To Køpenhavn

February 19, 2016

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Having gone to bed at 1:30 PM the previous night, we got up around 3:30 AM and began cleaning up the apartment in preparation for checking out. We polished off the leftover pesto pasta, surfed the interwebs, and finished packing and cleaning before 7 AM. Since our flight left at 12:30 PM, we decided to check out a local cafe that looked quite cozy when we walked by it yesterday morning.When we walked into Var Bagarbod, we immediately felt at home. Between the flickering tabletop candles, the smell of fresh pastries, and the snow lightly falling outside, it was by far the most charming scene we had encountered in Stockholm. The owner was very friendly and when asked about his favorite pastry, he recommended everything, assuring me that ‘everything is delicious or your money back’. As we ate our cinnamon (Heather) and cardamum (me) pastries, we enjoyed listening to the big band music play and all of the morning commuters pass by. It seemed like a perfect farewell to Stockholm.📷Var Bagarbod After working on the blog for a while, we packed up and headed out to catch the metro. Reversing our route from Tuesday, we took the metro from Skanstull to Stockholm Centralstation and then transferred to the Alranda Express train. Fortunately, tickets were half-off today, so it was not nearly as expensive as it was when we came into the city.At Stockholm Arlanda Airport airport, we checked in and flew through security in all of 15 minutes (they even had a smiley face scale at the end to rate how they did). At this point, we had about 2 hours to kill, so we strolled through the airport, past the dozens of neatly kept shops and restaurants. It turned out our terminal was as far as you can get from the security checkpoint. While Heather guarded the bags, I picked us up some lunch: An extra creamy feta cheese caprese sandwich and some potatoes and swedish meatballs. Finally, I had fulfilled my goal of eating Swedish meatballs – in Sweden!📷Swedish meatballs After an uneventful, hour-long flight, we arrived at Copenhagen International Airport. Learning from our experience in Stockholm, we quickly bought our metro tickets from a machine that was strategically located before baggage claim and hopped onto the Copenhagen metro. We got off at Nørreport station and made our way to the pizza place where our keys were being held by a gregarious, but humble, Michelin starred chef.Retracing our steps two doors down, we entered the apartment building and began the long climb up six flights of stairs. When we opened the door, we were struck by how much the flat looked identical the photos on Airbnb. We were so impressed, that we even took a few photos of the place.📷Flat on Gothersgade 📷I like her sense of humor 📷View from the top deck (community garden below) Since it was only 3 PM, we decided to explore the area. We walked along Sortendams Sø, the nearby canal, meandered through a park and ended up at the States Museum for Kunst (or National Gallery of Denmark). Since it looked so stately from the front, we went inside and inquired about purchasing tickets. Fortunately, it was Friday, so admission was free after 4 PM (it was 3:50 PM when we went in, so we just perused the gift shop for 10 minutes).📷International Church of Copenhagen 📷Walking along Gothersgade 📷Sortendams Sø 📷States Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark) Then, we saw lots of art.📷SMK entry 📷Europæisk Kunst 1300-1800 📷Transition from Classical to Modern Art 📷Rainbow! 📷Not David 📷Oh so modern By the time we left the museum, it was dark out and we were feeling pretty sore from the last few days of being on our feet, so we stopped by the flat again (and climbed the six flights of stairs) to get some Advil. Searching for a vegetarian-friendly place to eat dinner in Copenhagen is a somewhat daunting task, as most of the well-reviewed and recommended restaurants feature a nearly meat-only menu. Just as we were about to give up and go to the grocery store, Heather suggested the pizza place we had picked up our keys from earlier that day, Pz Nordic.We ordered a margarite pizza and an interesting fried potato, eggplant, and sundried tomato combination. Since these were personal sized pizzas, we brought them the two doors down and six flights of stairs up back to the flat. It took us about 10 minutes to wolf down our pizzas before getting ready for bed. Only this time, we crashed after 7 PM. Record late for us!Addendum: I realize my phone tracks where we walked each day. I’ve gone back and added a small map for each of the relevant days. This post’s map can be found below (this is for you, Dad):📷