A couple of days in Denmark

The next country on our trip through Europe was Denmark. There are basically two ways to cross from Sweden to Denmark by car; the ferry from Helsingborg to Helsingør, or the Øresund Bridge from near Malmö to Copenhagen. We opted for the bridge option, in spite of the rather hefty price of 30 euros. It is a rather impressive bridge – spanning 7842 meters, it weights 82000 tons (as a matter of fact, it’s the largest combined road and rail bridge in Europe). So I think it was worth paying a few extra Euros to drive across THAT.

Our first stop in Denmark was Copenhagen. We had managed to find a rather cheap hotel right in the centre of Copenhagen, near the train station. Oh, and before I forget, it was also right in the middle of the red-light district. I guess it’s kind of representative of the famously liberal Danish capital – in spite of the general cleanliness and orderliness of the place, seedier delights are very openly on offer in a most convenient location ;-).

Having dropped of our luggage at our room, we quickly headed out to explore the city. Our walk started at Rådhuspladsen – the town hall square. From there, we walked down what is certainly the most famous street in Copenhagen; Strøget. It connects Rådhuspladsen with Kongens Nytorv (“the King’s new square”), and is also apparently Europe’s longest pedestrian shopping street. A pleasant stroll took us past the fancy boutiques, nice restaurants, the Guinness World of Records museum, until we finally reached Kongens Nytorv. After a quick look at the eco-friendly exhibition on display, we headed down to Nyhavn; a place I’ve always wanted to have a beer ;-) It’s a very picturesque short canal, lined with gabled buildings which house bars and restaurants. We very much enjoyed our drinks in the sunshine, watching the world go by, but couldn’t help but be struck by the rather steep price (Copenhagen puts the Cote d’Azur to shame…). I guess it was cheaper in the old days when the place was a popular haunt for sailors and the bohemian citizens of Copenhagen (including one C.H Andersen who lived in one of the houses in Nyhavn, actually)…

From Nyhavn, we continued our walk, taking in a bunch of other mandatory Copenhagen sights; such as Amalienborg slott (a castle where the Royal family resides), the sublime Rosenborg slott (a former Royal residence; which to my untrained eye looks quite similar to some of the castles in the Loire valley) and of course the most famous statue in Denmark; that of the little mermaid (even considering the name, the statue is somehow surprisingly small!). All in all, it was a very enjoyable walk indeed. Copenhagen was much as I remembered it (from a couple of previous visits on behalf my dear employer) – a pretty place with impressive architecture, nice parks and inviting bars & restaurants, lively and cosmopolitan. And, expensive…

We finished off the great day by another must-do in Copenhagen; Tivoli. Tivoli is of course one of the most famous amusement parks in Europe, dating back all the way to 1843. Trying not too hard to think about the exchange rate, we paid the, erm, substantial entry fee and entered. Tivoli is actually much more than an amusement park; it also offers restaurants, bars, and various shows. It’s a nice enough place to spend an evening; it’s got an old-fashioned, fun atmosphere that's quite rare these days. The only glitch again is the fact that the place is ridiculously expensive. After evaluating the dinner options, we ended up having what basically amounts to a half-sized Chinese takeaway for about 15 euros each. Ouch. Unfortunately, there weren’t any cool shows on, apart from a jazz band, so we headed back to the hotel quite early…

We got up pretty early the next morning in order to see a bit more of Copenhagen before carrying on. We started off by driving down to Christianshavn, from where we walked to Christiania. Christiania is almost like its own city within Copenhagen (built on an abandoned military site). It’s a community with its own set of very liberal laws and regulations. For example, the sale of marihuana is permitted in Christiania (in the street appropriately named Pusher Street). We had a quick walk around this interesting place – basically a collection of run-down squats, colorfully covered in graffiti, inhabited by a very diverse bunch of people (hippies, junkies, students mostly…). I guess Christiania (like the conveniently located red-light district ;-) demonstrates the liberal side of Denmark pretty well.

After quickly checking out the imposing buildings around Slotsholmen; the part of Copenhagen which houses the Danish government, we decided it was time to push on towards the South, as we had a lot of road to cover still today…

Our first stop on the way was Køge, located about 40 kilometers South of Copenhagen. From what my guidebook tells me, Køge is a very typical Danish historic town, dating back to 1288. It was certainly a nice place to stroll around for a couple of hours, with its lively market square, the cobble-stone streets, lined with half-timber houses. We decided to have lunch at Køge – and found a nice little place in a cozy court-yard, where we enjoyed tasty Danish Sandwiches (which I guess is about as typical a lunch as one can have in Denmark).

After our lunch pleasant stop, we carried on further south, to the island of Møn. Møn was a pleasant change of scenery after the build-up Sjælland (the island upon which Copenhagen is located). Denmark in general is much more densely populated than Sweden and Finland, so it was nice to get out into the sticks for a bit, again…

The main attraction on Møn is without doubt Møns Klint (the Cliffs of Møn). It’s a 6km stretch of impressive bright white chalk cliffs, overlooking the Baltic. We figured it was about time for a walk, and what better place for it than these impressive cliffs, stretching up to 143 meters above the sea? The very scenic start of the walk took us along the edge of the cliffs, then taking us right down to the beach via a rather tall set of steps… From there, we walked back the way we came, this time following a beach, which was actually rather narrow in places! All in all, great fun, and just the kind of exercise we both needed!

We then jumped back in the car and headed to check out the nearby Liselund slott. Slott meant castle, I thought, but Liselund slott is definitely more of a manor house than a castle. Apparently it’s the “biggest castle with a thatched roof” in Scandinavia, or something like that. Hmm, I wonder… (maybe it’s the only “castle” with a thatched roof in Scandinavia?). Well, debate about whether Liselund is a castle or not aside, the surrounding gardens are very nice, anyway. According to that infallible resource of infinite knowlede; Wikipedia; “it is deemed to be one of the finest examples in Scandinavia of Romantic English gardening”. Fair enough!

By now our stomachs were grumbling, so we decided to head down to a small fishing village in the south part of the island; Klintholm Havn. Our Guide Routard had an interesting restaurant to recommend – a reasonably priced canteen-like place where actual fishermen eat. Sounded very promising, considering the less-than reasonable price levels that had confronted us so far… Well, unfortunately, turns out we were struck by the “Guide Trop Tard” effect – the place definitely didn’t look like a canteen, and there were no fishermen in sight. Instead, we settled for the 20 Euro buffet at the place next doors, which was full of tourists (with an average age of about 60). Finnish negative attitude aside, the food was actually more than decent; and definitely good value for money for Denmark!

After a relatively comfortable night in our cosy tent at a camping at the western edge of Møn, we drove on (stopping for a typically expensive omelet breakfast on the way) to Rødbyhavn, from where we were taking a ferry across to Puttgarden, in Germany. All in all, we’d spent a couple of nice, if expensive (I think I’ve gotten the point across by now?), days in Denmark.