Borgen’s heartland is a high-powered city of fine food and rich history

 

But Borgen, along with breaking almost every other Scandi noir rule (bar the excellent storytelling and pitch-perfect casting) depicts the wonderful city of Copenhagen far more sympathetically. It returns for a long-awaited fourth season this week – with the subtitle Power and Glory – and once again, on watching it, you will find yourself longing to wrap yourself in a beautifully-tied scarf, then tread the cobbled streets and walk through the designer-lit rooms of Denmark’s capital city. What better place to start then, than with a Borgen “Politics and Scandal”-themed Nordic noir walking tour? 

 

 

 

 

My guide, Christine, has an intimate knowledge of both Copenhagen and all things Borgen. She takes me on an entertaining and interesting canter around the various sites used during the four seasons of the political drama: the City Hall, where a lot of the interiors are filmed; the buildings on the harbour that do a convincing turn as the headquarters of fictional TV1; the café – Lagkagehuset, now with outposts in London – where Kasper (Game of Thrones’s Pilou Asbæk), buys Katrine (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen) a pastry and a coffee.

 

 

 

 “I remember the day this opened,” recalls Christine, who moved here from France 25 years ago. “It was the first place you could get white bread and espresso in Copenhagen. Before that, I had gastronomic depression.” The food scene itself has changed hugely in Copenhagen over the past couple of decades. Three-Michelin-starred Noma, often called the best restaurant in the world, has spun off protégés into every corner of the city, from Borgen casual to fine dining and everything in between. Grab one of the best burgers you’ll ever have at Popl, or some excellent Mexican food at Hija de Sanchez Cantina. 

 

 

 

For something more Borgen, though, delicious contemporary Italian restaurant Il Buco is housed in the same ex-factory where Birgitte Nyborg chooses to base her New Democrat party in season three. Borgen means “the Castle” in Danish, and is the national nickname for Christiansborg Palace – the neo-baroque seat of government and the judiciary, and the former royal residence. I stand at the edge of the courtyard paddock, once the location of the fountain where Statsminister Birgitte Nyborg had heart-to-hearts with her mentor, Bent; stroll underneath the arches where the politicians can be seen plotting; and then into the Garden of the Royal Library, regarded as one of the most romantic spots in the city, but remarkably free of tourists. (They must all be at the city’s ever-popular Lego shop.) It would be rude not to partake in an open sandwich while here, and you won’t find a better setting than the Tower restaurant, right in the middle of Christiansborg Palace. 

 

 

Once you make it past – rather unusually for a restaurant – the metal detector, you’ll be wolfing down your smorrebrod in the tasteful and dramatic surroundings of an old lumber storage room, with commanding views of the cityscape. Make sure to try the schnapps. But if you do, then cancel the rest of your plans that day. If you’re still standing, however, regular guided tours of the palace are a mere stumble away. When you do need a lie down, the newly opened 25Hours Hotel Indre By (meaning Inner City), housed in an old university, is a beautiful, quirky and thoughtful renovation. The decor is sympathetic to the building’s old use, with cork and blackboard feature walls, a vinyl library and a spiralling book sculpture in the impressive lobby.

 

 

 To blow the groggy cobwebs away, Hey Captain boat tours will both allow you to try out your sea legs and experience the five kinds of weather that this city can supply within the space of one hour. The ten-man boats provide friendly, knowledgeable and informal tours across the city’s waterways, with a number of tour choices. 

 

 

For a memorable dinner, I once again follow in Birgitte’s footsteps, down to Copenhagen Zoo. At the very start of the new season, she holds a (rather poorly attended) press conference next to the panda enclosure. This space is in fact Bistro Panpan, a French-Asian restaurant, which wraps around the home of Xing Er, one of the two pandas given to Denmark by China. You’re so close that he’s basically your dining companion (no table manners though). 

 

 

Copenhagen is a city stacked with attractive, quirky architecture; friendly, well-dressed people; interesting nooks and crannies; great shopping; and, most of all, sublime food. You may not have any murders to solve or any new legislations to push through during your time here, but you will, at the very least, board the plane home wrapped in a sense of hygge… and maybe some nice knitwear. 

 

MATT CHARLTON

 

For more information go to wonderfulcopenhagen.com