After another, less severe jet-laggy night, we woke up early and headed down to the hotel breakfast buffet. I love breakfast buffets in Europe! The cheeses, seedy breads, skyr yogurt, and porridge- so good! There were also fresh juices in non-SMS approved tiny glasses and very importantly, good coffee!
We rented bikes for the day from the hotel. Not the best deal in town but pretty close to asking price and it was easy. We bikes along the Lake and then over to the Little Mermaid and Kastellet. Next, we headed over to Nyhaven and the arts center. We biked over the bridge and headed for the Vors Frelsers church.
We arrived shortly after 10 and bought our tickets to ascend the spire. I’ve never seen anything like it (apart from the other time when I climbed it ~2010). You transition to the exterior of the spire for the last 1/3 of the climb. The staircase peters out just below the golden dome that tops the spire. There is no protective glass or jumper nets. Even better, the handrail goes from shoulder-height at the start down to waist-height at the very top. It is very disconcerting. We found out we were fortunate to show up when we did because there was a big line when we descended and left. I wouldn’t want to jostle too much at the top, that’s for sure!
We headed to Reffen, the food container area on Paper Island, passing Christiana and Noma’s new location along the way. We ordered fries which I sort of wish we didn’t because we had a great lunch reservation but hunger levels were rapidly rising to crisis levels.
After our snack, we cycled over to Restaurant Sondehaan, a historic smørrebrød restaurant. We had aqua vit and smørrebrød. I ordered the scrambled eggs and eel, mostly because I read about it as a “you’d never think about it but you’ve got to try it.” Truth! It was delicious. My second one was Rene’s (of NOMA fame) favorite. Halibut on caraway rye with dill. Both were really good- very high topping:bread ratio. SMS ordered the small plate of the day. It started with a make-your-own with two types of halibut. The next course was a minced steak with egg or as SMS said, “Look, it’s Loco Moco.” Finally, his set ended with an almond cake that was quite good. Overall, I enjoyed mine more as I wanted the smørrebrød made for me by the experts rather than a make-my-own as a novice.
After lunch, we were hurting from fatigue. So we went to the hotel and napped. Then, we bought train tickets to Klampenborg for us and our bikes. We cycled the very short distance to Bellevue beach. Bikes are totally unnecessary for the beach- I had just wanted them for the path into Bakken.
After some sun time and a swim, it was time for the amusement park. We went on three rides- two coasters and a very tame swan ride, which is basically a swan paddle boat on an elevated track rather than water. The riders peddling causes the swan to coast along the track. The roller coasters well…it’s worthy of a separate blog post so I’ll hold off for now!
After our fun, we headed back into the city. We split a pizza and a salmon tartare dish at the hotel restaurant, which was a perfect amount of food. Then, off to bed!