EU 2013 - Copenhagen/Malmö

Nyhavn

Arrived in Copenhagen on a fairly cold (12 C) and wet day in late June. The cold and occasional rain would continue for the four days of our trip which was not too bad but left us thinking that maybe we should have gone to Italy or Croatia or somewhere with at least better weather than San Francisco. Still a good time to wander around though.

Stayed at the Axel Hotel Guldsmeden near the central station. Nice hotel, great staff, great spa in the basement, very funky bathroom setup. For restaurants, like Fiskebaren for seafood, Mother for Italian (both a little west of the station and near the hotel), a nice fixed menu at Manfred's, and a good bagel with lox one morning at the Bagel Shoppen. The only meal I thought was a little overrated was lunch at Aamanns where the smørebrod was ok but not so great given the prices. Late night food is pretty much limited to shawarma and really good hot dogs (pølse) which tend to be easier to find around Tivoli and the central station area.

Mikkeller Bar

Great beer at both Mikkeller Bar in Vesterbro and Mikkeller and Friends in Nørrebro. 20 taps at the former and 40 at the latter. Likely the best beer on tap anywhere in Europe at this point in time. Finished the trip with good cocktails at the Barking Dog in Nørrebro. Liked the touch of coco puff-like cereal to top their white russians.

Lila Torg

Took a day trip to Malmö, Sweden via train from the central station. Was about $25 per person round trip and 30 min each way. Was a very rainy and cold day but we still had a nice lunch on Lila Torg (the cute small square in town) at La Grappa and did some window shopping in town. Malmö is a bit odd in that most of the town seemed to close down at 16:00 on Saturday and not open at all on Sunday. Outside of a few bars and restaurants we saw, unsure what people do. Maybe they all have nice cottages they go to and hang out on the beach. I hope it's something along those lines.

CPH travel basics: $1 = 5.69 DKK during our trip. Flew United Airlines SFO-LHR and SAS LHR-CPH. United was fine. SAS left a lot to be desired as they block the first 15 rows or so for their Gold flyers. So on this flight there were about 5 people in the first 15 and 50 of us jammed in to the last 10. Kind of uncomfortable but only 1h 20m in the air so not too bad. Did like SAS showing takeoff from the nose camera and the flight from the belly camera on the dropdown monitors.

It was very easy to get a 3G SIM at the Telia store at Copenhagen Central Station for my unlocked iPhone 4. DKK 29 for a Telia Talk SIM and DKK 49 for unlimited internet for a week. $13 well spent to have Google Maps, Yelp, and other apps available wherever and whenever, and nice to be able to make a couple calls as needed.

Additional photos at flickr