We spent three weeks of this summer in Denmark and I loved it. Our first 9 days there were with my family, then another week and a half just Tim and I. We travelled there and back by train, which was a pretty big adventure. I don’t know if every Danish summer is this idyllic or if we got lucky. We had three weeks of sunshine, with temperatures in the 20s (celsius).

Our overriding impression is that Denmark is a very chill place. We spent most of our time in Copenhagen, which for a capital city is entirely lacking that sense of everybody rushing everywhere. It felt like more people were cycling than driving – which isn’t quite true, but there are certainly more cyclists than I have seen anywhere else. At every traffic light, drivers waited patiently for the stream of cyclists to pass before they could turn. At every pedestrian crossing the drivers and cyclists stopped for us.

We had a holiday apartment in the very fancy neighbourhood between Amalienborg – the royal palace – and Langelinieparken, a beautiful harbour front area that is home to the Little Mermaid statue. Our favourite local highlight was Kastellet – a historic citadel that’s also a lovely green space with moats, clearly a popular picnic spot.

I think we did a good mix of super touristy and off the beaten path things. We went to Rosenborg Castle, Tivoli Gardens, the Little Mermaid statue and the historic Nyhavn. Which were all crowded but still nothing like London in the school summer holiday. We walked and cycled through Nyhavn a few times and it is undeniably pretty.

On the (slightly) less-trodden side, we went to the Round Tower, which was built as an astronomical observatory. We took the harbour bus over to Copenhill, which is a former power station that has been turned into a ski slope, climbing wall and rooftop cafe. We went to the Museum of the Danish Resistance, which was packed full of fascinating history and deeply affecting. Probably my favourite thing we did as a big family group was a guided boat tour. We picked one that included a stop at Trekroner Fort – an abandoned military installation on a small island (and another popular picnic spot). Our guide was brilliant, keeping us all engaged (no easy task with an age range from 8 to 76).

After the family left, Tim and I squeezed in plenty of museums and art, as well as a bit of cycling. When in Copenhagen… My main thing I was looking forward to was a Danish government tour. In the run-up to the holiday I’d started watching Borgen, a TV series about a fictional Danish prime minister. Borgen means “the castle” and is the Danish nickname for Christiansborg, a former royal palace that houses the Danish parliament, the prime minister’s offices and the supreme court. They do free tours every weekday in various languages and like on the boat tour, we got lucky with an excellent guide.

Top of Tim’s list was an art gallery just outside Copenhagen called Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. It is absolutely worth the short train ride. We spent the whole day there and were tempted to stay into the evening for the late summer opening, but we had dinner booked back in the city. Louisiana is a sculpture park right on the coast, with views out to sea (well, the Øresund Strait). If you leave via the back gate you’re on the beach in less than a minute’s walk. But don’t do that until you’ve thoroughly explored all the galleries and gardens. The buildings are low, seemingly single storey but most have a basement floor as well, doubling the gallery space. They have art by big names (including a permanent installation by the late great Yayoi Kusama) and less well known figures.

We also took the obligatory day trip to Sweden, because it’s right there, with trains every 15 minutes. Even just going as far as Malmö was pretty cool. I was very taken with their public library – in fact, in general there was some great architecture.

We spent four days up on the north coast of Zealand, in a small town called Tisvilde. It was absolutely idyllic. Our hotel had gardens with sea view and a direct path to the beach. There was a sauna, a few garden games, good food and plenty of sun loungers. I think I read three books in those few days alone! We did get out of the hotel to explore the local trollforest (which just means ancient woodland, but definitely conjures something more storybook) and the town as well. It was the perfect location for sunsets, with a wide view to the north and west over the Kattegat Sea.

One of the attractions of Denmark, and in particular Copenhagen, was its reputation for great food. We did have some excellent meals. As well as a high quality generally at cafes and street stalls, we spoiled ourselves by booking some fancy restaurants. I can honestly those meals are among the best meals of my life, so no regrets there. My favourite was Jatak, Tim’s was The Pescatarian, which I also rated very highly. (Below is the Jatak tasting menu – if you click through to view the photo on Flickr, I’ve put in the description what all the courses were.)

In all, it was an excellent holiday. I learned a lot about a place that has a surprising amount of history tangled up with the UK considering there are several other countries in-between. Tim and I found a bookshop with a whole section of Danish authors translated into English so we expanded our knowledge of the literature as well. In particular we both read Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst, and had a mini book club on the train home!

If you want to see even more photos from our holiday, I’ve made an album on Flickr.