Danish

Bakken – the world’s oldest amusement park is in Copenhagen, Denmark


A short 15 minutes drive North of Copenhagen is the world’s oldest amusement park, Bakken. It is located in the middle of the forest and thus the location is wonderful for a visit any day. There is always entertainment and happy days, and to many Danes Bakken is the symbol of genuine Danish culture in line with allotment houses and cold beer.

Bakken has attracted people from the city for over 400 years. Originally as a Mecca for believers who thought that Kirsten Piil water source had a life-giving force. Soon all sorts of street performers and bag players lured to the pilgrimage place and eventually the numerous tents became permanent.

Pierrot was a sort of ambassador of Bakken since he arrived in 1800. Pierrot appears in front of his little green house every day in season and on Sunday he has guests on the outdoor stage.

Bakken has many of the amusement machines that other amusement parks have – like roller coasters, 5D movies, haunted house, race-cars, archery, darts, football, handball and many more things.

It is also possible to buy a picnic basket in several of the restaurants, and walk or ride a tour in the park (Dyrehaven/ deer park) with one of the horse carriages.

It is definitely worth a visit.

Price: There is no entrance fee to Bakken. But you have to pay for the amusement park rides that you would like to try.

Opening: This year Bakken opened with the big motorcycle parade on March 25 and close again on August 29. Bakken is open most days from 12 o’clock midday – midnight.

To get there: You can take the s-train from Copenhagen to Klampenborg. It is a short walk from Klampenborg station.

The official website: http://www.bakken.dk/

Video: Insight into Danish culture: Summerhouses

Summerhouses are a core part of Danish culture. We just love them and they are an essential part of our lives.

There are 220,000 second homes in Denmark: 203,000 summerhouses, 14,000 allotments and 2,300 other types of recreational properties.

44 percent of holiday homes situated in Jutland, 16 percent of Fyn and other islands, while the remaining 40 percent is built on Zealand.

One cottage is an average of 3.5 rooms, a living area of 67 square meters and a land value of 700,000 crowns (2004).

Over half of the country’s homes were built between 1960 and 1979. It was built as many houses in 1973, where also the building of houses boomed.

Summerhouses can be divided into three groups: Over half of higher quality houses are built of wood, a quarter of the second homes are older homes in poor quality, often lacking bath and appropriate heating, while the last group consists of large and expensive homes.

6.8 percent of households in Denmark own a summerhouse. The majority of summerhouses are owned by 50+- generation – especially older couples without children.

Two out of three homes are located more than 50 kilometres from the year-round dwelling, and every third house is more than 100 kilometres away.

84 percent of second homes have a bath, 80 percent of owners can easily heat the house in the winter, almost all (93 percent) have a television, two out of three have a washing machine and /or dishwasher, and one in four have Internet in the summerhouse.

78 percent of owners have a summerhouse to get away from everyday life and relax. Therefore they prefer the house to be in nature or close to the sea.

The video above shows you my mum’s summerhouse in Ebeltoft. It is really lovely and I spend quite a lot of time there…I love being close to the sea and the house is 5 minutes walk from the beach 🙂

Source: Center for Housing and Welfare: ‘Holiday in Denmark. Who has them and how are they used?

Returning to Denmark and doing the Danish thing

apartment

After one year silence on the website, I have returned home – both to my website and to Denmark.

Since Thomas and I are no longer living together or in the same country we will be writing from different locations and give you an insight into our lives from there. We hope this will give you an interesting experience.

Returning to “the happiest country in the world” has actually been quite a happy experience. I have been doing the “Danish thing” for two months now – which is redoing my apartment.

Danes take great pride in their homes and usually invest a lot of time and money in the interior decoration. And with good reason – we spend most of our time inside at least half the year and according to Danish custom we usually meet with friends in our homes for social gatherings such as dinners, coffee, lunch etc.

I am personally not into design furniture and fancy interior (cause after all we can’t take anything with us when we leave this planet) but many Danes spend a lot of money on these items. I have been redoing my apartment as a kind of occupational therapy which makes me feel connected to the flat and the city again and I am happy to say that it worked 🙂

Video: Traditional Danish birthday celebration

In some countries and in some religions birthdays are not celebrated. But in Denmark, which is traditionally a protestant, Christian country, we consider birthdays as something very important and a great opportunity to celebrate.

The video below is from my sister Pia’s birthday (on July 10, 2008) and gives you an idea about the way we celebrate birthdays in my family.

In my family (and in many Danish families I know) birthdays are celebrated as the most important day of the year.

Before the birthday itself the birthday "child" makes a wish list with all the things he or she would like to have as a birthday present and gives the list to the members of the family (and perhaps friends depending on relationship).

On the birthday itself the family does everything according to the wish of the birthday child (whether he or she is a child or a grown-up).

The family makes a delicious breakfast before he or she wakes up and then wakes her/him up with the Danish birthday song (see the video). Then she/he opens the presents and eats breakfast.

Lunch is also as special as possible and oftentimes we have friends over in the afternoon for "cake-man", sweets (and fun games if you are a child).

Dinner is also prepared according to the wish of the birthday child and will often be several courses the favourite dishes of the person who has his/her birthday.

When I was a child (and later) I used to look forward to the day long time in advance and it was surely my favourite celebration. It is a celebration of love that your family makes for you and you for them.

Traditional Danish wedding with all the customs, beauty and fun

Far og Sanne

May 31st 2008 was a big day in my family. It was the wedding day of my wonderful father to his girlfriend Sanne. In the article below you get an idea about what a traditional Danish wedding entails in terms of customs and traditions.

Traditionally the man proposes to his girlfriend, but they buy the wedding rings together (and usually share the cost). The preparation and cost of the wedding is also shared between the bride and groom.

As for the wedding dress, it is bought by the bride and is not to be seen by the man before the wedding. The bride needs to wear four things: something new, old, borrowed and blue. And if the bride is young the guests of the wedding may insist on seeing that she is wearing all four things (typical pervert Danish humour :-)).

It is the job of the groom to purchase the bridal bouquet.

The night before the wedding the bride and groom are supposed to sleep separately. In Denmark most couples live together for several years before they get married and therefore the separation for one night is to make a distinction between the wedding day and other days.

On the day of the wedding itself the groom arrives at the church 30 min before the wedding and the bride arrives 5 min before and is led by her father. However, many couples in Denmark prefer a secular wedding at the city hall with a party afterwards.

Once the church wedding ceremony (or city hall) is finished the couple leaves the church together and is greeted outside by friends throwing rice (not cooked) at them. It is a way of symbolically wishing the new couple fertility.

Danish weddings are typically kept quite small in terms of the number of guests. We usually only invite close family and friends so on average we may invite somewhere from 25 – 80 guests (usually not more).

After the church the couple often has their pictures taken, or some kind of reception, or something like at my father’s wedding where we went on a boat trip on Silkeborg lake. After this event there is a beautiful dinner with lots of speeches, songs, fun games, and dancing. There is a special order in which to conduct the speeches: 1. Bride’s father, 2. Groom, 3. Bride, 4. Family (hereunder the groom’s parents), 5. Friends.

Wedding picture

The following two customs are always played out during the wedding: 1. while the bride is absent (e.g. using the ladies room during dinner) all the ladies (guests) run over to kiss the groom and vice versa – while the groom is absent all the men run to kiss the bride. 2. All the guests knock on the plates or glasses (many times during the wedding) until the bride and groom climb onto their chairs and kiss each other in front of everyone.

Last but not least, the wedding waltz is to be danced before twelve a clock midnight and after that the male guests lifts up the groom and cuts the tip of his socks on both feet. It apparently symbolises that now he should no longer walk in the footsteps of other women (not that we would ever tolerate that he did :-)).

The night ends with lots of dancing, drinking and Danish hygge.

Enjoy.