Denmark

It took me a long time to get around to visiting Denmark. This was resolved by going on a bit of a road trip. I drove from home and stopped in the Netherlands to catch up with an old friend. Then I met up with Peter, from Sweden, with whom I travelled as far as Copenhagen, from where he got the train home and I headed back south again.

Our first stop in Denmark was the small town of Haderslev. It was pleasant to walk around and had a nice church, friendly people and a pretty lake.

Skagen is the northernmost tip of Denmark. There is a sandbar that is the very northernmost part and there is a procession of sorts, as people walk to the end of it, which takes about half an hour or so. It was interesting to see how downhearted people seemed to be as they trudged along this walk and they appeared even more morose on the return journey.

When we got to the end, we found it looked quite similar to the bit a few hundred metres south but this was further north and so apparently better.

The water was crystal clear and the beach was pleasant, except for all the people trudging back and forth. That was another thing that struck us as strange. Despite the heat (it was more than thirty degrees) and the pristine beach and water, nobody was just lounging on the beach.

As we were passing Billund, the home of Lego, which is probably Denmark's most famous export and creation, it seemed appropriate to visit. We did not want to pay the price for visiting the exhibits, so only saw the public parts. Some of the lego creations there were still impressive.

An advantage of driving oneself, is the opportunity to stop at random places. One of which was the Memphis Mansion, a recreation of Graceland, home to Elvis Presley. Apparently it is a faithful recreation, though it was closing when we got there, so we only got to see the public parts.

Speaking of random places to stop, The Panzer Museum was very much one of those. It is almost entirely Soviet era military hardware on display. There were many tanks and other military transports, which was expected. It was the range of missiles, bombs and things like that which were less expected. Then we found the obstacle course in the woods, which looked like somewhere the local militia trains.

The staff seemed a bit too enthusiatic about wearing their military uniforms and the fact that so much ordinance was for sale in the gift shop.

Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark. It is a university town and seemed pleasant and laid back.

When we got to Copenhagen, one of the first things we came across was a group of people painting murals.

A theme of our time in Denmark was the Smørrebrød, which is an open sandwich of sorts. There were various different sorts and they were generally tasty and healthy too.

Wandering around in Copenhagen it was quite hot and busy. We headed down to see the famous statue of The Little Mermaid, which I was already prepared to be underwhelmed by. It exceeded my expectations, how uninteresting it was and it was more interesting to see people's behaviour trying to clamber about, jostling and pushing each other to get the best possible photo of it.

There are a number of pleasant and historical parts, monuments and so forth around the city. Nyhavn is famous for its pretty, colourful buildings along the waterfront.

Christiana is a partially self-governing neighbourhood within Copenhagen. It is an idiosyncratic area that was famously bohemian and unconventional. Nowaday, it has become increasingly touristic and trendy.

We were by the Tivoli gardens and unsure whether to visit or not. When I looked up the ticket prices online, it transpired that Sir Tom Jones was performing there a few minutes later and that was included in the ticket price. So we decided to go see him and it. He was great, particularly considering he was 85 at the time.

As for Tivoli itself, I found it confusing. It was not one thing or another. It has gardens with pagodas, hotels, theme park rides, amusement stalls, bars, etc. Before we left, we were curious why the crowds all gathered in a central area and then we realised it was to observe the nightly fireworks display, which was impressive.

On my way back south, I stopped for the night in Middelfart, which is a pleasant town and there happened to be a gathering of tall ships in the harbour that day and some festivities taking place.

Of more interest to me, were the harbour porpoises which could be seen from the shore. There were at least three in one group I observed, including a youngster going alongside its parent.