explore :: copenhagen

One of my absolute highlights of 2014 was my visit to Copenhagen, so I thought it might be nice to start the first week ‘back at school’ with a little reminder of that… Enjoy and happy New Year!

I have just got back from a fantastic weekend in Copenhagen and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! I was invited to speak at bloggers conference, the Hive, and thought I’d make a weekend of it.

We arrived, checked in, hired bikes from the hotel, and set about exploring the city. Here’s what we discovered (left to right, top to bottom):

• The top picture is the one that adorns the front of most of the travel books, making Nyhavn the bit of Copenhagen that most people recognise. I was as keen to capture that shot as every other visitor, but I also loved seeing the coloured buildings reflected in the windows across the water.
• When in Copenhagen…
• We stopped at Cap Horn for lunch overlooking the water and had a fabulous selection of Danish smorebrod.
• A bank holiday, the Copenhagen marathon, and the fact that many shops close on Sundays meant that we didn’t get to do nearly as much shopping in the capital of Danish design as I would have liked, but I loved the colour palette in design shop kira-cph.com
• The wonderful thing about cycling everywhere instead of using public transport is that you can be spontaneous – we heard some live jazz as we passed non-profit restaurant Rub & Stub, the proceeds of which benefit humanitarian development projects, and swerved in to enjoy the ambience.
• One shop that was open, despite the bank holiday, was Makers With Agendas. “Makers With Agendas was born out of our passion for design and our loathing of its abuses. We’re on a journey for change because we care,” say the designers.
• PlayType is a shop (and type foundry) so nerdy, they even label the typeface used on their signage (Hill Regular, since you ask).
• Mikkeler Bar has its own microbrewery and an interior designed by Caroline Hanson and Mie Neilsen. I can highly recommend the rhubarb soda.
• Affär on Skydebanegade had a gorgeous selection of vintage design – I had my eye on some glass jars in the window.
• It rained all day on Sunday and even the Design Museum was closed, so we made a tour of Copenhagen’s cafes drinking some pretty impressive hot chocolate – see my top 5 below.
• Founded by furniture designer Karsten Lauritsen, Designer Zoo has studio space for the seven young designers who sell through the space and also sells a wide range of Danish craft from other designers.
• When your travelling party comprises a coffee connoisseur and a vinyl junkie, where better to make a pitstop than Kaffe & Vinyl?
• Ceramicist Inge Vincents works in white paper-thin porcelain and ships worldwide. We spotted some of Inge’s work in nearby restaurant Manfred’s & Vin where we enjoyed the Chef’s Choice seven-course sharing menu.
• We had another lovely meal in Geist, the interior of which features a bare concrete floor inlaid with marble, a whole wall of orgami-like creations made from whole books, and a wall lined with 3,000 year old fossils. The food’s not bad either!

Given that we spent much of the weekend sheltering from the rain, enjoying a spot of Danish hygge and hot chocolate, here are my top five coffee stops:

1. Sweet Treat: A tiny little coffee shop in Christianshavn full of locals enjoying a lazy Sunday reading the papers.

2. Kaf Bar was opened by Rasmus Damsbo and school friend Mikkel Bang because they missed a ‘hyggelig’ or cosy and homely coffee shop in the city, so they decided to open one themselves.

3. The Cafe at the Danish Architecture Centre overlooks the river and some of the city’s most impressive modern architecture.

4. Kaffe & Vinyl is a proper record shop catering to a wide selection of tastes with coffee from local brand Risteriet.

5. And finally Foodstop No 26, as recommended by one of the bloggers I met at the Hive, Jacintha Verdegaal. I highly recommend checking out Jacintha’s beautiful blog, Urban Pixxels.

Hay House, The Design Museum, Normann (there’s no Copenhagen on the end in Copenhagen!), Retrograd, a pottery lesson with Tortus Copenhagen and, while I’m day dreaming, dinner at Noma, are all on my list for next time!

With huge thanks to Yvonne at the Hive and to the Scandic for making this trip possible.