Getting to Denmark

In his narrative political history, The Origins of Political Order, Francis Fukuyama described the long road toward creating ordered societies as "getting to Denmark," with Denmark as the terminal example of a prosperous, stable, and peaceful political entity (other examples include Japan, Germany, New Zealand, etc.). Presumably, creating such political order is the goal of all states, so they are each on their way to Denmark. As the FD Linges travel with comparative institutional analysis in mind, we were excited and curious to get to Denmark for a visit.

Bob, at the Christiansborg Palace, welcomes you all to Denmark. According to Wikipedia, this palace is a former royal residence and now the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Danish Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark. According to Bob, it was a place we needed to walk past to get to our next restaurant. 

In addition to eating on vacation, now with our walking toddler, we also try to find parks in which he can toddle wild.

I have been spending a lot of time working with a large Danish client, and on one trip to Copenhagen I brought my family along and turned it into a five night "working" vacation (I won't mention how much "work" I actually did.). Our activities primarily consisted of dining, shopping, playing in parks, and visiting museums.

Copenhagen boasts an old but well-preserved city center, clean and smooth roads filled with many bicycles, a smart design aesthetic that permeates all objects, and delicious food that features fresh ingredients. In researching AirBnbs to stay, the Danish decor style is evident. Our apartment featured light-colored wooden floors, much exposed and rough-surfaced wood -- countertops, tables, inexplicable beamwork -- and lots of candles.

Our AirBnb, right in the center of the city (on Købmagergade, next to Illum). It was surprisingly noisy at night with all of the Copenhagen University students hooting and hollering late into the evening. It didn't seem much to bother Bob, luckily. He was even able to nap while a military marching band played by and when a Carlsberg truck drove through town with kids chasing it and hanging off the back. Apparently it was a special day that happens every year where Carlsberg releases its Christmas brew.

Denmark is of course the home of Lego. It seemed fitting that Copenhagen should be the place where he acquired his first set.

Bob running wild down Amaliegade, a street of old mansions. He threw a fit when we wouldn't let him run in the middle of the street. He took a nap shortly after I took this photo.

And then there's the hygge-ness of it all. You may call hygge (pronounced like a cross between "booger" and "hooker") an overhyped buzzword in the U.S. and U.K. given to us by some marketers looking to sell us the flavor of the month even while they don't understand what they're selling. But hygge is supposed to be part-and-parcel of the Danish national character. Hygge is a Danish word that does not translate well into English but is supposed to be describe the art of achieving cozyness in everyday settings (see the dictionary definition). The easiest way to create hygge, according to those marketers, is to put on warm socks and light a candle. I am sure a Danish person would laugh at the idea that hygge could be created so easily with just a few purchases, but alas, these are Anglo-Saxon marketing experts we are talking about.

I think this photo captures hygge, at the AirBnb. Do they not look cozy and content by candlelight?

Cafe Norden is supposedly a 1920s style Danish cafe. The dim lighting and dark wood looked very hygge. By the way, the food at this place was excellent: very fresh, hearty, and wholesome ingredients. Visiting this cafe was a high point.

Of course in Copenhagen, there was copious amounts of eating for the three FD Linges. While traditional Danish food is known for pickled herring and tiny pancakes (ebelskivers), modern Danish cuisine emphasizes diverse, local, and fresh ingredients. The New Nordic Cuisine is in fact a bona fide trend with an international reputation. Noma, often called the best restaurant in the world, is in Copenhagen. Denmark's agricultural industry is innovative and is able to supply all of these good ingredients to these chefs that make the good food (see article in the Economist).

The many Michelin-starred restaurants in Copenhagen indicate the high dining standards of the city. The favored dining style -- at least for the Michelin list -- is the "tasting menu," featuring many small dishes that showcase the chef's work and the ingredients. Bob did manage to sit through an eight course tasting menu (at a restaurant called Leaven), and we were very happy and proud of him. I'm not sure how many other times we could get so lucky.

At Restaurant Leaven. The waiter described the food as French recipes cooked with fresh ingredients in the New Nordic style.

We did eat at a few throwback restaurants. Since 1877, Restaurant Schønnemann has been serving smørrebrød, a traditional Danish open faced sandwich, consisting of a piece of toast with fish and sauce slathered over top. The restaurant also serves beer and schnapps. Those schnapps really warmed our chests during those cold November days. At Restaurant Amalie we did in fact eat some herring, as part of a smørrebrød; herring tastes strongly of oily fish. I think the Schønnemann menu had been a bit modernized, and it was the more delicious.

Restaurant Amalie buzzing on chilly Saturday afternoon in November. The decor reminds me of what I think old Denmark would have looked like. 

Dad and babe at Restaurant Schønnemann. Notice all of the exposed woodwork and the old-looking light fixtures.

Copenhagen's craft beer scene is producing a lot of tasty brews. They are, however, disappointingly hard to find. Copenhagen is the home of Carlsberg, one of the largest independent brewers in the world, and no doubt they are muscling the smaller players from the tap lists even while they are launching multiple of their own "craft beers" (actually, the Carlsberg IPA is not bad). We did visit a place called Taphouse, though, that specializes in beer from smaller producers. I like places that take beer so seriously.

The Taphouse menu changes constantly; indeed, those blue screens are LCD televisions listing the beers presently on tap.

I could just keep eating and eating in Copenhagen. It nearly rivals Tokyo as far as food adventures go.

Meanwhile, across town, the Danish National Museum was a highlight. It is extremely detailed, and I enjoyed learning of the Danish national story. It is very much a European story, starting with early civilization formation, feudalism and Christianity, then with kings and queens and colonies (i.e., Norway, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Virgin Islands) giving way to increased agricultural productivity and industrialization, into communism and labor strife, Nazis and the resistance from and acquiescing to, fright of the Bomb, more communism (the dream of revolution dying and being replaced by electoral campaigns), post-war rebuilding and widespread prosperity creation, European Union, and of course all eventually succumbing to democracy and consumer culture. While we may think we know European history, often we know best some generic version that mostly covers France, Germany, and the U.K. Denmark is very much a Western European country, a founder of the EU, so it is all-of-a-piece with its big neighbors. And while we think of Denmark and its Scandinavian brothers as being so "well governed" and "egalitarian," in recent history they were much poorer places with much bigger problems. What is now does not always have to be.

We were the terrible parents letting their kid run wild through the museum. He was sleeping on my chest in the Ergo Baby for over an hour while Mum and I perused the museum, but at some point the boy needed to be set free. While I chased Bob, Mum continued to peruse; I had actually been to the museum on a previous trip to Copenhagen.

And while I am not really a shopper, the pervasive Danish design of consumer goods makes Copenhagen a place to find lots of unique items to take home. We bought Christmas presents for all kinds of family members -- from stylish candle holders (for Rachel) to canvas shopping bags with swear words and violent threats printed on them (for Laura) and a Danish flag flask (for Scott to fill with schnapps). We bought a Copenhagen travel poster for Bobby's room -- apparently starting a tradition of buying him posters from the cities he's visited but won't remember. We also like the wooden toys that are common. Speaking of consumer culture, we also visited the Design Museum Danmark, which tells the story about how Danish furniture and architecture were successfully marketed to the world.

Bob was having a great time at the high class department store, Illum, just running like mad up and down the aisles.

Danish design is just so effortlessly stylish.

Copenhagen could be described as "not the most fun" city. Businesses tend to close early. During November, the days are short, cold, and dreary. But for a young family with warm clothes and not looking for nightlife, it is a nice place with good food and plenty of pretty streets to stroll. The prices tend to be high, so we don't fancy taking up residence there anytime soon. In fact, from what I have heard from my colleagues, it is actually not even easy to find a place to live -- this lack of supply may explain why hotels are so expensive there.

We are not so naive to tell our American friends that the US would just be better if it was like a Scandinavian country. The Scandinavian countries are but very interesting examples of institutional development -- from very poor early modern societies to more prosperous, more efficient, and less violent today. Press the model just a bit, you find easily it's not perfect, it has weak points and holes, and results from a unique set of circumstances that are not necessarily replicable elsewhere (see more info here, here, and here).

But we had a fun family vacation in Copenhagen, and we'll always look back fondly to our halcyon days there.

Postscript: the term "getting to Denmark" wasn't invented by Fukuyama; he cites to some other economists (Pritchett and Woolcock) who apparently coined it in a paper called "Solutions When the Solution is the Problem: Arraying the Disarray in Development" (downloadable here).