Wonderful wonderful Copenhagen, but the place that has 15 Michelin stars for its restaurants, and the world’s first designer hotel (now the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel) — by the great Arne Jacobsen no less — and shops crammed with cutting-edge fashion, furniture and jewellery, has a good claim to be a European capital of cool.
You can walk this new frontier at one of the trendiest eateries in town, Manfreds & Vin. It’s in the boho district of Nørrebro, among vintage clothes shops and arty cafés. Here in a whitewashed cellar lined with racks of organic wine, waiters more stylish than their customers will introduce you to the Nordic revolution in cuisine. In my case it consists of a seven-course meal, each course a tiny platter of implausible ingredients: pickled pine needles floating on sheep’s yoghurt, strawberries in a bowl of parsley and mint, pork with sea-herbs, sunflower seeds in a slop of gelatinous poached egg, summer cabbage seared in beurre blanc and sprinkled with sprigs of dill … Sounds weird? Tastes exquisite.
Sounds weird? Tastes exquisite
Or you can discover the avant-garde at Arken, the modern art gallery on the edge of the city. Built on a stretch of beach between a yacht haven and the sea, it’s a dramatic construction of angular white walls curving and flaring beside the waves, echoing the hull of a boat or the wing of a gull. Inside its steel doors is a small selection of top contemporary artists: a cow in formaldehyde by Damien Hirst, a mirrored maze by the Danish installationist Jeppe Hein, a satirical tapestry by Grayson Perry, among others. Upstairs there’s a café with wraparound glass walls and a view to the horizon of the Baltic.
The weather in Copenhagen varies considerably during the year and visitors would be wise to seek out appropriate outdoor clothing and footwear to allow them to explore the city in comfort. Cotswold Outdoors has over 250 leading brands of outdoor gear and equipment available from their website.
Back in the centre of town, serious style can be found in the shops of the world’s longest pedestrian street, Strøget — including the classic silver store Georg Jensen. Almost next door is Illums Bolighus, four floors of designer furniture showcasing contemporary Danish design.
There is another Copenhagen between these hotspots, an older city of cobbled alleys and stucco terraces, of Baroque palaces and gilded churches. An easy way to see this is on a canal tour. The city is a series of islands, and the shallow tour boats chug you along its pretty canals and under old stone bridges. Christianshavn is a backwater where 200-year-old navy boatsheds have been turned into desirable apartments. Nyhavn is the canal you see in all the photos, its brightly painted houses look like a mini-Amsterdam.
Wander through the alleys of Indre By, the medieval heart of town. Stop at Peder Oxe, a restaurant on a 17th-century square of townhouses painted ochre, pink and green. Inside it’s like the Belle Epoque – white-clothed tables, bent-backed chairs, limed-oak floorboards. Order smørrebrød, traditional open sandwiches of moist rye bread that come with toppings of pickled herrings, shrimps or rare roast beef. The accompaniment of choice is ice-cold schnapps, flavoured with coriander, dill or anise.
The lesson of Copenhagen is how the past and present can happily co-exist. Which may be why it’s so good at designing the future.
