Copenhagen.

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen.

Snow, beautiful snow as I wait at the airport for my flight at dawn. My hotel is expensive, my room tiny and so cold that I later that night I have to ask for an extra quilt. Denmark is expensive but sophisticated and beautiful. The song keeps coming to mind:' Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen, Friendly old girl of a town...salty old queen of the sea.' As I make my way past beautiful shops, interesting cafes, down to the harbour. I can smell the salt of the North Sea and I feel myself slipping back in time; it's like a movie set.

I come across the main harbour where there's a Xmas market strung along the waterway. I sit at one of the cute little cafes alongside and indulge in a Glog wine and a huge salad. They bring me a blanket and I settle in to people watch and rest. Coming down with a cold so as night descends I head back to the hotel and shiver in my cold room. Maybe they're tough here in Denmark, saunas and cold showers probably. I'll have to toughen up.

The next day, I go to an Instagram hotspot, Kondistori Glace, six generations have supplied pastries here since 1870. It's stayed traditional and the service is wonderful. I have coffee with a jug of cream on the side and a marzipan jam tart with orange flavoured icing. The window displays are of Xmas cakes and beautifully decorated marzipan tarts that I buy as presents. Xmas is such a thing of joy here, of beauty and abundance. Maybe because of the cold winters they celebrate in such extravagant style.

I wander deeper into the old centre to find the stunning tiled square where more Xmas market stalls huddle. The shops are gorgeous. I go to see the Xmas table settings in The Royal Copenhagen porcelain store that are sea-themed this year and stunning.

Then I lunch at Nordern, a stunning art deco building. Upstairs you can look out at the square for the best view. The food is fantastic. I have a parsley root and onion quiche and it's served with three different salads. Cauliflower, fig and salted hazelnut; cabbage, sultana and fetta; pomegranate with baked parsnip, carrot and jerusalem artichoke puree.

Fortified, I walk through the old centre to look at the amazing Xmas decorations strung throughout the city.The markets are brimming with beautiful homemade gifts, sweets, Glog bars, the meringue chocolate covered sweets and Viking manned stalls of carved wooden objects. Then I have to go home to my freezing room to nurture my cold.

Later I dine again close to the hotel and I watch in amusement at an older couple who spend the evening on their phones, not a word spoken. How the world has changed! And as I write this in Covid times, how it has changed that I had a cold and thought nothing of it and that I could wander mask free in a crowd and not worry.