Driving thru Denmark

Jesse took Cole to the U.S. For a long weekend so Franzi and I drove the girls to Copenhagen via Hamburg, Germany.  

We didn't see much beyond endless canola fields and a German-Thai restaurant along the way but it was efficient.  

We boarded a car ferry from the port of Puttgarden on the German Island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea to Rodby Faerge in Denmark.  It was windy and cold but the Scandinavians didn't seem to mind.  

We continued driving a while through picturesque rural Denmark before arriving in Copenhagen and finding our rental apartment.  Without really planning it, we ended up staying in a very trendy part of town which was my favorite part of the whole trip after seeing the main downtown sites.

The city itself did not meet my expectations.  I love Danish design and purposefully seek out retailers throughout Europe, but in person, the city was extremely crowded and more generic than I had hoped.  

We took the prerequisite photos in Nyhaven and saw the Little Mermaid.  We visited Tivoli Gardens and ate delicious cotton candy in the rain.  

But the best part was walking around Vesterbro, browsing the boutiques and passing the cool looking cafes along the main drags of Istedgade and Vesterbrogade.  The neighborhood even boasts its own food street, frenchy Værnedamsvej – a gourmet’s paradise with specialist cheese, wine, fish and chocolate shops, as well as cafes and grocers. 

After we saw all that and were relaxing inside for a bit as the kids watched Danish cartoons, Franzi and I decided we'd had enough, her air mattress leaked and the idea of another night sharing a double bed with Lauren and Caroline wasn't as appealing as cutting our trip short a day and heading back to Brussels.  Ten hours later we were curled up fast asleep in our individual cozy beds with room to turn around in the shower.  Copenhagen box checked.