Every year for Thanksgiving, Louis and I try to take advantage of the four-day break and make a week-long vacation out of it. Holding true to the tradition, this year we went to Copenhagen, Denmark. We bought the plane tickets way back in April and had plenty of second thoughts while waiting for the trip to arrive. We worried about the cold Scandinavian weather and the short amount of day light at the end of November (~8 hours) but in the end, we were so glad we went!

Nyhavn, Copenhagen

We arrived in Copenhagen midday a day before Thanksgiving. The outside air was brisk but was pleasant enough to walk around. The metro ride from the airport to downtown takes about fifteen minutes. Our residence for the week is a small one bedroom apartment in the Norrebro district. We rented this apartment on Airbnb and had an overall positive experience. The best thing about living in the apartment instead of a hotel is being able to cook and eat-in once in awhile. One thing I would change is to make sure to find an apartment that provides bikes for their guests to cut down the commute time between each of the attractions in the city. After dropping off our luggage at the apartment, we decided to head out and explore the city for a couple hours before dinner time. Our first stop for the trip was the Torvehallerne Market next to the Norrebro metro station. We had a delicious Smoorebrod, Denmark’s famous open face sandwich and danish pastry inside the market. The food at the market was not cheap, two Smoorebrod sandwiches set us back about $36. The steep price was also partially due to the hefty 25 percent tax we were charged eating inside the restaurant.

Smorrebrod from Torvehallerne Market

The next day, we headed out for our first full day in the city. We started with Bike Mike’s city tour in the morning and had a blast. Riding a bicycle around the city is definitely not for the armature cyclists. With so many cyclists on the street (more than cars during certain times of the day), it was really important to follow traffic rules and stick close to the group.

We got lucky and only had two other people on the tour. The weather was brisk standing still but turned very nice once we started biking.

Gearing up, outside Bike Mike’s shop. Louis laughing at Sam because within 5 minutes of getting on a bike, she already made an illegal U turn and pissed of several local cyclists.

Chistianborg Slot

The famous mermaid statue. We are still baffled by why this is one of the most famous monument in Copenhagen.  

Since we couldn’t get a reservation at Noma (selected as the world’s best restaurant for several consecutive years), we decided to go for the next best thing-a Copenhagen hotdog! Located next to the Rundetårn (another Copenhagen tourist attraction), we found Dop Posevogon (moving hotdog cart). We both choose the classic dog, which was very tasty. Louis especially enjoyed the sweet pickle toppings. At only $4 per hotdog, this was our cheapest meal yet in this city. 

We walked back to Nyhavn and enjoyed a nice stroll around the harbor after lunch.

We ended our day with a 360 view of the city by visiting the spiral tower on top of the Church of Our Savior.

Copenhagen facing east, you can see Sweden across the water.

Louis’s is reluctantly smiling below because he is terrified of heights.