Christmas Shopping In Copenhagen

Short weekend break in wonderful Copenhagen enjoying Christmas spirit, shopping a bit and eating well.

We started our trip by visiting Danish brewery Carlsberg's Visiting Centre in Valby, less than half an hour by bus 18 from the centre. Premises of the original brewery from 19th centrury guiding you through history of the Carlsberg story.


11 Gamle Carlsberg Vej



 

 





And you get to taste 2 beers with your entrance ticket at Carlsberg bar.

It was really charming Christmas feeling all over the town.

One must-to-see for me were the wonderful table settings at Royal Copenhagen - the brand now owned by Finnish Fiskars. This year's theme was Songs of Christmas designed by 6 differents artists. My favourite one was Caroline Henderson's Swedish style table with name badges for example for Olof Palme and Astrid Lindgren.

 

 

Royal Copenhagen store was extremely popular as were the main department stores Illum and Magasin.

Imposing Christmas lights also outside on shopping streets and not at least Tivoli.

The coolest restaurants are located in Meatpacking District Kødbyen and this time we decided to test Fiskebaren. It is essential to book the table in advance as the restaurant is really popular. I ate 3 courses and they all were stunning so Fiskebaren went straight to my top list of restaurants. Here I am coming back the next time when visiting Copenhagen.

Fish tank

Other dinner places were my old favourites Sticks n' Sushi and Wagamama.

Dinner at Sticks n' Sushi

Teriyaki salmon at Wagamama

Cosy Friday evening in Bang og Jensen.

Beer and glögg

Copenhagen never fails to delight!

Pret A Manger

Pret A Manger is a British sandwich chain I prefer besides my other favourite chain Le Pain Quotidien. I first discovered Pret in London (well, you cannot really miss the chain there) and now have also found shops also in New York, where they were advertised as "The best thing that has come from England since The Beatles".

I always choose Pret over Starbucks and to my delight Pret has arrived also to Chicago so I was able to have my coffee breaks there. 

 
















I really like their philosophy about the fresh food made from natural ingredients and good service.

And it tastes good as well!

If there are going to be more restaurant chains landing to Finland I would hope that they would be chains like Pret A Manger, Le Pain Quotiden and Wagamama rather than Starbucks...


 

Weekend Trip To Stockholm

It takes less than an hour to fly from Helsinki to Stockholm. That (among other things) makes Stockholm a perfect weekend mini-holiday destination.

I love just walking around beautiful Stockholm watching people, buildings and the seaview.

Vasastan

There are many interesting museums, like my favourite Fotografiska, where I tend to visit every time. They have had really high profile photo exhibitions, such as Annie Leibovitz, Anton Corbijn, Robert Mapplethorpe and now Sally Mann. 

Fotografiska

This time I did two museum visits as I also wanted to see Yoko Ono's exhibition at Moderna Museet. Few weird videos and texts from the book Grapefruit.

Moderna Museet's permanent exhibition includes some interesting pieces like Andy Warhol's Brillo boxes.

The museum itself locates at beautiful Skeppsholmen and even if one is not interested in the museums (The Museum of Modern Art, The Architectural Museum and East-Asian Museum) it is nice to have a walk around the tiny island.

View from Moderna Museet

When getting tired of museums there is another reason to walk around as Stockholm offers plenty of opportunities to shop.

Tiogruppen on Götgatan

Besides my usual shopping spots (Åhlens, NK, Biblioteksgatan and Södermalm area) this time we also visited Quality Outlet Stockholm at Barkarby. It was very convenient to take a local train from Stockholm Central Station (pendeltåg towards Bålsta) to  Jacobsberg, where you chang to bus 567 and get off at bustop Herrestavägen. The whole trip takes approximately 30 minutes and if you like the brands that are present at the Outlet, it is worth for a fews hours journey.

Stockholm Quality Outlet

After visiting museums and shopping it is nice to sit down and have something good to eat. Dumplings are the new sushi and there are plenty of places to choose from. This time we chose Jappi Sushi & Wok at Drottninggatan and both sushi and dumpligs were delicious.

Sushi

Dumplings

I like this new trend of Asian fast food and cannot wait this kind of dumplings restaurants and Wagamama to land in Helsinki.

Salmon and noodels at Wagamama

We had dinner at Lebanese restaurant Sahara, which was cozy, yet little bit cold restaurant in Vasastan. Would really like to have their lunch buffee as it sounded very versatile yet reasonably priced. Tasted some nice meze portions and my favourites were meat pies (Sambousak Bel Lahme) and Halloumi cheese.

Sahara, Olofsgatan 7B

  













So this trip was mainly museums, food and shopping. What a nice and relaxing weekend!

Museum visits at Fotografiska and Moderna Museet

Wagamama, Klarabergsviadukten 65

Really need to go to Stockholm again soon!