A Scandinavian Interlude

The last couple of weeks have rather run away with me so I am behindhand with posting about the short trip we took during half term. One of the budget airlines had a sale on flights during the winter and we managed to book flights to Copenhagen for £50 - that was the total return cost for two adults and one child, which is just ridiculously cheap! We left home early on the Friday morning and got home again late on Saturday, giving us nearly two full days in Denmark. For all three of us it was our first ever trip to Scandinavia.

As we were travelling with a nine-year old we did child friendly things, visiting the zoo, the aquarium, and Experimentarium City, a "hands-on" science activity place (museum? centre? I really don't know what would be the right word!). The weather wasn't great. It was mostly dry on the Friday, but Saturday threw sleet, rain and wind at us. As a result we did not see a great deal of the city as we dashed head down from bus to metro (or in one case, ferry). I would love to go back and explore in the spring or summer when the weather is better. Ridiculously, the flight times and prices mean it would even be feasible to go for a day trip.

First stop the Zoo. The highlight for all of us was the polar bear in the Arctic zone. I'm sure he appreciated the weather, but I'm not sure the same was true of the flamingos, who looked rather out of their element although their colour contrasted nicely with the snow on the ground.

Copenhagen has lots of painted buildings. Being Scandinavia, the streets were all very neat and clean, as was the metro which was very efficient and appeared to run on a trust system with no ticket barriers, just points at which passengers could scan tickets or passes.

I loved these coloured bird boxes which brightened up the street. I noticed some more near a canal the next day, so wonder if they were an art project?

We had a lot of fun at Experimentarium City where there was a section with eight activities to take part in as a family team. Here is junior daughter on the hamster wheel.

Copenhagen has a number of canals - not quite Venice or Amsterdam, but definitely plenty of water. We took a short trip on a water bus across to Experimentarium City at Christianshavn, but if we had more time (and better weather) I would have liked to take a boat tour of the canals.

I loved this little painted boat.

A rather grey and rainy Nyhavn, one of the best known areas of Copenhagen  - in better weather this would be a great place to sit outside a cafe or bar with a drink. It would also be packed with tourists, so I suppose we at least avoided the crowds!