The new post is finally here! Welcome back, or as the Danes would say, “velkommen tilbage.”
In this post, I’ll be sharing some of my first trips to various parts of Copenhagen, all of which have one thing in common – their proximity to the sea.
Let’s dive in!
Whenever I’m preparing to visit a new place, I love to take virtual “street view” walks around the city. Even before I knew I was accepted to a Danish university, I excitedly admired the little dunes along the beautiful beach in the east of Copenhagen. I’ve always loved the combination of grass and sand, so naturally, this was my first destination when I went to explore the city.
I took the longer route (along the central sea canal) as I had planned to visit another landmark, which happened to be closed to visitors that day. No worries… On my way, I had the chance to observe the amazing mix of modern and “old” parts of the city, which seamlessly blended together, transitioning sharply from one to another. I don’t know much about this part of the city yet since I’ve never stopped to admire it. I always just ride by on my bike…
By the way, on my first day of school, I was talking to a Danish classmate and told her that I had already visited this beach. When I said the name of the beach and pronounced it as AMAGER, she corrected me and said – “Do you mean AMA?” An interesting debate followed about how many letters the Danes actually pronounce within a word. In this case, they don’t pronounce the letters G, E, and R! No wonder, with my basic Duolingo Danish knowledge, I understand about 0.01% of what they say…
First glance at the beach – the dunes with grass – beautiful!
The beach is home to a sea lagoon – visible in the top and bottom photos. On the right side, you can see some modern buildings – most of the houses and high-rises by the beach are quite modern with a beautiful view. While looking for an apartment, I came across several offers for beautiful flats in this area, though it is quite far from the city center.
A pretty close-up photo – behind the dune is actually a high-rise building that’s not part of Copenhagen, but…
…is a residential skyscraper in Sweden (Malmö) – on the other side of the Øresund Strait. It’s actually the tallest building in Scandinavia, called Turning Torso.
The bridge above connects Sweden and Denmark. It’s connected to Denmark via an artificial island in the middle of the strait and an underwater tunnel. The entire connection is about 16 km long.
The pier in the photo above is full of small houses, some even with saunas. Many people sunbathe on the stairs, though they didn’t seem very well-maintained to me.
Since I visited this beach, the weather has changed quite a bit – at that time, the beach was full of people, and some even went swimming. Now, it seems that there are more walkers than brave swimmers or sunbathers.
One of Copenhagen’s unique features is definitely the number of wind turbines near the city. They’ve almost become part of the architecture. “Close” to the beach, for example, there are 20 wind turbines, each facing a different direction to always capture the wind in the best possible way. The island in the photo is, I believe, called Flakfort.
Seagulls, fresh sea air… WAIT… what sea air?
Yes, it’s true, I haven’t smelled the sea anywhere. In a brief conversation, a Mexican friend explained this phenomenon to me – to get that typical sea smell, you need one important ingredient – sea foam. Only when the sea (because of the waves) begins to foam do microorganisms that produce dimethyl sulfide (DMS) settle in the foam and release that sea scent. Here, however, there are practically no waves… Does this theory hold? – You can check.They say in several articles that the smell is created by organisms.
Right by the beach, there’s a lovely path that’s always full of joggers, cyclists, and walkers who know how to unwind after a busy day or week.
If you look closely, you can see a woman riding a bike with a trailer. Inside the trailer sits a man. This mode of transport is quite common here. I often see parents transporting their kids this way to school or around town. And it’s not uncommon for adults to ride in the trailers as well.
Before arriving, I noticed an architecturally interesting building near the airport on the map, which turned out to be an aquarium. The exterior is partially covered with water, creating a beautiful reflection – at least, that’s what the photos showed. Since the aquarium is near the beach, I drove there in search of sunset colours.
The landscape along the way surprised me – trees, lots of grass, a wide road, and…
…geese!
I only visited the aquarium from the outside and must admit, I wasn’t too impressed. The building is no longer in perfect condition, and the water surface wasn’t calm, so I didn’t get to see the famous reflection.
Anyway, it’s still an interesting building, and its contents are more important than its surroundings – I would love to explore it one day.
In a conversation with my housemate, I got the idea for a new trip – I wanted to visit her favourite beach in Copenhagen, which, she says, has nicer and finer sand than Amager Beach. I discovered that there’s also an interesting museum nearby with some outdoor exhibits. More than enough reasons for a trip there!
The first days, I took cycling as an opportunity to explore the various parts of the city, so I usually just remembered the destination and didn’t plan my route too well. It was the same this time – every 10 or 15 minutes of cycling, I’d check the map to see which direction I should take, while sometimes getting lost between the streets. A one-hour ride turned into a two-hour adventure… Along the way, I passed numerous lively sea coves, cycling paths, and play areas for both kids and adults. My first stop was the rather empty, colourful Brøndby Beach.
About 100 meters from the “target” beach is the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, which is said to be quite top-notch with great exhibitions. I was too tired to visit it, but I walked around it and checked out some of the outdoor creations.
Finally, THE BEACH!
Ishøj Beach is a more typical, well-maintained beach compared to Amager. So, I happily jumped into the water. Well, I didn’t jump, because it was 50 m from the shore it is still very shallow – the water reaches up to my waist. It was a pleasure to take a quick swim and then read in peace on the beach.
In one of our conversations, my brother suggested that I visit the building shaped like an eight, a little south of my apartment. Apparently, it’s a very interesting architectural residential building created by the BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group.
One Friday afternoon, I decided to take a trip there to catch the sunset. It was already getting late, so I quickly cycled to make sure I wouldn’t miss the sunset colors. This is what the journey looked like:
The “8 Tallet” (in Danish) is located at the southernmost part of a long complex of business and residential buildings, surrounded by vast meadows and pastures, and other recreational spaces.
The neighborhood was full of life – people were sitting by the shores, some were training in outdoor gyms, and many had gathered in a bar right next to the famous building, where a DJ was playing on the roof.
Unfortunately, I can’t show you the shape of the building as I would have to climb to the top of a skyscraper for that. What you see in the photos is only the lower part of the eight.
Opposite is another interesting building, next to it an even more interesting one, followed by three more beautiful ones… Yes, the newer parts of Copenhagen are really nice. The older ones, though, will appeal more to brick lovers hehe. I’ll show you those another time.
They are building everywhere – undoubtedly with heart.
The power plant in the background is the same as the one behind the modern art museum, just taken from a different side.
By this time, the sun was quite close to the horizon, so I rushed from location to location to catch as many scenes as I could.
This part of the “city” reminds me of Ljubljana Marshes – quite a few walkers and many different animal and plant species can be found in this swampy area. There were a lot of flies.
On my way back, I told myself I would only stop by the golf course, and then I would pack up my camera. Well, I couldn’t resist the scenes I saw along the dirt path – every 30 meters I stopped to take a photo and continued the walk with my camera around my neck.
And finally – the last stop of the day – “Royal Golf Club,” which measures 6600 meters and is considered one of the best clubs/courses in Europe. One of my classmates used to play golf in her home town (outside of Copenhagen), but she no longer plays here due to the high prices.
And that’s the end! Thanks for checking it out. This post was a bit longer, but I hope it was still interesting.
It’s already been almost three weeks since university started, and I have to say it’s been quite busy – in a very good way. Because of this, my posts will be a little less frequent…
I hope to share more with you soon, until then, I wish you days full of joy!
<3, Alenka