Copenhagen

History:

Beginnings as a merchant harbour:

If you had dropped by Copenhagen in the 11th century CE, you would have found yourself looking over a small fishing hamlet, with some lazy cattle gazing back at you while chewing fresh green grass from the meadows around the village. Looking east you would see a host of small islets protecting the small fishing harbour from harsh weather — not the worst place to found a city. If you would rather trust the written word than the archaeologists, the earliest accounts date from the 12th century, when a bearded clerk (or a renowned historian if you will) called Saxo Grammaticus scribbled down a few lines about the place; Portus Mercatorum, he called it, which was really just a fancy Latin version of Købmannahavn. This has since been mangled into København in modern Danish, and even further mangled into Copenhagen in English, but all it really means is "merchant harbour."

Archbishop Absalon:

By plane:

Copenhagen Airport:

1 Copenhagen Airport (CPH IATA) on the nearby island of Amager is the central hub for Scandinavia's largest international air carrier SAS — Scandinavian Airlines. Copenhagen Airport consistently gets high marks for both design and function — this is a much more pleasant place for transit than, say, London Heathrow or Frankfurt and several carriers have direct intercontinental routes to Copenhagen, including: Air Canada, Delta Air Lines, Egyptair, Qatar Airways, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, etc. Check-in lines can get long during peak hours however, so make sure to allocate extra time in the summer. Self-service check-in counters are available, which can cut down on wait times.

Low-cost carriers also fly to the airport. EasyJet serves Copenhagen from London Gatwick, Manchester, Milan, Geneva, Paris CDG and Berlin. Norwegian offers budget flights to (among others) Liverpool, Oslo, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Budapest, Paris, Geneva, Vienna and Warsaw.

While CPH is one of Europe's busiest airports, with a flight taking off every 2 minutes on average well into the night, many facilities have limited opening hours. Little in the way of gastronomy or retail remains open after 20:00, even the CPH Apartment Lounge closes at 20:00 and the frequent fliers and business/first class passengers are required to wait in the empty terminal halls. If your flight is in the early hours, you can take advantage of the facilities (snacks, drinks, free Wi-Fi, relaxation and work facilities) of the CPH Apartment 05:00–20:00 for DKK239 (as of August 2022), unless your frequent-flyer plan or ticket tariff covers that already.

Transport to/from Copenhagen Airport: