Travelling to Europe is always a revelation. Recently, we travelled to Copenhagen to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday. We were part of a 14-member group that travelled from Bengaluru. It was a truly intimate and memorable experience for all. We all still talk about this trip and all the memories will be etched in our minds for years to come. Why Copenhagen? Because we were going to watch Coldplay live with our best buddies!
We landed in Copenhagen on a Saturday afternoon, and met up with everyone by the evening for a nice meal at the famous Gorilla Restaurant in Copenhagen’s bustling Meat Packing district. Gone are the days of unexciting food in Scandinavia, as Copenhagen now boasts some of the world’s best restaurants and chefs. The concept for Gorilla can be described briefly as “gourmet food in small portions to share”.
Arun and Priya in Copenhagen
Each course served was truly breathtaking in presentation and taste. After dining, we checked out the nightlife. Alas, we were unlucky, as the best known clubs in Copenhagen turned out to be pretty empty that night. But we managed to find some great dive bars and spent the night hopping around a few bars and pubs.
The next day, we spent a few hours shopping at the walking street and the beautiful Nyhavn Harbour, and had a lovely lunch at the CapHorn at the harbour. Later, we checked out the famous hippie town Christiania. Christiania is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood, and has its own micro culture and music scene and its quite a revelation that such a place exists in the otherwise prim and proper Copenhagen.
We spent the next few hours at the farmer’s market of Copenhagen, followed by a lunch at the market itself. We then took a bike tour of Copenhagen. A bike tour is a great way to experience the city, as it’s extremely pedestrian and bicycle friendly. The tour was on the very unusual folding Strida Bikes and we worked up quite an appetite for our next big meal. We spent the evening at Formel B another great restaurant and were treated to some fantastic local fare with a twist.
Our last day turned out to be the most eventful. We spent the first-half of the day at Tivoli Gardens, the world’s oldest amusement park. It is a beautifully designed and maintained park right in the heart of Copenhagen and has been a favourite hangout for over 140 years.
Being in the industry, I definitely felt like a kid in a candy store, trying out the different rides and admiring the design and general upkeep of the place. Later, it started raining heavily and we were worried that our grand finale: the Coldplay concert would be ruined. We bought some rain coats and headed to Parken Stadium by 6 pm. We were quite early so, we spent an hour at a local bar that was belting out tracks from the Head Full of Dreams album.
Later, the gates opened and we managed to get some prime spots to watch the show. Our fear of the rain was unfounded, as the stadium had a massive folding roof, and the venue was covered to keep off the pitter-patter. Big relief! Two hours of patient waiting, and many opening bands later, Coldplay came on stage and completely blew us away. They played all their famous tracks from an assortment of albums and each of the 200,000 fans seemed to have a great time.
Every fan also got a wristband that would light up during the concert, in tune with the songs. It was a truly spectacular sight, and what a way to end such a great trip! We spent the remainder of the night reminiscing the concert and the trip! The next day, we all took our flights back to Bengaluru and the trip seemed to have got over even before it started!
— The writer is the managing director of Wonderla Amusement Parks.
