So the border guy waves his little red stop sign and points to the right so as good upstanding citizens of the world we stopped all recording devices and pulled over. A handsome Danish Viking (all blonde hair, blonde beard, blue eyed) has a very thorough look at our passports and asked where we were going, I think I managed to get a little smile out of him. Passports were handed back and we were on our way again – at least we were in the right country now – Yaaaay..!!
We decided we needed some lunch and stopped at a no nonsense picnic area off the motorway – I have no idea why we decided to eat cooked food, in 30 degree heat with no wind at all but we did and slowly melted while eating ham and cheese pancakes and cheesy gnocchi.
We’d taken a slightly indirect route to Copenhagen to avoid the ferry (I don’t do ferries at all..!! Plus it worked out to be far more expensive than the bridge toll) so it took an extra 2 hours to get over there via Odense. The Great Belt Bridge was awesome though, well worth the extra time, there were seagulls flying the updraft created by the bridge right alongside as we drove along with HUUUGE barges chugging beneath it.
We reached the outskirts of Copenhagen around 9pm-ish which wasn’t too bad really. We’d chosen a park4night stop near the Yacht Club close to the airport and had a lovely view from the spot we chose. There was a lovely grassy area with dog walkers mooching about in front too. Strangely comforting sounds of the planes taking off and landing at the airport, living under the flight path of Manchester airport for my entire life certainly helped. Apart from the planes it was almost whisper quiet, just birds chirping and the odd car. It was a fab little spot so close to the centre. We managed to have a bit of chill out time after tea and I decided to watch a film while John did some work. Seems I didn’t last long as when I woke up there was a sneaky picture of me fast asleep fully clothed on the bed on the group chat we have with Gem 🙂 haha.. I am a bit of a lightweight though!
It was a lovely nights sleep and even lovelier waking up to the view of the boats bobbing on the harbour from the back windows. We thought we should get an early-ish start to increase the chances of being able to park the van but holiday mode had kicked in, so after a lovely morning with John chatting to the locals walking their dogs (we were totally missing Cooper at this point so took all the dog cuddles that we could get!) We packed up and headed into Copenhagen after finding some decent day time parking options on Park4night (love that app!) We managed to find some spaces big enough for the van in what looked to be a well used area (for security dontcha know) but could only stay for 2 hours which was a shame, it was right by the Kastallet which is a 17th Century fortress with ramparts, a windmill and a moat! Very pretty and a lovely way to walk through to get to the centre too. We strolled through in beautiful sunshine, watching a military parade and dodging school children playing what looked to be Goodnight Mr Wolf but not too sure if that’s the done thing in Denmark. We exited the other side and walked through Churchill Park and down to Amalienborg and the Royal Palaces. They had soldiers wearing bearskin hats and patrolling the front of Frederik the 8th Palace and what looked like a small parade of them in front of one of the other palaces. We took in the crowds which were getting bigger and decided that was enough for us! We took the road less travelled by the harbour which looked amazingly like the river Ij in Amsterdam with the big barges and buildings lining it. Before we knew it i’d fallen into a souvenir shop!!! John was so shocked he almost fell over but decided to accompany me to protect me from purchases that wouldn;t fit in the van.. Haha.. I settled on a fridge magnet for Gem (tradition you see..) and a badge for my backpack which I started before we went to America and is one of my favourite things! We left the shop after a couple of minutes, John was quite amazed.. turned a corner and we were crossing Nyhavensbroen and could see the canal and the gorgeously impressive facades of Nyhaven. If we thought it was busy before this was something else.. Gorgeous place to be walking round but we had to dodge a fair few selfie takers and bicycles. We stopped for some photos and moved slightly to one side to grab an ice cream and a drink – just in time for the rain!
We noticed that the time was flying by and as we were about 20 minutes away from the van decided we should head back. The rain had stopped and the crowds had thinned out so it was a lovely walk back. As we reached the van we were going over what was on my list of things to see in Copenhagen as it’s been on my list to visit for a while now and I think we had seen most of them, the Little Mermaid statue was on it but I’d also heard that it was smaller than you thought, or that the crowds were too big but checked it on the map anyway – turns out it was a 3 minute walk away!!! Yay! Haha.. John shook his head as we found we had 15 entire minutes left of parking time..! We headed up the steps and over the bridge and made our way to the harbour wall where we saw the crowds and followed them to the statue. The people that said that the statue was small were right, those that said the crowds were big were right and those who said it was so lovely were also right – the depiction of the mermaid becoming human based on the writings of Hans Christian Anderson is perfect! When I was growing up my mum would sit us down on rainy days and go through all the musicals she could find, from Seven brides for seven brothers and meet me in St. Louis to the epic Hans Christian Anderson complete with Singing at the top of our voices to all of the tunes including Ugly Duckling (Poor John has had to listen to my caterwauling all week – every time we saw swans which was a LOT haha) so because of that film alone I’ve ALWAYS wanted to visit Copenhagen and see the sights in the film (and sing..!) So for me, this was just absolutely brilliant and I’m ever so glad we came, even if it was for such a short time..
We left Copenhagen and made out way back north to the top of the island of Zealand where John had found a lovely beach for us to stop at for the night – up in Tisvildeleje and boy did he find a good un here! The car park was split in 2, a hard topped, well marked part and at the far end a small gateway to a sand and gravel part complete with an Education centre called the Natuurum which (would you believe it!) had toilets with heating and soap and toilet paper which were wonderfully clean and a SHOWER yes, it was an outdoor shower and yes, it was FREEZING cold but it was almost private and roomy and was perfect after spending so much time in the unexpectedly warm weather! The car park was right on the beach too, the lovely clean white beach and apart from being a 10 minute walk from Tisvilde itself, it also had a beach bar at the entrance complete with pallet seating with chunky cushions, hammocks, reggae music and a frosty Heineken pump! Perfect! I was just sorry we couldn’t stay longer. We ended up chatting to the guy in the camper next door whose fridge kept blowing out in the strong winds and he’d only had his camper for a few months so we gave him a few hints. I went for a lovely run the next day (while we had decent showers) and we topped up the water, dropped the grey and emptied the loo while we could then sadly set off to our next wonderful location on the other side of the Great Belt Bridge..
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https://www.johnandmandy.uk/filmmaking-gear/
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