Arriving at Copenhagen International Airport felt more like arriving from a domestic flight. Finland and Copenhagen are both countries in the Schengen agreement which allows travelers to pass easily through borders. This is great for commuters that pass across borders frequently for work, but a bit disappointing for this traveler who wants the passport stamps from each country visited. Confused? Here’s how it works; when traveling from a non-Schengen country, you clear customs in the first Schengen country you arrive at. From then on, when crossing borders between Schengen countries, you don’t pass through customs. Since we passed through customs in Helsinki, Finland, we didn’t need to go through customs when we arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark. We walked off the plane, headed straight to baggage claim and left the airport. It felt a little anti-climactic to arrive in a new country and not go through customs.
We headed for the Kastrup metro station and took line #2 to Kongens Nytorv. Based on my Google maps research, once we arrived at our destination, we should head towards the small park and it’s only a 10 minute walk to the hotel from there. But when we arrived at street level there was no park, no green space and I was immediately confused. All we saw was a lot of fencing surrounding a large construction site.
We headed down the street away from the construction but that direction didn’t seem right so we turned around and headed in the other direction. Then it started to rain so we walked towards what looked like a taxi. Success! At the next major intersection, we found a row of taxis lined up at the edge of Nyhavn.
What a relief! I recognized Nyhavn’s colorful buildings and instantly I knew where I was. None of the research I did led me to understand that Kongens Nytorv was completely dug up and under construction. We hopped in a taxi for a short ride to Hotel Christian IV. We checked in and settled into your room. It finally felt like we arrived.