Denmark 101

When we arrived in Copenhagen on Thursday afternoon, my knowledge of Denmark consisted of the following:

• Mary and Frederick
• The Little Mermaid and Hans Christian Anderson and Danny Kay playing Hans Christian Anderson, singing 'Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen'

• Danish Kroner, which wasn't available from the local bank branch at Jamison
• Lego and Legoland.

Three days later I'm not sure I know much more but I have been discovering a wonderful country, full of juxtapositions - not contradictions. Our first glimpse of Denmark from the plane was of wind turbines spinning like gulls over the sea and smoke stacks from chimneys on shore. The wind turbines have been a feature of the countryside we've passed through. Not huge windfarms like the one on the hills of Bungendore (although at Legoland we have learnt that an offshore windfarm is being built and will be completed next year). Just two or three dotted across paddocks.

The recent extention to the National Library  of Denmark is known as the Black Diamond. Clad in polished black granite, it looms over the waterfront but nestles against the old Library, founded in the seventeenth century. I'm starting to think of it as something of a symbol for Denmark itself - the old and the new co-existing in harmony.

Copenhagen is the city of bikes and makes a mockery of our own attempts to promote cycling as a transport strategy. It helps that the city is relatively small and flat. But it also helps that you can take your bike with you on the train, that there are large bike parks at railway stations and outside the 'Grand Magasins'. There are broad bicycle lanes on the main roads so that you aren't threatened by passing cars. I thought, for a while, that very few people chained their bikes - but it turns out that small bike locks are hidden beneath the seats and for most occasions these are enough. And there are very few helmets and no Lycra in sight. People hop on and off their bikes as we hop into and out of our cars. No dressing for the occasion. And bicycles do look lovely propped against an old brick wall.

We spent Thursday afternoon walking around Copenhagen, getting drenched and running for cover into the Grand Magasins. On Friday, we took the train up the east coast to Helsingor, visiting Kronborg Castle - reputedly the setting for Hamlet but more significantly home to Holger the Dane, the giant who will wake when Denmark is threatened by a foreign enemy. We spooked ourselves out visiting Holger in the castle's casements and then wandering through narrow, low, very dimly lit corridors trying to find our way back to the light. Living in a castle is not romantic. And then we travelled back to Louisiana, 'the most beautiful museum in the world'. It opened in the 1950s and was named after the three wives of the property's first owner, all of whom were called Louise. It is an incredibly beautiful place, with long glass corridors looking onto gardens filled with sculpture and views across the sound to Sweden. Inside the museum, we saw an exhibition on artist's self-portraits, featuring works by Picasso, Dix, Kahlo and David Hockney (including five of his ipad portraits).

Yesterday, we travelled about two-thirds of the way across Denmark to Billund and Legoland. It is a child's idea of heaven (well, Miles' idea of heaven) from the small gift left on the pillow to the colouring books in the buffet and the largest Lego shop in the world.