Places/Denmark

Capital Region

Copenhagen

A harbour city at a human scale, expensive on purpose, and easy to like on a bicycle you do not ride in the wrong lane.

Copenhagen is small enough to cross and rich enough that you should decide what you are willing to spend before you sit down. The quality is usually visible. The prices are not a scam. They are the country.

Denmark is in the European Union and not in the euro. Cards work almost everywhere. Cash is the thing you did not need, until a bakery has a sign.

See

• A walk from the centre to the harbour

  Nyhavn in passing, then on to the new waterfront. The coloured houses are the start of the walk, not the destination.

• A bakery morning

  Cardamom, rye, coffee. This is a local high art. Eat it before you have done anything worthy.

• Design where it is used

  A public library, a park, a chair you sit on without a plaque. The museum is optional if the city itself is already the exhibition.

• A neighbourhood dinner

  Nørrebro or Vesterbro. The ambitious New Nordic rooms need a booking and a budget. The city eats well below that altitude too.