When I think of Denmark something stirs deep inside me, a
tinge of longing. It could be a desire to connect with the land many of my
ancestors left over a hundred years ago. It could be a desire to see what my
son Zack saw while serving as a missionary for the LDS church. Or it could be a
desire to reconnect with an old friend.
One of my best friends growing up, from elementary school through
high school and early college, now makes his home in Copenhagen. He’s a renowned
expert on Søren Kierkegaard with a PhD and teaches at the University of
Copenhagen. And to think, I knew him when he was just a kid.
In addition to my personal ties, Norse mythology appeals to
me. I’ve long been fascinated by Vikings, castles, swords, battle axes, and of
course the hammer of Thor.
It’s almost as if it wasn’t a matter of if, but only a
matter of when, regarding a visit to the land some people, like Oprah, call the
happiest place on earth. (Eat your heart out Disneyland.) We had been casually
discussing it for over a year since Zack returned home. But it was an
invitation to stay with a family he met there that helped the planning finally fall
into place. Coincidentally the father of that family grew up in the town we now
live in—what a small world.
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| Nyhavn |
We would have liked to take our entire family, but seven
airfares to Scandinavia was a deal breaker. So it turned into a special trip
for my wife, Zack, and I to spend some quality time together. We carved ten
days out of our busy work and school schedules in early May, 2012. That might
sound like a lot, but when you consider the flight can take up to fifteen hours,
that kills most of a day by itself. Then add to that the time zone difference,
which means the better part of another day magically disappears, right off the
bat. And then coming home takes most of a day despite regaining the time zone
difference, so that’s three of the ten days primarily consumed at an airport,
or in the air. Add in jet lag, I never sleep well on planes, and it’s easy to
see the time reduced to only seven actual days for exploring Denmark.
We booked our flight to depart Sunday around noon, and
arrive in Denmark at three in the afternoon on Monday. Unfortunately due to
weather we were rerouted from Chicago to LA. That’s right, in the opposite
direction. It sounds counterintuitive, but since there is only one flight from
Chicago to Copenhagen our only other option would have had us arriving on
Tuesday, an entire day later. Low on good options we scrambled onto the LA
flight with the nagging hope our luggage would make the same trip we did. Going
in the opposite direction cost us some extra time, our new scheduled arrival
was 9:00 pm in Copenhagen. But again, that was much better than 3:00 pm the
next day. My new travel mantra is: nothing
ever goes as planned—deal with it.
Somehow we scheduled our trip such that the Monday consumed
by air travel, delays, and time zone changes was my birthday. So, my birthday
this year disappeared into the twilight zone. I’m not bitter, but I’m also not
considering myself another year older. (That means my wife and I are now the
same age. Ha.)
We left most of the details of how we’d spend our days on
Danish soil in the hands of Zack. We penciled in a few of the must see attractions,
but otherwise we just wanted to experience life like a typical Dane.
Monday:
Zack’s friends, our new friends, met us at the airport,
drove us to their home in Charlottenlund and helped us get situated. Then it
was bed time—for them. For us we really wanted to sleep, but it was a struggle.
And it was a struggle for our entire time there. Our typical day started around
11:00 am, our earliest was 8:00 am, because we rented a car and wanted to
maximize our driving range; but it was hard to wake up that day. Our latest morning
was 12:00 pm, what can I say, when your body says it’s tired you gotta sleep,
no matter what time it is. Most of the time I felt guilty sleeping so long, but
it was a lot more challenging to control than I expected.
Tuesday:
Our first full day in Denmark was Tuesday. We met up with my
friend the Professor to catch up on old times. He gave us a brief tour of the
area surrounding his office at the University of Copenhagen. We saw beautiful
classic architecture, including several fountains decorating the area. We visited
the Church of Our Lady cathedral and saw the famous statues of Christ (the
Christus) and the twelve apostles by Thorvaldsen. We even walked as far as Nyhavn,
my favorite area of Copenhagen. The rows of colorful buildings lining the
canal, boats moored in front, is one of the most recognizable places in this
beautiful city. We couldn’t pass up a treat there so we ate waffles sitting
outside by the water. The day’s events were simple but so memorable.
During our trip planning my wife read about the Copenhagen
card. For a reasonable amount you can purchase a one, three, or five day card
which gives you access to all the trains and buses in the Copenhagen area. Plus
it also covers entrance fees into the castles, museums, and even Tivoli (just
the entrance fee to Tivoli, not for rides). The thing that was nice about the
Copenhagen card is we never worried about getting on the wrong bus or train.
And we never had to fish for cash when we wanted to see any of the cool stuff.
We bought five day cards to begin with, then a one day for Monday. I highly
recommend it.
Wednesday:
By Wednesday we had the trains mostly figured out. First
thing off the train at Nørreport we stopped at a nice bakery on our way down the
Gågade, the walking street where shopping options abound. The narrow
cobblestone streets are closed to car traffic during shopping hours. It was
always packed with foot traffic and bicycles. A short distance from the bakery we
noticed an interesting store dedicated to the game Warhammer. The miniature
figures drew me in, but I really wanted to find some comics. They didn’t have
comics there, but Zack talked to one of the workers who gave us directions to a
comic shop nearby.
We walked down the Gågade further and came to the Round
Tower. Admission price covered by the Copenhagen card so why not? We climbed to
the top and were rewarded with a spectacular view of the area.
After that we found the comic store and it was impressive.
Two stories high filled with comics, action figures, posters etc. I bought a
Danish comic called Valhalla. Walking out of the comic store we noticed another
interesting shop right across the street. It was in the basement and looking
down through the windows I could see it was filled with weapons, armor,
clothing and all kinds of accessories for Live Action Role Playing (LARPing). It
was the coolest shop ever. And the shop keepers were the friendliest of any
shop we went into. I had to buy an amber crystal necklace so I can recharge my
magic when it gets low.
We ate lunch outside right on the Gågade. The food was good,
but more visually appealing than filling. I think that’s the Danish way. It was
a little chilly but we had an enjoyable time there. After lunch we took one of
the Canal Tours. The guide gave directions in English, Danish and German. It
was impressive to hear him keep all three languages straight. We rode through the
waterways all the way out to the harbor and saw the Little Mermaid, from the
back side. She faces the land, more on that later. Even though it rained a bit
we stayed comfortable and were able to see everything just fine.
Thursday:
Thursday our house host drove us way up north to Helsingør to
see the Kronborg Slot, slot is the word for castle but I prefer slot now. It
was so foggy that day we couldn’t even see the castle from the parking lot, which
was disappointing because on a good day you can see all the way to Sweden
across the ocean. We could barely see the ocean. But we did see Holger Danske sleeping
in the cellar until he’s needed to save his homeland.
On the way back to Copenhagen we stopped off in Hillerød to
see the Frederiksborg Slot. This castle made Kronborg seem modest in
comparison. The rooms were much more lavishly decorated. And there is one room
which is entirely full of Carl Bloch paintings—that alone is worth the trip. It
was fascinating to see how many family portraits have accumulated over the
years. I’d have to say hundreds, if not into the thousands, some of them many
hundred years old.
We ate lunch close by the castle in one of the nice restaurants
on the walking street in Hillerød. Zack and I had kebabs, for the second time.
Zack loves a good kebab, and these were among the best we had.
Friday:
Friday we delivered a package to the mission office in
downtown Copenhagen. It was fun to visit there for a bit. Then we were so close
to the LDS temple we had to go see it. We ate Chinese food from one of the
small vendors along the Gågade, just for the experience. Oh, and to save a
little money too.
Our goal was to climb to the top of the Church of Our
Saviour. It’s the one with a black and golden corkscrew spire that reaches 90
meters high (that’s almost 300 feet). There is a total 400 steps to the top of
the spire, the last 150 are outside on the corkscrew spire. Unfortunately we
arrived at the Church of Our Savior ten minutes after it closed for the day. We
hoofed it back, and took a brief look in Tivoli. We didn’t ride any rides, we
were in there just enough to get a feel for the Danish carnival experience.
Even though we didn’t hike to the top of the spiral church we still walked a
ton this day. And we were beat.
We went to dinner with our host family at one of their
favorite local Italian restaurants in Charlottenlund. That food was delicious.
Saturday:
By Saturday we were ready for a break from walking. We had
talked about renting a car so we could visit areas outside of Copenhagen. And
this was the perfect time to do it. We ended up renting a BMW, which is hard to
believe but it was one of the cheapest options. We drove to Odense, on Fyn. There
we toured Hans Christian Andersen’s house. Following the tour we strolled down the
Gågade there. We ate at Jensen's Bøfhus, a nice little steakhouse.
One of Zack’s favorite areas was Sønderborg on Jutland so
while we had the car we had to make it clear over there—far west on the part of
Denmark attached to Germany. We talked about making a quick trip to Germany, at
one point we were as close as 20 km. But that would have made us arrive back in
Charlottenlund close to midnight, something we just weren’t comfortable with.
We were kind of late as it was. On the way back we ate dinner at a hamburger
place called Bull in Odense. It had an interesting Americana feel to it.
Renting the car wasn’t cheap, but surprisingly the car
itself was only about one third the overall cost. Gas was probably more than
the car itself. And bridge tolls to get over to Odense, and back combined were nearly as much as the car rental fee. Crazy.
Sunday:
Sunday we attended church in Charlottenlund. Zack served in
that ward so he knew a lot of the people. It was fun for him to see some
familiar faces, and for us to be introduced to them. Up to this point our days
had been so regimented, like we had to make the most of every waking moment it
was nice to have a more casual day. We took a short bike ride with the kids of our host family down to the ocean, just to see what it was like. It was pretty, with lots of
people enjoying the weather. Sunday was probably our best weather day of the
entire trip.
Since it was Mother’s Day we did get on Skype to speak with
our second son who is serving an LDS mission in Cape Verde. If you’ve never
heard of Cape Verde don’t feel bad, we hadn’t either until he was called to
serve there.
Monday:
Rested and rejuvenated, at least we thought we were, we just
had to go shopping again on Monday, our last full day in Denmark. The
difference? This time we actually bought some stuff. You see, all of the other
shopping days were simply exercises leading up to this big day. We tried to
find all the good things we noticed on the previous excursions. It’s an odd
thing we seem to repeat quite often, and not just in foreign countries. I guess
we always feel like we need to scope out the area to find the best deals before
we actually hand over any money.
We also squeezed in a tour of the Rosenborg Slot. This
castle was beautiful like the Frederiksborg castle. The crown jewels and the
armory were the highlights for me. One more thing we had to do was see the
Little Mermaid, this time from the front. Going all the way to Denmark it would
have been a crying shame to return home and recount we only saw her backside.
Unfortunately this little endeavor turned into a much longer walk than any of
us anticipated. It was fun to see, but in a sadistic sort of way. We thought
Friday was a long walking day, but this day was harder than that.
As a reward for so much unexpected exercise we treated
ourselves to dinner at the Hard Rock Café. The icing on the cake followed our
hurried meal. We immediately hopped on a train to meet up with my old friend
and his son in Farum where we watched a soccer match between Odense and Nordsjaelland.
Odense played the role of spoiler in the 0-0 tie.
Tuesday:
Tuesday we packed up and headed to the airport. And wouldn’t
you know it? Mechanical problems delayed our departure for a couple of hours.
Enough that we worried we’d miss our connection in Washington, DC. As it turned
out we made it through customs and to our gate five minutes before our
connecting flight departed—after running enough to build up a nice sweat. Just
what you want sitting next to you on a five hour flight, right? Be glad you weren’t on that flight. But we were,
so glad not to be delayed one more time.
Almost everything in Denmark seemed expensive. It was a
struggle to keep the conversion rates in mind as we spent money. Using American
Express every chance we could took a little of the sting away. Ok, maybe it
just delayed it a month. When that didn’t work we tried to use our debit card Visa.
That worked more often because it had a PIN tied to it. They love PIN’s in
Denmark, who knew? Only once did we have to run to an ATM in order to pay for a
meal. But I think that was because we were out in Charlottenlund.
I can see how the whole public transportation combined with
bicycles could be a nice way to go. But for us, it’ll take more than a week to
get used to it. By the end of our stay we wanted to get in our big gas guzzling
vehicles and drive somewhere, anywhere, even if it was only a short distance. It’s
amazing how tethered to our individual vehicles we’ve become.
*That last part was an exaggeration due to our utter
exhaustion. Don’t hate us, we were delirious.*
We cherish this visit to Denmark. We experienced so much
generosity and help from the family we stayed with. And it was great to spend
time with my old friend. Denmark is beautiful and filled with a deep, rich
heritage that we just can’t compete with in our young country. Hans Christian Andersen said “To travel is to live.”
But the more places I visit, and especially the older I get, the more I feel like
massaging that quote from HCA to “Traveling gives you perspective.” That
perspective helps you see more clearly how many good things you have all around
you, every day. For me it’s the little things: there’s no shower like my own,
there’s no bed like my own, choosing what to drive my truck or my motorcycle—both
are always there for me, and there’s certainly no family like my own. All of
the creature comforts in the world combined could not replace what I have in my
own little part of this amazing Earth. Visiting, experiencing, and tasting
other cities, countries and cultures is fun, exciting, and a great opportunity
to learn. But in the end, there really is no place like home.
What do you miss most when you travel?
