Tuesday/Rārua
We head to a street nearby called Jægersborggade, in the neighbourhood called Nørrebro. It has in recent years turned from a dodgy street to a very hip one, host Steven tells us. It has around 40 shops - art galleries, organic produce shops, vintage clothes, ceramics and jewellery designers, as well as bars, coffee shops and restaurants. It is very cool. There is a Michelin-starred restaurant Relæ, which we did not go to. We did in our few days there go to The Coffee Collective, a specialty micro roastery and coffee consulting company, Meyers Bakery, Grod, Manfreds wine bar, and an underground beer bar called Mikkeller & Friends.
The food on this street was stunning, and like everything in Copenhagen to us, expensive. I liked the peanut butter in with berry dishes at Grod - yum.
After our hearty breakfast and a few coffees we walk into the city centre to get hire bikes for our 6 days. Everyone rides bikes in Copenhagen - you are much more aware of the bikes than of the cars. I got some pics of different sorts.
And this from the Visit Copenhagen website: "Copenhageners love their bikes. Cycling is fast, convenient, healthy, climate-friendly, enjoyable - and cheap, although Copenhageners honestly love their bikes no matter their financial income. Even top politicians ride their bike every day to parliament. There are more bikes than inhabitants in Copenhagen, 375 kilometres of cycle tracks and traffic lights that are coordinated in favour of cyclists during rush hour. While motorists sit in tailbacks, cyclists tend to sweep through the city. Nine out of ten Danes own a bicycle. 44% of all children aged 10-16 cycle to school. Bikes now outnumber cars in central Copenhagen. Danish architect and urban planner Jan Gehl is famous for teaching other cities around the world how to plan for a bike culture. It even has its own term: "copenhagenization" or "to copenhagenize"."
We experienced the way bikes get preference over cars - people giving way to us. 60 per cent of people in Copenhagen cycle.
So we headed off on our bikes, on the green track to a harbour swimming pool in Nordhavn. "STAY RIGHT!"
It had been open only two weeks. There are nine harbour swimming pools. Bill had a coffee (and read the Danish newspaper probably) while I found someone to photograph me, otherwise you would think I was all talk!
We went on to swim in two others later in the week. Lachie and Chiara swam in another after we left. They are so fabulous. I love them.
We saw lots of interesting buildings on the way.
This was a free gym workout area on the top of a building we had been told about.
More bikes. It is so great to see a city loving bikes more than cars, and building cycle tracks for bikes and to see so many fewer cars on the road! The city doesn't feel like a big city. It feels like people living in a close knit community loving bikes and cycling.
And the buses and trains take the bikes.
So many bikes means you have to have your wits about you in busy streets. Lucky we have had practice at Waiheke! Though I have to remember to STAY RIGHT.
We finished the day with a beer just off Jaegersborggade, at a cool bar called Mikkeller & Friends, with more than 40 beers to choose from off a big blackboard behind the bar.
From Wikipedia: "Mikkeller was founded by two home brewers: Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, a high school teacher, and journalist Kristian Klarup Keller. After success in blind tastings, the two started creating their own recipes and entered many home brewing competitions in Denmark, eventually winning many of them. The brewery's activity was small, with a low level of public visibility, as the brewing was kitchen-based and the beer was only served at a few beer enthusiast meetings and in small local bars. Bjergsø's brother founded a beer shop in 2005 and began to distribute the pair's beer to select destinations in numerous countries. In 2006, encouraged by wider appeal, Bjergsø and Keller founded the Mikkeller brewing company, named after their home brewery operation. The company now operates two breweries in the United States."
