Rødgrød med fløde! 
Perhaps it’s more of a Scandinavian-American thing than a Scandinavian thing. I know that, when we lived in Texas and shopped for things like Turun Sinappi at a “Scandinavian shop” called the Wooden Spoon, they were selling “Uff da”-napkins, wall hangings, handkerchiefs, aprons, and whatnot. And there were usually a few Danes or Norwegians or Swedes in the shop, muttering “What the hell is ‘uff da’?”
(apologies for the hijack)
blinx,
I’m STILL having troubles pronouncing that now after living here and taking language classes since July!
Having said that I did find a Danish tongue twister the other day that even gave my Danish colleagues some troubles;
“Døde røde rødøjede rådne røgede ørreder med fløde.”
…I know it doesn’t make much sense but it’s fun for someone learning to have a go at pronouncing, even if just to see the bug eyed expressions of my colleagues as I massacred the Danish pronunciation!
(hijack over)
Denmark is a fantastic place and even if you are just stopping by in Copenhagen you couldn’t ask for a better place to visit!
an Englishman who has become entranced with Denmark
Denmark is lovely, and yes, they’re more hospitable than the swedes, so are the norwegians (my, my, i’m a swede… oops…)
Glad you like it here and don’t worry about that sentence, allthough I havn’t tried saying it out lound (rambling about redeyed rotten fish would surely make my coworkers think I’m weird) - I think even a native dane could have trouble with that one.
Danes have good beer? You’ve gotta be kidding-- and I’m half-Danish!
I’d say you should get on a couple of bicycles and go from village to village, and check out some dikes-- Lots of Denmark is very, very flat.
These are such great ideas! It’s so helpful to hear about stuff that doesn’t make it into guide books. Right now, I’m making a mental checklist (mostly of things to eat): hot dogs, chocolate, gravlax, kringle…
We’re planning on traveling mostly by train–neither of us want to deal with the responsibility of renting a car.
Zoe, that’s a great list. I especially appreciate the advice about clothes; I’d been wondering about that.
Barks’ dog food, the Hurtigruten steamer sounds really cool. We’d like to do some camping and hiking (Norway seems like an ideal place for both), and I’m a big museum dork. Is there anything fantastically bizarre that we won’t see anywhere else? I’m a sucker for odd stuff a la Weird Europe.
Heh. I can say it.
What I can’t say, and never will be able to say, is vrøvl. Help me, blinx!
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Everything, and I mean everything, is immaculately clean.
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Hospitable is an understatement. When my family went to Finland when I was about 12 or 13, we went to a restaurant near Savonlinna. While we were waiting for service, we started talking to a man named Tapio who was sitting with his wife at the table next to ours. He mentioned that he had a little summer cabin nearby (everyone in Finland has them, and even if they live in the city, there are always secluded places close by on lakes to build them), and after talking to us for about 10 minutes, offered to let us use it. He told us to come by his house the next morning to get the key, so we did, and spent a beautiful day on a Finnish lake. The funniest thing was that he said that his wife didn’t like going with him because it was too dirty – and yet there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere! There was an outhouse that was the typical hole in the ground, and it didn’t smell at all! Oh, and the memories of that day remind me…
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If you’re ever out rowing in Scandinavia, watch out for the arctic terns. Vicious little bastards.
Thanks all for the advice! The mushroom advice is particularly interesting to me. I’m a low-scale, cautious mushroom geek who enjoys going out every summer around here and gathering chanterelles, boletes, and other distinctive edibles; one of the things I look forward to about Norway is the mycophilia I hear about. I figure I won’t be doing too much gathering of mushrooms myself, for obvious reasons, but it’s good to know that they’ll sell poisonous mushrooms in the marketplace (I’m guessing things like Bishop’s Mitre and some of the safer amanitas? God, I hope there are Bishop’s Mitres – those bastards are sublime).
It’s also good to know that English is widely spoken. I’ve never been to a country before where I hadn’t studied the language for at least couple of years previously, and I was nervous about going to Norway with six weeks of language tapes under my belt.
Do those tasty wonderful crimson hot dogs come in soy? 
I think I’ll be sticking to salmon.
Daniel
As for what we’d like to see, although we’ll be able to afford B&Bs for the most part (I think), we’d possibly like to do some camping while we’re there. We hear rumors there are huts to stay in at many national parks; how accessible and reliable would these be? If we can just take a couple sleeping bags and pads, we’ll have an easier time camping than if we need to haul around a tent and a cooking stove everywhere we go.
The fjords, of course, are a big draw, but generally the wild landscape sounds beautiful. The guide books point us toward towns with 300 residents and 100,000 tourists every year, though, and we’d kind of like to avoid such places, being the do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do variety of tourists that don’t want to go places that tourists go. Are there good out-of-the-way waterfalls, fjords, mountains that we really should go to?
We’ve also thought about taking a couple of days to bike around the countryside. Neither of us are serious bikers (read: I’ve not sat on one in five years), so we’d be looking for low-key places to pedal around; do y’all know where might be good for that?
Daniel
Since I am a Norwegian, I think that I can give you a couple of pointers about Norway.
If you plan to go camping in Norway, I’d advice you to take a look at the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association site On this site, you’ll find maps, prices for lodging (Staffed lodges, Self-service (provisioned) cabins and unprovisioned cabins) etc. (We take our hiking seriously around here :D). As for biking, that depends on where you are going. Norway’s terrain is, IMO, not as hospitable to bikers as Denmark’s. There are a number of biking routes here, but most of them (at least those that I have ridden), are up on the mountain plateaus, and often rather steep.
I agree with the other posters, language is not a problem; English is widely spoken in all of Scandinavia.
You must warn you that, as others have said, things are expensive here (stupid socio-economic effects of oil drilling). There’s also a generally high tax level on things like gasoline and alcohol.
Now that you’ve mentioned touring by rail, please immediately begin intensive research into a rail pass. As was indicated before, the rail system is superb and efficient. There are many rail pass options depending upon duration and number of uses.
The most important thing to remember is that some (if not many) of them must be purchased in advance before leaving the United States. Get yourself to a travel store and purchase a European rail pass guide. It is a little confusing at first but there are many economical options. I adore train travel and can tell you that you’re in for some stunning scenery. As to cycling, remember that the highest point in Denmark is 1,500’ above sea level. This makes it an ideal country for bicyclists.
Do try to spend some time in Copenhagen, it is a fabulous city full of wonderful people. Be sure to visit the studenten huset (student house) at the base of the rundetaarn. There are all sorts of music concerts and the like. Last time I was there I sat in on the saxophone and flute with a Danish rock band and had a blast. Look for a step-down deli a block or two away from the student house. Set a meter below street level, it has a fantastic selection of authentic Danish food.
Don’t miss the opportunity to shop for some Georg Jensen silver or Baltic amber. As a child, my mother would walk the beaches of Jutland picking up pieces of amber. The Danes have a way with amber jewelry that puts most others to shame. You might want to consider a side trip to Aarhus. It has a fantastic old-town section. For an unusual side trip, visit the Holmegaard glass works in South Zealand. The Danes are justifiably famous for their strikingly shaped art glass and utilitarian pieces. I collect them and my guests are routinely astonished at their beauty and quality.
Think twice before passing up the hot dogs. They are an essential component of Danish life and consciousness. Be sure to bring a bottle or two of fine California wine or brandy. As mentioned above, spirits are not cheap. You can actually buy Danish Aalborg Akavit cheaper in Germany than you can in Denmark, due to the sin taxes. Also try to hit a “hypermart,” these stores are insane. You can walk in and buy everything from a car to a pair of skis and get a bag of crisps to munch on while you do.
WARNING:
When most Danes talk about “jazz” they are speaking of Dixeland music.
I’ve got a silly question, one that I’m not sure is answerable here. In looking at the prices for a Scanrail pass (the one that’ll take us everywhere we want to go), there’s a hefty difference between a 5-days-in-two-months pass and a 10-days-in-two-months pass. $88 difference, in fact
I’m worried that we’ll be travelling for more than five of our fourteen days there: going from Denmark to Norway will take up two of our days, and the Oslo-Bergan trip looks unmissable, and that would leave us only two discretionary days for toodling around.
My question, then, is how expensive are the trains if you don’t get a pass? I figure that other than those three days I described, most of our trips will be relatively short ones from one town to the next, not cross-country (or international) trips. Are we likely to save money by going for the ten-day pass, or are the shorter trips cheap enough that we’d be better off paying for them individually?
I know it’s a vague question, and it may not be answerable. I generally like to travel with lots of flexibility, though, and I’m not sure whether this would be the best place to spend the extra cash.
Since it’s a vague question, I’ll end with a specific one: if you’re on an overnight train ride, do they count that as one day or two on your pass?
Daniel
What a cool honeymoon idea! Much more imaginative than Hawaii or Niagra Falls. I’d love to go to Skandinavia someday . . .
IANATA (I Am Not A Travel Agent)
That said, I’d unhesitatingly go for the extra $88.[sup]00[/sup] per person. The flexibility is unbeatable and you can make decisions based upon whim if desired. Remember, you are going to spend thousands of smackers on this honeymoon / trip-of-a-lifetime and another $166.[sup]00[/sup] is mouse nuts.
Another specific danger:
At no time eat a pizza in Denmark. Not even if you are jonesing badly with the shakes and heebie jeebies combined. I went to Pepe’s in Copenhagen and got charged almost $30.[sup]00[/sup] for a gloppy concoction that had sweet tomato sauce, bratwurst instead of pepperoni and GRUYERE instead of Mozzarella. It nearly made Domino’s seem edible (not possible).
You can check some prices at the Norwegian State Railways homepage(english version) One Canadian dollar is a little under 5 Norwegian Kroner. As an example, Bergen-Voss (70km(?)) is CA$ 34 per person. Therefore, I would go with the 10-day-pass without question. The added flexibility is a nice bonus.
As for your last question, I think that it would count as one day, the day you went on the train. It was that way for a friend of mine who was on an inter-rail a couple of years ago, but they may have changed it.
On preview: Zenster already said that.
You may also wish to fly into Europe via Frankfurt. Trains depart from directly underneath the airport and airfare to this hub is extremely cheap. I had the chance good fortune to spend an extra $20.[sup]00[/sup] on an express ticket to Copenhagen and was taken up the Rhine River past some insanely beautiful scenery, before heading north to Denmark. I strongly urge you to consider this alternative. You will need to make arrangements soon as you are going in the “high” season and things will be crowded. Flying into Copenhagen can be quite expensive by comparison and the train trip through Germany was fantastic. What you save on airfare will easily pay for the train connector. Make very sure you are getting the same travel route as I mention. Travelling back from southern Denmark to Germany, the scenery did not compare in the least.
I think my laptop has a build in microphone and when my coworkers go to lunch I’ll be happy to say vrøvl to it a few times and see if I can record it.
As it turns out, I have a really crappy buildin microphone in my laptop. I mostly recorded noise, but my attempt can by found here: http://cze.dk/vroevl.wav (168kb wav file)