DAY 19: Copenhagen (Kanalhuset Apartments)

We had breakfast at a local bakery today - just a coffee and a pastry and a bottle of water (and it came to $40!) We didn't want to eat too much because of our food tour at 10.30am.

We used the Metro again to get back into the city to meet our guide - an effervescent, charming Italian girl with bright red hair, called Sonia. She was originally from Naples, but her family now live in Calabria. She was the perfect tour guide - vivacious, chatty, enthusiastic, and able to give an outsider's view of Danish life. 

The social welfare and healthcare system is exemplary, as you would expect. Even the homeless (of which there are very few) are all documented and supported. Prisons have strong rehabilitation programs and it is quite hard to get sent to prison, as they are quite relaxed about drugs and alcohol. Everyone is very law abiding and they do not think defensively at all. They will leave their phones on the table while they go off to the toilet in a restaurant - and they will even leave their kids in a pram outside a shop! Apparently there has never been a kidnapping in Denmark.

They aren't much into cooking though - as indicated by the fact that their national dish is the open sandwich and their national drink is beer. They don't drink much wine, but the drinking age is 16 and everyone drinks all the time and it is very encouraged by the government. Apart from the drinking, they are very into health, and organic food is subsidised so it is cheaper than non-organic food. Fruit and vegetables are cheaper than pasta and rice and bread, and by 2026, Copenhagen will be a totally carbon-neutral zone. Already, 90% of cars are electric. 

Still, it is gloomy for a lot of the year and also extremely wet and windy. We apparently were lucky today because it was only cold, and nothing else. Speaking of the cold, Danish parents drive their kids around in carts attached to their bicycles in all kinds of weather to get them used to going out in the cold. We also have seen school groups walking around almost every day and apparently schools have weekly excursions in the Winter to encourage children to think nothing of venturing out in rain, wind and snow. Tough love!

We learned all this information while on our food tour, as well as being shown some local sights. But, more importantly, this was a proper food tour - with proper food! We were very pleased that it started at a wonderful indoor market. (No getting food out of a backpack for Sonia.)

1. Open Sandwiches - these were actually lovely - made on thin toasted rye bread with a range of different toppings. Jim and I shared an avocado and sweet roasted tomato sandwich and a bacon and truffled egg sandwich. They came from a stall in the market.
2. Danish Meatballs & Pork Belly - also from a market stall. Apparently Danes love pork and there are more pigs in Denmark than people. This was delicious. I'm not sure what was in the meatballs - I assume pork? The pork belly was tasty with a lovely crackling and it was served with pickled cucumber and cabbage.
3. Beer - we walked down the street to a pub and sat at an outside table, where we were offered a range of beers to try. I had a Christmas lager, which wasn't bad at all.
4. Hot Dog - the Danish hotdog is a very superior type of sausage and comes in a lovely toasted bun with all the trimmings - sauce, mayonnaise, pickles, fried onion etc. It was delicious.
5. Chocolate Marshmallow Puffs (or Flodeboller) - These are baked marzipan cookies topped with whipped vanilla egg whites and dipped in chocolate and then sprinkled with lots of different things - like licorice or coffee or coconut etc. These were tasty, but so so sweet!
6. Danish Pastries - our last stop was at a bakery where we could choose a Danish pastry. Lots of the options were croissants stuffed with various creams, but there were also cinnamon buns, cardamom buns and other types of pastries. I had something with layers of puff pastry and mascarpone, topped with fresh berries. It would have gone well with a coffee actually, but was delicious.

Sonia left us at that point (after about 2.5 hours) and we stayed and chatted with the others for five minutes before heading back to the hotel. We were absolutely stuffed full. (A sign of a good tour!) The others on the tour included a Scottish father and totally silent son (who looked about 16 but may well have only been 12 or 13) and a couple of nice American women.

Later in the evening (well, probably only around 5pm - but it felt like late at night), we hopped on the train and went back to the market, hoping to try some of the other great food offerings. It was fairly busy and also very poorly designed. Each stall had a limited number of seats and they were practically all full. The more popular places were absolutely packed and we would never have gotten a seat. We ended up going back to the open sandwich place and I had an absolutely delicious artichoke and cream cheese sandwich while Jim had a lobster one. I understand why the Danes love open sandwiches because they can be really tasty - but they're hardly a warming meal on a Winter night.

We managed to find another spot to eat at an oyster bar, and Jim had six freshly-shucked oysters, but we gave up then and came home. We weren't super hungry after the food tour, but it would have been nice to be able to try a few more things.