DENMARK – OF COURSE!

It is late summer, and I am in Copenhagen, at Nyhavn, The name means 'new harbour' and it was new once – in 1670 or so.

Now, 9pm, 10pm maybe. It is midsummer and the sun is still up, gilding the brightly painted 17th-century buildings that line the waterfront. Once the buildings around this  slot of water housed little more than bars for sailors, straggling ashore unsteadily, staggering out hours later, even more unsteadily, to their boats – if they could find them. 

This evening the place is packed with everything but seamen: tourists, young people, locals perhaps, and the accents of a dozen or more languages mix with the creak of boats on their mooring ropes and the clink of glasses. An organ-grinder complete with fake monkey makes his way around tables and stretched legs, careful not to upset frothy beers set down on the pavement by those not eating, the ones just sitting on the harbour wall. His music, when he can find a space to set up, is largely lost in the jumble of talk and clattering cutlery and competing rhythms from nearby restaurants.

Suddenly there is a rise in the noise, a rowdy German drinking song, shouts and dares and a man dives into the water. Stark naked. A jostling on the wharf, and two more follow, a fourth, and several more, white and wriggling in the dark water. They swim to the other side, haul themselves out and saunter back, mindless of the crowd.

This is Denmark. This is Copenhagen – of course!

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This article continues with details of what makes this shiny little country tick and  includes information on accommodation provided, local food and cuisine, things to do and see.

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(finishes…)

My first day in Copenhagen I was yelled at in Danish for presuming to walk in a bike lane. That same day  I located a bedding shop in an arcade off Strøget. I wanted to buy a doona and pillows filled with the softest down, my special Scandinavian souvenir. My hygge.

But not only that. It was so that, when I sleep, I can dream of Denmark. Of course! 

©Sally Hammond 2006

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2006

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled independently)

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