Copenhagen is an interesting place. One problem with many places in Europe is that the history is so present that it gets almost Disney-esque. Copenhagen has a pretty interesting mixture of old and new (think "Danish Modern"), as you can see in the picture here.
Just down the street is a delightful old building, which is right next to a brand new one that has clean (almost antiseptic) lines.
Danish Modern isn't really my cup of tea, but it looks like the Danes are making this work for them. There's lots of construction going on all over the town center, so business seems good. The one part of the city that does have a more typical don't-mess-with-the-history European feel is the water front. If you turned 180° around on this spot you'd be looking out on the harbor. All in all, a nice place to walk off the jet lag.
Denmark is a pretty expensive country, with the current exchange rate of around 6.5 Kroner to a dollar, prices seem maybe 35% higher than I was expecting. Maybe my expectations weren't calibrated well, but expect to drop $50 on lunch without too much trouble.
One thing I noticed is that people here are tall (both men and women). Noticeably tall. I'm 6' 1", and was regularly looking up at people. Old Viking stock, I guess.
Also, it didn't seem that there were a ton of immigrants. Some, yes, but less than I was expecting. Again, maybe my expectations weren't calibrated properly, but Denmark has some pretty onerous immigration laws - for example, seizing immigrant's money to cover costs of social benefits. Maybe that's just to encourage them to keep moving to neighboring Sweden.
Oh, and the Tivoli amusement park seemed surprisingly small. As the oldest in Europe (and maybe the world) and in the middle of some very expensive property values that's not too surprising.
3 comments:
I'll wager English is heard frequently. How many people outside Denmark will learn Danish?
Perhaps German runs a close second?
Haven't been there yet, but it is on the list.
Safe travels.
Yep, the Danes ARE big folks! :-)
Libertyman, literally EVERYONE speaks english in Copenhagen. Some people likely speak it better than I do. One waitress had a noticeable "American" accent.
What's different is that they can often drop comfortably into other languages. I heard a lot of German at the airport, but was flying on to Austria so that's not a representative sample. ;-)
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