Copenhagen is a beautiful city, especially when you visit it in June where the daylight hours are the longest of the year and even more so if you are lucky and find warm and sunny weather. All of these parameters were true for me when I visited Denmark’s capital last weekend. And for the size of the city there is a lot to do and see. My favourites were the alternative area Christiania or simply a trip with the water taxi around the harbour.

But let’s fast-forward to Sunday evening: So, here I was back at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport on Sunday evening with a big smile on my face from the past 2 days. I’ve just said goodbye to my friend who flew back to Berlin with a slightly earlier flight than mine. And then it happens: Before I could blink twice, the departure screen changed my EasyJet flight from being on time to delayed for an hour. In the end it was delayed for 3 hours and I was lucky to get the very last train back to Central London.

The big question is, what can you do for 3 hours at Copenhagen airport? The answer is, actually quite a lot. The airport offers a nice design which features a calming wooden floor throughout all the terminals. It also contains of a fairly large sized shopping area in both gates areas A/B area and also C/D with the usual duty free shops but also some very nice clothing stores, sports outlets (I particular liked the Puma store), delicacy shops for your supply of Danish salmon and the like. And not to forget the Lego store in the A/B area which, however, is disappointedly small.

Kastrup also features Copenhagen’s only Starbucks outlet and a few other refreshment bars and restaurants. It also has a good sized Sportsbar which came in handy as I was able to watch the Germany v Poland Euro Soccer match and the start of the Canadian Formula One grandprix. A special note here goes to the very friendly and super efficient bar staff. The prices however were more on the steep side as you would expect from a monopolistic setup like this. And finally, I was fairly impressed by the spacious Gent’s toilets in the A/B area (only a short walk downstairs from the Sportsbar) which were very clean.

Overall, I really enjoyed the airport and it certainly shortened my lengthy wait and (more importantly) lifted my mood. The only big drawback was that the shops closed already around 10 pm. But I guess, there’s always the Sportsbar to retreat to…

Facts
Airport name: Copenhagen Kastrup
Short code: CPH
Website: http://www.cph.dk
Design factor: 4/5
Shopping factor: 4/5
Toilets factor: 4/5
Overall factor: 4/5

(Image from Flickr)