After a long tortured (think ridiculously small seats and screaming and kicking 3 year olds) flight on KLM via Amsterdam, we made it to Copenhagen. It’s taken us days to recover, but we’re finally getting into the swing of things. We’re hoping to cover our trip, when wifi is available, here on Kitka. So we hope you enjoy our journey!

We were a bit over ambitious our first night, so we headed over to Illums Bolighus, the department store of Scandinavian Design. Oh course, we were completely delirious at the time and I am surprised we didn’t knock anything over. We’re hoping it’s open today (Friday) as it’s a holiday and we need to spend some quality, and conscious, time there.

On the search for our first dinner in Copenhagen, we passed this picturesque park. One thing I love about Europe, is how people enjoy the parks. Maybe it’s because they mostly live in apartments (many without balconies) or maybe it’s because they tend to be so accessible (not a subway ride away like High Park) but a picnic in the park is definitely on the agenda.

On our first full day (Wednesday), we walked along a street just off the main shopping area, where we stumbled across a few decent “antik” shops.

In the first shop there were a number of things that caught our eye:

Viking wood block print for about $75.

We really liked this candle stick holder.

Scandinavian girl painting.

Dala horse that was made in prison.

Norwegian rice, sugar etc canisters.

Cute little red chair.

Rag rugs.

Crazy stone horse head.

Tablecloth for a smaller coffee/tea drinking table.

John bought a Finel Kaj Franck heart tea cup set. Too bad we weren’t there earlier, when the owner’s son sold a few of these very same sets for about $5cdn.

More after the jump!

In the second store we found a wealth of midcentury design (this is what we anticipated for vintage stores, but we’ve quickly discovered there aren’t as many as we had hoped for).

These Safari chairs are gorgeous, about $700 a piece.

Verner Panton Flower pot lights are amazing in person.

This is our Denmark mission. The Poul Henningsen PH light.

Arne Jacobsen stool, with Danish street signs.

Royal Copenhagen wall mounted ceramic candle holder.

Swedish candelabra.

The antithesis to Danish design is Planet Copenhagen, where we had a spirited discussion with the owner about Danish versus American design (he is evidently for the latter).

In the next store we found a cool Quistgaard tea pot, and a Kaj Bojesen toy. We haven’t seen too much Quistgaard in Copenhagen, and strangely it has been this leaf patterned set that dominates.

Le Klint lighting store!

I love these!

Interchangeable covers for your shades.

Our ultimate goal was to visit Klassic. We’d been combing their site for ages so it was a thrill to see a lot of less common design classics. Let’s just say I have many shots of John sitting in chairs.

Our dream chair!

Hans Wegner

Another high end store is DMK. Set up like a museum, it’s a lookie no buy type of shop also.

A delicate wooden bowl by Tapio Wirkkala.

The little black sofa/bench on the bottom shelf is a prototype by a renown designer.

And they have the cutest dog ever.

Sadly, we are in a coffee shop right now and the battery is dying. So I am posting this crazy thing!