I went to Copenhagen and all I got was...

I'd never been to Denmark or Sweden before last month, when we took in Copenhagen, Malmö and southern, coastal Sweden for a wedding and a mini-break.

And I promised to write a post on the trip. Not quite the post I'd intended to write though...

Photo: Declan Fahy

Any fan of good design and nice furniture would get excitable at the thought of such a trip, especially Denmark – birthplace of so many beautifully made things.

And excitable I was. Having been an addict of its namesake TV series, I couldn't for example wait to see the vastly long Øresund Bridge in real life: pictured above, it stretches for 10 miles. And to wander between the grand old buildings I'd seen in Borgen and The Killing – the dastardly Troels spent much time in City Hall, below.

Our plan was to arrive in Copenhagen, at one end of the Øresund, on the Friday, get the train across it and the water to Malmö, spend the evening and morning there, then travel down south to Kivik (a region that has an Ikea sofa named after it, no less) for the wedding on Saturday and stay in a beautiful-looking rural BnB.

The morning after the wedding, after a beach breakfast picnic, we'd head back to Copenhagen for the evening and a full day's shopping and exploring before our Monday evening flight home.

Above: endless bikes outside Nørreport Metro station in Copenhagen

What could go wrong?

In the Danish capital I was looking forward to exploring the abundant independent shops in Nansensgade, as highlighted on the website of our stylish looking hotel (the Ibsens Hotel, pictured above). There were lots of little local restaurants too, it promised – we strolled past Höst, pictured below, around the corner and made a mental note for later.

Photos: Dezeen

For breakfast the next day, we'd go to Torvehallerne (below), a nice-looking, big covered market with chairs, tables and stalls outside that we'd walked past on our way to the hotel from the station.

Photo: Heather Sperling

Next, window shopping the length of Copenhagen's answer to Oxford Street, Strøget, Europe’s longest pedestrianised strip, and apparently full of as many indie shops as chain stores.

Above: the Hans Wenger exhibition at the Danish Design Museum (photos: Pernille Klemp)

Highlights on my list were Illums Bolighus, described tantalisingly by the Daily Telegraph guide I read on the way over as "a cross between Habitat, The Conran Shop and Heal's". We had a few people we wanted to get nice presents for, it sounded perfect. There was also sleek contemporary design emporium, Hay and the Danish Design Museum, which I knew had a Hans Wenger exhibition on. Design-nerd heaven!

So how did it go? Well, kind of like this...

Yep. Public holidays aren't the best days for a shopping trip.

Actually, it didn't start there. It started the night before when, in our enthusiasm to tourist up the city on foot before dinner, we failed to understand that most Copenhagen restaurants don't open on Sundays. And those that do close early. Too early for us and our lame-ass planning, at least. Dinner was a takeaway pizza in the hotel room.

But on the plus side, ahem, at least the telephone and postal museum (above) was open.

But do you know what? I still had an amazing – and design-inspiring – time...

I loved the tiles at Malmö train station, above.

And our breakfast picnic in Kivik – after a stunning wedding the day before – was perfect.

I loved this very cool video display at Malmö station, too.

And at an impromptu exhibition, also in Malmö, at the insanely large-roomed Konsthall Gallery, above, I discovered the fantastic black and white photography of Gerry Johansson, who specialises in mesmerising urban and rural landscapes stripped of humans. We bought this nice poster, below, from the gallery shop.

And the B&B in Kivik, the Elisetorp, (pictured above) was AMAZING. The open door on the left was our room, and the buildings were surrounded by fields. Way too rural for a London twit like me: in the morning I pleaded with my boyfriend to turn off his phone's alarm... only to realise it was a real live cockerel outside the window.

The B&B is run by talented ceramicist (that's her work above), Saga Johnsson. She very kindly came to rescue us when we arrived at the station, since (of course) the local taxi firm was fully booked all afternoon. She even offered to do the 25-minute drive to the wedding, too – but then I spotted her bikes for hire...

...wedding outfit and heels or no. Besides, the bride and groom's wedding vehicle was a tandem (the bride wore white cycling shorts under her dress). With our hire bikes we felt proud to have gone full Scandi, even if it was by accident. While soothing our aching thighs back at the B&B late that night – damn it's a hilly region – we calculated it had been a 14-mile round trip. But what an experience!

A catalogue of bad-luck? Bring it on...

Post and photos by Kate Burt, except where specified. Bridge and bike and breakfast photos by Declan Fahy, who you can find on Instagram.