Delightful Denmark

A few years ago we passed through Denmark on our way to Norway and always said that we’d be back. The idea was to “do” Denmark and then if we got bored we’d go to northern Germany – in the end we didn’t stop in  Germany, apart from a couple of transit nights! Denmark was a delight, a bit expensive I’ll admit, but it really was a lovely place.  The sea dominates, as it’s such a small country, but there are also some inland pretty areas such as the Danish Lake District near Silkeborg.

There are oodles of gorgeous villages and small towns, with medieval architecture, such as Ribe, Roskilde, Kobe etc, and Viking attractions for every day of the year!  We particularly enjoyed Fyrkat Viking centre as there was a festival on, Trelleborg fortress, Jelling museum and Church -  where Denmark began, Roskilde Viking ship museum, and Lejre Land of Legends – where Viking villages come to life. At the top of Denmark you can visit the spot where the Kattegat and Skaggerak seas meet, and there are some beautiful beaches. 

As it was relatively expensive, we filled up the freezer and store cupboards and mainly self-catered, we were lucky with the weather so we had lots of BBQs.  There are Lidl and Aldi supermarkets which are good value for money and local markets for fresh fruit and veg, we even found fairly cheap wine boxes! There are lots of free outdoor activities to balance those attractions with entry fees.  Cycle paths are amazing and it took a while to realise that we had right of way on roundabouts etc! There are hiking trails, nature reserves and super clean Blue Flag beaches.  Campsites aren’t cheap either but they do have cheaper motorhome overnight-stop areas in quite a few of them.

The people are really friendly, most speak perfect English, and we even met British people who’d lived there for years (and spoke perfect Danish!).

Other things we loved were the many castles (Fredericksborg, Kronborg), the chalk cliffs of Stevns and Mons, the Hans Christian Anderson centre in Odense, Roskilde town and cathedral, Aarhus – with its super modern library and café culture, and  Silkeborg where we saw the Tollund Man, a preserved bog man.

If you visit every island, be aware that the Great Belt bridge, between the islands of Zealand and Fyn, has a toll which can be expensive depending on your unit.  We travelled to explore Zealand first, then made our way back through Fyn and Jutland, the round trip cost us about £90 as we’re a motorhome over 6 metres. You can use ferries from Germany to save driving, you’ll need to compare costs, as you can also save petrol costs of course.

Perhaps it’s our shared Viking history that makes Denmark seem so familiar, or the countryside which looks so British – whatever it is, it’s a lovely country and we’re really glad we took the time to explore it in depth.