When I was 19 years old, my parents gave me a Eurail pass for the summer and sent me on my way in a modern version of the Grand European Tour. And while I have taken many quick European train trips in the years since, a recent summer rail trek across Denmark held much of the magic of those early travels.
But what can you really see and do in about a week in Denmark, armed with just a carry-on and a first-class Eurail pass?
Capital plan: Copenhagen
We sidestepped Copenhagen's uber-popular Tivoli Gardens the first day in favor of Nyhavn, a lively spot where locals and tourists were basking in the sun side by side, drinking Tuborg or Carlsberg beers (each has its loyalists, and there is no switching sides) and occasionally cooling off by jumping into the clean harbor waters.
This harbor area was once a sketchy neighborhood rife with prostitutes and drugs until its revitalization in the 1970s and '80s. Now Nyhavn boasts restaurants and bars that are both trendy and historical, such as Cap Horn, a former 17th century brothel where we lunched on smorrebrod, the open-face sandwiches for which the city is famous.
Antique boats are berthed along Nyhavn's canal next to excursion boats, and because it was hot, we quickly boarded a DFDS Canal cruise -- for which we received a 20% discount thanks to a Copenhagen Card visitors' pass -- to take a scenic tour of the city.
That night, we explored the bars and restaurants in the meatpacking district in Vesterbro. We ate at the year-old Restaurant Fiskebar, which serves organic produce and seafood from sustainable fisheries, seats patrons on recycled furniture and relies on kitchen heat to keep the place warm. The restaurant also serves Danish wine, including Lilleo, a type of sauvignon blanc. Our next stop: the Absolut Icebar at the Clarion Collection Hotel Twentyseven, where patrons don parkas and gloves to down champagne with cloudberries in an icy cave.
After a second day, spent eyeballing the ancient preserved remains of "bog people" in the National Museum and the Danish Modern furniture and gadgetry at the Danish Design Center, we finally made our way to the Tivoli Gardens, where we ate local specialties at the Restaurant Nimb and enjoyed a ride or two at the amusement park.
Fairy tale Odense, artsy Aarhus
It took us just over an hour to make the train journey the next day to Odense, where family travelers can have a field day wallowing in all things Hans Christian Andersen. We not only saw the author's childhood home and had a buffet lunch at Den Grimme Aelling ("The Ugly Duckling") restaurant but also saw a live outdoor performance of some of his most famous fairy tales in Lotzes Garden.
The afternoon was capped off with a visit by ferry to Funen Village, a kid-friendly, open-air museum that re-creates life in Andersen's time.
Visitors with extra time can rent bikes at the Odense tourist office, join a guided tour or simply while away a few hours checking out the dozens of street sculptures that adorn the city and visiting the city's railway museum, free to Eurail pass holders. Because Odense is small enough to see at least the highlights in one day, it has become a popular side trip for cruise passengers and visitors overnighting in Copenhagen.
We only had time for one dinner, which we spent at Den Gamle Kro, a circa-1683 inn complete with a warren of tiny rooms, rickety stairs and half-timbered walls.
It took about an hour and a half to make the train journey the next day to Denmark's second-largest city, Aarhus, where we visited a living museum called Den Gamle By, admired the eerie bog man at the Moesgard Museum and dipped our toes in the surprisingly warm water at the local beach.
The city itself deserves more time than we gave it, although we did manage to squeeze in a walk through the Latin Quarter. Bursting with art galleries, the neighborhood is home to the Aros Aarhus Art Museum and the Danish Modern town hall.
In Denmark, a Eurail pass is valid with DSB, the national railway company, as well as on a number of private rail lines. The pass also trims rates on a whole menu of boat and ferry services, including our overnight from Copenhagen to Oslo, Norway.
The Eurail pass also works for the 15-minute train transfers from the Copenhagen airport to the central station, and, for an additional fee, on overnight sleeper trains in Denmark, which include en suite bathrooms, air conditioning and breakfast.
Intercity trains offer free WiFi in first class, and first-class passengers can take advantage of baggage storage and other amenities at DSB 1st Lounges in select stations.
For more, see www.eurailtravel.com and www.visitdenmark.com.