Day 41. Hven.

One of my Danish friends grew up on the coast of Zealand, forty minutes north of Copenhagen. A handful of us headed up to her house, borrowed the family boat and set sail (well, motorboat) for Hven. Sitting just about halfway between Denmark and Sweden on the Øresund strait, Hven is a Swedish island with little on it besides summer homes, an old church and harbor, and a lot of wheat fields.

At one point we waded into the Baltic Sea, but we spent most of the afternoon along the beach, grilling and hanging out. Remember hygge? Yes, this was a day full of hygge.

Day 32. Neighbors.

Danes and Swedes have a long and contentious past. Each group has taken the other over at some point in history, and the story of their relationship throughout time has been varyingly hostile and friendly.

Today, they share a national airline (with Norway, too), opened up an incredible bridge connecting their borders and the personal and commercial ties are deep.

Really, any sort of animosity between Sweden and Denmark is basically playful. In Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche's Found in Translation, a nonfiction book filled with linguistic anecdotes, the authors note that (Swedish company) Ikea named a toilet seat after the strait dividing the two nations and several doormats after Danish towns. Of course, it goes both ways. I got a laugh out of this drawing...

found in Helsingør, on the wall of a children's area in a museum

Days 26 and 27. Helsingør.

GUILDENSTERN: Prison, my lord?
HAMLET: Denmark's a prison.
GUILDENSTERN: Then is the world one.
Hamlet - Act II, Scene II

Shakespeare's most-performed play takes place at the Castle of Elsinore in Denmark. Prince Hamlet's legacy lives on, and tourists flock to see the castle (Kronborg) and town (Helsingør) on which the play is based. Still, the real story of Helsingør is compelling in its own right.

For nearly three centuries, the Danish Kingdom controlled much of present-day Sweden, and the Realm's most valuable geographical asset was the Øresund strait. This thin stretch of water joined the Baltic Sea with the wider Atlantic Ocean. With few alternative shipping routes, the success of the Hanseatic League depended almost entirely upon the safe passage of cargo through Øresund, not unlike the Panama or Suez Canals of today.

At Helsingør, the Sound reaches its narrowest point, with Helsingborg, Sweden, less than four kilometers to the east. In the 1420s, Denmark built Kronborg as a show of strength and positioned a battery of cannons on both coasts. Any ship passing through the strait would pay a toll or face a barrage of cannonballs from either or both directions. The tax was wildly successful from the Danish standpoint, and the collections were used to build castles, roads, churches and buildings across the country.

Believe it or not, the system lasted from 1427 until 1857, when an American ship refused to pay the tax (our distate for taxes is practically hereditary). This exchange set off an international trade conference, which resulted in the abolishment of the toll.

The courtyard of Kronborg. Helsingborg, Sweden, sits across Øresund.

A proper fortress.

Day 8. Malmö.

Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, sits just across Øresund (literally, "the Sound") from Copenhagen. In 2000, Scandinavia celebrated the opening of an expansive bridge and tunnel system that joins the two formerly unconnected metropolises. In a larger sense, the Øresund Bridge's opening connected Sweden and Norway to the rest of the European continent by car for the first time.

My friend and I enjoyed a quick day trip to Malmö on Saturday. The train ride took 35 minutes each way from Copenhagen's central station and only cost us each about US$25 roundtrip. Malmö made for a great introduction to Sweden. Among the highlights was getting an up-close look at the city's most famous landmark (and Scandinavia's tallest building), the Turning Torso.