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COPENHAGEN TRAVEL GUIDE
Copenhagen, as any Dane will tell you, is no introduction to Denmark; indeed, a greater contrast with the sleepy provincialism of the rest of the country would be hard to find. Despite that, the city completely dominates Denmark: it is the seat of all the nation's institutions - politics, finance and the arts. It is also easily Scandinavia's most affordable capital, and one of Europe's most user-friendly cities: welcoming and compact, with a centre largely given over to pedestrians.
There are first-rate galleries to visit and a worthy batch of smaller museums. In summer, there's also a lively range of street entertainment, while at night there's a plethora of cosy bars and an intimate club and live-music network that can hardly be bettered.
There was no more than a tiny fishing settlement here until the twelfth century, when Bishop Absalon oversaw the building of a castle on the site of the present Christianborg.
The settlement's prosperity grew after Erik of Pomerania granted special privileges and imposed the Sound Toll on vessels passing through the Oresund, then under Danish control, thus giving the expanding city tidy profits and enabling a self-confident trading centre to flourish.
Following the demise of the Hanseatic ports, the city became the Baltic's principal harbour, earning the name Kobenhavn ("merchant's port"), and in 1443 it was made the Danish capital.
A century later, Christian IV began the building programme that was the basis of the modern city: Rosenborg Slot, Borsen, Rundetarn and the districts of Nyboder and Christianshavn date from this time. In 1669, Frederik III graced the city with its first royal palace, Amalienborg.
ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation is not easy to come by in Copenhagen, especially if you arrive late, or during July and August, when it's essential to book in advance.
Most of the cheaper hotels are just outside the centre, around Istedgade, a slightly seedy area on the far side of the train station, and there's a good range of mid-priced hotels around Nyhavn, on the opposite side of the Indre By. Check with the tourist office early in the day and they may find you a double room for as little as 450kr; private rooms, most of which are in the inner suburbs, will be an S-train ride away from the centre.
Copenhagen has a great, though less central, selection of hostels, and space is only likely to be a problem in the peak summer months, when you should call ahead or turn up as early as possible to be sure of a place (Use It keeps a daily list of availability). Breakfast is not included in the prices given, unless otherwise stated.
HOSTELS AND SLEEP-INS
Bellahoj Vandrehjem, Herbergsvejen 8.
HI hostel with large dorms, but more cosy than its rivals, and just fifteen minutes from the city centre on Buses #2 and #11, nightbus #82N. No curfew.
Tel: 38 - 28 - 97 - 15.
Closed: mid-January - March.
CITY PUBLIC HOSTEL, Absalonsgade 8.
Noisy sixty-bed dorm on the lower floor, less crowded conditions on other levels. Just ten minutes' walk from the train station. Buses #6 and #28 stop close by. No curfew. Breakfast 20K.
Tel: 32 - 31 - 20 - 70.
Closed: September - April.
COPENHAGEN HOSTEL, Vejlands alle 200.
HI Hostel with frugal two and five-bed rooms. Bus #46, or a good 20 minutes' walk from the airport. No curfew.
Tel: 32 - 52 - 29 - 08
Closed: December - mid-January.
HOTEL JORGENSENS, Romersgade 11.
A stone's throw from Norreport station on Israels Plads. Mostly dorms of six, nine and twelve beds, with a few basic doubles. Popular with gay travellers. Age limit 35. Breakfast 120kr. Dorms.
Tel: 33 - 13 - 81 - 86.
ISHOJ STRAND HOSTEL, Ishoj Strandvej 13.
A great five-star HI hostel, next to Koge beach park and the Arken modern art gallery. Thirty minutes from the centre on A or E line S-trains.
Tel: 43 - 53 - 50 - 15.
SLEEP IN, BLEGDAMSVEJ 132.
North of the city centre, and within walking distance of lively Sankt Hans Torv. Basic but adequate four and six-bed dorms. Bus #1, #6 or #14, nighbus #85N or #95N. July and August only.
Tel: 35 - 26 - 50 - 59.
SLEEP-IN-FACT, Valdemarsgade 14.
In the heart of Vesterbro, this is a sports centre out of season. Fifteen minutes' walk from the Central Station or bus #6. Small and basic breakfast included.
Tel: 33 - 79 - 67 - 79.
Closed: mid-August to mid-June.
SLEEP IN GREEN, Raavnsborggade 18.
Close to Sankt Hans Torv's cafe - and bar-life, this place has 68 dorm beds. Bus #5 or #16, nighbus #81N or #84N. Organic breakfast 30kr.
Tel: 35 - 37 - 77 - 77.
Closed: mid-October - May.
SLEEP IN HEAVEN, Struensegade 7.
Two vast halls, the largest with 76 beds divided into four and eight-bed compartments. Pleasant atmosphere, with youthful staff and occasional free gigs. Ten minutes from the centre by bus #8, #12 or #13, nightbus #92N. No curfew.
Tel: 35 - 35 - 46 - 48.
YWCA INTERPOINT, Valdemarsgade 15.
Four, six and ten-bed rooms. Fifteen minutes' walk from Central Station or bus #3, #6 or #16.
Tel: 33 - 31 - 15 - 74.
Closed: mid-August - mid-June.
HOTELS
ABSALON HOTEL, Helgolandsgade 15-19.
Very large family-run hotel, near Central Station. Most rooms en suite, but some (cheaper one's) aren't. Breakfast included.
Tel: 33 - 24 - 22 - 11.
BERTRAMS HOTEL, Vesterbrogade 107a.
Relaxed and cosy, modelled on Agatha Christie's Bertrams in London, a quiet haven in lively Vesterbro. Large rooms, some en suite. Bus #6 or #28. Breakfast buffet included.
Tel: 33 - 25 - 04 - 05.
HOTEL CAB INN SCANDINAVIA, Vodroffsvej 55.
Inspired by the Oslo ferry, 200 small en suite cabins. Breakfast 50kr.
Tel: 35 - 36 - 11 - 11.
SAGA HOTEL, Colbjornsensgade 18-20.
Cheap, central hotel, a stone's throw from Central Station (head out the back exit). On the edge of the red light district. Shared bathrooms. Breakfast included.
Tel: 33 - 24 - 49 - 44.
THE CITY
Indre By forms the city's inner core, an intricate maze of streets, squares and alleys. The main way in is from the buzzing open space of Radhuspladsen, where you'll find the Radhus. (Tours: Monday - Friday 3pm, Saturday 10 and 11am; 30kr); which has an elegant fin-de-siecle hall and a bell tower (separate Tours: June - September Monday - Friday 10am, noon and 2pm, Saturday noon; October - May Monday - Saturday noon; 20kr) that gives wonderful views over the city.
Jens Olsen's World Clock (10kr), in a room close to the entrance, took 27 years of perfect; it contains a 570,000 - year calendar, plotting solar and lunar eclipses and various planetary orbits, as well as telling the local time - all with astounding accuracy.
STROGET AND AROUND
Beyond Radhuspladse, Stroget, a lively, pedestrianized street, leads onto the heart of the city. The liveliest part is around Gammeltorv and Nytorv, squares on either side of Stroget, where there's a morning fruit and vegetable market, and jewellery and bric-a-brac stalls.
A few minutes further on is the Helligands Kirke (daily noon - 4pm), founded in the fourteenth century and largely rebuilt from 1728 onwards, it is one of the oldest churches in the city.
Stroget ends at Kongens Bytorv, the city's largest square, with an equestrian statue of its creator, Christian V, in the centre and a couple of grandly aging structures around two of its shallow angles, most notably the Danish Royal Theatre and Charlottenborg - finished in 1683, at the same time as the square itself, for a son of Frederik III. Since 1754 it has been the home of the Royal Academy of Art (daily 10am - 5pm Wednesday til 7pm; 20kr, which hosts decidedly eclectic art exhibitions in its spacious rooms.
There's more to see among the tangle of buildings and streets west of Stroget, not least the old university area, sometimes called the Latin Quarter, where the Vor Frue Kirke (Monday - Saturday 8:30am - 5pm, Sunday noon - 3pm), Copenhagen's Cathderal, dates from 1829. The figure of Christ behind the altar and the solemn statues of the Apostles, crafted by Bertel Thorvaldsen and his pupils, merit a quick call.
Northeast, the Rundetarn (June - August Monday - Saturday 10am - 5/8pm, Sunday noon - 5/8pm; 20kr), whose summit is reached by a spiral ramp, was built by Christian IV as an observatory.
Close by, the Music History Museum, just off Kultorvet ant Abenra 30 (May - September Monday and Wednesday - Sunday 1 - 3:50pm; October - April also closed Thursday; 30kr), holds an impressive collection of musical instruments and sound-making devices, spanning the globe and the last thousand years.
Over Norre Voldgade, the Workers Museum at Romersgade 22 (July - October daily 10am - 4pm; rest of the year closed Monday; 50kr) is an engrossing guide to working-class life in Copenhagen from 1930 - 1959, using reconstructions and authentic periods materials.
Norrebro, northwest of the train station, has shed its crime-related reputation and is now a lively, young area that houses an ever increasing number of trendy fashion shops and buzzes right through the night.
NORTH OF INDRE BY
Gothersgade, the road marking the northern perimeter of Indre By, is home to the Cinematek (Tuesday - Friday 9:30am - 10pm, Saturday and Sunday 12:30pm - 10pm; free, movies 50kr), housing a three screen art-house cinema, a videotek section with free film showings, and a museum and library with exhibits on the city's early film industry.
There's a profound change of mood once you cross Gothersgade; the congenial alleys of the old city give way to long, broad streets and proud, aristocratic structures.
Running from Kongens Nytorv, a slender canal divides the two sides of Nyhavn, picturesquely lined by eighteenth-century houses - now bars and cafes, which are the place to be sen enjoying a beer in summer.
Just north, the cobbled Amalienborg Plads centres on a statue of Frederik V flanked by four identical Rococo palaces. Two serve s royal residences, and there's a changing of the guard at noon, if the monarch is at home.
Between the square and the harbour are the lavish gardens of Amaliehaven; in the opposite direction is the great marble dome of Frederikskirke, also known as "Marmorkirken" or marble church (Monday - Thursday 10am - 5pm, Wednesday till 6pm, Friday - Sunday noon - 5pm), which was modelled on St Peter's in Rome.
Begun in 1749, it remained unfinished until a century and a half later because of the enormous costs involved.
Further along Bredgade, a German armoured car commandeered by Danes to bring news of the Nazi surrender marks the entrance to the Museum of the Danish Resistance Movement (Tuesday - Saturday 10/11am - 3/4pm, Sunday 10/11am - 4/5pm; 30kr, free on Wednesday).
The road behind the museum crosses into the grounds of the Kastellet (daily 6am - sunset; free), a fortress built by Christian IV and expanded by his successors through the seventeenth-century. It's now occupied by the Danish army and closed to the public, but on a nearby corner the Little Mermaid has, since its unveiling in 1913, been one of the city's major tourist attractions; a bronze statue of a Hans Christian Anderson character, it was sculpted by Edvard Erichsen and paid for by the founder of the Carlsberg brewery.
A short walk to the sough, he spectacular Gefion Fountain shows the goddess Gefion with her four sons, whom she's turned into oxen having been promised, in return, as much land as she can plough in a single night.
West of here lies Nyboder, a curious area of narrow streets lined with rows of compact yellow dwellings, originally built by Christian IV to encourage his sailors to live in the city. The oldest (and cutest) houses can be found along Skt. Pauls Gade.
Across Solvgade from Nyboder is the main entrance to Rosenborg Slot (May - October daily 10/11am - 3/5pm; November - April Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 2pm; 60kr). This Dutch-Renaissance-style palace served as the main residence of Christian IV and, until the end of the nineteenth-century, of the monarchs who succeeded him. The main building displays the rooms and furnishings used by the regal occupants, although the highlight is the downstairs treasury, which displays the crown jewels and rich accessories worn by Christian IV.
Adjacent to Rosenborg Slot is Kongens Have, the city's oldest public park and a popular place for picnics, while on the west side is the Botanical Garden (daily 8:30am - 4/6pm; winter closed Monday; free).
The neighboring Statens Museum for Kunst (daily 10am - 5pm, Wednesday till 8pm; 50kr, free on Wednesday) holds a mammoth collection of art, from minor Picasso's and major pieces by Matisse and Braque, Cranach, El Greco, Titian, Rubens, Poussin and Claude Lorrain - although it's the grotesque pieces by Emil Nolde that steal the show. The new section houses mostly contemporary Danish art.
The Skagen artists, known for their interesting use of light, are amongst a nearby collection of twentieth-century Danish art across the park, at Den Hirschsprungske Samling on Stockholmsgade (daily 11am - 4pm, Wednesday till 9pm; 25kr, free on Wednesdays).
CHRISTIANSBORG
Christiansborg sits on the island of Slotsholmen, tenuously connected to Indre By by several short bridges. It was here, in the twelfth-century, that Bishop Absalon built the castle that instigated the city.
The drab royal palace completed in 1916 that now occupies the site is primarily given over to government offices and the stat parliament or Folketinget (guides Tours July - September daily at 2pm; rest of year Sunday only; free).
Close to the bus stop on Christiansborg Slotsplads is the doorway to the Ruins under Christiansborg (May - September daily 9:30am - 3:30pm; October - April closed Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 20kr), where a staircase leads down to the remains of Absalon's original building; it's surprisingly absorbing, the mood enhanced by the semi-darkness and lack of external noise.
The Royal Reception Rooms (guided Tours May - September daily at 11am, 1pm and 3pm; October - April Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 11am and 3pm, Sunday at 3pm; 40kr), in the palaces north wing and used by the royal family to entertain important visitors, are worth a peek.
On the far side of Slotsholmen, the Thorvaldsens Museum (Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm; 20kr, Wednesday free) is the home of an enormous collection of work and memorabilia (and the body) of Denmark's most famous sculptor, who lived from 1770 - 1844.
There's another major collection a short walk away over the Slotsholmen moat, in the National Museum (same times; 40kr, Wednesday free), which has excellent displays on Denmark's prehistory and Viking days - jewellery, sacrificial gifts, and even bodies, all remarkably well preserved by Danish peat bogs.
CHRISTIANSHAVN AND CHRISTIANIA
From Christiansborg, a bridge crosses to Christianshavn, built by Christian IV as an autonomous new town in the early sixteenth-century as housing for shipbuilding workers. It was given features more common to Dutch ports of the time, even down to small canals, and in parts sis more redolent of Amsterdam than Copenhagen.
Reaching skywards on the far side of Torvegade is the blue-and-gold spire of Vor Grelsers Kirke (daily 11/12am - 3:30/4:30pm; tower April - October only; free, tower 20kr), whose helter-skelter outside staircase was added to the otherwise plain church in the mid-eighteenth-century, making it one of the city's most recognizable features.
A few streets from Vor Frelsers Kirke, Christiania is a former barracks area that was colonized by hippies after declaring itself a "free city" in 1971. A pseudo-Statue of Liberty greets visitors as they pass under the little arched entrance and head for the open hash market, known as Puscherstreet, where smoking is tolerated by the government.
Bob Marley and John Lennon blare out from the bars and the area is a wash with psychedelic painting. Residents ask visitors not to camp or point cameras directly at them. There are two-hour guided tours of the area (daily noon - 3pm on the hour; 30kr), individuals can just turn up, but if possible book at least one day in advance.
Tel: 32 - 57 - 96 - 70.
ALONG VESTERBROGADE
Hectic Vesterbrogade begins on the far side of Radhuspladsen, and its first attraction is perhaps Copenhagen's most famous, the Tivoli Gardens (mid-April - September daily 11am - 11pm/1am; 50kr), whose opening each year marks the beginning of summer.
Throughout the season, the gardens feature fairground rides, fireworks, fountains, and a variety of nightly entertainment in the central arena. It's rather overrated and expensive, but you can still have an enjoyable evening wandering among the revellers of all ages.
On the other side of Tietgensgade, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 4pm; 30kr, Wednesday and Sunday free) is Copenhagen's finest gallery, with an array of Greek, Roman and Egyptian art and artifacts, as well as what is considered the biggest and best collection of Etruscan art outside Italy. There are also excellent examples of modern European art, including a collection of Degas casts, Manet's Absinthe Drinker and works by Man Ray, Chagall and Picasso.
Directly behind the station begins Vesterbro proper, the city's former red light district currently undergoing a bit of a gentrification process as home of Copenhagen's wealthier students and young families.
In the narrow streets between Vesterbrogade and Istedgade, a few pornography shops remain as evidence of the area's former role.
At Vesterbrogade 59, the City Museum (Monday and Wednesday - Sunday 10am/1pm - 4pm; 20kr, Friday free) Contains reconstructed ramshackle house fronts and tradesmen's signs from early Copenhagen, a large room recording the form Christian IV gave the city, and a collection of memorabilia concerning the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
Further along Vesterbrogade, down Pile Alle and along Gamle Carlsberg Vej (buses #6 and #18), the exhibition at Carlsberg Brewery Visitors Center Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 4pm; free) is well Worth seeing, if only for the free booze provided at the end.
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