We flew from Málaga, Spain to Copenhagen, Denmark on June 19th. It was an easy 3.5 hour flight. Usually, when we fly to Denmark, we are flying from the west coast of the U.S. and the trip is around 13 hours and we have to deal with a 9 hour time difference. It was nice to arrive in Copenhagen feeling fresh and not jet lagged (Denmark and Spain are on the same time zone).
This was not our first trip to Denmark. Janne was born and raised there (she moved to the U.S. in 1990). Since then, she has visited Denmark with our kids many, many times. I have visited Denmark at least 6 times over the last 30 years. It is always nice to travel back to Denmark and see family and friends and experience the Danish culture. Denmark is located north of Europe in Scandinavia. The countries included in Scandinavia are Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.
We were only in Denmark for a week. For all but the last night, we stayed with Janne’s mom in a small town called Reersø. There are only about 500 people in Reersø. It is a quaint town with an inn, a church, a small store and a small harbor. Janne’s mom, Anna, lives in a pretty cool old fisherman’s house that was built in 1900 and has a view of the sea. We arrived just when the potatoes in her garden were ready to harvest. Any Dane will tell you that one of the best things about summer in Denmark is the arrival of local seasonal foods - especially strawberries and "new potatoes". Pretty much the very first thing we did when we got to Janne’s Mom’s house was harvest the potatoes in her back yard and have some of them for dinner that night – and they were good – really good.
Denmark is a country of just under 6 million people. Here are a few interesting facts about Denmark. Denmark has had formal diplomatic relations with the United States longer than any other nation in the world. It also has the largest 4th of July celebration outside of the U.S.. There are more pigs than people in Denmark. You can cross-country ski in Denmark but you would be hard-pressed to go downhill skiing as the highest point in Denmark is only around 500ft (152m). The Danish alphabet has three letters not found in the English alphabet: Æ, Ø, and Å. All three are vowels, and they come after the letter Z in the Danish alphabet and, if you are a native English speaker, they are very difficult to pronounce. The Danish monarchy is the oldest continuing monarchy in the world and has existed for over 1,000 years. While Denmark “proper” is ranked as the 130th largest country in the world, The Kingdom of Denmark, which includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands, is the 12th largest country in the world. There is a surfing break in Denmark called “Cold Hawaii”. Legos are from Denmark. The word “Lego” is an abbreviation of the two Danish words “leg” and “godt”, which mean “play” and “well”, respectively. Copenhagen’s Strøget, at almost 2 miles (3.2 km) long, is the oldest and longest pedestrian street in the world. Walt Disney visited Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen in 1951 and was so inspired that he decided to create something similar in America: Disneyland.
During WWII, when Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, King Christian X rode his horse through the streets of Copenhagen every day to inspire courage in his people. He did this despite being over 70 years old and without any body guard or other security. He did this even though there was a danger of being caught in occasional bursts of gunfire that were still going on due to the Danish underground resistance.
One last interesting tidbit, just in case the above left you wanting more – ha ha. Denmark’s national flag, the Dannebrog (the flag of the Danes), is the oldest flag in the world still in use by an independent nation, having been acknowledged in 1219. According to legend, the Dannebrog fell from the sky during an early 13th century battle, and the Danish king caught it before it touched the ground, which rallied the Danish troops to victory.
One reason I was looking forward to this trip to Denmark was because it would be the first time that I would be there during “Midsummer”. Midsummer is Scandinavia's most popular seasonal festival after Christmas. A traditional celebration of the Summer solstice, Midsummer is the longest day of the year. Among Danes, it's not just Midsummer's Eve that is celebrated, but also “Sankt Hans aften” (St. John's Eve) which is celebrated on the eve of June 23rd. On that day, Danes sing their traditional song, "We Love Our Land", and burn straw witches on bonfires. It is believed that some version of Midsummer has been observed in Denmark since the time of the Vikings. Midsummer was a national holiday in Denmark until the late 1700’s. But don’t feel sorry for the Danes losing a day off work – they get plenty of those.
In the days preceding Sankt Hans aften, we came across several wood piles that were either set up, or in the process of being set up, for burning on the evening of the 23rd. The piles were composed of different types of wood and were of different sizes, but one thing they all had in common was that there was a witch on the top. We decided to go to a burning just around the corner from Janne’s Mom’s house. They had a tent with some food and drinks for sale, along with several tables and a stage. A few people said a few words before the fire started including mentioning that they invited the fire department because they ended up needing them last year when, I guess, the fire got a little out of control. It was a nice, low key event. We were near the sea and could see other fires taking place across the bay. I thought to myself “this could never happen in the States – it would be a lawsuit waiting to happen”. There were little kids running freely around a 30 foot high burning pile of wood and alcohol was being served.
As I mentioned previously, we only had a week in Denmark. We did not have a lot of time to do much. We were kind of out in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t have a car. But we did find some time for fun. Besides enjoying the Midsummer festivities, Janne and I got out on a friend’s sail boat for the afternoon. Another day we met up with friends and family at Janne’s brother’s house for a BBQ. We spent a nice afternoon at Henning's (Janne's dad) house and he made us some great spaghetti. On our final evening, we had a nice visit with Janne’s two cousins, Stine and Kasper, in Copenhagen. We enjoyed a nice dinner and a walk to the beach with an evening swim.
As is usually the case when you go home for a brief visit, we did not have near enough time to see everyone. Our apologies to those that we didn’t get a chance to see. We had originally planned to be in Denmark for around a month, but things just didn’t work out that way. So, after a short and sweet stay in Denmark, we boarded a plane for our 30 hour journey to our next destination: Aotearoa! Not sure where that is? Tune in to our next blog post to find out!
More pictures of, and comments on, our time in Denmark are located in the "Gallery" section of this website.
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