Copenhagen - July 2023
Copenhagen
was to be the last two Springsteen gigs with a couple of days of
sightseeing as well.
First we attended BST (British Summer Time), a festival in a day
type arrangment that they hold in Hyde Park every year. It's run
over several weeks with varying headliners, this year's included
Pink, Take That, Guns n Roses and Billy Joel. We, of course, are
going on the Bruce Springsteen day.
We'd been to this festival many years ago and we were pleasantly pleased about the changes they've made. It seemed easy enough to get a drink and something to eat.
The weather wasn't too good when we entered (it was chucking it down!), but there was an American Express pavillion that was under cover and we went there for a couple of drinks. They were also doing hair braiding etc for free, so Tam obviously couldn't resist. She also took possession of a free drinks bottle - the blue thing in the photo.
As you can see India and Georgia also took advantage of the free hair decorations. Charlie and Georgia had joined us at Hyde Park, but it was just Tam, India and I that were flying to Copenhagen the next day.
We had tickets for the pit in front of the stage. This area was pretty huge, but was still great for getting in and out to the bars and loos without any problems. This is The Chicks on stage. They were previously called The Dixie Chicks but changed their name for obvious reasons. Tam and I had seen them a few weeks earlier at Glastonbury and really enjoyed the opportunity to see them again.
We had a great time as ever, although we did have a couple of rain showers.
The next day Tam, India and me flew from Heathrow to Copenhagen. India's friend Liam is also a big Springsteen fan and he had flown out earlier in the day as he was joining us for all the Danish fun.
We stayed in the Comwell hotel for 5 nights. It's in the old port area, which is being redeveloped. It cost just over £100 per room per night, which was very good for the standard of the accomodation. It's just outside the centre of the city, but just 100 metres from the last metro stop at Orientkaj. The driverless metro system is excellent, frequent, clean and not too expensive. There is also a water bus stop at Orientkaj and it's a lovely way to get around. As soon as we were checked in we used this to get into the centre of Copenhagen.
As you can see it was a glorious evening. We did have some heavy rain showers during our time in Copenhagen, but overall the weather was good.
This is the water bus. The yellow thing, not the little boat.
We got off in Nyhavn. This is one of the prettiest places in Copenhagen and it was also very busy as it was the last day of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.
We had a couple of beers in this area and listened to a band on a nearby outdoor stage. It was a lovely way to start our time in Copenhagen
Our evening ended up at the Mojo Bar where there were a couple of guys playing blues. We had such a great time we didn't leave until their second set finished after midnight. A quick metro trip got us back to our hotel.
The
next day was all about sightseeing. We decided to visit Rosenborg
Castle and got the metro. By the way, the metro system is
driverless and you can sit at the front of the train where
they've put a large label that shows controls so that children
can pretend they're driving. Nevermind children, me and Liam
liked a quick 'toot, toot' as we ensured that the vehicle reached
its destination safely!
There are time slots for the castle and we had some time to waste
before ours, so we had a look around the botanical gardens just
over the road. There is a large glass house that you pay to enter
(we would do this later in the trip) but for now we just looked
around the gardens.
We enjoyed our visit to the castle. It is isn't too big, so you can see everything quite easily in a couple of hours.
I think India is happy at the thought of having this bad boy as her new hat.
After the castle we walked around for a while and ended up at the most famous landmark in Copenhagen.
It isn't all that impressive, but you have to feel sorry for her. She's been vandalised numerous times and had her head cut off twice. That's a bit harsh.
In the evening we went to a micro brewery called War Pigs. Very nice beers and they served excellent looking BBQ food, but Liam is a vegan, so we ended up eating in a restaurant next door called Gaza Grill, which was mostly Palestinian food.
The bar in War Pigs. The music was mostly loud rock, which suited us just fine.
The food was very nice indeed.
A bus ride later and we were back in the city centre. We stopped at a nice looking cocktail bar, but this was a real disappointment as we were sat in a smoking area outside and the cocktails weren't that good either. So that ended our second day in Copenhagen.
The next day we decided to do a boat tour and so returned to Nyhaven where the tour started.
These are some rather nice looking apartments. This used to be an old torpedo boat workshop that's been repurposed.
I rather like the spire on this church. You can pay to walk up the outside of it.
After the boat tour we went up the tower in Christainsborg Castle to get a nice view across the city.
In the evening we had a few nibbles and a nice bottle of wine in a small cafe before heading to the stadium for the first Springsteen gig.
We had front of stage pit tickets. The Parken stadium is excellent as it has a retractable roof, which they closed for the concert. Much nicer as it's in the dark right from the start. There was also a bar right in the pit, so very easy to get a drink without the usual massive queues. Mind you, the £10 per pint might have has something to do with that! This was a pretty normal price for Copenhagen. It certainly isn't a cheap place to eat and drink.
The next day we decided a trip to Tivoli Gardens was in order. As a Disney fan this was an absolute must. Tivoli is the second oldest theme park in the world (the first is in Denmark as well) and is credited with being the place that inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland. He visited several times and was so impressed with the cleanliness and beauty of the place that he wanted to replicate that in the United States. You can pay for a ticket that covers all the rides or just to enter and walk round. If you want to pay for individual rides you can do that as well. Tam and I just wanted to walk round and see the gardens, but India and Liam rode a couple of the coasters. Mostly the rides are of the fairground variety and not really anything like a major theme park would provide these days, but that's not really why we went. The gardens are really very pretty and we spent a few hours just walking round taking it all in.
The weather was a bit hit and miss. It poured as we first arrived, but cleared up later. We went to the ticket office inside the building on the left and sat out a storm as we all looked at our phones as various friends were trying to get tickets for the Taylor Swift tour next year. I thought it was hard to get Springsteen tickets, but this was on a different level. You had to register for each city you wanted to go to and were then entered in a lottery to see if you were lucky enough to even try for tickets. As it turned out a friend of India's got tickets for us all - in Warsaw! So we're going to spend a few days in Poland next year, firstly sightseeing in Krakow and then in Warsaw for the gig.
We sat in the red building on the right and had a beer. It was lovely looking out over the water as the sun decided to make an appearance.
There is an excellent food hall attached to the park (you get a stamp to exit and re-enter the park) with many different types of food including open sandwiches, which is a local delicacy. As with all things in Copenhagen it wasn't cheap, but was very nice.
After Tivoli we caught a bus to Christiana. This is a very strange place. It's on an island and is considered a free state. Wikipedia describes it as pseudo anarchist consensus democracy, I guess that means thay can make their own decisions with regard to finances, construction etc. It was formed in 1971 when squatters took over the old military buildings and has had a chequered past with various levels of violence as motor cycle gangs fought for dominance in the 1980's. Nowadays it is more of a commune with art installations and shops. It is a thriving community and we found it off-beat and delightful. Unfortunately there are very few photos as you are not allowed to take them in many areas due to the fact that there is marijuana being sold openly from stalls in one street. This is not legal, hence they don't take kindly to having their photo taken, and the police occassionally raid at which point the stalls quickly disappear and melt off into the surrounding district. Also there are no cars and so it's great to walk around.
This is the only photo we have of the area, but I think it captures the spirit of the place quite well. As you can see from the sign on the right, this was an area where you could take a photo.
We decided to walk to Reffen from Christiana. It's probably about 3 miles and was very pleasant. We walked past Noma, which I'm relable informed is one of the best restaurants in the world. Copenhagen is very much considered a foodies paradise with many Michelin star restaurants.
You would never know this is such an acclaimed restaurant from the outside. They grow all their own herbs as seen above. If you want to dine here the current cost for dinner is £460 (without wine pairings which is another £235), that's supposing you can get a reservation in the first place. As you can guess, we didn't dine here.
So this is Reffen. It's set up in an old industrial area on the waterfront as is mostly made of old shipping containers. You can choose from many different types of food and drink which you then take to a free table to sit and enjoy. It's a bit quirky and different and we had a great time here.
That's a skatepark in the background and their were quite a few youngsters (and some not so young) whizzing around here.
After enjoying our food and drink we got a bus back to our hotel to end a very enjoyable day.
The next day was our last full day in Copenhagen and our last Springsteen gig of the summer. We decided to return to the botanical gardens and visit the glass house.
One section was a butterfly garden with many different species fluttering around you. We had a pleasant time in the gardens and glass house. It's showing it's age in places, but I think this adds to the charm of the place. We walked around the centre of Copenhagen for a while before returning to the hotel. After showering we met up in the bar for a drink and decided to return to the foodcourt at Tivoli to eat. We didn't need a big sitdown meal on the way to the gig and this gave plenty of alternatives for people to choose what they wanted.
Not the greatest photo. We were in the rear standing section of the stadium, but there was a bar directly behind which made things very simple when you wanted a drink. The walk back to our hotel afterwards was a little sad as it would be the last time we would see Springsteen on this tour, but we'd all had a great time following him to various places and had thoroughly enjoyed our time in Copenhagen. It's a great city, easy to get around on foot or using the public transport system. The food and drink are excellent if a little pricey.