COPENHAGEN & THE BEST OF DENMARK: ALIVE! Norman P.T. Renouf Hunter Publishing, Inc. CCOOPPEENNHHAAGGEENN DDEENNMMAARRKK VV EE !! AA LL II NormanP.T.Renouf HunterPublishing,Inc. 130CampusDrive Edison,NJ08818-7816 (cid:1)732-225-1900/800-255-0343/Fax732-417-1744 Website:www.hunterpublishing.com E-mail:[email protected] INCANADA UlyssesTravelPublications 4176Saint-Denis,Montréal,Québec CanadaH2W2M5 (cid:1)514-843-9882ext.2232/Fax514-843-9448 INTHEUK WindsorBooksInternational TheBoundary,WheatleyRoad Garsington,OxfordOX449EJEngland (cid:1)01865-361122/Fax01865-361133 ISBN1-58843-355-2 ©2003HunterPublishing,Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro- duced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyform, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record- ing, or otherwise, without the written permission of the pub- lisher. Thisguidefocusesonrecreationalactivities.Asallsuchactivi- tiescontainelementsofrisk,thepublisher,author,affiliatedin- dividuals and companies disclaim any responsibility for any injury,harm,orillnessthatmayoccurtoanyonethrough,orby useof,theinformationinthisbook.Everyeffortwasmadetoin- suretheaccuracyofinformationinthisbook,butthepublisher andauthordonotassume,andherebydisclaim,anyliabilityfor lossordamagecausedbyerrors,omissions,misleadinginforma- tion or potential travel problems caused by this guide, even if sucherrorsoromissionsresultfromnegligence,accidentorany othercause. FrontCover:BaroqueGarden,Hillerød,KlausBentzen BackCover:QueenLouise’sBridge,Copenhagen,JreneuszCyranek PhotosCourtesyofDanishTouristBoard MapsbyToniWheeler, ©2003HunterPublishing,Inc. IndexbyNancyWolff 4 3 2 1 Contents Introduction ABriefHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 PlanningYourTrip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 WhatToExpect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Copenhagen ABriefHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 GettingHere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 GettingAround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 ElephantsofCopenhagen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 RoyalCopenhagen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 SunupToSundown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 ShopTillYouDrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 AfterDark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 BestPlacesToStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 BestPlacesToEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 CopenhagenInformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Helsingør ABriefHistory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 TheCityToday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 SunupToSundown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 ShopTillYouDrop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Festivals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 AfterDark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 BestPlaceToStay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 BestPlaceToEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 HelsingørInformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Hillerød ABriefHistory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 TheCityToday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 GettingAround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 SunupToSundown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Festivals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 iv CopenhagenAlive! ShopTillYouDrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 BestPlaceToEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 HillerødInformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Roskilde ABriefHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 SunupToSundown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 TheRoskildeFestival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 BestPlaceToStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 BestPlacesToEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 RoskildeInformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Helsingborg ABriefHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 SunupToSundown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 BestPlaceToStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 BestPlaceToEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 HelsingborgInformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Malmö ABriefHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 SunupToSundown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 BestPlacesToStay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 BestPlaceToEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 MalmöInformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Odense ABriefHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 TheCityToday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 SunupToSundown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 ShopTillYouDrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 AfterDark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 BestPlacesToStay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 BestPlacesToEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 OdenseInformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Århus ABriefHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Contents v TheCityToday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 SunupToSundown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 ShopTillYouDrop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 AfterDark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 BestPlacesToStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 BestPlacesToEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 ÅrhusInformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Ribe ABriefHistory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 GettingAround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 SunupToSundown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 AfterDark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 JustOutsideRibe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 BestPlacesToStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 BestPlacesToEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 RibeInformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Maps Denmark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Copenhagen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-23 Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Helsingør . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Hillerød . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Roskilde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Helsingborg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Malmö . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Central&WesternDenmark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Odense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Århus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Ribe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 About the Author NormanP.T.Renoufisaprolificwriter.Hispreviousbooks forHunterPublishingareRomanticWeekends:TheCaro- linas&TheGeorgiaCoast;RomanticWeekends:Virginia, Maryland & Washington DC (both co-authored with his wife,KathyRenouf);andAdventureGuidetoTheGeorgia &CarolinaCoasts,co-authoredwithBlairHoward. About the Alive Guides Reliable, detailed and personally researched by knowl- edgeableauthors,theAlive!serieswasfoundedbyHarriet and Arnold Greenberg. This accomplished travel-writing teamestablishedtherenownedbookstore,TheComplete Traveller,at199MadisonAvenueinNewYorkCity. We Love to Get Mail Thisbookhasbeencarefullyresearchedtobringyoucur- rent, accurate information. But no place is unchanging. We welcome your comments for future editions. Please writeusatAliveGuides,c/oHunterPublishing,130Cam- pus Drive, Edison, NJ 08818, or send an e-mail to com- [email protected]. Due to the volume of mail we receive, we regret that we cannot personally reply to eachletterormessage,butyourcommentswillbegreatly appreciated. Introduction I n t r o d D u enmarkismadeupofthreeregions.Muchofthe c country consists of a group of islands of varying ti o sizes.ThelargeislandclosesttoSwedeniscalledZea- n land (Sjæland), and is the location of Copenhagen, Helsingør,HillerødandRoskilde.Funen(Fyn),where Odenseislocated,isasmallerislandwestofZealand. The largest portion of the country is Jutland (Jyl- land),apeninsulaconnectedtoGermanyandtheloca- tionofÅrhusandRibe. A Brief History The Rise of a Kingdom Initially, some 1,000 years ago, Copenhagen – Kø- benhavn in Danish – was but a small trading cen- ter, specializing in the plentiful supply of local herring; it was also a base for ferry services to ScaniaontheothersideoftheØresund(thesound between Denmark and Sweden). Copenhagen’s – andDenmark’s–fortunesrosedramaticallyduring the 12th and 13th centuries (due in part to the immense demand in mainly Catholic Europe for salted herring during Lent), and the era saw many churches and abbeys founded. Copenhagen’s oldest seal dates from 1296, and many of its features are incorporated into the city’s present coat of arms. Copenhagen’sstrategiclocation–neartheapproach to the Baltic Sea and the North German trading townsoftheHanseaticLeague–broughtprosper- ity, but it also brought problems as a result of re- peated attacks. During this period, too, the Danish kings tried to regain control from the bishops. In 1416,KingErikofPomeraniafinallygainedcon- trolofthetown.ProsperitycontinuedapaceandCo- 2 ABriefHistory penhagen became so rich and powerful that King ChristianIV,afterhiscoronationin1596,decided tomakeittheeconomic,military,religiousandcul- turalcenterofthewholeofScandinavia.Toachieve this, he established trading companies with sole rightstotradeoverseas,andsetupfactoriessothat Denmarkcouldbecomeasself-sufficientaspossible. Thekingalsoaddedtwonewdistrictstothegrowing city,oneofwhich,Christianshavn(Christian’sHar- bor), is heavily influenced by the Dutch style of Amsterdam,whichthekingadmired.Fortifications were extended to surround the new boundaries of the town. For the next two centuries everyone and TheSwedishWars 3 everythinghadtoenterandexitthroughoneoffour I n gates. Christian IV became famous for his commis- t r o sioning of Dutch and German architects to produce d magnificent buildings; by the time of his death in u c 1648 Copenhagen had been transformed into a city t i o withgrandbuildingsandagrandstyle. n The Swedish Wars In 1657, Christian IV’s successor, King Frederik III,declaredwaronSweden,butthisendedindisas- ter, and Denmark was forced to cede all its lands east of the Øresund; this meant that Copenhagen wasnolongeracityatthecenterofakingdom.Two years later, despite a peace agreement, the citizens of Copenhagen only just managed to hold off the Swedes, who had conquered most of the rest of the country. These events had many consequences; the mostimportantwasthatthekingwasabletoconsol- idatehispoweragainstthatofthenobility.Frederik IIIwas,in1660,acclaimedDenmark’sfirstabsolute monarch. Much of medieval Copenhagen was burned to the ground during the fire of 1728, and strict rules re- garding height, choice of materials and architec- tural styles were applied to the rebuilding efforts. Out of these efforts came the new Christiansborg Palace, which the king occupied in 1740; a decade later the entirely new district of Frederiksstaden, laid out in straight streets and with the beautiful palacesofAmalienborgatitscenter,wasbegun. Rebuilding The next 50 years brought prosperity; Denmark avoidedinvolvementinwarsand,asoneofthelarg- estnavalpowers,continuedtodefenditsworldwide tradeinterests.Thepoliticalstructurealsobeganto change. Private citizens were able to compete for