Copenhagen - The Long Morning

Copenhagen does not rush anything. The morning light holds for longer than it should, the coffee is taken with deliberate attention, and the bakeries have been open since before most cities have started. Whatever the city is doing, it is unhurried about it.

Where to stay

Hotel d'Angleterre on Kongens Nytorv has occupied the same white Victorian building since 1755, looking out over the central square with the kind of assurance that comes from not having moved in 270 years. The Michelin-starred Marchal restaurant and the marble indoor pool make it a full stop rather than somewhere to leave early.

Audo House in Nordhavn is a 10-room hotel set inside the headquarters of furniture brand Audo Copenhagen, in a 19th-century building in a district that is in the middle of becoming something. Each room holds a selection of the brand's pieces alongside bespoke artworks. The café is open to all, and the surrounding quayside is the right place to understand what the city is building next.

Where to eat

Admiralgade 26 occupies a corner room in a 1796 city-centre building with Georg Jensen sterling silver on the table and a menu focused on refined seasonal dishes. On Saturdays the kitchen serves a Japanese-inspired choushoku breakfast of rice, fresh fish, miso, and greens. What is on the table and what is around it have been considered with the same care.

Lumskebugten, steps from the waterfront, is where to eat smørrebrød without pretension. The room resembles a Danish summer house and the menu runs through open-faced sandwiches of fresh fish, meat, and seasonal vegetables. The light at lunchtime is excellent.

Bar Vitrine operates from a glass-fronted corner in the city centre, fitted out with Frama furniture and run by former Noma chef Dhriti Arora, who draws on her Indian heritage for a daily menu built around low-intervention wines. It is easier to get into than a restaurant of this calibre has any right to be.

Where to drink

Juno the Bakery in Østerbro is where the cardamom knot-shaped bun earned its following. Open since 2017, still in its original space, producing some of the city's best bread and seasonal pastry. If the queue reaches the door, wait.

Atelier September, launched by chef Frederik Bille Brahe in 2013, now has outposts across the city. The Nordhavn location, in a compact brick building, serves excellent coffee and the signature whipped butter on bread that has become quietly institutional.

What else

Refshaleøen, a former industrial shipyard to the east, has been developing along its own logic since the yards closed. Copenhagen Contemporary, set inside the former B&W welding hall, runs major international exhibitions in a space with genuine scale. The Reffen street food market runs through summer with more than 50 stalls, craft beer, natural wine, and harbour views that make it the most effectively used waterfront in the city.

Nørrebro is worth a morning on its own. The Assistens Cemetery, where Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard are both buried, functions more as a park than a burial ground. The surrounding streets hold the city's best bakeries and most relaxed wine bars within the same few blocks.

Copenhagen repays the pace it operates at. There is no hurry, and the city knows it.