Visit Denmark: The UN-Official Guide

Denmark

Located in northern Europe, Denmark is bordered by the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and Germany, which is its only connection to the European mainland. Most of its landmass is occupied by the Jutland peninsula while the remaining 500 islands, of which only a hundred are occupied, comprise the rest of the country. The Skagerrak and Kattegat straits separate it from Norway and Sweden.

Present-day Denmark owes its cultural and linguistic origins to the Danes who migrated here from Sweden around AD 500. Denmark’s history, till the medieval period. The Thirty Years War with Sweden followed by the Napoleonic Wars inflicted damage on the economy of the country. Although Denmark remained neutral in both World Wars, it surrendered to Germany in 1940 following the large build-up of German forces along its borders.

Denmark’s prime attraction is its capital Copenhagen, one of the liveliest cities in Europe, which also has an active nightlife. Most of the city’s attractions are concentrated in a small area, while the parks, gardens, squares, and fountains are interspersed all over.

Copenhagen (København) is Scandinavia’s most vibrant and affordable capital, and one of Europe’s most user-friendly cities. Small and welcoming, it’s a place where people rather than cars set the pace, as evidenced by the multitude of pavement cafés and the number of thoroughfares that have been given over to pedestrians and bicycles. Amenable and relaxed, it also offers a range of entertainment which belies its relatively modest size: at night there are plenty of cosy bars and an intimate club and live-music network that could hardly be bettered, while in summer, especially, there’s a varied range of entertainment as the city’s population takes to the streets. This is not to mention a beckoning range of cultural attractions, including major national museums, a selection of magical art galleries, a healthy assortment of performing arts events and one of Europe’s most interesting film scenes.

Physically, much of Copenhagen dates from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a cultured ensemble of handsome renaissance palaces, parks and merchant houses laid out around the waterways and canals that give the city, in places, a pronounced Dutch flavour. Successive Danish monarchs left their mark on the place, in particular Christian IV, creator of many of the city’s most striking landmarks – including Rosenborg Slot and the districts of Nyboder and Christianshavn – and Frederik III, who graced the city with the palaces of Amalienborg and the grandiose Marmorkirke church, along with the elegant royal quarter of Frederikstad in which they are located. These landmarks remain the highest points in a refreshingly low and undeveloped skyline which continues to measure things on an emphatically human scale.

Historically, Copenhagen owes its existence to its position on the narrow Øresund strait separating Denmark from Sweden and commanding the entrance to the Baltic – one of the great trading routes of medieval Europe and now the site of the region’s grandest engineering project, the massive Øresund Bridge. It’s this location, poised on the dividing line between Europe and Scandinavia, that continues to give Copenhagen its distinctive character. Compared to the relatively staid capitals further north, Copenhagen has a decidedly European flavour, from the innocent hedonism of the famous Tivoli gardens to the sleazy goings-on around Vesterbro’s red-light district. It’s no surprise that the city’s most famous export is a beer, Carlsberg, and the freedom with which it flows in the city’s thousands of bars is in stark contrast to the puritanical licensing laws found elsewhere in Scandinavia – a fact attested to by the thousands of thirsty Swedes who descend on the city each year. Yet Copenhagen is also a flagship example of the Scandinavian commitment to liberal social values, as exemplified by its laid-back attitudes to everything from gay marriages to toplessness and pornography, and is also home to the unique “Free City” of Christiania, whose drop-out community is one of Europe’s most intriguing social experiments.

For all its twentieth-century success, however, the new millennium finds Copenhagen facing an important set of changes and challenges. On the one hand, the magnificent new Øresund Bridge, opened in 2000 to link the city with Malmö and southern Sweden, has given Copenhagen the infrastructure to become the western Baltic’s leading urban centre, and there are many who would like to see the city develop into a suitably internationalist and forward-looking metropolis. On the other hand, there are many Copenhageners who regard the bridge, at best, as an irrelevance or, at worst, as a symbol of all those foreign influences that threaten to undermine traditional Danish values. Above all, these influences are typified by Copenhagen’s burgeoning immigrant community, and simmering racial tensions – and the resulting rising power of the right wing – pose increasing challenges to the city’s tolerant image. At the same time, Denmark’s landmark decision in a referendum of October 2000 to opt out of the single European currency also suggests a national desire to remain isolated from the continental mainstream, with the possible result that Copenhagen will be relegated to a position of provincial irrelevance. For all that, it’s worth remembering that the city’s occasional smugness and resistance to change is the result of its citizens’ pride in their capital and determination to protect its unique character, and as a visitor you’ll be made to feel welcome wherever you go, especially since absolutely everybody speaks English.

Copenhagen, as any Dane will tell you, is no introduction to Denmark – indeed a greater contrast with the sleepy provincialism of the rest of the country would be hard to find. Thanks to the rapid transport links which connect the capital with its surrounding countryside, however, you can enjoy all the pleasures of rural Zealand without ever being much more than an hour away from the bright lights of the capital. Amongst the many attractions which ring the city are the great castles of Kronborg (the “Elsinore Castle” of Shakespeare’s Hamlet) and Frederiksborg, while the ancient Danish capital and ecclesiastical centre of Roskilde, with its magnificent cathedral and museum of Viking ships, offers another enticing day-trip.

One of the most interesting attractions downtown Copenhagen has to offer is Tivoli. Tivoli is a small amusement park located in the center of town and offers many gardens, rides, concerts, and weekly fireworks displays in the summer. There are a few eating establishments within and on the outskirts of the park (including a Hard Rock Cafe) which can make your trip to Tivoli a fantastic date. The walking street is one of Copenhagen’s best known landmarks and can provide hours of shopping pleasure. It is easy to get anywhere in Copenhagen cheaply and safely due to a efficient and well maintianed train network.

If you are interested in the seedier side of Copenhagen, don’t miss Christiania. Christiania is a small village in downtown Copenhagen that offers hashish to the openminded travler. The small hippie village can turn into quite an eye-opening experiance, but be smart! The drugs sold there are illegal in Denmark, but commonly turned a blind eye towards in Christiania. It is questionable how long this landmark will continue to exist. In December 2004 the police took down Pusher Street in Christiania which was very famous for Marijuana! Tens of pushers used to sell high quality weed of all kinds and it was fairly easy to find purple haze, orange haze, skunk, etc. So now, Marijuana is very rare in Copenhagen but hash is easy to find at Christiania (near Prinsessgade and Pusher Street). Hash is usually sold for about DKK 70 per gram or the equivalent amount in Euros.

If you happen to be a lover of music, the city of Aarhus offers you everything from symphony performances to theatres, apart from the Den Gamle By (The Old Town), which is an open-air theatre and the city’s piece de resistance.

The historical town of Roskilde is worth a visit because of the recent explorations that have unearthed a wealth of details about its rich past. Odense on the island of Funen is the capital of Fairytails. In this charming city you find the house of Hans Christian Andersen. Walking the streets of this historic center you can see from where he drew his inspiration.

Then there are the spectacular white chalk cliffs of Mon’s Klint, on the island of Møn; the 17th-century Egeskov Castle; and the picturesque theme park called Legoland in central Jylland that are worth visiting. Legoland is located in Billund, and can make quite a facinating day trip. The park is filled with scale models of many familiar landmarks such as Mount Rushmore, the Eifel Tour, and even an airport, all built entirely out of Legos!

Cycling is an activity that tourists often indulge in Denmark along with swimming and surfing. Although you can visit Denmark throughout the year because of its mild climate, May and June see the country at its best.

Many cruise ships make a stop in Copenhagen, thus you can have a brief visit to Denmark’s most famous city. Much of Copenhagen is built along canals, so take a canal boat ride (even though you have just got off a cruiseship).

With about 175,000 inhabitants, Odense is the regional capital of Funen and the third-biggest city in Denmark. The city is more than a thousand years old and various museums tell about the history of Odense and of Denmark. Odense lies within a short distance of beaches and many leisure activities are offered. The city centre has many pedestrian streets, wonderful shops, small cafés and restaurants, where you can enjoy life with the locals – or visit the large shopping centres, with all the heart can desire under one roof. Main sights include the Hans Christian Andersen, the Odense City Museum and the St. Knuds Cathedral.

Sonderborg is an attractive and the largest town of about 30,000 inhabitants on the island of Als, in the South-east of Jutland, near the German border. Nowadays Als is connected to the mainland by bridges, but to many visitors it is still a green holiday island, with a coastline that is perfect for swimming, sailing, and angling. Leisure wise you can almost do anything from diving to gliding.The city has a friendly, quiet atmosphere, but because of the large student population, the social life in Sonderborg is lively.

In the Sonderborg region, there are some 300 manufacturing industries. Most of them are small or medium-sized companies, involved in electronics, metalworking, and the production of high technology communication equipment. Denmark’s largest industrial concern, the Danfoss Corporation, with 20,000 employees, also has its headquarters near Sonderborg.

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