by Don’t make small talk with strangers. Or talk about the weather. Or ask people you know how they’re doing… I read these social etiquette tips in a Denmark travel guide – four days into a 10 day trip. I had screwed up on the first day. “Look at this!” I said to the couple across from me in the hotel’s underground sauna. A window overlooked the deep end of the outdoor pool. “A human fish!” No one answered.
But there’s so much to talk about, starting with our hotel, the Bryggen Guldsmeden Eco Resort, a former shoe factory in Copenhagen’s waterfront area, Islands Brygge. In the reception area there are trees (fake, tasteful) with pink flowers, deer heads (also fake), hanging wicker chairs, fancy stained glass – and that sauna. And then there are the Balinese bedrooms, the chic pool loungers, the Babette’s Feast breakfast and the miracle cure Airstream that serves poolside drinks.
We are here on a family train and road trip and are looking for a mix of urban culture, country and coast. After two days in Copenhagen on the island of Zealand, we headed to the Danish Riviera before heading to Jutland to explore the Danish Lake District and finally Aarhus, Denmark’s amazing second city.
Our first morning was well spent. We visited the Cisterns, an underground art space created in a former reservoir. We were lucky enough to see Start Again the Lament, a sound installation by Tarya Simon that explores death, loss and grief. We walked in the twilight along illuminated paths suspended above the water to rousing recitations by professional mourners.
Back in the daylight, we took the bus back to the center and walked across Nyhavn, the famous 17th-century harbor, to the Nordre Toldbod waterfront promenade, home to the lively Seaside Toldboden complex with seven restaurants. We drank margaritas and watched the yachts in the sunshine. The city has nailed the communal experience, be it eating and drinking or swimming in the canals or harbors. The Islands Brygge Harbor Bath near our hotel is a local favorite.
That evening we ate at Gaza Grill, an inexpensive oriental eatery in the Meatpacking District of Vesterbro. The next evening we had our treat at the Nimb Hotel, a Moorish fantasy town with a wonderful rooftop bar. It borders the Tivoli Gardens amusement park and its glamorous brasserie offers French cuisine and park-side seating.
What a contrast to the clean lines of the outstanding Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, a 40-minute train ride along the coast from Copenhagen. An 1870s villa and three modernist pavilions sit in a sculpture garden overlooking the sea. From there we took a 10-minute train ride up to Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, the setting for Hamlet. As we made our way to the city walls, ready to recite the ghost scene from one of our phones (that’s Hamlet’s faux pas – it had to be done!), a newlywed couple from Japan in white silk and black sunglasses posed for Photos Skull, presumably Yorick’s, held up. How fabulous tourists are, I thought, cheering them on in a rather un-Danish way.
It was an easy 60km drive through flat, open farmland to the Danish Riviera on the north coast of Zealand, our destination – the old fishing village of Tisvilde and the exclusive Helenkilde Badehotel. With its elegant lunch terrace, veranda with rattan furniture, cozy-chic living rooms and panoramic sauna with sea views, this clifftop hotel exudes restraint.
“You’re not in the mood to be Danish,” my younger son said that evening at our candlelit dinner in the hotel’s lovely restaurant. I suppressed a giggle at the time. The naked, cuddling couple we had seen earlier at the nude beach from an elevated walkway had just walked in. I don’t know why I thought it was funny to see her here, fully clothed, I just did. Not very Danish of me, I can see that now.
The next day, after a rainy walk in the Tisvilde Hegn pine forest, we warmed up with cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate at Café Brød & Vin in the village. Fueled for the Lake District leg of our trip, we took the ferry from Odden to Aarhus on the east coast of Jutland and from there drove southwest to spend a night of good food at the Gastronomisk Institut in Rys Knudehule Badehotel. Located on Lake Knudsø, the hotel looks like a hiking motel, so our room was equipped with a four-poster waterbed – there were massages! – surprised us. This also applies to our extraordinary dinner, the highlight: crab pot with sour milk and herbal oil, served with a Moselle Riesling.
Knudhule’s manager Anders Kalstrup encouraged us to hike to Himmelbjerget Tower in the nearby town of Silkeborg, the region’s river center. Danish democracy was born at Himmelbjerget: this is where people gathered to discuss the future of the nation in the 19th century. At 147m, the hill is Denmark’s second highest hill – compared to Britain’s Lake District, although not in this pancake landscape of wooded highlands – but the views of the lake are breathtaking. We stayed in comfortable, clean Scandic Silkeborg – a great base for hikers. Here you can find the bog body of Tollund Man in the Silkeborg Museum and Denmark’s oldest paddle steamer, the Hjejlen.
With a visit to Olafur Eliasson’s circular roof installation at the ARoS Museum in Aarhus the next day, we scaled various heights and enjoyed 360-degree views of this unsung port city. Further circles worked their magic in Aarhus Bay, where the Infinite Bridge, a circular wooden structure, spans the beach and sea. We spent our last night in the wonderfully eccentric Hotel Royal next to Aarhus Cathedral. The Royal has an old-fashioned lobby, dark and full of frescoes, and Scandinavia’s oldest working elevator with a scissor gate and even a chair to sit on. Just don’t try to start a conversation.
Further information at visitdenmark.com
