Copenhagen

This year, instead of uploading a jumble of meaningless photos onto Facebook after each of my short European hops, I thought I'd do a short travelogue-ish writeup of the places I visit and pair these with some (good) shots.

So here goes...

Copenhagen seems to be one of the most chilled-out cities I've ever been to (especially in comparison to London). There is no buzz whatsoever about the place. The trains and buses and things like that seem to run with the sort of precision one tends to find in the Scandinavian countries, but in the most laid-back fashion possible, and without an air of urgency. The people on the streets don't seem to be in a hurry- in fact- most days it seems there is no one on the streets at all. For a capital city, it is strangely quiet and empty. I started out exploring Nyhavn, a very pretty portion of the city overlooking the main canal, where buildings splashed with various colours of paint add a bright touch to the plain grey hues of late autumn.

As darkness fell I stumbled upon a lovely theatre by the harbour. The Danes are well known for design and they seem in particular to have an obsession with making their spaces cosy and intimate, which is usually done through an interesting use of lights. Most of the shops and eateries I peered into were intricately decorated and often illuminated by the soft glow of a candle or two. This theatre, which I later found out was the Royal Danish Playhouse, had a lobby resembling the night sky. Dim, twinkling little stars dangled from the ceiling, made even more impressive by the fact that the walls were glass and that the real, boundless night sky hovered just outside.

For a better perspective of things I scaled the Round Tower the next morning to catch a bird's eye view of the city. No doubt it was round, but also rather low- with the view from the top less than impressive. What I enjoyed more was a contemplative exploration of the Rosenborg Royal Palace's well-kept gardens later in the day. It was a beautiful time to be in a garden of any sort- everyone was in the midst of shedding their leaves and the grounds were covered in a thick bed of gold.

Denmark is also famous for giving the world Lego, something I played with for most of my childhood. It was very interesting then to visit the Lego flagship store somewhere in the city's shopping district and indulge in all sorts of things related to the toy...

Here, a Lego version of Tower Bridge...

Instead of pick-and-mix sweets you can pick-and-mix Lego bricks and pay by weight. Cute.

Denmark's most prominent culinary contribution is the smorrebrod, or the open-faced sandwich. The filling changes, but the concept is always the same- something strange slapped on a heavy slab of rye. I tried three of these in a little side-street tuckshop surrounded by some workers having various sandwich combinations for lunch. Some of the weirder fillings included fish cakes atop beetroot slices and pate with pickles and jelly. Whatever. Best washed down with some Copenhagen beer...

...that comes fresh from the Carlsberg Brewery.

Fancy sandwiches and whatnot are of course a one-off. Given the cost of things in Denmark the rest of the time I subsist on the ubiquitous Scandinavian staple: hotdogs- and even they don't come cheap, at 35 Kroner ($8) a pop.

A short train ride to the small town of Helsingor roughly fifty miles out of Copenhagen brought me to the famed Kronborg Castle where Shakespeare set his play Hamlet. The castle is situated on a tiny peninsular that juts out slightly into the little sliver of sea that separates Denmark from neighbouring Sweden. It is here that the waterway between these two countries is at its narrowest, and thus the ideal location for a fortress of this sort given their war-stained histories. The castle itself was chock-full of the usual princely bedrooms and fine furniture, but what I really loved was the fact that it sits right next to a windswept, pebbly beach with clear views of Sweden. The approach of sunset later on made for some dramatic scenes.

Danish 'S'-trains.

Kronborg Castle and its grand hallway, complete with the mandatory portraits and even a chandelier- but completely empty!

Sweden- somewhere in the distance. The town of Helsingor faces its Swedish counterpart, Helsingborg, just across the strait.

Helsingor's main street is little more than a ghost town by evening. Most of the shops were closed and there was scarcely a soul in sight. It was a liberating feeling to feel so alone in a small town somewhere in northern Denmark. Perhaps, to escape from the claustrophobic city life, a sense of space is all we need.