Denmark

Denmark is small, flat and wonderfully easy to travel. In a single trip you can cycle past colourful harbour houses in Copenhagen, stand where Viking kings were remembered in stone at Jelling, walk through a castle that inspired Hamlet, and finish on a windswept beach where two seas meet. The country is famous for design, bakeries and a relaxed way of life that Danes call hygge. Trains and buses link the main islands and Jutland, so you can base yourself in a few cities and still see a lot. It is also a country of gentle surprises: chalk cliffs, a sunny island far out in the Baltic, and museums that feel like a day out rather than a lesson.

Talking points

• Copenhagen is one of the easiest big cities in Europe to explore by bike.
• Harald Bluetooth, who raised the Jelling stones, gave his name to Bluetooth technology.
• Lego was invented in Billund, in the middle of Jutland.
• Bornholm is a sunny Baltic island with medieval round churches and smokehouses.
• At Grenen, the northern tip of Jutland, the Skagerrak and Kattegat seas meet.