit: Amalienborg Palace. It’s the home of the Danish royal family and I’ve always wanted to see it. Even though it’s probably not the most picturesque palace in Europe, knowing you can get very close to the front doors and therefore might get the slightest chance to see one of the royals up close makes it worthwhile. Unfortunately for me, they are a no show this time but I do enjoy photographing the colourful (and friendly) guards with the backdrop of the palace buildings.

5.30 pm
I continue on and get to another famous Copenhagen sight: the little mermaid. Inspired by one of Hans Christian Andersen‘s most famous characters, the little mermaid is one of the first things that springs to mind when people think about the Danish capital. I find it smaller than imagined but like her setting beside the harbour. I patiently await my turn to be photographed with her.

6 pm
I walk to my final spot before heading back to the airport. After all, you say you haven’t been to Denmark without having had a proper Danish open sandwich which they call ‘smørrebrød’. I approach the often quoted queen of smørrebrød, a place called ‘Ida Davidsen’ (Store Kongensgade 70). According to their website it offers more than 177 varieties of the Danish snack. Unfortunately the restaurant is currently closed due to water damage and won’t open again until 1st November. I’m disappointed but choose to try the place next door called ‘Amadeus’.

6.30 pm
I fix my bill and pay DKK 284 for the 3 different smørrebrød and 2 beers. I enjoyed that and am even a little proud of myself for having tried the very Danish combination of curry herring (and liked it!).

6.40 pm
Back at Kongens Nytorv metro station I take the M2 back to the airport

7 pm
I arrive back at the airport with a big smile on my face. After all, who gets to see a good part of a city in only a few short hours? My flight will be boarding in 30 minutes which leaves me enough time for a quick browse through the shops. After all, there’s plenty to do at the Copenhagen airport too (see the LateDeparture reviews).

So, why not try this yourself next time you have some time in this beautiful city? Just remember that you need to focus on a few things and not try to do everything. Copenhagen offers quite a bit more than the above (e.g. Tivoli, Rundetårn, Christiania, Nørrebro, etc.), so simply tailor your stay to your own preferences.

Top 5 things to do while waiting in…. Copenhagen

Tom — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:54:13 +0000

Thanks a lot for all your feedback on my first blog entry. One of many comments was that you would like to see a top X list of things to do. Fair enough, so here’s the one for Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport:

Visit the tiny but iconic Lego store - DKK 0
Decide between the brown and the black leather jacket in the Puma store – DKK 2,000
Drink a large beer at the Sportsbar while watching the Euro Soccer – DKK 67
Make room for the next beer downstairs in the roomy toilets - DKK 0
Watch the gorgeous blond across the hallway – priceless

Again, comments are of course more than welcome

(Image from Flickr – some rights reserved)

Lengthy wait at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport

Tom — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:34:07 +0000

Copenhagen is a beautiful city, especially when you visit it in June where the daylight hours are the longest of the year and even more so if you are lucky and find warm and sunny weather. All of these parameters were true for me when I visited Denmark’s capital last weekend. And for the size of the city there is a lot to do and see. My favourites were the alternative area Christiania or simply a trip with the water taxi around the harbour.

But let’s fast-forward to Sunday evening: So, here I was back at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport on Sunday evening with a big smile on my face from the past 2 days. I’ve just said goodbye to my friend who flew back to Berlin with a slightly earlier flight than mine. And then it happens: Before I could blink twice, the departure screen changed my EasyJet flight from being on time to delayed for an hour. In the end it was delayed for 3 hours and I was lucky to get the very last train back to Central London.

The big question is, what can you do for 3 hours at Copenhagen airport? The answer is, actually quite a lot. The airport offers a nice design which features a calming wooden floor throughout all the terminals. It also contains of a fairly large sized shopping area in both gates areas A/B area and also C/D with the usual duty free shops but also some very nice clothing stores, sports outlets (I particular liked the Puma store), delicacy shops for your supply of Danish salmon and the like. And not to forget the Lego store in the A/B area which, however, is disappointedly small.

Kastrup also features Copenhagen’s only Starbucks outlet and a few other refreshment bars and restaurants. It also has a good sized Sportsbar which came in handy as I was able to watch the Germany v Poland Euro Soccer match and the start of the Canadian Formula One grandprix. A special note here goes to the very friendly and super efficient bar staff. The prices however were more on the steep side as you would expect from a monopolistic setup like this. And finally, I was fairly impressed by the spacious Gent’s toilets in the A/B area (only a short walk downstairs from the Sportsbar) which were very clean.

Overall, I really enjoyed the airport and it certainly shortened my lengthy wait and (more importantly) lifted my mood. The only big drawback was that the shops closed already around 10 pm. But I guess, there’s always the Sportsbar to retreat to…

Facts
Airport name: Copenhagen Kastrup
Short code: CPH
Website: http://www.cph.dk
Design factor: 4/5
Shopping factor: 4/5
Toilets factor: 4/5
Overall factor: 4/5

(Image from Flickr)