Denmark Travel Diary

Out of all the places I’ve been, Denmark is definitely one of my favorite countries in Europe.

The country of Denmark, consisting of 443 different islands creating an archipeligo, is a jolly wonder. It’s one of the happiest countries in the world, ranking just above Norway.

My family and I visited Copenhagen, the capitol of Denmark. It is a city which attracts millions of visitors each year and used to be an old sea town named Havn (Harbor). But being small the town experienced numerous pirate raids.

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So Bishop Absalon, an advisor to the king, built fortifications to protect the city. As the years passed, more and more merchants came to trade goods on its canals. It was later named Køpmannæhafn which meant Merchant’s Harbor. The name soon boiled down to the Germanic translation Kopenhagen or Copenhagen.

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Fun fact: Danes love their bikes. Everywhere you look there are either bikes parked or being ridden. There are actually more bikes in Denmark than cars. It has been in the Danish culture for a century. Kids are taught how to ride bikes before the age of 6 and every year, half a million bikes are sold.

2nd Fun Fact: Have you ever visited Disneyland? Well guess what, while Walt Disney was in Copenhagen he visited Denmark’s most famous Amusement Park, Tivoli Gardens. That is where the inspiration for Disneyland came into reality.

3rd Fun Fact! Just kidding!

Copenhagen is also the birth place of Hans Christian Anderson, the writer of The Little Mermaid and dozens of other fairy tales including The Ice Queen, the story that inspired the movie Frozen. On the outskirts of the city there’s a bronze sculpture of the little mermaid in memory of the famous writer.

If you’ve read any of my posts, you may know that I love LEGO’s. Denmark is actually the home of the LEGO brick. This is one of the reasons I like Denmark so much. The name LEGO derives from the Danish word Leg godt which means “Play well”. Quite fitting, don’t you think?

Copenhagen, Denmark is an amazing city with such fascinating heritage and personality. I’ll definitely go again. Stay tuned for more travel posts and blogs.