Day 25: Copenhagen for a day

on January 11, 2020

What do you do when you have 1 day in a city? Load it up with a run, a palace, a museum, cycling, a castle, porridge, and lego apparently!

Clear skies this morning meant Andrew and I could get out for a run through the streets of Copenhagen. It was nice to stretch our legs after Iceland, and 4 degrees felt comparatively balmy. We didn’t really see a city waking up… it seemed to be still going to bed!

As always, there are a few things that catch our eye. This morning it was the wooden slide heading into the river. No explanation available?!?

During our run we happened across Amalienborg, the Royal Palaces close to our hotel, so headed back there as soon as we got out for the day. The palaces were built in 1750 for the nobility, but were taken over by the royal family in 1794. The generations of the royal family can divide the four palaces between them, and it is tradition that the monarch lives in one, with the heir to the throne in another.

Of course, this means that this is the home of our favourite Aussie Princess, Mary. Unfortunately they weren’t home today, so we weren’t able to pop in to say g’day! We did manage to see the changing of the guard later in the day though, and understand that the Queen was home.

The #1 priority for Copenhagen was the Danish Design Museum. Both Alex and I have been looking forward to seeing the products and designs they share, and the way that they share them.

The museum takes visitors through ‘Danish Design Now’, Design in the 20th Century and prior. I love the products that are primarily functional, sustainable, and also manage to embrace beautiful form.

The current exhibition is ‘The Danish Chair’. It looks at the evolution of the chair as an icon of Danish design… some for aesthetic value, some for function. It’s fascinating to see so many familiar designs, and consider how they have shaped communities, conversations and people.

There was very little commentary on Service Design. Having spent the last 10 years working in the space, I would have thought that it would have featured more heavily.

The example I found was looking at ‘The Home as a Workplace’, considering the Entrance to Home Care, First Visit to Home, and the Ongoing Collaboration with Home Care. A problem that many of us will face that will benefit from considered design.

We timed our exit from the Design Museum to perfection. The changing of the guards was underway, so we watched the march to and around Amalienborg. It’s great to see a palace that is so open and accessible to the public.

Back on track… we hired bikes for the day to explore the streets. It’s the first time that the girls and I have taken control of a vehicle on the wrong side of the road, so took some serious concentration! The infrastructure for bikes is fantastic, and the mutual respect of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians is a credit to the city.

We explored, and then wound our way to Rosenborg Castle. Rosenborg was built by Christian IV in the 1600s, and was used by the royal family until they moved to Amalienborg in the mid 1700s. From that time, it became the place where the oldest and finest objects were stored, and was opened as a museum in 1838.

Inside, the castle is filled with treasures. The opulence of a royal family can seem ridiculous at times…

Our next stop was lunch. Emma had heard that there was a restaurant devoted to porridge – ‘Grod’. Oats have featured heavily on our breakfast menu, so it seemed fitting to head there for our final lunch. Apparently porridge goes with anything, any time of day, and anything goes with porridge!

We cycled back to the main shopping street, straight into one of Denmark’s most famous exports… Lego. The store reminded me of m&m world in New York – more product than you imagine, walls of individual items in colours and styles we’ve never seen, and interactive games to convince you that too much lego is never enough. I did like the exclusive Copenhagen set though… a book featuring Hans Christian Anderson.