We only passed through Odense last year and I’m not sure if we’ll have time this trip, either (we took the ferry from Sjælland to Aarhus so bypassed Odense altogether and then we have a very full few days in Billund on the way back towards CPH next week). Not intentional, but just lack of time. Perhaps next year (or whenever we come back). Also, priorities of my fellow travelers. 
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Wow. Y’all get around.
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I always love your reports! Vicariously is the only way I’ve been able to travel beyond a few nights in New England since we adopted a 7 year old in 2007!
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Thanks for bringing us along! Just curious - how did you pick Denmark as your destination?
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My guess is Spring Onion 
Lego (Billund) + nice place to visit.
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I’ve been a Danish Modern junkie for eons. Most of my furniture when B met me was from that school of design. Then, yep, once SO came along and B and I again fell in with Legos, Denmark was inevitable. Plus, don’t y’all know that Denmark is always amongst the happiest countries in the world and has better weather than Iceland. Life is good here (although I’m sure not without its troubles). We visited last year and loved it (I dutifully reported on it although we didn’t eat anything extraordinary…just as always!).
I forgot to mention that while we were doing our Go Boat trip back in the canals of CPH harbor, Zelensky was simultaneously speaking to the government and we heard the motorcade leaving/saw the helicopter escort up above. Denmark was amongst the first countries (Netherlands was the other) to lend F-14s to Ukraine. The Ukrainian flags were all out, along with the Pride flags. We felt proud to be here.
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A few months ago I read and really enjoyed The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. Between that and your trip report, I’d love to go there!
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I started it last year but I had to return it before I could finish. I need to borrow that from the library again.
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Got my Georg Jensen stainless watch back in the early 80s. Pining for a PH lamp to go with it!
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I want to go back to Denmark soon and your report reminds of that fact!
Copenhagen is such a cool city. I did not get out on the water and a Go Boat sounds outstanding!
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Way behind on my reports. Time to get back into my time machine.
Thursday 24 August
The guys went back to the amusement park while I worked. By the time they came home, I was ravenous for company, food, drink, and general merriment. We check out Lonstrop Cafe Bio and wondered why we didn’t come here last year. It’s a cinema/performance space/cafe all rolled up into one venue. We had a delightful time on the outdoor patio, munching on good sourdough bread, Danish cheeses, spreads (including fruit chutney, vegan 'njuda, tasty cultured, butter, and parsley aioli), and a mushroom pita (awesome pickled onions). Nice wine and their own beer. Bon Jovi, Marvin Gaye, and other fun songs on the soundtrack. Full-on sun rounded out a nice evening, followed by a beach walk.
Friday 25 August
Finally went to the bakery in town, Kegels where we got a great sourdough loaf and some unpronounceable/not-cloyingly-sweet coffee cake.
We went to the excellent North Sea Aquarium but first lunch at Hirstals Fish House where B had fish and chips, salmon for SO, mussels soup for me. B declared that SO had the winning dish, which was accompanied by a creamy sauce and an awesome chimichurri-like sauce (my soup was delicious, but not enough stuff in it). Typically good bread. Disappointing manufactured-ish chips. Huge (although we ordered the small size) ice cream cone for SO afterwards.
Saturday 26 August
Moving day, towards our house in Harboøre. After checkout , we stop by the bakery for more bread and (we didn’t have cash) were told that the credit card machine is at farmers’ market. We were given directions to Løkken (which is on our way) and we stumble across a Pier Festival. We seem to have a Forest Gump syndrome, where we have happy accidents like this at least once on every trip (last year, we found ourselves in the midst of a regatta in Aero). So, simply because we didn’t have cash to buy a loaf of bread, we ended up at a fun festival where we felt like we were the only non-Danes. SO had a fransk hot dog (which is wrapped in bread and that he loves). B and I had some adult beverages at a laid-back beach cafe. And we got our bread and saw the name of the un-pronounceable cake. B and I held off on eating lunch.
We hit up he local grocery store and had salmon for the guys (looked/tasted farm-y), corn/potato chowder, bread, cheese.
Sunday 27 August
Today. Chilling at our house by the sea. Munching on bread, chowder, etc.
More dispatches to come.
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2 September - where did the time go?! Work continues to be brutal. Luckily, our house in Harboøre was just what we needed - a quiet seaside town, with a small town just to the north, Thyborøn, that has quite the museum district for such a small place. We visited the Sea War Museum that documents the WWI sea battles in the North Sea - SO was entranced by that place. Another day we visited the charming aquarium. The only meal out we had was at Fiskehallen where the portions were gargantuan (dare I say American-sized). Fish and chips for B, I had fried plaice, enormous burger for SO, of which he managed half - if that. Everything was quite good, fish fried quite well, but it was just too much food (we took home a bunch). One of those meals where you feel uncomfortably full afterwards. All other meals were at our cozy cottage. No photos as they were unmemorable.
From Harboøre, we moved back east to Billund, where SO spent 3 blissful days at Lego House, Lego Land, and Lalandia (a crazy water park/kid-centric resort). After Lego House, we went to nearby Gastropub where we had a better than expected meal. For some reason I wanted to have the chicken pot pie and it was quite good but again, huge. B had half. He had some sort of club sandwich and SO had a kids pizza.
The next day was day 1 of Legoland (the guys got 2-day passes). It was quite empty, which was great (the Danish kids went back to school 2 weeks ago). Most of the tourists seemed to be German or British. We had only one meal inside the park and we went back to the Saloon where we had a decent meal last year. SO got his requisite fransk hot dog (wrapped in the roll, like a big pig in a blanket). B got the salmon and I got an enormous salad of barley, falafel, mozzarella, and tomato. A rather large candy floss for afters.
We headed back to Copenhagen. We are staying in a suburb, south of the city proper. Lots of interesting architecture on one side and a beautiful nature preserve. Our apartment is full of artsy touches (the owners are graphic designers…it all feels very Copenhagen).
Today, Saturday. A beautiful sunny day, with temperatures predicted to be 21C/70F. We have 2 more full days and hope to make the most of them.
PS Love the new “Rest of Europe” sub-category. Thank you @hungryonion!
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We are enjoying a glorious sunny dry day at Reffen outdoor food hall, which I much prefer over similar enclosed food halls, which I find too hectic to enjoy eating and drinking. SO just had a well-made mac and cheese from the raclette stand. B and I are enjoying our Reffen beers (West Coast IPA, hazy IPA) but we are feeling overwhelmed by the food choices. Any chance any Onions have been here and could offer any recommendations?
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I went with a delicious dal curry/basmati rice/papadum/delightful pickled red cabbage (a nice counterpoint) from the Nepali stand and B got a fried chicken sandwich. Many beers. SO ate his pain au chocolat that we got earlier in the day from the Hart Bakery outpost (we also got a beautiful sesame bread earlier…will take a photo later when we rip into it at home).
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Home in Boston after a long travel day (about 15 hours from start-to-finish). And we managed to avoid any medical emergencies on both our flights (some of you may recall we had 2 during our April trip to Tenerife). So, other than B’s bout of food poisoning at the start of our trip, we had a drama-free trip.
The delicious sesame city loaf from Hart Bakery fed us for a few days. For snack time with cheese and wine at home, and again when we picknicked with our leftover food and wine on the beautiful grounds of the Louisiana Museum.
Other than Reffen, we ate at home for our last 2 days, basking in the views from our cosmopolitan apartment. We sadly had no smorrebrod on this trip; food was even less of a priority on this trip than usual so we will have to come back.
One story I forgot to tell was that during our first few days in CPH, we were randomly wandering when we spot some trampolines built into the sidewalk so naturally, SO runs over to them. He says nonchalantly to me and B, “oh, I know that kid” and we ignore him until we realize that he really does know one of the kids who was jumping. Turns out, they went to the same summer camp just a couple of weeks prior and SO talked about him so I knew his name. So, in this big city thousands of miles from home, we end up running into a kid who lives 1 town over and went to the same summer camp in our town. We spoke with the parents and there was another family (from Wellesley MA) and they also had run into each other at the airport (although they did know that they were both traveling to Denmark this summer).
The kids were not even fazed by this remarkable coincidence but we adults were shaking our heads. To top that off, we ran into the Wellesley family the next 2 days (once at the Go Boats and then at Tivoli). By the 2nd time we ran into them, we were all like, “oh hey guys” as if we were bumping into them at the grocery store at home. 
What a small weird world we live in.
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I love the part about running into people you know!
It has happened a time or two to me, and it is like the travel gods all agreed on something. But when it happened to me I was traveling on the Gringo Trail (Worldwide Version II) and staying in places like Thamel, Jalan Jaksa, Earls Court, Gili Trawangan and Khao San Road so it was not as much of a surprise. We were all heading to and from the same neighborhoods even if they were thousands of miles apart.
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Looks like you and your family really enjoyed your latest adventure in Denmark. Thank you for the virtual ride-along!
Reading a trip report from you is always a bright spot in my day.
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This was a fun read, @digga! I’m heading to Copenhagen this May, and will look up a few of the places you visited. Were there any you’d say were absolute must-visits, or?
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Thanks for the kind words, but have you some of my trip reports? (My 2022 Denmark report is similarly low-brow.) We ain’t eating at Noma and its ilk, but it’s fun to report, nevertheless.
In terms of areas in CPH to check out, we’ve enjoyed walking around the Meatpacking district, Reffen, Strøget for strolling. We only took a bus through Christiana on our way to Reffen and it didn’t look our speed at all (plus, the open drug use/dealing really doesn’t appeal to us) but it might be interesting to check out. CPH is a picturesque, eminently strollable, cool city that’s amenable to aimless wandering. The metro is great and very efficient (although you’re probably used to that in Berlin). Even the touristy Nyhavn is fun to check out. Louisiana Museum was great but it’s a bit of a haul to get there so if you have limited time, I might save that for a future trip. I still haven’t made it to the Design Museum but that will be corrected on our next trip to Denmark. The Nørrebro neighborhood is also high on our list to check out next time.
You and PIC will have a fantastic time. We’re not going back to Denmark this year but we’re going to check out Sweden and Norway instead. I look forward to hearing about the wonderful food experiences you will surely find.
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Oh, I’ve no interest in 1% meals, thank you very much! We like exploring local cuisines & beverages (although, given the alcohol prices, perhaps a little less so for the latter 
).
I read a long report on the current state of Christiania, and will likely check it out. Also want to go to Tivoli. What I would love the most is bring back furniture, but that won’t be feasible 
I’ll check out your older reports in the meantime, and do some research.
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