The Copenhagen Companion – A Snowy First Attempt (Walk 1)

Rex and I went for a wander around near Norreport a few weeks ago and I found a copy of The Copenhagen Companion by Astrid (@thecompanionsdk on Instagram) and I’d got this idea – we’d follow the walks in the book to explore the city a bit more (Rather than just the normal routes we take each week).

I don’t know about you but sometimes I like to explore by just seeing what’s at the end of the road or what happens if I turn right instead of going straight on. But sometimes I like a route. I like to learn about the buildings on my route. Like when was it built and why does that building have *that* feature.

I think I had come across The Copenhagen Companion book before but hadn’t purchased it. When I saw it in the second-hand bookshop, I decided to purchase it. It was 20-30DKK so around £2ish. I flicked through the pages and wondered about using it for journaling prompts.

I’ve had a change in my “work-life” and have had a bit of a wobble in the last week or so trying to know what to do next, so coming back to my blog and working on it more seems like a good idea.

I grabbed the book from the shelf where it had been abandoned when we moved apartment and looked up the route. How easy is it to get from our apartment to Knippelsbro where the route starts? (Easy, short walk, get on the metro, get off the metro, short walk and you’re there! Sorted!). The goal was to follow the whole route right “to the water” as in the book but I guess we’d see how far I could walk (and how Rex coped with being in the buggy that long!)

We set off from the apartment and headed for the Metro Station at Nørrebro. It’s our nearest metro station and yet I’ve not used it in a while. Chris thought it was funny that I couldn’t find the Metro entrance but then when I explained why I couldn’t find it, he understood that maybe it wasn’t so easy to follow. From the direction we approach the station, you can see the S-Tog station but not the Metro. You have to walk to the other side of the building and it’s further along the side road. (If that makes sense!).

We got on the Metro and headed for Kongens Nytorv. The Metro first went through a number of stops including Skjolds Plads which was our “local” Metro station during our first trip to Copenhagen in Summer 2019.

At Kongens Nytorv, we headed outside. I spotted a poster on the display outside Det Kongelige Teater for the Nøddeknækkeren (The Nutcracker). Mum and I have talked about going to see The Nutcracker for a number of years but so far something has always got in the way (looking at the dates for this, when she’s in Copenhagen, The Nutcracker Company are off on tour around Denmark. Aarhus is a bit far for an evening field trip right?).

I’m sure at night the lights look even better. I love how classy the Christmas lights on both Magasin du Nord and Illum look. They are all one colour and just simple but pretty all at the same time – does that make sense? Chris told me I should have used his picture in my blog post, so here we go…. Magasin du Nord at night…

As we stood outside the theatre and I took pictures, the Knippelsbro Bridge was open. Having been off to learn more, Knippelsbro bridge is a bascule bridge which is the same as the bottom/road bit of Tower Bridge in London. (So as you can see the road splits in two and is raised upright from a hinge point either side of the river. I sent the photo to my Dad as I knew he’d appreciate it (when he visits we might have to go for a visit and hope for it to be open). I love that one of the control towers has lots of twinkly lights on it too.

I’m pretty sure at this point I didn’t take the most direct route to cross the bridge. From this direction, I could have walked alongside the O2 route under the Knippelsbro bridge but I wanted to go across the bridge. So I had to walk along the river a little way to the next bridge then walk back to the road entrance of Knippelsbro – it was a little faffy and there might have been a quicker way if I hadn’t had the buggy with me.

Google Maps has this way of sending along routes with stairs! We went for a bike ride around Utterslev Mose and the directions through Bisperberg Kirkegaard involved a set of about 4-5 steps which would have been manageable with the buggy but the cargo bike is too heavy for me to do by myself. Having said that when we all went for a bike ride and had to do the steps up from a subway, Chris and I both pushed the cargo bike up the bike ramp with Rex inside the cargo bike.

Once I crossed Knippelsbro, I was in Christianhavn. The first stop was Lagkagehuset. Normally I try to go independent for pastries or bakery goodies as Lagkagehuset is a little pricey but this one is the original one where it started so I figured I could make an exception this time right? Once I’d purchased our Kangelsnegl (Cinnamon Snail/Swirl), we could continue our adventure. (Yes Lagkagehuset is known by Ole & Steen in the UK, try the Cinnamon Social Slice (Stænger) – yum yum!)

From all the photos and video I’d been taking I realised at this point that my phone was running out of battery, so at first, I headed for Normal to see if they had any power banks for sale, I could get a lead but no power bank. So next up was to head to Tiger but this was further along the route. I thought that was okay, if I jumped on the Metro at Christianhavn it’s just one stop to Amagerbro. I decided this was a shame as I’d miss part of the walk being underground so maybe I could just jump on a bus.

I jumped on the 2A thinking it was going the right way but actually it turns along Prinsessagde and goes right through Christiania (towards Operaen). So not only was I running out of battery, I was off the route too. But it wasn’t hard, back along Prinsessgade to Torvegade and follow it right until I could see the turn for Amager Centret shopping centre.

Once I’d got the power bank I checked to see what was the best route to carry on, then I remembered that Chris had suggested a craft class near our apartment so I checked what time that was on then saw on my calendar that I was due to be back for a meeting at 3 pm! OH NO! Combined with the fact it was past lunchtime and Rex was definitely not going to cope as he hadn’t napped properly in the morning I decided it would be better to turn back towards home – which was a real shame as I had hoped it get further with the route. I’m definitely going to try again, I think on my next attempt I will take the Metro straight to Christianhavn or Amagerbro and start from there (or nearby) rather than starting from this side of Knippelsbro again.

I’ll be sure to update you all when I take my second attempt.

Copies of The Copenhagen Companion are available from Saxo (within Denmark) or The Green Copenhagen Companion here. (Psst! If you’re in the UK and would like a copy, get in touch and I’ll see if I can assist – I tried that well known website but it’s not on there lol).