After successfully arriving in Copenhagen via London, we were ready to see what this Baltic jewel had to offer. The previous evening, we’d checked into our hotel, the Absalon Hotel in Copenhagen’s Vesterbro neighborhood.
We had found this hotel via the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, and booked our stay using points gained from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Had we booked in cash, we would have had to shell out roughly $270 USD per night, so we were happy to save the money.
The hotel was a good fit for us — small but adequate, with friendly staff and conveniently located by the Copenhagen central train station, which made getting anywhere a breeze. The only downside was that our room didn’t have air conditioning; normally, in late August when we visited, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but we were there during a heat wave, with daytime temperatures reaching the mid-80s….it made sleeping a little less comfortable than we would have liked.
That being said, we compensated by spending very little time inside the room! For this trip, we had invited one of our favorite couple friends to tag along with us, and so the four of us set out to learn what Copenhagen had to offer.
First up, we went to the Round Tower, an astronomy tower built in the 17th century by one of Denmark’s many kings named Christian. The tower provided a nice aerial view of the city to get our bearings, and unlike so many city towers, featured a long ramp instead of stairs! That made climbing to the top much less daunting.
In the afternoon, we headed to the island Refshaleøen, which as recently as the 1990’s had served as a shipyard and industrial area. Since then, it has been revitalized for restaurants and museums and other attractions. Given that it was a sunny Sunday, we were not surprised to find this area packed with actual Danes, and very few tourists.
Here we had lunch, and also hit up the Copenhagen Contemporary museum, where we got to play in the “Falling Trees” exhibit by artist Claudia Comte.
Finally, we headed to our main attraction for the day, the floating hot tub boats at Copenhot. Yep, you read that right. FLOATING. HOT. TUB. BOAT.
The hot tub can seat up to 6 people, and has a little stove onboard to keep the water hot-hot-hot. Of course, if you get overheated, you can always jump into the Baltic, as the boys were brave enough to do. The company provides a Captain to drive the boat (you go up the harbor along the coast of Christiania) and they will make sure you are well stocked with beverages as well.
As it was a sunny and hot day, plenty of Danes were out along the harbor enjoying the weather as well, and even they laughed and waved at our unconventional boat. One even swam over and stole a beer from us!
That evening, still recovering from our travels and a jam-packed day of exploring Copenhagen, we ate at Neighbourhood, a pizza place with delicious pizza and even better cocktails that was fairly close to our hotel. But we were so hungry that we forgot to take any pics of the pizza — sorry!
The next day, we arose bright and early to go explore the city’s botanical garden before it got too hot.
And while there wasn’t much flowering at the Botanical Garden, it was conveniently located just across the street from the Rosenborg Castle, home to the Danish crown jewels.
The Rosenborg Palace was originally built as the summer home for the Danish royals starting in 1606. What was interesting, touring it, was actually how modest it was compared to many other European palaces (and especially the ones we would explore later on this trip!) But that’s just part of the Danish culture; waste not, want not.
That being said, it was still plenty regal — we got to explore both the throne room and the crown jewels, which are still used by the royal family for official occasions.
After exploring the castle, we headed over to the famous Nyhavn harbor area, where former merchant quarters have all been converted to cafes and bars bustling with tourists. Here, we decided to take a quick harbor and canal cruise to see some of the sights we hadn’t had a chance to visit, including the “famous” Little Mermaid sculpture.
It also gave us a great view of Amelianborg Palace, where the Danish royal family still lives today.
After the cruise, we settled in for a drink at one of the cafes along the Nyhavn; Aperol Spritzes were clearly in order.
That evening, we headed to a restaurant called Llama, to try out Denmark’s version of Latin American food. There, we chuckled as the servers tried to explain to us “strange” concepts like cochinita pibil and cilantro (“it’s the plant that grows from coriander seeds — it’s also edible!”
But, despite the culture mis-match, the food was actually quite good, and the wine pairings that went with it were great too. Stuffed, we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep in before the next leg of our journey: boarding our cruise!
