Travel guide to Denmark

Denmark facts and travel guide

Geography and Facts about Denmark: Denmark occupies the Jutland peninsula, protruding north from Germany between Norway and Sweden, and includes a group of nearby islands of which Funen and Zealand, where Copenhagen is located, are the largest. The small island of Bornholm also belonng to Denmark.It's area is 16,575 square miles. No part of the country is more than 40 miles from the open sea. The capital city is Copenhagen. Greenland and the Faroe islands are autonomous parts of the Danish Kingdom. Comprising 500 islands and one peninsula, Denmark links Scandinavia proper with the Continent, and guards the entrance to the Baltic. It is the smallest of the Scandinavian countries, with an area of I6,6Ig sq. meters. Jutland (Jylland), the only part of Scandinavia directly attached to the European mainland, borders on West Germany.
Denmark has the mildest climate in Scandinavia, with Comparatively short winters and little snow. Summers can be hot, but the weather is changeable.' Touring is best between May and October. Winter gales, summer rain, and mist at all seasons are the main inconveniences. Rock, where it occurs, is limestone. Denmark is mostly gravel and sand, though the island of Bornholm is pure rock.
Flat or very gently undulating, Denmark lies more or less at sea-level. A kingdom of islands, it is very much a complex of sea-channels and sandy, winding coastline. It has no large rivers and not many lakes. The Little Belt, between Jutland and the Island of Fyn (Funen) the Great Belt, between Fyn and Zealand (Sealand) and the Oresund (Øresund), between Sweden and Zea land are the entrances to the Baltic.
The country is vigorously farmed, but cultivated land is often broken by grasslands and beech-woods. Wild mushrooms and common northern flowers grow profusely. Rye is the main crop. For the rest, dairy farming and pig-keeping are the dominant forms of agriculture. Denmark has a coastline of 7,314 km and Population of 5,468,120 people. The main religion is Evangelical Lutheran.
Currency :Though Denmark is part of the European Union Denmark's national currency is the Danish Kroner DKK (7.45=1 EURO)
Language: Main language of Denmark is Danish.
Government: Denmark's Government is constitutional monarchy with Queen Margrethe II as head of the state.
GDP per Capita:37.000 $
Religion:The State Church is Lutheran, but there are Catholic churches in the main towns. There is an Anglican church in Copenhagen, and Christian Science and Methodist churches, as well as Quaker and Unitarian meeting houses. Times of services are published in local newspapers.
Climate :Winter temperatures seldom go below 30 degrees and summer averages around 68 degrees. The Gulf Stream keeps the climate equable. The best time to visit Denmark is from the middle of April to November.

History:Although glorying in the smallness of their country, the modern Danes are descended from powerful ancestors. Danish Vikings colonized southern England, and in the Ilth cent. a Danish king, Ganute, ruled the English. Struggles between King and nobles continued until I33o, and both sides went to Germany for help. As a result, Denmark was overrun by German adventurers, and from 1332 to 1340 was without a ruler.
After the restoration of the Monarchy there were constant wars with Sweden, which in 1523 expelled most Danish invaders, though Denmark retained the southern Swedish provinces until 1658. Meanwhile, . Denmark had acquired Norway at the end of the 14th cent., relinquishing that country to Sweden in 1814 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.
By now the Danes 3considered themselves small and safe from tribulation. But Prussia attacked them in 1864 and annexed Schleswig-Holstein, the northern part of which was returned to Denmark by the Treaty of Versailles. Denmark managed to remain neutral in the First World War, but was occupied by Germany in the later one. Destruction, however, was slight, and the Danes rapidly recover.