Denmark

It’s impossible to overstate just how much I loved Denmark, from the happy and funny people, to the beer and snaps, the local and international food, architecture old and new, not to mention the art and the castles and the canals and the hygge … well, everything really.  One week was nowhere near long enough, especially when you spend most of that week trying to work out how to move to Denmark permanently.

I started off in Copenhagen and a walk down Nyhavn, the waterfront to a canal built by 17th century Swedish POWs, and now a relaxed place to see the boats and the colourful houses (a couple of which are where Hans Christian Andersen lived).  This is the main photo above, and is the Copenhagen of my imagination.

It’s very easy to walk or cycle around Copenhagen, but I found it was surprisingly well worth a touristy boat trip late one afternoon to get a difference perspective of the city from the water.  There’s an amazing variety of architecture, both ancient and modern, from the new opera house with its roof the size of three football fields to the 17th century børsbygningen (stock exchange) with its spire of four dragons with their tails entwined.

There really is a lot to see and do in Copenhagen, including that famous statue of the little mermaid, which I thought was pretty insignificant compared to literally everything else in Denmark.  My favourite place was the Round Tower; this is another 17th century architectural project by Christian IV of Denmark, built as an observatory, but famous for the spiral ramp used to climb the tower instead of stairs.  There are some fabulous views from the top across the whole of Copenhagen, including (if you look very very carefully at the horizon) that famous Bridge from the eponymous TV series.

 

Of course no trip to Denmark would be complete without some Carlsberg sampling, so I felt obliged to go for the Carlsberg exBEERience, which was pretty good with a tour, petting the draught horses, a bit of tasting and an odd but extensive collection of beer bottles.

The railways system in Denmark was great – and made it really easy to get around and see a bit more outside the capital.

First stop in Aarhus was the ARoS Kunstmuseum, the most frequently visited museum in Scandinavia.  There were some interesting and unusual pieces in there…

…including Olafur Eliasson’s Your Rainbow Panorama, a 52 metres diameter skywalk formed in the colour spectrum, with 360º views of the city.

But the must see piece is Ron Mueck‘s Tall Boy, an incredibly realistic 5 metre tall fibreglass sculpture of a squatting boy.

Aarhus Domkirke was interesting for its 15th century frescos, although I wasn’t totally convinced by the ferocity of this cuddly looking dragon…

Next was a visit to Helsingør, the Elsinore of Hamlet fame.  It was a great day out and Kronborg Castle, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is brilliant, with casemates in the basement, a tower with views over to Sweden, a chapel, Holger Danske, royal apartments and antique tapestries. But truth be told, despite it being a stop not to be missed, it didn’t feel so much like a Danish historical experience because the whole castle is mostly given over to Shakespeare and Hamlet.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which has some fabulous permanent and visiting exhibitions and is well worth the trip to Humlebaek, about 30 minutes by train from Copenhagen.

Tivoli Gardens is fantastic with its rides, entertainment and live music – we saw Alex Vargas performing to a big home crowd one Friday night.  There are museums and castles, bike and Segway tours, the crazy commune that is Freetown Christiania, and a million more things that I didn’t even begin to have time to do.

Did I mention that I loved Denmark? Maybe I’ve got Viking blood calling me home, or maybe it’s just the beer and snaps combo at every meal and fabulous food and cheeky gins.  But one way or another, I’m not done with Denmark yet; jeg kommer snart tilbage.