Denmark feels like someone took a normal country, organized the shit out of it, gave everyone a bicycle and then charged you $11 for a beer.
Welcome to Scandinavia.
Copenhagen is ridiculously pleasant. Colorful buildings line Nyhavn, boats drift through canals, bicycles outnumber reasonable explanations for bicycles, and public transportation works with the kind of quiet competence that makes visitors from less organized countries slightly uncomfortable.
Everything just seems… functional.
Suspicious.
Denmark also has castles everywhere because apparently several centuries of Scandinavian royalty required an impressive amount of real estate. Kronborg Castle brings Shakespeare credibility thanks to Hamlet, although I found the dark underground casemates considerably more interesting than wandering through another collection of royal rooms wondering which dead king slept where.
Then there’s the food.
Modern Nordic cuisine can become a financial event, but bakeries, smørrebrød and enough excellent pastries to destroy whatever nutritional goals you arrived with make Denmark dangerously easy to eat your way through.
The downside?
Denmark is fucking expensive.
Hotels aren’t cheap. Restaurants aren’t cheap. Drinks definitely aren’t cheap. And the weather can turn gray, windy and aggressively Scandinavian without consulting your sightseeing plans.
But Denmark doesn’t need to overwhelm you.
It’s clean, historic, walkable, photogenic and remarkably easy to explore. Copenhagen alone makes an excellent European city break, while the rest of the country delivers castles, coastlines, Viking history and smaller towns without requiring logistical warfare.
Denmark is civilized travel with a Scandinavian price tag.
Come for Copenhagen.
Stay because everything works.
Leave after checking your credit-card statement.
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Kronborg Castle: Apparently the Good Shit Is Underground
Kronborg Castle is a perfectly respectable Danish castle with towers, cannons, Hamlet and all the usual medieval shit. Then I found the underground casemates, where things immediately went from solidly mid to holy shit, this place is awesome.
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