My Husband Planned a Surprise Honeymoon – Part 3

Alright I promise this is going to be the last post in this series – we have reached the point of our final destination!

Now, I remember two things clearly – that it was very early when we arrived at the London airport for our next destination and also that I was SURE this time that we were going to Ireland. We had just flown over Dublin on our flight over, and it all made sense. (Cam’s company also has an office there and he had been saying how much he wanted to stop in.)

But alas, when Cam handed me my ticket, I was shocked and overjoyed. COPENHAGEN!

I’ve been asking to go to Copenhagen since … mmmm I don’t maybe since the first time we went to Europe? I don’t even remember how the obsession started for me. I think I followed someone on Instagram who traveled there and was in a plant-filled coffee shop and immediately I thought “that is my kind of place.”

All I knew about Copenhagen, Denmark prior to going there was that they had great pastries and great ice cream. Guess what my two favorite things were about Copie? Great pastries and great ice cream.

No, but in all seriousness, the second we landed I could feel a shift. It’s like time slowed down and we entered this new realm where it was 100% fine to eat an ice cream cone the size of your head at 10 a.m. and transportation meant riding a bike.

Cam really did amazing with the hotel here. We were in Nyhavn, right along the water, and every time we peered out the windows of our hotel room we saw the quintessential, colorful buildings and happy passerbys on their way to their favorite park or coffee shop.

In a word that doesn’t at all encompass the true charm of Copenhagen: it was cute.

We got in just before lunchtime, so after settling in to the most Danish hotel room of all time (cute!) we went for some traditional smørrebrød which are open faced sandwiches piled high with the most delicious toppings! Usually seafood, veggies, cheeses, sauces, etc. I’ve been making them at home ever since and I like how it’s so simple yet you can do so many different combinations.

After that we wandered around because that’s what you do in Copenhagen. There are cute shops with lots of wool hats and coats because burrr and tourist shops with the Danish phrase “hygge” (cozy) printed on shopping bags and sweatshirts.

I sourced some recommendations on Instagram from a couple friends who had been to Copenhagen before, but on the first day we were really just getting our bearings. The perfect way to do that was to take a water taxi tour! It was pretty inexpensive and with the main city area being so small (maybe like a 1 mile radius) this takes you around it’s entirety in under an hour and you get to see all the gems of the city like the Black Diamond and the Little Mermaid statue! From that, we could really suss out what we wanted to see and do over the next two days.

We rested in our hotel for a bit after having gotten up long before dawn for a flight and then decided on pizza for dinner. Cam found a hole in the wall spot and the pizza was AMAZING. I don’t remember the name of the spot 😭 But trust me, Copenhagen has great Italian food, so you really can’t go wrong.

And we had to end the night with ice cream. We stopped at Vaffelbargeren and OH MY GOSH DANISH ICE CREAM IS NEXT LEVEL. You eat and then you are immediately sure that this is what ice cream is meant to taste like and you mourn all the days of your life that you’ve eaten mediocre American ice cream, lol. The dulce de leche was amazing, but the next two nights I got strawberry and it was out of this world delicious.

The next morning, we got to enjoy our hotel’s breakfast buffet! Again – DANISH BREAKFAST IS OUT OF THIS WORLD. Everything you could have wanted was there, but it was better than you’d ever tasted. The crispiest bacon, the juiciest melon, the sweetest and flakiest Danish pastries….an omelette station, eggs, ham, a bagel and lox station. Fresh juices and smoothies!! Bottomless coffee!!! I could have had the breakfast buffet for every meal.

We wandered around the shops more that morning, my favorite was a cool sign shop. I’ve since become obsessed with Ib Antoni prints. Cam and I want to get one for our home!

We wandered the Botanical Gardens.

Then we went to this cutie place called Paludan Bog Cafe that is a coffee shop and bakery inside a library! Basically heaven on earth.

It was a rainy day, so we spent the afternoon at the Danish Architecture museum. I’m really into architecture and on the rainy walk over, I was telling Cameron about Gretchen Rubin’s life advice to become a minor expert in something. I’d love to be a minor expert in architecture! Scandinavian design! Ice cream! Basically, I want to be European – lol.

For dinner we grabbed Gasoline Grill which came highly recommended for the best burgers in the city. We also cracked open a bottle of champagne that had been delivered to us by our hotel. Dinner of champions.

The next day we went to Tivoli Gardens with we both can not recommend enough! It was like a real life Halloweentown! Tivoli is basically a giant amusement park with lots of shopping and any type of food you could dream of. Not just popcorn and pretzels – I’m talking a food hall full of so many options! Cam got a G&T and a toasted sandwich and I went to some kind of bowl place. You could definitely spend an entire, fun afternoon here!

For dinner, it being our last night, we decided to go out with a bang and do a nice dinner at a hyggeligt spot that had been recommended to us by Ashlyn Sailsbury! (One of my favorite gals to follow on Instagram, by the way.)

It was called Høst and we loved it – the ambiance, the Danish charm, the food…everything! At home, we rarely go out for “fancy” dinners, and this one really sold us on the luxury. We now are aiming to go to one “nicer” diner a month at home because it is a really nice change from cooking or getting tacos. Also these dinners are usually slower paced and more intimate and it gives us the opportunity to have un-interrupted (no puppies jumping on us) time with each other.

Copenhagen was everything and more, and if we didn’t have the aforementioned puppy, I’d be scheming how to move their as expats full time.

Thanks for following along on our newlywed adventures!

X,

Cristina