Day four: another busy day in Copenhagen

Another jam packed day making the most of the city. Like yesterday we focussed on finding another recommended bakery. Also, I wanted to buy some freshly ground coffee so we settled on the Coffee Collective on Kristen Bernikows Gade. Apart from the fact that the coffee and pastries are good, they also have seating in a pleasant, covered outdoor area. I had a citron bun with my coffee which was delicious. This is probably our biggest indulgence of the day as we have generally being eating healthily at other meal times.

Seating area outside Coffee Collective

Citron pastry

We were intending to walk over to Freetown Christiania but we found ourselves trapped by the Copenhagen marathon which we’d been completely unaware of up to now. In the end after struggling to find our way out of a department store that we accidentally went into, we decided to take the metro to Christianshavn station and walk from there. Much easier.

Christiania is an interesting area. It reminds me of Rockaway Park near Bristol but with the proportions of a small village. Apparently anyone who wants to live there needs to apply and be approved by every single current resident. They want people with practical skills that help build the community. No cars are allowed making it nice to walk around. The houses are pretty ramshackle and some of the work in the art galleries were too hippyfied for my tastes.

Entrance to Christiania

Art gallery in Christiania

We had lunch at a vegan place called Morgenstedet - the portion control was mental - there was no way I was going to get through it all. I had a bake with 3 salads which was very tasty but sadly I had to leave quite a bit of it.

Exterior of cafe

Big portions at the Morgenstedet cafe

We wanted to walk back into the centre and hoped that we would be able to negotiate the marathon. We passed an interesting and unusual looking church with a spiral tower with steps going up to the top. The Church of our Saviour is in the Baroque style with a helix spiral staircase on the outside of the tower. Apparently it is open for visitors to climb and we could see people up there, presumably not individuals with vertigo. We did encounter the marathon route route again but it was the stragglers going through so we were able to cross over this time.

Church of our Saviour with unusual spire

Our destination was the Tivoli Gardens, our last tourist stop for the day. The weather started to change to a cold drizzle but we soldiered on. We decided to go all out and buy the pass that includes rides which was quite expensive. We maybe should have done a bit of research on costs as it turns out that not everyone in our group likes heights, roller coasters and hair raising rides! The alternative is to pay an entrance ticket and add on rides as you go - if you go on 5 rides it’s worth getting the pass + rides ticket which currently costs 489 DK. The Gold Tower - turbo drop was probably the scariest ride that I went on.

The Gold Tower

The Astronomer

There are lots of eateries in the Tivoli Gardens but after such a big lunch we only had room for a few churros. During the time we were there a Festival of Gospel music was going on with lots of choirs performing. It seems that a lot of different events are held there including music, food etc.

Gospel choir as part of Festival at Tivoli Gardens

Although it would have been nice to stay until the evening it had been a long day for us so we headed off to catch the train back from the main station which is next door to the gardens. We checked out the baggage lockers for the next day as we had to check out at 11am and although I could take my stuff to the hotel, my friends needed somewhere to store their bags as we had plans during the day.