I’ve been in Denmark filming for a week now. When in the Netherlands, I have a running joke with Simon (my TV director). We say, “Everything’s so…Dutch.” Now, in Denmark, we say, “Everything’s so…Danish.” While our Copenhagen show is featuring a thriving metropolis, our Danish Countryside show features cuteness.
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| Danes enjoying the trendy new part of Aarhus (where a once-paved-over river is now revealed and lined by popular eateries). Enlarge photo |
And Denmark is, simply, cute — cute, cute, cute. The place feels like a pitch ‘n putt course sparsely inhabited by blonde Vulcans. Poll after poll lists them as the most content and happy people on the planet. And it’s flat. Going over a huge suspension bridge and enjoying a vast territorial view, I realized how rare it is to get a “high wide” shot of the countryside. The place is so flat that we’ve been climbing silos and pulling over on the crests of bridges to get the best “high wide.”
We were at the local Disneyland: Legoland, a wildly popular place featuring 58 million Lego bricks built into famous landmarks from around the world. (They claim if you lined them all up, they’d stretch from here to Italy.) The place was crawling with adorable little ice-cream-liking, blonde children. Even with piles of sugar, it was so mellow. Kids were holding their mothers’ hands learning about the Lego buildings, or smiling contentedly as they whipped around on the carousel.
In the middle of the countryside, the newly paved roads are lined by perfectly smooth bike lanes — one for each direction. Even in the countryside, there are more bikes than cars. No one’s uptight. We got in a little traffic jam — everyone takes it in stride. Damn those Danes.
I’ve been wondering how the Danes pull it off. I think their success relates to the free rider problem and the social contract. I don’t think many Americans can conceptualize the “free rider problem.” Basically: If I do it, I can get away with it; but if everyone does it, the system will collapse. So when deciding how to act, Danes take into consideration what would happen to their society if everyone cheated on this, sued someone for that, took advantage of that technicality, freeloaded here, or ignored that rule there.
Europeans trade off individual-ism for social-ism. The Danes seem to take it to an extreme. I don’t know how well I’d fit in here, to be honest. But I am so intrigued. Danes are famous for not jaywalking. At 3 a.m., they still stop for a red light. When I jaywalk elsewhere, I do so thinking people will appreciate my lead and follow me. When I jaywalk here, Danes look at me like I’m a bad influence on the children present.
People laugh politely when I ask if they speak English, responding, “Of course I do.” Conversation flows easy. Here are a few comments I’ve heard this week:
“In Denmark, you have to work quite hard to find a crack to fall through. A few people with alcohol problems manage to be homeless. Yes, we are the most contented people. We pay, on average, 50 percent taxes — yes, worker or big shot, we pay about 50 percent. Of course, we get lots for that. We’ve had national healthcare since the 1930s. We know nothing else. If I don’t like the shape of my nose, I pay to fix that. But all else is taken care of. All education is free. And university students get $800 a month for living expenses for up to six years. When there is a student demonstration, it’s generally for more pocket money. We Danes believe a family’s economic status should have nothing to do with the quality of the healthcare or the education their children receive. I believe in the US, you pay triple per person what we pay as a society for healthcare. Your system may be better for business…but not better for service. Essentially, we already have the euro — it’s just divided not into 100 cents, but into 7.5 crowns. The Danish kroneris fixed to the Euro at that rate.”
When I saw the tombstone store with Tak for Alt (“Thanks for Everything”) pre-carved into the stones, I figured it was a message from the dead one after a very blessed life in Denmark (like “That’s all, folks”). But I learned today that it’s a message from those bidding their loved one farewell (like “rest in peace”). Still, I think when a Dane dies, they (more than their loved ones) should say, “Tak for Alt.”
We are leaving for Copenhagen in 5 days. We will only be there the remainder of Friday and Saturday, until boarding a cruise ship. What should we not miss???? Thanks for any help you can give.
Just a few examples of our experience with the friendly people of Denmark. ==== One evening the girls’ High School band in Helsingor marched through the shopping district. They had visited the US and Disneyland the previous year. My love of band music (and girls) easily persuaded me to walk all over Helsingor listening to the band, and watching … . The campsite is near the water, and we can see the lights of Sweden, just a short distance across the Øresund Strait. I’m the driver, Sweetie’s the cook, but cooking is the least important of her real duties, I mean her enjoyments! ===== The ferry M/F Prins Henrik is clean and neat, and has a large restaurant, cafeteria, snack bar, conference room, gymnasium, duty free shop the size of a supermarket, complete with butter, cheese, candy, tobacco, liquor, and shopping carts. There are people, trucks, cars, buses, and railroad cars on the boat. === The Fredrikshaven campground was new and the facilities were about the best we have seen anywhere, including most hotels. The facilities included everything we could want — washers, dryers, showers, plenty of hot water — very clean. The first year we stopped here, there was no one to collect the money, but the next visit, we paid, but only for that year, not the previous one. We kidded them about that, and they laughed and said, “No cost for years gone by.†======= This morning the man from the office of the campground in Horsens came over with some hot fresh baked bread for our breakfast. He told us that just as we arrived last night, he and his wife were ready to leave for their home, after closing the campground in Horsens for the season. They decided we looked too tired to look for another campground, so they changed their minds and stayed another night, just for us. Amazing what nice people we find in every country.
Down to two comments before me Rick, -even though it’s a beautifully written entry. I must admit I, too, like it better when the masses are provoked by your comments and react, ala the soldier boy at the airport__That was great. So give me something a little more provocative please.
Europeans trade off individualism for socialism. I have to say that I am not too fond of that statement. Europe has a lot of countries and they all have different ways of doing things. People are not a mass, but every one is an individual. It is so easy to lump the whole Europe to be socialist. When I first moved to the U.S. and heard that whole Europe is socialist, I was really shocked, because I grew up thinking that the Eastern Europe was socialist. Is there something wrong believing that everyone deserves to be treated when they get sick ( without loosing their house in bankruptcy )? There has to be some ethics in the modern society. That does not make a country socialist. In Finland for example a great number of people get health benefits from the company that they work for. They use private health care business. The rest use public services. There are very few other government owned businesses. Even the postal service is private these days. So Finland is a socialist country because some of it’s people get to use public health services? I do not think so. I find it ridiculous of an assumption. I do believe that it is unethical to let people die, if they can not afford healthcare. U.S. could learn a few lessons of ethics from Europe for sure. Rick you disappoint me with you comment.
I had one of my best ever family travel experiences in Ribe, a medieval town in Denmark. Local children gather every Wednesday during the summer to sell their outgrown toys at a charming children’s flea market at Skibbroen and Kolvigaard. It’s hilarious to see your kids negotiate through the language barrier. Plus you can pick up some plane toys for your flight home.
Jamie
Geez, I hate to say it, but Denmark sounds like a place that “is so cute and polite” it must be B.O.R.I.N.G.! Hard to believe these people descended from crazy, ax-wielding Viking hordes! *ha ha*. I’m sure it’s a lovely place with lovely people, but there is something more interesting, intriguing and compelling about a place such as, say, Rome, where chaos, urban decay, beauty, history and the passionate zeal for life is the rule. Demur culture be damned! :-) (Of course, I’m only talking half in jest. That’s what makes Europe so great for exploring; if you don’t particularly care for once culture, ya don’t have to go too far to find a different one.).
The stories coming out of Denmark and the research being done there seem to indicate that Denmark is cute, sweet, friendly, polite, welcoming, etc. as long as you are Danish, or at least phenotypically Danish. That said, it might be a very nice place to visit.
Rick, it is my opinion that everything that you write about Denmark here (in this specific post) is all directly related to the status quo. The status quo is like a big wooly mammoth of an identity that represents cultures, societies, and/or nations. Each people group forges their own unique status quo over time. This is what allows Denmark to be ‘the happiest place on Earth’, while Americans are ‘greedy and obnoxious’. Some individuals (presidents, great individuals of character, rock stars, etc.) can manipulate the status quo to some affect, but for the most part an individual is no match for changing the status quo. Change only occurs in large grassroots movements of like-minded individuals. Note, however, it never hurts to plant a seed and to watch it grow. Of course, you know all this already Rick… And I know that when that when you write “damn those Danes”, it’s not because you don’t understand their methods of perfection, but instead it’s because we don’t have the high quality status quo that the Danes do here in the US. That’s just the way it goes!
Denmark has the coolest night life. Especially in the major cities as Aarhus and Copenhagen, although it is quite expensive. We like to party and have fun.. You make it sound like it’s a small, boring country, but that is just on the countryside. Take it from a Dane:) Otherwise, great blog..
Hi I am looking for a long-lost friend of mine who is Danish. Her name is Carina Madsen(at least it was, she is probably married now with a different name.) She was a nanny for an American family at Upper Heyford Airforce Base in England around 1989-1990. She was from Hillerod in Denmark. Has anyone any information on her whereabouts? I would love to find her, she was my best friend! She was a typical fun-loving Danis person!
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