Copenhagen April 2024 🇩🇰🚲

markhadland

3 years ago

Colorful historic buildings lining a waterfront in Nyhavn, Copenhagen, with people dining at outdoor cafés and enjoying a sunny day.

Carter and I planned a trip to Copenhagen to see one of our favorite artists, Nils Frahm. He played two shows at the famous Vega Theater, renowned for its acoustics and design. We met up with our friend Paul Ellington and Sebastian, and my long-time friend of over 40 years, Xavier, was coming from Paris to join us as well.

War Pig is a BBQ joint and brewpub in the old meat packing district. It supposedly has Europe’s largest smoker. They make amazing BBQ and beer. We usually stop here every trip.

This was our first trip to Copenhagen, and our friend Paul is Danish and spends a lot of time here. My friend SoYoung has traveled here many times for work and gave me some good pointers too.

We initially stayed at the Marriott on the water. It was on the edge of town and not too walkable so after a couple of nights we switched hotels for a more central location.

The Nils Frahm Concert – Night 1

The glass harmonium, a rare, enchanting instrument.

Super photo – looks like an album cover.

This was such a great show, but we arrived from Seattle the same day and were jet-lagged. Carter and I may have fallen asleep for a spell. Fortunately, we had tickets for the next evening.

The next day, we left our hotel to explore a bit. We were near the train station, found some other cool hotels and cafes, and scouted out the town.

Beautiful canals.

I was very excited about this square as it is the setting for Cotton Malone, a former government spy agent in a series of books by Steve Berry who has written about this character in over 20 books. Cotton is retired, but in every book he does some side job for his former organization, and he runs a bookstore in Hojbro Plads.

Classic Danish architecture and blue skies.

Baest

Baest is a highly recommended restaurant wood-fired pizza joint.

Bicycles are very popular in Copenhagen.

Famous, picturesque Nyhaven.

The Queen’s Palace

We toured many design shops and museums to experience authentic Danish design. I have loved Danish design since I was a teenager, and I own a vintage Arne Vodder sideboard from the 1960s. Copenhagen was design heaven. Photos below are from Designmuseum Danmark. Many are from designers I admire and books I would like for my library.

Xavier is a musician and also a huge fan of design.

This is one of the coolest things ever. The Designmuseum Danmark houses a world-renowned collection of Japanese sword ornaments—most notably tsuba (handguards), alongside other handle and hilt fittings like fuchi, kashira, and menuki. These are housed in this custom cabinet by the collector and owner of this collection.

I am a big fan of color in design. In fact, I used these colors to create one of the palette options for thehad.com.

Nils Frahm Night 2. I think traveling to foreign cities to see shows is a great way to hear artists and visit new places. We were more awake and sat in the balcony.

Merch.

Opera House.

We found a great waterfront spot with about 8 good restaurants for food and drinks. It was a great place to spend the afternoon.

Later that night, we found a great jazz bar.

Lunch at Schønnemann.

This was our first visit to Schonnemann:

Restaurant Schønnemann 🇩🇰👨🏻‍🍳

We drank a lot of Schnapps at Schonnemann and were a bit drunk for the remainder of the day and evening. Two pals since the age of 16.

The Rest of the Day and Evening.

Dinner at The Union Kitchen & Bar.

Xavier left his hat at the restaurant so I ran later to fetch it.

Hotel 25Hours by Indre.

We moved to Hotel 25Hours by Indre. We have stayed here on every subsequent trip due to its central location in the heart of the pedestrian zone.

The Louisiana Museum

Xavier wanted to go to the Louisiana Museum. I never heard of it, but it seemed to have a lot of great art and design. There are many famous pieces here.