A weekend away in Copenhagen’s coolest neighbourhood

Our Copenhagen Adult Adventure Weekend started with a bonus, surprise 24 hour stay just outside Gatwick Airport, thanks to our cancelled flight. Although there were just two of us, the airline put us into rooms with a total of six beds between us. We did do a lot of trampolining. Once actually airborne, jetting to Copenhagen, getting on a spiffy train and heading into town couldn’t be much easier. The best thing: The Andersen Hotel, our Copenhagen home, was within crawling distance of the station. After the glory of Croxstead, we almost bawled with relief.

We’d have one fancy dinner. Other than that, no rules

Award-winning and pop-arty, the Andersen Hotel is effortlessly beautiful. Its 69 rooms recently refurbished, it surpasses the expected Danish design flair with a bio Vauni-designed fireplace brooding in the lounge and stunning selections of textiles and wallpapers from the UK’s Designers Guild throughout. Owned by Karen Nedergaard, the hotel is named after her grandmother who founded the Absalon Hotel Group 80 years ago, so Karen sort of knows how to run a hotel. There are nice touches: CONCEPT24, which gives you 24 hours from online check-in to check-out. There is a free wine hour. Guests can take a gratis mobile phone to take with them during their stay. There are bikes to hire to enjoy Copenhagen’s famous bike lanes (56% of Copenhageners bike everywhere). The hotel also has local artists’ works on the walls and holds regular art events.

There was much on offer, but we didn’t do any of it. Taking the lift to our quiet, colourful bedroom, we set some rules: no biking, because we valued the lives of others. We’d have one fancy dinner. Other than that, no rules. If we wanted to sleep all day, so be it. The Andersen Hotel became our away-staycation, with a notably great breakfast banquet. Also, I found climbing the stairs revealed hidden windowsill rewards like cookies and candies. I took a lot because I’m a hog.

The hip area of Vesterbro, like most places near a train station, was once on the iffy side. Now it’s rated by the Lonely Planet guide as one of the top ten neighbourhoods to stay, anywhere. It’s so central to everything hip that we charted our day by time from and to The Andersen. “That’s half an hour’s walk away, that’s 90 minutes but we can do a circle…” It wasn’t speedy or Danish. It was British and stoic.

Like a dangerous one-night-stand, I met the cinnamon bun of dreams

Copenhagen is not the place to go if you have an eating disorder or a shopping addiction. Aimee was keen on the restaurant franchise Palaeo, the all singing all dancing protein-ery featuring controlled carbs in a fast food-style. We ate at every one in the district, starting with the branch in the double food hall TorvehallerneKBH. It was there that the old eating disorder really bucked. Like a dangerous one-night-stand, I met the cinnamon bun of dreams in TorvehallerneKBH. Made from one pound of God’s Own Butter, the Devil’s Sugar and some hippy organic cinnamon with a touch of flour, the weighty grainy sugariness of Laura’s Bakery’s cinnabun was a hallucinogen in pastry form. One bite and I saw stars, angels and ducks circling my head, the intensity of the flavour coercing me to a private place to eat the huge frosted crater. I was humped over it like a squirrel with a nut. “Do you want another,” Aimee asked. I, drooling, growled, “No, no….”

It was only by walking up the street to Sticks ’n’ Sushi – which has handily just opened a Chelsea branch on London’s King’s Road – that we saw, alongside the furniture shops and ravishing antique stores of the meatpacking district, one or two tinges of its more colourful past: The odd sex worker stood, nonchalantly smoking a cigarette on a street corner.

Vintage to its very bones, Copenhagen has streets devoted to immaculate treasures you can’t find anywhere else. At Second Wardrobe by Martine on Egegade 2, I grabbed a stunning Marimekko raincoat for 200k – roughly £20 – while my girlfriend grabbed sexy peep-toe shoes from the same place as well as thick thirsty towels from Illum Bolighus, one of Copenhagen’s nicest department stores.

Our fancy dinner? Uformel – of course (pictured top of page) – a buzzy place where everyone is advertisement level beautiful. We were surrounded by chic couples and groups talking and laughing while inhaling great wines – the place is known for its cave – and flavour-packed dishes. We choose the savvy four course set menu. Changing seasonally, it currently features courgettes with fermented asparagus and Vesterhavs cheese, celeriac with egg yolk and mallard with celeriac, plums and pepper. Our wines included a lush deep blush Vin de Frantz 2017 from the Loire and a crisp Rieffel Brandluft riesling 2016 and a Domaine Phillippe Tessier Cheverny 2014 pinot noir. I stuck to Rémi Leroy Extra Brut champagne throughout. The strawberry dessert tasted of sensational sun-ripened fruit. As the affordably priced sister to the Michelin-starred formel B, uformel is cosy and relaxed, shimmering with studded brassy bits and gold lacquered tables in the careful lighting. The food is of the utmost quality – the restaurant works with local Danish farmers’ vegetables and meats. In short, the food tastes the way all food ought to.

Copenhagen was the perfect adult getaway. And we didn’t miss our Danish friends’ favourite Gorms, the famous Italian-with-a-Nordic-twist pizzas. We ate some at the airport. Those Copenhageners think of everything. C