18 September 2015

Copenhagen Day 4: Shopping in Nørrebro, Strøget and Vesterbro

Monday was my last morning in Copenhagen and the sun was finally poking through the clouds. I decided to try to burn off some of the pastries by running along the waterfront, past the Little Mermaid (who had fewer visitors early in the morning) and back down along The Lakes.


Nørrebro and Nørreport
After checking out of my hotel, it was time to hit the shops. I made a beeline for the creative-cool neighbourhood of Nørrebro, just north of The Lakes. It was a pleasant, 30-minute walk from my hotel near the central station. My first port of call was Jægersborggade, a lovely street with many cafés, restaurants and independent shops. At no. 9 is Meyers Bageri, a superb bakery and patisserie. I picked up a kanelsnegle with molten chocolate poured liberally on top. Perhaps not the healthiest breakfast but it was supremely delicious.



Just across the road, at no. 10, is the original Coffee Collective location. There are a few tables inside, squeezed in between the brew bar and the roaster, and a couple on the pavement. I will be doing a separate Copenhagen coffee post, but suffice to say that my cortado (30 krone) was very good. I also picked up a bag of Guatemalan beans to take home (95 krone).


Other places I spotted on Jægersborggade included: Kaktus (no. 35), a shop selling cacti and beautiful pots; Vanishing Point (no. 45; pictured below), which sells a beautifully curated collection of hand-made accessories; Gågron (no. 48), which offers homewares that are beautiful and sustainable and/or environmentally friendly; Manfreds (no. 40), a lovely, cosy-looking neighbourhood eatery; and Grød (no. 50), a restaurant specialising in the eponymous porridge.


I walked back down Nørrebro's main drag, Nørrebrogade (they're very creative with the street names here), crossing over The Lakes to Nørreport. A small homewares and toy shop called Maduro (Frederiksborggade 39; pictured below) caught my eye; they had some really pretty ceramics, lighting and rugs. For lunch, I stopped by Torvehallerne (Frederiksborggade 21), which was fully open this time. I had a final smørrebrod lunch at Hallernes, selecting one smoked salmon and one potato and onion open sandwich, which cost 95 krone.




Strøget
Strøget (pronounced, appropriately enough, 'stroll') is one of Europe's longest pedestrianised areas, running for around 1km. Strøget itself has a lot of the department stores, big shops and chains. I revisited Hay (Østergade 61), which has so many beautiful homeware and lifestyle products. I also went back to Illums Bolighus (Amagertorv 10), but left empty-handed, partly because I had spent a lot of money on food, and partly because the Scandinavian aesthetic is such that it's hard to buy just the odd item — you really have to go for all or nothing.



I also discovered a few cool shops on Købmagergade, including: Plint (no. 50; first picture below), which sells kitchen goods and homewares in a range of cheery colours; Message (no. 46; chain) and Samsøe ø Samsøe (no. 44), both of which specialise in good-quality Scandi style (lots of good basics in neutral colours). NORR (Pilestræde 36) is a boutique that sells a large variety of clothing, locally produced jewellery and beauty products. There's a café/juice bar inside the store and there's also an outlet selling sale items across the street. A little further west is a lovely little design store called Stilleben (Niels Hemmingsens Gade 3; second picture below), which has nice jewellery and bags and a great collection of prints. I had hoped to visit CPH Made (Brolæggerstræde 6), a local designers collective, but it's closed on Mondays.



By this point, I was in need of another coffee, so I popped into Risteriet (Studiestræde 36), a café-roastery, which sells its own whole beans and assorted coffee-brewing kit. They don't do hand-brewed filter coffee so I had another cortado (30 krone), which was pretty good, although a little longer than I usually prefer.


Vesterbro
On Saturday, I discovered the delights of Værnedamsvej, a quiet street just off the main Vesterbo drag (Vesterbrogade), which has various cool cafés and shops. Dora (no. 6) has a well-curated collection of homewares, including some vintage crockery and blankets that need instructions. Just next door, Playtype (also no. 6) is a font-lover's paradise. They sell notebooks, prints, ceramics and more decorated with Danish fonts. I liked the marble-print notebooks, but they only had the letters F, A, U and X (for obvious reasons).



On the other side of Vesterbrogade, on Oehlenschlægersgade (no. 13), is Just Spotted, which sells locally inspired and/or designed prints at various sizes from postcard to poster. It's worth making the detour west along Vesterbrogade (no. 137) to Designer Zoo, a store and gallery space split over three levels, with a particular focus on glassware, ceramics and jewellery.



I walked back towards my hotel along Istedgade, another good destination if you're looking for independent clothing boutiques and design stores. Some of the shops that caught my eye included: ES-ES (no. 108-110),  Girlie Hurly (no. 99), Kyoto (no. 95), Rude (no. 112) and DANSK (no. 80, interiors; no. 64, kitchenware). 

This is my penultimate Copenhagen post — the last post will be a coffee guide — but I loved the city and I'm sure I will be back before too long.

No comments:

Post a Comment