Copenhagen – Day 3

Finally I am writing about my last day in Copenhagen, the beautiful Danish capital that I visited last month and fell in love with. Having seen all the touristic highlights on the first two days (read about them in my Copenhagen Day 1 and 2 posts), we dedicated the last day to discover the south west of the city and the neighbourhood of Vestebro.

We started with a visit of Frederiksberg Gardens. It was sunny and warm, so we enjoyed walking aimlessly through the park, trying to fit as many chats as possible in the last few hours we had together. We walked past the zoo and I peeked through the fence to take a photo of the beautiful pink flamingos!

We left the gardens and continued our walk along Frederiksberg Alle, through Sankt Thomas Plads and onto Vesterbrogade.

Since the 1960s, Vestebro was known for its sex industry and for having more butchers per square kilometre than anywhere else in Europe.Very much like New York’s Meatpacking District, it was a neglected area that has now become a trendy part of town.

Vestebro is populated by a mix of immigrants, students, creative media-types and bohemians, which makes it the place to go to spot the latest trends in Copenhagen.

Walking in Vestebro on a Monday morning, we encountered lots of young people and mums with prams. The boulevards and buildings along Frederiksberg Alle are beautiful and elegant, but the area becomes rougher as you get into the heart of Vestebro district and closer to the train station.

I didn’t get the feeling that this used to be (maybe still is) Copenhagen’s red light district. I saw many nice cafés and bakeries, small designers’ boutiques and handmade jewellery shops.

We walked past Bang & Jensen and we liked it so much, we decided to sit for a drink at one of the outdoor tables. According to this article by Stephen Emms in The Observer, Bang & Jensen was “the real catalyst for the revival of the fortunes of this working class area, when [they] opened on former “meat street” Istedgade.

For lunch we walked to the nearby Kafe Dyrehaven to try their Smørrebrød (more about Danish open sandwiches in my previous post). I recommend you to go there to try them, in my humble opinion, they were great!

There would have been so much more to see in Vestebro and places to eat at, such as Cofoco, the Copenhagen Food Consulting own five restaurants in the city, and Bio Mio, an organic restaurant in a converted 1920s Bosch warehouse. We just caught a glimpse of it from the bus and it’s already on my to-do list for the next time I visit Copenhagen!

My friend had to catch her flight back to Rome in the afternoon, so we left Vestebro and travelled back to our AirBNB flat in Nørrebro. I spent the afternoon wandering alone through the city centre, shopping for food styling props at Notre Dame, drinking coffee at Kent Kaffe (read my review here) and resting in the beautiful library rooms of Paludan Bogcafe.

Copenhagen really stole my heart. It’s a laid-back city, with beautiful architecture, lots of parks and outdoor areas. There is definitely a culture of good food (and coffee) and people in Copenhagen truly seem to be enjoying themselves and have a good quality of life. Of course this is just my first impression, I have only been there for three days when the sun was shining and the weather was warm, so I go to see the best of the city and its people.

I would be really interested to hear your views about Copenhagen: have you been there, did you like it, would you consider living there? I must admit, I am definitely thinking about it already!

To see all my Copenhagen posts, click here.