Copenhagen: the best city in the world. Why living in Copenhagen is good

Sometimes trips are born spontaneously and unplanned...
So this time it did.
Outside the window, snowfall, terrible gaps, Moscow stands (November 29).

And something so wanted somewhere to fly away from all this!
Opened the Internet, rummaged - everything is expensive. for 20,000 for 2 ... And then suddenly I found round-trip tickets to Copenhagen on the Aeroflot website for 17t for two!
Op-pa! But we haven't been to Denmark yet!
I immediately buy it on Saturday, December 1 (back on the 4th), call my wife - we fly!

Denmark, welcome!
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Keeping in mind traffic jams on Thursday and Friday, we decided to take the Aeroexpress to Sheremetyevo.
It has risen in price, however - 320 rubles for one.
I haven't been to Sheremetyevo for a very long time. We fly mainly from Domodedovo.
Terminal D was very pleased - modern, cozy and few people (departure was around 8 pm).
Passport control and the test went very quickly.
The plane was half empty. People slept on 3 armchairs)))
The time difference with Denmark is -3 hours)) So we landed even earlier (in time) than we took off :)

Copenhagen Airport - Kastrup.
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Changed 100 euros at the airport to get to the hotel and can buy something - and made a mistake!
The rate at the airport was 1 euro - 6.4 crowns. But at the same time, some kind of tax was withheld and it turned out to be 5.7 crowns !!!
When you pay with a card, the cash withdrawal rate ranges from 7 to 8 kroons (depending on the "path" of payment to the bank)! Agree, much more profitable!

They no longer took cash and paid everywhere only with cards. They are accepted even in street stalls and at the Christmas market.
So advice - forget about cash. Not profitable (by the way, in restaurants you can also pay a tip with a card :)

Well, back to the story.
As a child, I always enjoyed watching a subway driver driving a train through a tunnel. I remember we wiped the holes with a coin in the paint covering
door of the driver from prying eyes and looked, imagining as if we were driving a train.

In the Copenhagen metro, you can feel like a machinist without any problems.
The thing is, it's just not there!
Everything is automatic.
You can sit at the very beginning of the train and enjoy the spectacle))
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When we arrived, it was +3 in the city and it didn’t even smell of snow :)
In the morning, leaving the hotel (Richmond Hotel - I recommend. Not expensive, the rooms are good and from the center 5-10 minutes on foot) we saw
the city has changed!
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it was snowing heavily and snow was already everywhere)
It was just what I wanted)))
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This is a railroad. it is also a quick way to get from the airport to the city center.
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The cyclists looked like ruffled sparrows perched on a branch in the cold.
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I will post photos in 3 days, so some will have snowfall, others will not))
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Hans Christian Anderson Boulevard (H.C. Andersens Blvd.) - sounds fabulous :)
Imagine a dialogue:
- How to get to the library?
- Go straight on Hans Christan Anderson Boulevard, turn onto the street of the persistent tin soldier and saw the library near the tower of Ole Lukoye.
I'd kill for that answer :)
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Another digression.
Before, I thought that the most cycling country in Europe is.
Horseradish! The most cycling is Denmark. Well, or, in any case, no less "bicycle" :)
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Bicycles are everywhere and in abundance!
They stand in large and small groups.
They lie on roads, in bushes, hang from trees and lie at the bottom of canals - in abundance.
Absolutely on all city roads, paths and paths there is a dedicated line for cyclists.
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All traffic lights have a separate signal for bicycles.
At the crossroads - their own, highlighted in blue, tracks.
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The topic of bicycles will smoothly "glide" throughout the report (and it will be in 4 parts).

And we move on.
Monument to the little bugler near the Town Hall Square.
From this angle you can see that a soldier is carrying a wounded bugler...
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and from this - as if our Siberian man is carrying a "tired" friend from hunting and fishing home :)
Here is an association
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Town Hall Square.
City Hall - first on the right
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there's a mailbox right there. Very stylish.
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out of 12 chairs only 4 are left. They are waiting for Ostap. At the local theatre.

The cyclists were surprised. Some rode all bundled up, others - in shorts and T-shirts. But it was 0 degrees.
Yes, and passers-by here and there flashed in sneakers on their bare feet ...
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town hall again.
Built in the 18th century, the height of the tower is 105.6 meters.
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Trash fountain at the town hall.
Everything is intertwined into a ball and you can’t make out anything in this heap-male :)
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Bas-relief at the town hall
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There are 2 more on the town hall square beautiful buildings
But what is this - I did not find on the Internet (((
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Well, the main Christmas tree on the same square.
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Since the city is by the sea, there are a lot of seagulls in it.
Here they are instead of pigeons (although there are also enough pigeons).
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Vikings. Scandinavia, after all.
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Many buildings in the city center are decorated with interesting bas-reliefs.
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in Copenhagen they also play KVN.
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The girl was so thoughtful that she almost knocked me down. Barely jumped out from under the wheels :)
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Delivery of Christmas trees to organizations
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I go for mushrooms with such baskets. Exactly the same!

01. I’ll tell you right away about the main thing - it’s difficult to take a picture in the city without a bicycle. Something, but the bicycle infrastructure in the city is maintained and developed. At first I thought to make a separate post about it, but then I thought that it would be superfluous, after all, quite recently I posted a local design guide (). So just a few pics:

02. Bicycle counter:

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05. By the way, it’s strange, but a typical parking lot in Copenhagen is a wheel mount. Not the most convenient option, but this is everywhere here:

06. Yard:

07. Street:

08. By the way, it’s a good idea to arrange a bike parking in the visibility zone of the race - it doesn’t interfere with the view, the space doesn’t disappear:

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10. Local boor:

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12. Flea market:

13. There is a bike rental in the city. Electric. Some 250 rubles per hour and you are on wheels with a battery:

14. Each has a tablet with navigation, feedback and so on:

15. The motor helps you gain speed of 25 km / h, after which it turns off. It does this smoothly, without any complaints. The screen, by the way, is blocked while driving so as not to distract:

16. Why exactly 25 km/h? Because cycling green waves are set to exactly this speed:

17. But they don’t write that they will charge you 250 rubles per hour, even if you drive 15 minutes. There was an unpleasant surprise when I drove for half an hour, and they charged me for the whole hour, and they also removed the advance payment in the amount of 2000 rubles, although there was not a word about it ...

18. In general, they love electric transport here - I have never seen so many electric cars in my whole life, like here. Although bicycles are dominated by the most ordinary.

19. Part of the city is located on the islands, so, of course, without bridges anywhere. But they are made primarily for pedestrians and cyclists, and only last for personal vehicles:

20. Almost all of them are movable (as in the title photo):

21. A new bicycle-pedestrian bridge, which was opened a couple of days after my visit. It does not rise, but moves down like two forks:

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23. Streets have three levels: pavement, cycle path and carriageway. Descents are often made simply from asphalt:

24. Velofascism

25. By the way, a funny fact, there was once Copenhagen and Frederiksberg - two different cities, which eventually grew together. But de jure the communes are still different, but it is very problematic to understand where one is and where the other is, they are so integrated into each other. But there are two differences. Firstly, in Frederiksberg, the bike paths are not blue, but reddish. In the photo, just the transition from one city to another:

26. Secondly, if in Copenhagen parking is paid electronically, then his neighbor still has a parking clock:

27. Let's walk around the city. In the pavement, two strips of even slabs are always made for the carriage to pass:

28. Quite often, if the width allows, in Copenhagen they make part of the pavement from crumbs (I don’t know, granite or something else). It looks cool, you can safely run on such a coating, plus it conducts water well into the ground:

29. Sports ground:

30. Another site, with an outdoor projector (although some gifted person ruined the wall-screen):

31. In general, public spaces are well designed here: modern, restrained, functional:

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33. Street as a public space:

34. Living City:

35. Outdoor barbecue culture is very common in Copenhagen, sometimes tables have a special metal insert:

36. Disposable braziers with coal cost about 400 rubles. But there are also just street ones:

37. Street tables as a place for communication - a typical part of the city:

38. Embankment:

39. There was once a port with warehouses:

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41. And now it is forbidden to make barbecue here:

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44. Here is the beach:

45. Did I go down to the passages in the city? No. Are there crosswalks here? Yes:

46. There are still hatches in the city:

47. And all hydrants are closed with clamps:

48. Part of the drainpipes is correctly removed into the storm drain, and part is simply watering the feet of pedestrians. Weird.

49. Regular school:

50. The Danes are very good modern architecture, there will be a separate post about this:

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52. Schoolyard, isn't it cool?

53. And under the hill is a utility warehouse:

And yes, it's free everywhere.

54. And behind the wall of the school ... a cemetery:

55. At least walk along it and study history - tombstones from the 17th century to the present day. Here they planted trees near the grave, for a couple of hundred years they have grown slightly. Soon, I suppose, they will swallow the stove:

56. This is Copenhagen.

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On a ten-point scale, Copenhagen deserves a visit to all 10. Only it's expensive, unfortunately.

Today I will show you how the quarter of one of the sleeping areas of Copenhagen is arranged. This is the so-called "social housing". The main difference from our sleeping areas is the lack of cars. All cars are either in park-and-ride parking lots at the block boundary or underground. All space inside the block is for people only. Unfortunately, no luck with the weather. The whole day was a nasty drizzle and there were no people on the street. Of course, in summer and in other weather, all this looks much better and more fun.

01. Parallel parking along the road. Near the bike path and sidewalk paved with granite slabs. No one parks on the sidewalk and bike paths, although there are no fences or posts. Also note the absence of wires.

02. The border of a residential area. Bicycle parking in front of each entrance. Cars are not allowed inside the residential area.

03. Red - bike path. Black boxes are trash cans. Trolleys are placed near the garbage cans, like in a supermarket, so that it is convenient to deliver garbage to them.

04. Large bike parking in front of the house. There are driveways around the house, but ordinary cars cannot enter here. They are needed for access to special equipment or emergency services.

05. Residents of the first floors have small terraces.

06. Drawings on the roads.

07. On the right you can see the terrace of one of the residents. Its small plot compensates for the shortcomings of living on the ground floor. Usually such apartments are even more expensive than usual.

08. Mailboxes on the street. Note that the ground floor level is at ground level. We still have outdated norms with basement floors. There is no need to make steps on the ground floor in the European part of Russia.

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10. All houses are different. This is ordinary inexpensive housing on the outskirts, but there are no standard projects here. Each house has a unique facade.

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13. On a large field between the houses there are playgrounds, table tennis tables, exercise equipment, slides, etc.

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15. All houses are different.

16. There was no one outside because of the rain.

17. Pay attention to the lawn. It is special so that you can walk on it and sit on it.

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20. Garbage cans, lights. Please note that the lawns are either at the level or slightly below the totuars. Because of this, the earth and dirt from them does not fall on the roads like ours.

21. All yards have trash cans for dog poop. For dog owners, disposable gloves are everywhere so that they clean up immediately after their pets.

22. An example of organizing space under one of the houses. We'd have cars here.

23. Another playground.

24. Kindergartens here are small and usually located on the first floors of residential buildings. This is the playground of one of the kindergartens. Behind the glass of the room for games.

25. Another playground.

26. Yard of one of the houses. There is a huge grill.

Cities should be for people.

What is Copenhagen associated with? Personally, I have, first of all, with the sculpture of the Little Mermaid, which recently celebrated its centennial anniversary. However, I had already seen the monument during my last trip, so this time I decided to walk around the center and look closely at the city itself...

The Newhavn embankment is famous for its multi-colored houses of the 17th century. The oldest of them is over 300 years old. Andersen lived here:

Now it is a completely tourist area with a pedestrian zone and all sorts of restaurants and shops. The atmosphere is very democratic: you can sit down and have a bite to eat right on the pier:

The central square in front of the Town Hall, from here goes the main pedestrian street of the city:

The Danes have an interesting way of holding rallies and protests. In order not to waste time standing in the protesting crowd, people simply poked posters, while they themselves went to smoke bamboo:

In the city center, all the same old multi-colored houses:

Around are plastic cartoon sailors:

People walk:

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Embankment:

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People go boating

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Winding streets lead from the water into the city:

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Shop for gay people. For some reason, stickers forbidding bicycles hang on the windows:

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Cafe, morning, sun - beauty:

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For five minutes they watched as people stubbornly tried to shove the unimpressed. They wanted to help, but then they decided that with our participation this process would drag on even longer:

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Double red traffic light like in Oslo (for colorblind people):

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Church of the Savior with a spiral staircase on a spire looks incredible. Despite all the protests of Varlamov, I forced him to stand in line and walk upstairs:

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First you go up the usual stairs, then the spiral begins:

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The higher you climb, the narrower the passage, until it simply disappears on the last turn. No sites and final point are provided, you feel a slight disappointment:

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The only consolation is the views of the city that open from the spire:

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cool idea with football fields. It is not clear, however, what will happen if the ball flies into the adjacent field during the game:

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Tivoli Amusement Park. They say that Walt Disney was so inspired by this park that he decided to make his own Disneyland:

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Despite the fact that the park is old, the entire infrastructure is up to date. Ticket sales are automated, however, a separate ticket must be paid for each attraction:

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Large playground:

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Animators work:

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Castle in oriental style. The machine in the foreground is an automatic lawnmower. She rides on the grass like a smart vacuum cleaner and trims the grass:

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Radisson Blu Hotel. Last time I stayed at this hotel:

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Instead of a traditional long counter, the reception is made in the form of hotel tables. Above them are designer lamps similar to cedar cones:

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In general, Denmark is famous for good furniture and accessories. For example, one of the most famous Danish designs is Arne Jacobsen's egg chair. The armchair was designed for the SAS Hotel Royal Hotel in Copenhagen 55 years ago. And today, Radisson Blu is hosting a competition for the most original upholstery design in which you can win a free hotel stay.

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Electric bikes with a built-in tablet with navigation. Very cool:

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Railway passes through the city. The tracks are slightly sunk into the ground, so the noise from the trains does not interfere:

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Subway construction. The construction is not closed, but on the contrary, done observation deck to keep residents informed about what is happening. Here are construction statistics and infographics about what prospects the new station opens up:

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Park with swans:

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Floating pools and diving tower:

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Finally, I propose to compare the breakfast of a healthy person and Varlamov's breakfast:

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In the next post I will tell you what brought us to Denmark! Stay Tuned!

Copenhagen is constantly featured in the top ten rankings of cities in terms of living standards, quality of life, safety and so on. For example, in 2016, Mercer ranked the Danish capital 9th in the world in terms of quality of life. In the ranking of cities for the personal safety of residents, Copenhagen is in 11th place. By the way, it is also the capital of one of the richest countries in the world (if you count in terms of GDP per capita).

All this leads to the fact that Copenhageners are constantly. In the list of the happiest cities in Europe, Copenhagen was on the second line, losing only to another Danish city,. 67% of Copenhagen residents are VERY satisfied with their lives, another 28% are quite satisfied. Probably, the remaining 67% consider them terrible pessimists.

The statement that Copenhagen is also the most cycling city in the world has long been a commonplace, but it is also completely true.

01. Acquaintance with Copenhagen begins immediately at the airport. There are city benches in the baggage claim area!

02. These are not just shops, these are legendary shops! Their base is made of cast iron, and the design has not changed since 1887. The wood is specially treated to withstand the humid Danish weather. Such a bench weighs 35 kg, so moving it to the right place is not a very big problem. There are 2,500 of these benches in Copenhagen. As far as I understand, not only the city buys them: some Copenhageners buy them for their patio or for a country house.

03. There is a corner for children.

04. Here, at the airport, visitors are shown new urban elements. For example, here is such a design with horizontal bars and a ladder. It can then be seen on the city embankments.

05. Floor navigation

06. There is a subway in Copenhagen! The system is brand new, opened in 2002. Now the subway consists of two lines and 22 stations. Since everything in Copenhagen is located quite compactly, you can take the metro to the airport and train station.

07. Travel is quite expensive, it all depends on the distance. Stations are divided into several zones according to their distance from the center. For example, a ticket from the city center to the airport (the metro passes 3 zones) will cost 36 kroons, which is 355 rubles for one trip. If you need to pass 2 zones, you already pay 24 crowns (237 rubles). The fine for ticketless travel is 750 kroons, or 7,400 rubles. After this, you won’t want to ride a hare.

08. Trains without drivers, as in or.

09. There are water buses in Copenhagen! Although we are accustomed to the phrase " river tram", "water bus" conveys the essence much more accurately. Here it is a full-fledged public transport rather than a pleasure boat. It is operated by the same Movia operator that runs the Copenhagen buses and commuter trains. There are only 3 routes in the city with 10 stops, they connect the islands of Zeeland and Amager. If you have a ticket for a bus, metro or train, then transfer to the water bus is free.

10. Some people don't need water buses.

11. Cycling in Copenhagen has been developing for more than 100 years (the first bike path appeared here back in 1910), and it constantly confirms its status as the most cycling city in the world. They say there are even more bicycles here than people. This is logical, given that almost everyone has their own bikes, and in addition, there are about 2,000 bike rental points in the city. Recently, electric bicycles have appeared at the box office,.

12. For cyclists, so-called sections of streets have been created here, on which the advantage is given to cyclists, and due to this, they can move around the city very quickly. True, you have to pay for such privileges: in Copenhagen, cyclists are fined! For faulty brakes, for riding a bike together, for running a red light, for driving without hands, and even for talking on a mobile phone without a headset! You can get up to 10,000 rubles. If you are a poor student, you can get a 50% discount on the fine.

13. Cargo bike

14. Ramp for lowering the bike to the underground parking.

15. Street profile. The bike path is required.

16. In Denmark, like in Germany, there are pedestrian crossings with car priority. They do not have the usual zebra, and cars here do not let people through. But there is an island of safety. This is done, for example, in residential areas where there are few cars and they drive slowly.

17. The Round Bridge (this is the name) across the Christianshavns Canal was designed by the Danish artist and sculptor Olafur Eliasson. It consists of five round platforms flowing one into the other. According to Eliasson, he was inspired to create the bridge by fishing boats he saw as a child in Iceland: they were tightly moored one to the other, and Olafur thought that the harbor could be crossed on their decks. From here, by the way, shrouds and masts.

18. Beautiful hatch

19. University

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21. How do you like the house?

22. The best outdoor table tennis table I have ever seen. To be honest, I don’t really understand why these tables are set up. I have never seen anyone play them. When such tables are made, for example, at special sports grounds where rackets and balls are rented, then approx. And when they simply place it anywhere, it is not clear. An even more mysterious phenomenon is street chess. It looks beautiful, but not a single person in the world has played them yet.