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Copenhagen, Denmark
 After Copenhagen, Europe can become a footnote. This city has everything: a populace with friendship in their very souls; an astonishing variety of sights and activities; prices that are among the lowest on the continent.That's Copenhagen-a perfect civilization. The Scandinavian peoples are animated by the desire, in the spirit of the United Nations Charter, to make their contribution to the creation of a world where man can live in peace and freedom. They have endeavored to do this through their example and by exercising a conciliatory influence when the opportunity was offered.
The Danes have organized their tourist services to reflect the unusual interest they take in the world about them. They enjoy meeting foreigners, asking curious questions, trying out foreign languages. Hundreds of families in Copenhagen participate in a "Meet the Danes" program, in which they offer to entertain foreign visitors in their homes. You can inquire about this program in the office marked "Turistforeningen for Danmark," at the side of the railroad station. Describe the type of family you'd like to meet -whether business people, teachers, artists, or poleticians-and the tourist office will arrange to have you invited out for a visit. This is a marvelous, and not often available, opportunity to meet Europeans at home; and you ought, therefore, to suppress your shyness, and take advantage of it.
Two of the five invasions occurred in the time of the Vikings; the fourth was a directly Scandinavian one, the fifth was indirectly so, and both were of substantial dimensions. This influence upon England is indeed a matter of European significance.
In the east, the results of the Viking impact upon Russia cannot be regarded as so vital or permanent, because the proportion of the Viking newcomers to the native inhabitants was far less than in the west. Yet the Swedish infiltration was a not unimportant episode in the history of Russia. Upon central Europe, evidently, there was no Viking impact, mainly for mercantile reasons. The Viking continental trade-routes lay to the cast, over Russia's immense plains and along her wide rivers, directly to the Byzantine and Arab markets; there were no impassable Alps to face, no powerful empires to cross. In the history of central Europe the phrase 'Viking Age' has no meaning. Southern Europe was not affected by the Vikings either. Although the small south Italian Norman kingdoms achieved some importance after Viking times during the Crusades, their relationship with the Vikings is a remote one. Although Byzantines and
Arabs encountered the presence and influence of the Vikings, it cannot be maintained that the Volga trade of the Rus or the Norse bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperor are historically important enough to justify the term 'Viking period' in the history of those two great empires. As an epoch in European history, therefore, the term 'Viking Age' can only be taken in a limited sense. On balance, the term means more to Scandinavians than to other Europeans.
What did the Vikings give to Europe? What did they get from Europe? To begin with they dealt out the dona Danaorum: destruction, rape, plunder, and murder; and later they expended their energy and blood on colonization. Otherwise, the Vikings could teach Europe nothing. On the other hand they derived much from Europe, although it took a long time for them to use what they had taken. It took them 300 years -- strange to say -- to learn to build in stone and brick instead of wood and clay. It took 300 years, too, for the new religion to penetrate all three Scandinavain countries.
But when at last these material and spiritual cultural changes were complete, there began in Denmark, in the twelfth century, a remarkable period of church building during which the new technique and the new faith worked together. And Christianity revealed the same power in Norway and Sweden. When at last the Viking Age faded into history, the Vikings had received from Europe more than they had given; and the North that they left after them, animated by these European influences, had not been weakened, but changed, by being led into a new cultural life.
Yachts Moored in Front of Cafes at Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com 
Buildings on the Waterfront, Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com 
The Colourful Houses and Restaurants of Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com 
Houses on Gammelstrand, Copenhagen, Denmark Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com 
Copenhagen, Denmark Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com 
Copenhagen by Night Giclee Print Buy at AllPosters.com |
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