How to spend 10 Hours in Copenhagen

The first stop was Rundetaarn, the 17^th Century observatory once used by scientists and astronomers to study the stars. Today, it is the oldest functioning observatory in Europe and a popular tourist spot.

Whilst the tower is only 36 meters tall, the spiral walkway that leads up to the outdoor observation deck is around 230 meters long. This meant we overestimated the time it took to get to the top, but once up there you get a great view of the old part of Copenhagen. Yes, there are taller buildings in the city possibly with better views, but the walkway itself is a brilliant piece of design that is definitely worth checking out. Oh and entrance is only 25 DKK (about £2.50)

After the walk up and back down the Round Tower, we went across the road to grab a strong coffee (and hot chocolate). Expresso House is the Starbucks of Scandinavia and there is literally one on every corner. They have delicious coffee and are great for a quick fix so this is where we went. But there are also a tonne of other coffee shops on every street, so you won't ever have trouble finding coffee!

We recommend bicycles to travel around the city. We made our accounts on Bycyklen the day before to save time but there’s a touch-screen built into the handlebars so you can create an account on the bike too. The screen is also used for payment, directions, and recommends points of interest nearby which was pretty handy when we were cycling around. 

Our next stop was the Den Blå Planet, the National Aquarium of Denmark, and the cycle there was little longer than we expected. However, along the way we got to see all sides of Copenhagen, from cycling along the main roads through the centre of the city and getting shouted at by an angry cyclist (the rest of them were very nice) to coasting through tiny little cobbled streets, over snazzy bridges and past the famous harbour of Copenhagen, Nyhavn.

We also even ended up cycling through Kristianstad, which we didn’t actually plan into our day. Kristianstad is a cool little suburb of Copenhagen which makes you feel like you’ve just dropped right into the middle of a relaxed festival. They’ve got a strict policy on taking photos and cycling isn’t allowed in some parts of the town so watch out for this. But it's a beautiful little area and if you can fit it in, it's worth checking out!

We even got a scenic ride along the boardwalk that led us all the way to the aquarium. We parked the bikes outside (theve got a built in locking system) and spent just over an hour looking at all sorts of fish. The building is arranged in a spiral design with each arm dedicated to a different exhibit. One of my favourites was the rainforest exhibition where you can see all sorts of weird and wonderful rainforest creatures. However, the main reason we wanted to go was to see their biggest tank, which holds 4 million litres of water! You can look into it through a 16x8metre window which feels a lot bigger when you're stood against it looking at manta rays and sharks! There is also a 15metre long tunnel that you can walk through where the sharks swim above your head.

You can easily spend 3-4 hours here if you really take your time but we felt like we’d seen enough and knew there were other sights in Copenhagen that we wanted to see so we got back on our bikes and rode on the next stop.

After leaving the aquarium, we stopped off at the Kastrup Sea Baths for a quick dip in the sea. This structure is free and open all year round so that no matter the weather or budget, you can always have a swim and a dive from the intimidating 5 meter diving platform.

Back on our bikes, we cycled back towards the centre of Copenhagen. With our tummies rumbling we found a little food market near the Nyhavn Harbour where we stopped for some well deserved lunch.

Re-fuelled by hotdogs and beer we explored the colourful little harbour, stopping to look at Ai Weiwei’s installation on the outside of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg as well as trying to find a good looking restaurant to return to later the same evening.

By far my favourite activity that we did on our day in Copenhagen was hiring a boat and crusing through the city centre at our own pace. We booked our ride in advance with a company called GoBoat and when we arrived we bought a bottle of wine in order to stay hydrated on our little cruise!

You don’t need any experience or license to hire the boats, and even if you’ve never been on a boat before its super easy to use. You twist the lever left to go faster, right to slow down, what could go wrong?

We hired the boat for an hour, which was plenty of time to cruise past the opera house, the houses of parliament and the church of our saviour. Although we didn’t know where these places were before we started, we were given a simple map with sights to look out for and how long it would take to reach them.

With the wine keeping us hydrated and the sunshine keeping us warm, this was the most relaxing way to see such a busy city.

Whilst out on the GoBoat, we spotted another public path in the harbour and it looked like so much fun we made it our next stop. The harbour baths are located on the edge of water and designed to suit all swimmers with a total of five pools to choose from. There’s also a 5 metre diving platform and lifeguards on watch so it was perfect for an afternoon dip to help us cool off.

With the sun setting and once again, our tummies rumbling, we cycled on to our last stop of the day; dinner!

We didn't book a table but had spotted a few good looking restaurants along the Nyhavn Harbour earlier in the day so we parked our bikes for the final time and joined the hundreds of other people looking for dinner. Settling for an Italian restaurant (we couldn't find anything truly danish), we sat outside with a view overlooking the colourful town houses that line the harbour's edges and tucked in to a reasonably priced and generously sized bowl of spaghetti bolognese and delicious pizza topped with parma ham and mushrooms. After our mains we were far too full for desserts so enjoyed another glass of wine and decided to call it a day. 

And what a day it was! We would have loved to stay overnight but everything we found was waaay out of our budget for such a short trip. Instead, we took the train back over to Sweden and stayed with Frida's family, who we had been spending time with before our mad day trip.