IT’S QUITE SPECIAL DIVING INTO THE WATERS OF AN URBAN LANDSCAPE.

I’ve always wished this to be possible in our home city, London. When you realise what’s lurking on the bed of the River Thames, however, the last thing you’d want to do in the peak of summer is cool off in its waters!

In Copenhagen, swimming is a favourite past time.

There’s enough harbours, beach parks and decking to fill your summer with dips and dives.

Islands Brygge is a tourist and local's hotspot and also an iconic Copenhagen landmark to swim in. Surrounded by high-rise buildings and designed by the famous architect Bjarke Ingels, you can entertain yourselves in the swimming pools and leap off the 5m diving platform.

We enjoyed the sun setting across the city whilst we jumped off the deck - although the large number of bathers and shrills of children running from pool to pool made Island Brygge slightly less magical than the Insta-shots.

We were lucky enough to have a good friend studying at Copenhagen’s architecture school KADK, who by now knew the best spots to take the plunge and could take us further afield.

Refshaleøen.

One of those industrial-turned-hip districts we all love to explore in a city to find the arts, cultural dynamism and activity. We managed to escape the crowds on a glorious September day and find a picturesque harbour inlet on this artificial island. Surrounded by a raw aesthetic of ex-shipbuilding yards and warehouses, we sunbathed and swam.

We cycled to Refshaleonen from the centre with our hired Donkey Republic bikes named ‘Avocado’ and ’Sunshine’. In between the abandoned warehouses and wastelands is a melting pot of things to see, eat and do.

We filled ourselves with delicious Nordic baked goods at the freshly-lit Lille Bakery; visited the culturally eclectic street food market Reffen; sipped more high-scandi-priced Mikkeller beer at the Baghaven bar and stumbled across a warehouse-full-antiques shop full of trinkets and furniture galore.

You could launch yourself down a slide, sunbathe on a disused wooden dock, all whilst sipping craft beer and listening to a gentle hum of EDM and house music.

A cool place to hang indeed.

by Naomi Bailey

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