Hunting Forgotten Giants around Copenhagen

Have you ever found giant wooden sculptures on the Internet and said ‘I need to see these for myself’ No? Well, I saw this photo on Instagram and started reading about the art project by Thomas Dambo.

How cool is that!?

This is what brought us to Copenhagen this month. We’d have got there eventually, but the “Forgotten Giants” edged it to the top of the travel destination list! We had six Giants and four days.

The first one we found was called “HILL TOP TRINE”. We found her straight after we landed in Copenhagen. She was beside a nature centre in Hvidovre, one of the suburbs and one of the easier Giants to find. You can crawl onto the palms of her hands and get a beautiful viewpoint overlooking Avedøresletten.

Our second giant “OSCAR UNDER THE BRIDGE” was near the Arken, Museum for Moderne Kunst. It was less of a giant and more of a troll we thought. Amelie wasn’t the biggest fan of this one!

However, she did like the modern art in the Arken. From the weird Damian Hirst half cows to the “Light in Darkness” installations or the Hyper-realistic portrayal of a newborn baby on a giant scale. It was an impressive collection.

We took a break from giant hunting for two days to explore Copenhagen by bike. It has to be one of the most bike and children-friendly cities we’ve visited. Luckily our hotel rented us one of these family bicycles that we’d love to bring back to the UK.

This bike allowed us to explore the city in a really convenient way – not just for us but for Amelie too!

To get used to this new type of cycling we first did a tour through the more quiet quarter Christianshavn and we got there most conveniently via the new pedestrian and bicyclist bridge Inderhavnsbroen.

The advantage of cycling a city is also that you can discover places that you might otherwise have missed. Like the trampolines built into the sidewalk at the Havnepromenade opposite the Dansk Architecture Center, or the Maven restaurant and wine bar in the Nikolaj Church which has a lovely beer garden – most conveniently right next to a playground and a toyshop on the other side of the road. Amelie was delighted and so was I, being able to relax and enjoy lunch in the sun while she was playing with her daddy.

For Amelie, the biggest highlight of our Copenhagen stay – aside from the Giant treasure hunt of course – was the Tivoli Gardens. Many friends told us that its a must see and I can only say, what a magical place! We had such a memorable afternoon of fairground rides, fish watching and ice cream eating. Amelie is still asking if we could please could go back to the fun gardens.

To plan our days in Copenhagen we also used this city guide book, specifically designed for families.

Without it, we would have never discovered ByOasen, a cute petting zoo in Nørrebro where Amelie enjoyed feeding and playing with ducks, rabbits and goats.

And even if you are not so keen on petting zoos, the area of Guldbergsgade and Elmegade is definitely worth a visit, with lots of nice shops, cafes and restaurants like the “BRUS” brewery in an old iron foundry and locomotive factory, where Matt had the best burger ever.

Our special guide book was also the reason we cycled all the way to Fælledparken, the largest park in Copenhagen – because we wanted to show Amelie its award-winning Towers playground. The park was lovely but the playground was a bit underwhelming.

Not a day passed for us without a stop at “Joe & the Juice”. Amelie could spot the logo from far and soon knew her favourite smoothy “Hell of a Nerve”.

Another highlight was the Danish Design Museum – or what probably should be called the Danish Chair museum, but see for yourself:

On our last day, we decided to find the remaining Forgotten Giants! we could not possibly leave without seeing them all. It was a momentous task – trekking up hills, around lakes and through woods! We were even caught in the rain on more than one occasion. But it was worth it as the pictures show: