BRIDGING SCANDINAVIA

COPENHAGEN — Atop the 350-foot tower of City Hall, the wind whips and the clouds soar over roofs, steeples and the gauzy blue sound known as the Oresund that separates Denmark from Sweden.

In the distance, you can also make out the spider-web-like cables of the great new bridge that has not only joined these two countries but also linked Scandinavia to the rest of Europe.

Instead of taking the 45-minute ferry ride across this Baltic Sea strait--until this month the only way to cross over other than by plane--visitors can leave Copenhagen’s busy international airport, cross the 10-mile bridge and tunnel by car or train, and arrive in the rolling farm fields south of Malmo, Sweden, in a little more than 10 minutes. If you want, you could even drive all the way from the Arctic Circle in Norway to the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

Approaching Copenhagen on a cruise ship last summer, I got an unforgettable view of the span under construction. Silver and steely, it was already bound to be a beauty, and I wanted to return to drive across it. So a week after it opened on July 1, I took a two-day auto tour over the $3-billion bridge and around the area to see the cosmopolitan city and the beguiling countrysides of Denmark and Sweden that it has linked.

I began my journey, as many visitors will, in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, whose parks, palaces and plazas have made it the Scandinavian gateway to Europe.

The historic center of this seaside city of 1.1 million, founded by a Catholic bishop in 1167, is an intimate place with crooked medieval streets and handsome stone buildings dating mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. Except for the marvelous verdigris church steeples, none of the buildings is particularly tall. Copenhagen glows with pride of place, especially at City Hall, where a security guard took me by the arm and showed me all his favorite wood and stone carvings of mayors and burghers tucked away around the building.

This is a green and regal city, with formal parks and gardens once the private domains of Danish monarchs, and boasting three of their fairy-tale palaces: massive Christianborg, now the seat of the government, on an artificial harbor island; Rosenborg, a decorated cookie of a castle, where the crown jewels are displayed; and stunning Amalienborg, on a square that looks like St. Peter’s in Rome.

Queen Margrethe, her husband, Prince Henrik, and their sons, Frederik and Joachim, live at Amalienborg. They are, by all accounts, a well-loved, surprisingly accessible royal family. “Daisy,” as the Danes call their tall, blond monarch, translated Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” into Danish and is said to do her shopping without servants or security guards.

There are royal guards, of course. To see them after touring Rosenborg, I waited at the south gate of the palace. There, at 11:30 a.m. every day, about a dozen Danish guards emerge from their barracks, wearing tall fur hats, called shakos, just like the ones at Buckingham Palace. But the changing of the guard here is even more fun because it includes a 30-minute march through the city from Rosenborg to Amalienborg.

On their route through the city, the guards stay in a tight phalanx, stopping at red lights and looking like windup toys.

I also shopped on the pedestrian-only artery called Stroget, at a flea market on Gammel Strand and along tony Bredgade Street, where a jeweler showed me his custom-designed miniature silver replica of the new bridge, called the Oresund Fixed Link. I spent an afternoon in Tivoli Gardens, a leafy, old-fashioned amusement park near City Hall that has been delighting Danes since it opened in 1843; toured the waterfront by barge; and looked in on some of the city’s dozen or so museums.

One I sampled, the Museum of Decorative Arts near Amalienborg, showcases the work of the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Factory, founded in 1775. Next I visited the Danish Resistance Museum on the north side of town, which explains how Danes survived, undermined and, in some cases, collaborated with the Germans during their World War II occupation.

On an altogether different note, I stopped at Copenhagen’s Museum of Erotica, where a display on the sex lives of celebrities claimed that Danish literary lion Hans Christian Andersen was a virgin when he died in 1875. Maybe that’s why the statue of his “Little Mermaid,” the popular attraction that sits on a rock in the harbor north of Amalienborg, appears to be pining for things she can’t have, like legs and a prince.

I tried two hotels in Copenhagen. The first was the luxurious Hotel Kong Frederik, off the square north of City Hall, where I booked a single for $182. But the room’s noisy plumbing and always-illuminated message light on the phone were annoying. When I complained (without revealing that I am a reporter), I was bumped up to a $220 suite for the same price, which I liked for its Greek frieze wallpaper borders and deep tub.

I was just as happy at the more modest Ibsens Hotel near Rosenborg Castle, where I moved the next morning. My small fourth-floor single ($113) had a tiny private bath, a comfy double bed and a tall window overlooking a courtyard. A big Danish breakfast buffet, complete with salami, cheese and chopped cucumbers and bell peppers, was included. And the quiet residential neighborhood surrounding the hotel was full of restaurants and cafes. Sticks ‘n’ Sushi is a chic, crowded Danish-Japanese spot. Kost Bar, where coffee is served in pots with plunger filters, has sandwiches full of surprising ingredients, like smoked salmon on whole wheat with fresh sprigs of dill and white asparagus, or roast beef that arrived with artfully arranged sprouts, chutney and cheese. These were my lunches in Copenhagen.

My dinners were more mixed affairs: one rushed, rainy night, a burger, drink and fries at the Burger King near City Hall (about 30% more than you would pay in L.A.); another, a sophisticated feast at a handsome restaurant called Gammel Strand, overlooking one of the city’s canals. There I started with delicate Danish baby shrimp on a pool of green dill mayonnaise, followed by pan-fried plaice, a small white fish that’s a Copenhagen specialty, and lots of marvelous Danish bread and butter.

It’s the little things that make you happy you’re in Denmark: the hearty bread and creamy butter; the plump duvets in hotel rooms; chocolate shavings in your granola; blankets stacked on benches for customers at outdoor cafes; groups of cute kids being shepherded around town by day-care workers; and yellow traffic lights that signal the changing of red to green (as well as green to red).

I was thinking about all this as I took the 20-minute train ride south from town to Kastrup Airport, where I picked up a rental car. Following the signs to Malmo was easy, and almost before I’d found the switch for the car headlights, I was in the Oresund tunnel--the fixed link is that close to the airport.

The Oresund Fixed Link is a 2 1/2-mile tunnel and a five-mile bridge connected by a 2 1/2-mile artificial island. As I crossed the span, I was struck by the grace and simplicity of its design, which reminded me of a phrase from poet Walt Whitman: “the strong, light works of engineers.” I pulled over twice to take pictures near the four sail-like pylons that stay the cables on the highest section of the bridge.

On the Swedish side, the toll taker gently chastised me for stopping, which isn’t permitted.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“There are television cameras everywhere,” she said.

The toll for a car one way is a whopping $28 (about the same as the ferry); crossing by train is a bargain at $7.

I’d seen Copenhagen. Now my plan was to tour the Swedish countryside by heading about 50 miles north from the eastern terminus of the bridge in the Skane region, going to the city of Malmo, then recross the sound back into Denmark.

I began with the Oresund Museum, which is on the Swedish side just after you leave the bridge. The view of the fixed link there is excellent, and museum displays explain its elegant design: Trains and cars run on the same level through the tunnel, but cars take the upper deck and trains the lower over the bridge. The design also addresses environmental concerns, such as keeping mussels and eelgrass in the waters below thriving by ensuring the free flow of oxygenated salt water.

From the museum it is a 10-minute drive on a windy road along Ribersborg Beach to the center of Malmo, an industrial seaport. Still, it has a historic town square, where I stopped to admire the 16th century City Hall and the equestrian statue of King Carl X Gustav. He was the Swedish monarch who won what is now Skane, Sweden’s most southerly province, from Denmark in 1658. What was once a blow to the Danes is now a boon: These days, Swedes from Skane commute to jobs in Denmark. And Danes, conversely, like to vacation in the lovely Swedish countryside. Some even consider moving to the Malmo area, where real estate is cheaper than in Denmark, and commuting to Copenhagen on the fixed link.

In the old university town of Lund, about 15 miles north of Malmo, I toured the hulking Romanesque cathedral, consecrated in 1145, lunched at a cafe nearby and then got lost trying to find my way back to my car. It was raining, but that didn’t stop the young man I asked for directions from getting off his bike and leading me back to the main section of the university, where I got my bearings.

Back on the highway, heading north to the ferry station at Helsingborg, I saw neat Swedish farms and Danish-made windmills that look like the pinwheels in the pass between L.A. and Palm Springs.

After the car-ferry ride I was back in Denmark, heading towardHelsingor (Elsinore in English), the site of the castle that Shakespeare is said to have borrowed for the setting of “Hamlet.” The playwright is thought to have learned about Kronborg Castle from fellow actors who had visited it. I imagined the fictional Danish prince mulling over his problems. The mighty, moated castle, erected in the 1420s to monitor and tax shipping in the sound, has a verdigris tower, displays on the various productions of “Hamlet” that have been staged there--and lots of spiral staircases, alcoves and nooks where a disgruntled prince could kill someone.

I reached the elegant and inviting Fredensborg Palace, summer home of the Danish royal family, in time to roam the Versailles-like grounds and hear an organ concert in the chapel. Then I checked into a room (for $128) at the Fredensborg Store Kro Hotel, just outside the palace gates. Built by King Frederik IV in 1723, it was everything I could want in a Danish country inn, from beautifully patterned drapes, upholstery and bedcovers, to walls chockablock with old oil paintings, to flowers and a superb restaurant.

There I had one of those wonderful, evening-long European dinners, made rosy by two glasses of dry German Riesling. The $80 meal started with French foie gras, accompanied by apple jelly and baby blini. The main course was white fish delicately poached in butter, topped with lobster. To end it all, I had a plate of Danish cheeses.

The next morning I bought Danish clogs for my niece in the village at the foot of the palace and visited the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in the nearby town of Humlebaek. The museum houses a world-class collection of contemporary paintings and sculpture in a 19th century manor. From there it was about a 10-mile drive, south along the strand, to Rungstedlund, the pretty, ivy-covered home of Karen Blixen, who wrote “Out of Africa” under the pen name Isak Dinesen. And then it was back to the airport, a 45-minute drive on the E47/55 Motorway.

All in all, it was a grand tour over a great bridge.

But when I think back, it’s the little things about Denmark and Sweden that stay with me--that bread and butter, those fluffy duvets, the artistic sandwiches--all the marks of good taste and civility that make me glad the Oresund Fixed Link brought me to this corner of Scandinavia.

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GUIDEBOOK

Crossing Scandinavia’s New Link

Getting there: There are no nonstop flights from L.A. to Copenhagen, but you can fly American or United to Chicago, taking SAS from there; British Airways with a change in London; Air France with a change in Paris; or KLM with a change in Amsterdam. Restricted round-trip air fares begin at $1,095.

Getting around: Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport has several rental car agencies, including Budget, Avis and Hertz. It is also linked to the city by train; the one-way fare is $2.30.

Over the Oresund: Denmark Motorway E20, which can be picked up at Kastrup Airport, goes over the fixed link; the car toll is about $28. There are car ferries from Copenhagen harbor to several cities in Sweden.

Where to stay: Hotel Kong Frederik, Vester Voldgade 25, Copenhagen; telephone 011-45-33-12-59-02, fax 011-45-33-93-59-01, Internet https://www.remmen.dk. A standard double costs about $294.

Ibsens Hotel, Vendersgade 23, Copenhagen; tel. 011-45-33-13-19-13, fax 011-45-33-13-19-16, Internet https://www.ibsenshotel.dk, has doubles beginning at $135, including breakfast.

Fredensborg Store Kro Hotel, Slotsgade 6, Fredensborg, Denmark; tel. 011-45-48-40-01-11, fax 011-45-48-48-45-61, Internet https://www.dkhotellist.com/storekro. Doubles begin at $153, including breakfast.

Where to eat: Gammel Strand, Gammel Strand 42, Copenhagen, local tel. 33-91-21-21, is a simple but stylish restaurant near Christianborg Palace. Dinner for one, with appetizer, entree and a glass of wine, about $40.

Sticks ‘n’ Sushi, Nansensgade 59, tel. 33-11-14-07, serves full dinners of miso soup, rice, barbecued Oriental kebabs and sushi for about $35, including a carafe of sake.

The restaurant at Fredensborg Store Kro Hotel is an elegant, expensive place, where dinner for one with two glasses of wine costs about $80.

For more information: In Copenhagen, there is an excellent tourist information office adjacent to Tivoli Gardens. Information on the Skane region of Sweden can be obtained from the information office off the E20 Motorway at the Limhamn exit, just across the fixed link.

Also the Scandinavian Tourist Board, P.O. Box 4649, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-4649, tel. (212) 885-9700, fax (212) 885-9710, Internet https://www.visitdenmark.com and https://www.gosweden.org.