A few of my California friends had booked a long weekend in Iceland and when they asked if I wanted to join them, I decided it was worth it to try and make it work.  Flights in and out of Europe were pretty cheap and when I tried to make it work, I found that it was cheaper for me to fly from Berlin, to Coppenhagen and then Coppenhagen to Iceland than directly from Berlin (or about the same) so I went for it and decided to make it happen.  The best part was that John decided to tag along before heading back down south.

Copenhagen is of course the home of famous brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergsø of Mikeller fame, so first thingt o do off the plane is to check out one of his many bars in the town.  We headed to War pigs brewery and taproom which is a collaboration between Mikkel and 3 floyds brewing in Indiana.  They were very IPA heavy but had a pretty good selection as well as great BBQ.

It was bumping!

It had been a long travel day already so we hit up one more place called Ol before heading back to the hostel.

Next morning we got up and went for a walking tour of Copenhagen which was pretty informative.  There was a lot about how the government operates and the social programs that Denmark has as well as a lot of local history.  The architecture is also pretty amazing there.

The tour ended near the royal palace which was right on the river and close by what has been dubbed the most dissapointing tourist attraction in Copenhagen (if not europe) The mermaid is based on the story by the famous Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson and was unveiled in 1913.  It’s pretty small and not all that interesting but is for sure one of those checkmark items.  I saw the little mermaid statue in Copenhagen!

As I like to show the “Behind the gram” photos, here are the tourists jockying for position to take a photo of the little mermaid.

Once we finished the tour, John and I parted ways and I headed back to the hostel in order to go for a run.

I decided to try and do an adventure run of Copenhagen to try and see as much of the city as possible.  It was enjoyable.

There were lots of little places to explore and find and I did very much enjoy this run!

After the run, John and I met back up and headed out for another evening on the town. We started our evening at BRUS which had a great selection of beers.  It turns out that a friend from California also happened to be in town so he met up with us there as well.

We then headed to a place called 1420 which was pretty much just Belgian beers, but the selection was REALLY good.  John, Fermin and another guy in the bar split a $250 bottle of beer from 3 fonteinen.  It was delicious, but I don’t think I will ever be in the position to split a beer that cost that much.

After 1420 we moved on to one of Mikkeller’s many Copenhagen bars called Mikkeller and Friends.  We had a few more beers there and then called it a night.

The next morning I got up and went for a run and then met up with John for a walk around the city.  We wanted to check out the inside of city hall so we headed over there to check it out.  One of the coolest things I saw on my run was there was a tanker truck parked outside of a bar PUMPING BEER into the bar.  Apparently instead of delivering Kegs, some bars have large tanks in the back and trucks will pump the beer into those big tanks.

City Hall had a pretty cool clock that showed the position of the planets!

It was a beautiful building!

After we saw city hall, we walked around downtown a bit and then headed back to the royal palace where you were able to go up the bell tower for free.

We went up to check out the views and  then headed out towards the outskirts of the city where there was another Mikeller bar and this one was his sour and funky project.

We enjoyed a nice afternoon of sour and funky beers and had a great conversation with the brewmaster.

We then continued our beer tourism through Coppenhagen to Stout which was a beer bar closer to downtown.

We then decided we needed some food and had read about a super famous taco place which had a michilan star chef making decently cheap amazing tacos.

Delicious!  It was right around the corner from War pigs but I forget what it was called.

After some tacos and a margaritta or two we headed to the next stop called Fermentorium.

They had some great beers on tap and was lit by candles which was a huge fire hazard for a basement bar , but I guess people are just careful.

We needed to keep the train rolling and so we moved on to Mikkellers original bar.  We had a few beers there and then started chatting with a few people at the bar and ended up having a great conversation with a guy who has been coming to the bar since it opened and told us all sorts of stories about Mikell and the brewery.  It was a great end to the night and the beer was pretty good too!

Great Evening!

The next day, John was headed back to Germany and I had a flight to catch to Iceland.  It wasn’t until the afternoon, so I wandered around downtown for a while before heading to the airport to enjoy the lounge.

There was a beautiful park where I sat for a while to read!

I took the train to the airport and had some pops in the lounge.

Next step was to meet up with my California friends in Iceland!!!!

I really enjoyed Copenhagen and would love to explore Scandinavia a bit more in the future! It was a cool spot with an interesting vibe!