Spicy ministry

If you've purchased a city card, it buys you a free hour on the canals – and not just for the postcard stuff. As the boat slides past Christianshavn, the guide might not even mention this long, quiet wall of brick, but it is one of the most global pieces of waterfront in Copenhagen. In the 1750s Eigtveds Pakhus was the high‑security warehouse of the Danish Asiatic Company, stacked with tea, pepper, silk and porcelain unloaded from Asia right where your boat now passes. Today the same quay is home to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in those former store rooms and new glass offices above them, Denmark’s ministers and diplomats negotiate climate deals, development aid and EU policy with partners from around the world. One short stretch of harbour, two and a half centuries apart: first spices and silk, now summits and strategy.