Destination: Copenhagen, Denmark: Little Mermaid statue, Designmuseum Danmark, & Shopping– PART 2)

Summer in Copenhagen (June 2025)

Thanks to jetlag, my fiancée and I woke up very early the following morning. As we were nine hours ahead of our home in Los Angeles, we definitely felt the time difference and we would spend the next couple of days trying to get adjusted to it while busy traveling. All the same, it was good to be up early, as we could maximize the last bit of our time in Copenhagen before heading to our next destination.

PS Just note that “Part 2” of Copenhagen will be a bit disjointed, as it’ll contain activities that we did over the course of several days, given we were busy with trips to other parts of the country in-between. Nevertheless, enjoy!

After freshening up, we decided to head out for breakfast. We headed to a café about 10 minutes on foot, where we were the first patrons of the day. Copenhagen has a notable trendy café scene, and for our first meal of the day, we opted for a harissa omelet and blueberry pancakes, paired with lattes. In concept, the food and drink sounded tasty, but honestly, they were just-okay, even a bit flavorless. It also didn’t help that it was shockingly expensive at 460 Danish krone ($70 USD)!

We were a bit disappointed in our breakfast, but we made up for it by purchasing some yummy pastries at a nearby bakery, to be enjoyed later– I will say that Denmark does a lovely job with cardamom buns, and the mushroom-cheese Danish was lovely, too.

Cardamom buns

The two of us spent the rest of the day in Frederiksberg, a city-enclave within Copenhagen (post on it soon). We headed back to our hotel afterwards to check out, grab our luggage, and head to the airport for our evening flight to our next destination, the Faroe Islands, where we would spend about five nights exploring the isolated Danish territory (post on it later, too). Following our visit, we returned to Copenhagen for another two nights in the city, to see and do as much as we could.

My fiancée and I returned to Copenhagen in the early afternoon, grabbing a light Danish hot dog lunch to enjoy at a park nearby our hotel. Afterwards, we split up for the afternoon, as my fiancée wanted to check out a yarn café and I wanted to explore another part of the city, specifically around The Little Mermaid statue. Granted, the statue is gimmicky and overly-touristy, but when in Copenhagen, it was a landmark to check out while I had the time. I didn’t stay too long there, only to take a few photos before leaving the crowds.

The Little Mermaid statue

Summer in bloom

Next was a visit to the nearby Designmuseum Danmark, a museum dedicated to Danish design throughout history– pretty self-explanatory. Admission was 140 DKK ($21 USD), and I spent about an hour to 90 minutes going from room to room to check out designs in furniture, tapestries, and electronics from this small, but mighty nation. I especially found the chair exhibition fascinating, the gallery filled with all sorts of different chairs from floor to ceiling. I’m usually not one for museums, but I did find Designmuseum Danmark a unique experience!

Inside the Designmuseum Danmark

Chair gallery

All of the chairs!

Following the museum visit, I headed towards Strøget for a bit of shopping. I entered the HAY House, a trendy furniture store– think IKEA, but with a Danish flair. I wandered the kitchenware section, which sold items like utensils, cups, and napkins. As many of HAY’s items are from high-end designers, the prices reflect that– since everything was so expensive, I only purchased a canvas HAY tote bag for $40 USD (still pricey)! In any case, I was there to mostly window shop, as well as get *free* views of bustling Strøget from the third story of the shop.

Inside the HAY House

Views outside from the store

I met up with my fiancée at the following shop, Studio Arhoj, which specialized in ceramics and glass-blown art– you can even see the glass blower at work behind the register! Again, many of the items were expensive, but we did purchase a few of the smaller glass art as souvenirs for our family.

Glassworks in Studio Arhoj

It was quite warm that afternoon, so on our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a gelateria for some cardamom and seaberry gelato. Both were tasty, but I especially enjoyed the fragrant cardamom– overall, it was a lovely little treat to cool off in the Scandinavian summer heat.

Cardamom and seaberry gelato

We had a bit of rest at the hotel before heading out a few hours later for dinner, back to our favorite restaurant, Madklubben, just a block or two away. We’d eaten there on our first night in town and enjoyed it so much to have it again. I’d made reservations in advance (fyi reservations are essential in Copenhagen, as places do get busy!), and we showed up for an early evening meal. The dishes were, as expected, delicious once more, and we really enjoyed the tomato tart, stuffed chicken breast, and vanilla parfait.

Tomato tart

Stuffed chicken breast

Vanilla parfait

The next day, my fiancée and I took a day trip to Helsingør and Sweden (also more on them later) and returned to Copenhagen around 17h00. At first, we’d wanted to get dinner at a nice Danish restaurant near where we got off the train, but we hadn’t reserved and the next available time wouldn’t be until 21h00. We were absolutely starving, so we ended up stumbling across a casual Sicilian joint, which seemed to be packed with locals and run by actual Sicilians. The food was solid, our pizza and pasta fresh and flavorful– never would we have thought to eat Sicilian food on our last night in Copenhagen, but it was really good!

Pizza and pasta for dinner

Just before we had to leave for the airport the next day, we had enough time to grab breakfast at another nearby café. Of the many cafés we’d tried in Copenhagen, this last one turned out to be the best we had on our trip: the Danish pastries were fresh and flaky, the lattes were solid and not overly bitter, and I especially enjoyed the matcha cookie specialty. It was a great last meal to end our time in town, as we left for the airport and caught our 14h15 flight back to Los Angeles.

Last breakfast of the trip

Our time in Copenhagen was brief, but fun. Although the city was book-ended between other trips we took in Denmark, we still got to see a lot of it. Visiting in the summer was the right decision, as it was sunny and warm, with plenty of daylight to maximize our exploring of town. It was my fiancée’s first time in Denmark, and I believe she had a pleasant time; it was my second visit to Copenhagen since 2012, and I really enjoyed my second time in town, to see new and familiar sites with the person I love.

I will be recapping more of my trip throughout the rest of Denmark later, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading 🙂

— Rebecca