Denmark reintroduces border controls

by Alex Robertson Textor on


In a move that shocked European Union officials, Denmark, citing the need to fight organized crime, unilaterally reintroduced border controls on its land borders with Germany and Sweden on Wednesday. The Danish decision chips away at one of the central principles (and privileges) at the center of the project of the European Union, namely, the free movement of goods, persons, services, and capital.

This principle is put into practice by the Schengen Agreement, which applies to 22 European Union countries as well as four others: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. (De facto, it also applies to Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican.) Within this enormous territory, across many national borders, there are no border controls whatsoever.

The Danish government has argued that this decision applies only to border and customs checks and will not extend to passport control, and that it is therefore not a violation of the Schengen Agreement. This argument disingenuously ignores the fact that the border checks will be performed by border control officers who do not have the clearance to act as standard police officers. However this policy change is couched, it amounts to a disengagement with the principles of the Schengen Agreement.

There are also signs that the free movement principle is on the brink of being rethought. At a meeting of EU interior ministers yesterday, several ministers stated their growing willingness to consider rescinding elements of the Schengen Agreement. This movement, spearheaded by the Italian and French foreign ministers, is a response to expectations of a major influx of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East in the coming months.

As it currently stands, EU countries are permitted to introduce border controls in response to discrete events deemed to demand greater security measures. A number of EU countries (Spain, Germany, France, and Finland, among others) have done so at various points over the past decade, but only temporarily.

In the meantime, border control has returned to the Schengen Area. Tourists entering Denmark by land from Germany or Sweden can fairly expect some new scrutiny as long as these checks are enforced.

[Image: Flickr | celesteh]

Budget Copenhagen: How to survive a trip to Denmark

by Grant Martin on

Scandinavia has the reputation as being the most expensive corner of the world, but the true reality of day to day expenses don’t really kick you in the shin until you’re on the ground in Copenhagen. Bus fare on many routes costs more than cab fare across some developing countries. A double espresso can set a weary traveler back $6, $7 or even $8 in the most trafficked areas, while fine dining is almost comically expensive.

Budget travel just isn’t a well served market in Copenhagen. It’s traditionally a place where you go to have the best seafood of your life or stay in the nicest hotel that you’ve ever conceived, not a destination for wayward backpackers or travelers looking to save a penny.

It’s there though, in the thin small cracks between double-lacquered facades and woven into the threads of the ubiquitous Lyle and Scott sweaters. A small seam of budget centric activities weaves through the town of Copenhagen, and exploited correctly, it can even yield a fair amount of fun. Gadling Labs spent a long weekend sifting through the streets of the city and filed this report:

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Dining
Don’t even think about spending time down town or near the hallowed grounds of Noma if you want to survive the night with the contents of your pocketbook. Instead, consider spending time in the more residential, popular neighborhoods of Nørrebro and Vesterbro. Each of these districts has its own charm; Vesterbro used to be the heart of the red light district, and there are still a few shops and related “activities” in the area. Nørrebro, on the other hand, is home to a much more cross-cultural community, and has the cuisine and nightlife that goes in hand.

In our time in the city, recommendations for one particular budget restaurant came to us over and over: The Laundromat Cafe (Elmegade, 15). Perched on a welcoming corner in Nørrebro, the Laundromat is half burger bar and half (you guessed it) laundromat, though at this point, its clientele is there primarily for the good cheap eats and the community. Stop by here any time after seven in the evening and it’ll be packed, but stick around — turnover is high and space almost always opens up within a few minutes.

If you absolutely must stay near the city center, however, consider stopping by Madklubben (Kongensgade, 66) for the affordable gastrofare with a Danish spin. Their downtown bistro, is a subterranean low-lit, mecca for great food and community. Just make sure you call in for a reservation a week in advance — there’s little room for passers-by here.

Another great spot downtown is Paludan (Fiolstræde 10), a multi-level cafe and restaurant nestled inside shelves and floors of books. If you want atmosphere, this place has it — it’s a sprawling, mood-lit meeting place where one can go to be surrounded by books and to grab either a quick coffee or a make larger plans for dinner, drinks, friends and people watching.

When we stopped by Paludan last month there was a Banksy themed art exhibit on display on the upper floor, and the British proprietor personally offered to take us out into the city to show us the town. That’s a sort of class that we appreciate.

In the worst of cases, there’s always the street food. Like in the scenes in Stockholm and Helsinki, hot dogs take the throne for quick street munchies, especially after a night out at the bar. And like its Swedish neighbor, the Danish hot dog comes flush with toppings — most outstandingly, the crunchy onions. One can pick up a simple hot dog on the street for about 4USD.

Accommodations and getting around
With an unfavorable exchange rate and the hotel market fairly pricey, booking rooms is one of the most important tasks that one can resolve before planning too deeply for Copenhagen. Luckily, the budget options are fairly widespread. Airbnb yields over 160 results for vacation rooms, flats or homes in the Copenhagen area, while hostelworld lists over two dozen properties.

The key, however, is making sure that your location is ideal. The city center has the majority of tourist attractions, public transit hubs and activities for the visiting traveler, but can be more expensively. Our preference? Stay in Nørrebro for the Brooklyn style experience. It’s close. It’s full of bars and restaurants. It’s quaint. And it won’t nosedive your budget to the bottom of the ocean.

If you do end up staying outside of the city center, you’ll most definitely save a few dollars but on the flipside you’ll also have to deal with public transportation. Copenhagen’s bus system is surprisingly clean and well run (converse to its subway system which was littered with trash and broke down on the way to the airport) and a visitor should have no difficulty in navigating it’s simple system. If in doubt, a nearby Dane can give you directions on which bus to take, and they’re almost always willing to talk.

The problem, however, is that public transportation is astonishingly expensive. Fares can run as high as $4-$5 in each direction and with a few trips over a day that can really add up.

Your best bet is probably to get a tourist, weekend or multi punch card. All of those can be purchased at the airport on the way in or at numerous kiosks around the city. Copenhagen’s transportation website has more info for planning purposes.

Tourist Attractions
In a similar vein to bulk, public transport for tourists, there’s also a great way to explore some of the better sites in the city with one, massive tourist pass. It’s called the cOPENhagen Card, and it gives one free access to over sixty museums, ALL public transportation and several public attractions as well as discounts at a nice range of shops and restaurants. In short: it’s worth every penny. One can pick up a cOPENhagen Card at the airport upon arrival or at a few other spots in the city at about $45USD for a 24 hour pass or $90 for a 72 hour pass. Kids passes cost slightly less.

Without a cOPENhagen Card or a strong budget, however, there are still a few interesting spots to see in the city on a shoestring.

Freetown Christiania is probably the most surreal tourist experience than one can have in this city. Christiania is an autonomous neighborhood on the eastern edge of Copenhagen with a completely different infrastructure, building plan and residential profile. Visitors can navigate the network of misaligned and oft-unpaved streets to find residents milling about in groups, some gathered around flaming barrels keeping warm and others setting up shop and selling mixed goods, including no small amount of hash and hash-related paraphernalia. Restaurants, bars and cafes are set up in this strange ecosystem, and the residents are surprisingly friendly despite their contentious relationship with the Danish government. Christiana is definitely worth walking through for at least the contrast from everyday Copenhagen.

On nicer days, a visit to the Tivoli Gardens is also a great way to experience the city and not spend too much cash. Just south of Copenhagen University and smack dab in the center of the city, the gardens host hectares and hectares of beautiful local and foreign fauna, and a stroll through these grounds can set any mind at ease.

And if it’s rainy? As in most cities, Copehnagen has its fair share of museums — a fairly high density of them at that. There’s the design museum. There’s the history museum. There’s the pirate museum. In the city center, anywhere you look there’s a good museum, and in the cold winter months that dominate the year these are the places to which a budget traveler should flock for warmth. Us your cOPENhagen Card if you want to get good cheap access to a broad range of the museums, but if you want to hand select a few we’d suggest going with the DesignMuseum Danmark. Showcasing the best of Danish design in a well-lit, circular building, the DesignMuseum delivers a concise, appealing package of exhibits in an easy to digest, friendly manner.

Another great rainy day activity can be found in the Lego store (Vimmelskaftet 37). Originally created in Denmark, there’s still a fair volume of pride in ownership of the Lego brand here in Copenhagen, and one of the best places to see this is in one of their flagship stores. Here you can take part in all of the new brands and products that the company is unveiling, marvel at a few massive Lego creations and even build your own mix-n-match packet of Legos to bring back to your nephew (though we know its for you).

[Editor’s note: Some of this content was researched under the supervision of Tourism Copenhagen, though their support had no effect on our experiences]

Five reasons to go to Denmark in the winter

by Grant Martin on

It’s cold in Denmark this week – really cold. Where I sit at the Illum outside of Kongens Nytorv, the weather has barely gone above -4°C (26°F) in the middle of the day, the bright, crisp sky teasing the residents with illusions of warmth. Were it only close to true.

Astonishingly, people are still riding their bicycles around the city, perhaps because they’ve attuned to the horrific weather or maybe just because they just don’t want to pay the 24DKK (Just over $5) to ride the bus or subway around. These bikers are a testament to this city though – the cold months are hard, but Danes are a hearty, gregarious bunch, and each person that I meet handles the temperature well.

The economy is still humming along in Copenhagen this winter, which means most of the great culture and excitement that tourists come to see during the summer are stilling moving along in parallel. Whether this is via a great local meal at one of Denmark’s numerous, fine restaurants or a stroll through one of the fine boutique museums, there’s plenty to do in this Scandinavian mecca during the winter — which is why it’s a great time to visit. Here are five more reasons to make your way:

5. Wondercool. This festival highlights the arts and culture of Demark during the coldest period of the year. Scheduled activities include indoor concerts from big label bands, discounts at famous restaurants and exclusive access to people and places across the city.

4. Lower prices. High season is brief in Denmark (May-August) and visitors pay dearly for the pleasure of vising during these months. Almost everything – from dining to airplane tickets to hotel rooms is more expensive this time of the year, and in the costliest city in the Europe this means that the impact is severe. Hotel rates, for example can be 50% to 75% higher during the summer months.

3. Crowds. Don’t let the lack of tourists fool you: bars and restaurants are still packed during the winter months. But loads are a bit lighter throughout the chilly season — one can call a week in advance and have a reasonable chance of finding a reservation at many of the best restaurants in the city, while gems like Madklubben can be booked only a few days out or even on the fly. And public places? Darn near empty. On Sunday, one can walk down the center of the street in many lanes of the downtown region, while the gardens at Tivoli and the main pedestrian streets give visitors enough room to breathe.

2. Which takes us directly to Noma. Last year named the best restaurant in the world, Noma is a mecca for foodies from all corners of the planet, and in contrast to its Spanish neighbor El Bulli (which will be closing next year) it’s actually sometimes possible to get a reservation on the fly. A recent query from our colleague who runs Studiofeast produced available reservations (albeit at strange times) just one day prior to dining, an outlandish idea at many other similar caliber restaurants.

1. For the Danes. Don’t get us wrong: Danish people are some of the friendliest people in the world — and we don’t take that cliche lightly here at Gadling. But there’s something to be said about the relaxed friendly attitude of residents when they’re not burdended by the everyday mass of visitors. They open up a bit, are willing to tell you stories about their lives and will take you on their winding tumultous journeys through many a bar, cafe and restaurant if you’re lucky. And for that welcoming, warm embrace, Copenhagen will always be worth visiting.

[Editor’s note: Some of this content was researched under the supervision of Tourism Copenhagen, though their support had no effect on our experiences]

Top 20 travel destinations – The 2011 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report

by Justin Delaney on

Every couple of years, the World Economic Forum crunches a bunch of numbers and releases a list of the top countries in the world to visit. While ranking 139 countries, they measure aspects such as pricing, culture, environmental protection, safety, and infrastructure. For the 2011 report, Switzerland remained at the number one spot – the returning champion from the last report in 2009. Nine out of the bottom ten countries are located in Africa, and seven out of the top ten are located in Europe. Chad ranked in at 139 out of 139. Italy, one of the most visited countries in the world, placed 27th. For the full list, download the PDF at the World Economic Forum website under the ‘reports’ tab.

20. Norway
19. New Zealand
18. Portugal
17. Finland
16. Denmark
15. Luxembourg
14. Netherlands
13. Australia
12. Hong Kong
11. Iceland
10. Singapore9. Canada
8. Spain
7. United Kingdom
6. United States
5. Sweden
4. Austria
3. France
2. Germany
1. Switzerland

flickr image via jeffwilcox

Somali pirates anchor Danish family yacht, threaten death

by Chris Owen on

Now it’s a Danish family of five, including three children, that has been taken hostage by Somali pirates who vow to kill them should a rescue attempt be made. The pirated yacht, taken last week, was anchored off the shore of Somalia today.

The 43-foot sailboat was being piloted by Jan Quist Johansen along with his wife, their three children, ages 12 to 16 and two Danish crew members.

A Somali pirate going by the name of Muse Abdi said the family was transferred to another, larger pirated ship.

The decison to anchor smaller vessels then transfer hostages to a larger ship is a common practice by Somali pirates.

“They are safe. They were just transferred from the boat to the big ship,” said Abdi, who has provided information in the past. “They have been added to other nationals in another ship to avoid any possible attack.”

The Associated Press reports a Somali pirate warning that if any attempt was made to rescue them, they would meet the same fate as the four American yachters slain by their pirate captors last week. Like Scott and Jean Adam who were killed by pirates last week, the Johansen family was aware of the pirate-infested waters but believed warships patrolling the area would protect them.

Somalia has not had a functioning government in place since 1991, a situation that has allowed pirating to grow and become ever more dangerous as time has gone on. This is the first known incident where children were taken hostage.

Flickr photo by RubyGoes

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