In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kay Xander Mellish reflects on the unusual summer of 2020 in Copenhagen amid the COVID‑19 pandemic. He describes how Denmark’s early border closures—shutting to most foreigners by mid‑March and keeping Sweden out longer—dramatically reduced international tourism, leaving landmarks like the Little Mermaid and Tivoli largely populated by Danes of all backgrounds. The episode highlights the economic strain on the hotel and tourism sectors, noting many new hotels remain empty. To encourage domestic travel, the Danish government offered half‑price museum tickets and a cheap all‑access train pass, prompting many Danes to stay in summer houses or rent countryside cabins. Mellish recounts a rainy weekend trip to Svendborg on Funen, illustrating typical weather challenges and how poor conditions lead to indoor activities such as puzzles, reading, or playing Yahtzee. He contrasts the gloomy summer with hopes that Danes will travel abroad again next year and that Copenhagen will welcome international visitors once more. The podcast concludes with calls to follow the How to Live in Denmark YouTube channel, Instagram, and to purchase the related book.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. It's been a funny kind of summer this year in Copenhagen. Much quieter than usual and more like a family event than a cosmopolitan city. Coronavirus came early to Denmark in late February, and the borders were shut down by mid-March. They're mostly open now, at least to other Europeans, except for the Swedes. The Swedes are quite angry. They've been shut out of the Scandinavian family, at least temporarily. But the Danish government seems to think that their coronavirus transmission rates are just too high. All the other Europeans are welcome now. Still, the change came too late for many people to make summer vacation plans. So tourism isn't what it usually is. There are a few people clustered around the Little Mermaid these days, but not many. And there are no huge cruise ships full of Americans docking at Langalina. Or busloads of Chinese tourists stopping to take pictures with the statue of Hans Christian Andersen at City Hall. Copenhagen has become much less of an international city than it was a year ago. Now, you can really tell the difference at Tivoli, the famous Victorian-era amusement park in downtown Copenhagen. It's crowded, but the crowd is almost entirely Danish. And by that I mean all types of Danes: ethnic Danes, Muslim Danes, Black Danes, but Danes. The language you hear spoken is Danish, plus a little English from the long-term internationals living here. You feel like it's a big family. Now, this is not to downplay all the pain and economic displacement caused by the coronavirus, just trying to see the good side of a difficult situation. And it is a difficult situation, particularly for people in the hotel and tourism industries. Copenhagen has been such a trendy destination recently that thousands and thousands of hotel rooms have been built, and many new hotels were actually supposed to open this year. A lot of those rooms are now standing empty. Now, a lot of Danish people are staying in Denmark for their summer vacation this year, but they're not staying in hotels. They go to summer houses— either their own family's summer house, or they rent a summer house out in the countryside for the week. The Danish government has really been trying to get people to move around the country, see Denmark, spend some money here. A lot of museums have half-price entry right now, and you can get an all-access pass to ride the train anywhere in Denmark for a week for 300 crowns, or about $50. We actually got one of these passes, and we went to Svendborg, which is an old Viking town on the island of Funen. Unfortunately, our weekend vacation didn't turn out very well. One thing about staying in Denmark for the summer: you have to face the oldest of Danish summertime traumas, which is that the weather is often terrible. It's July 12th today, and as I look out the window, I can see my neighbor bringing in groceries wearing a puffer jacket and long jeans. It's about 55 degrees Fahrenheit—that's 12 degrees Celsius—windy, cloudy, and raining off and on. And the rain was on nonstop for our trip last weekend to Svendborg. Rain from beginning to end. Now, one of the reasons you go to Svendborg is to take the tourist boat to the nearby islands. But not when it's windy and rainy. Svendborg also has some very nice shops because a lot of wealthy people with sailboats like to stop overnight there. But because it's in the provinces, those shops close at 2 PM on Saturday. and are closed all day Sunday. So maybe it wasn't the best trip planning to arrive at 1:45 on a Saturday, in the pouring rain, just as everything was closing. Nothing was going to be open again until Monday morning. So we spent our entire Danish vacation in the youth hostel playing Yahtzee. Now, I don't know if it's all that different from the Danes who are spending their vacations in a summer house this year. I often ask my Danish friends, what do you do in a summer house? Well, if it's good weather, you sunbathe, they tell me, or maybe go to the beach or lake and go swimming, or take long walks in nature. If it's bad weather, as it's mostly been this year, you do puzzles. 500 pieces, you get a picture of a cat. Or you read or watch TV. Or you play Yahtzee while it rains. It's been a unique summer in 2020, but I think the Danes will be looking forward next year to traveling abroad again, to better climates, better weather. I think Copenhagen will be looking forward to once again welcoming people from all over the world. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. Stop by our How to Live in Denmark YouTube channel for some video content, or follow us on Instagram at How to Live in Denmark. Denmark. The 2 is a number. You can find the How to Live in Denmark book on Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play. See you next time.
