By Olive Ramos
I arrived in Copenhagen in the early spring and spent about 10 days there, enough to experience and appreciate its culture, people and way of life. In spite of the cold wind and frequent drizzles that time, I felt the warm welcome of the Danes by their friendly smiles and hospitality.
Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, which is one of the countries in Scandinavia and at the northern part of Europe. In 2016 Denmark has once again been ranked as the happiest nation in the world, this time by the United Nation’s World Happiness Report.
According to the UN report, what makes the Danes so happy is that they are very trusting of other people. Trust helps make people happy. The Danes also don’t judge other people’s lives. They are allowed to choose the kind of life they want to live, thus adds to the overall satisfaction of people living there. Most important, Danes give more value to the quality of life, and prefer to devote more time with their family and friends while pursuing a meaningful career.
True enough, I saw many locals spend their weekend with their family. The City Square, which is right at the center of Copenhagen, is filled with young couples and their children, most of them listen in full delight to folk singers who enliven the square with songs of their own composition. Another place most frequented by families is the Tivoli Garden, a famous amusement park and pleasure garden where one can enjoy the ride, food and entertainment.
While in Copenhagen, we stayed most of the time in Nyhavn, a place with a picturesque landscape of ports and canal, surrounded by colorful buildings and sailing boats of varied styles. From there we took the Canal Tour, which brought us to the magnificent Amalienborg Palace, the Little Mermaid statue and the stunning Copenhagen Opera House.
It is very easy to go around Copenhagen with its efficient public-transport system. The roads are also pedestrian and bicycle friendly. While walking within the city, one can enjoy the view of the scenic castles, the grandest of which is the Amalienborg, where the Royal Court resides.
Not far from the Royal Court is Christiansborg Palace, where the Danish Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Supreme Court are all housed. The Rosenborg Castle, also within the city proper, is a renaissance castle surrounded by beautiful gardens and was built as a summer house in 1606 by their famous King Christian IV.
A must see is the National Museum of Denmark, which showcases the Danish prehistory, covering the Ice Age and Viking Era. It also exhibits the beautiful works of arts in the Middle Ages and the rare collection of Danish coins from Viking times to the present.
Walking distance from the National Museum is the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden, particularly noted for its extensive complex of glasshouses dating from 1874. It has a total area of 10 hectares and its garden became part of the natural history of the National Museum.
The David Collection, located in a neoclassical building in central Copenhagen, showcases the private collections of lawyer C. L. David. The museum is known for its wide array of Islamic Art from the eighth to the 19th century, and is considered to be one of the largest collections in Northern Europe.
Aside from its castles and museums, Copenhagen is also an excellent place to shop and dine. Along Stroget, a high-profile shopping street, are Illums, a premium department store, Royal Copenhagen, known for its exclusive range of classic and modern hand-painted porcelain and figurines, and Georg Jensen Silver. It is quite interesting to note that these stores are all purveyors to the Royal Court.
The Danes have penchant for good food. Their popular delicacies are pastries, waffles topped with ice cream and hotdogs. Open-face herring sandwich is another favorite, as well as the freshly baked Danish breads, which are excellent for breakfast with a bit of butter and strawberry jam. Un Mercato is their famous and hip food market and eating-place with wide variety of selection both local and foreign.
In our last few days in Denmark, we traveled to the northern part of the country. We went to the Kronborg Castle made famous by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the magnificent Fredensborg Palace, which is the summerhouse of the Queen bordering the idyllic Esrum Lake, and the Louisiana Museum, which displays impressive modern art work in varied form. The almost one hundred works displayed in the museum include painting, photography, sculpture and installation of local and international artists. Its unique art collections astoundingly stimulate the mind and the five human senses. They are all truly amazing and awesome.
West of Copenhagen in the island of Zealand, Roskilde is another place we visited. The place is known for its gothic Cathedral, the Viking Ship Museum and its sprawling shopping area. The Cathedral houses the 39 tombs of the Danish monarchs, while the Viking Ship has the permanent exhibition of the five original Viking ships excavated nearby in 1962.
Within the neighboring municipality of Copenhagen is the Frederiksborg Castle. It was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV in the early 17th century and is the largest Renaissance residence in Scandinavia. The municipality of Frederiksberg is considered to be an affluent, or “posh,” area and is characterized by its dainty and colorful structures and green spaces.
There are quite a number of famous people from Denmark. Hans Christian Andersen is a world-famous children’s book author, whose huge statue stands tall in one corner of the City Square. Karen Blixen is the author of her autobiography Out of Africa, which was later made into a movie that won several Academy Awards with Meryl Streep playing the role of Blixen. The Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is, of course, the ultimate icon of beauty, wisdom and grace, with her white hair and elegant stature becoming the inspiration in one of the characters in the movie Lord of the Rings.
We were very fortunate to witness the birthday of the Queen while in Copenhagen. Together with the large group of Danes walking towards the Amalienborg Palace Court, we saw how these people showed affection and respect to their Queen who elegantly came out to the palace balcony at exactly noontime in her aquamarine gown to wave and cheer the crown.
The people of Denmark are hospitable, friendly and helpful to guests and tourists. The Danes may look serious at times and their humor can be quite dry. But deep inside, they are kind-hearted, generous and charming. It is such a pleasure to be with the happiest people in the world even for a short time. Truly, my trip to Denmark was one of my most memorable visits in Europe.