Denmark is not for dieting. Breakfast included in a Danish hotel can easily be an overwhelming display of fruit, cereals, pastries, cheese, bread and cold cuts. Delicious open-faced sandwiches beckon from the more than 2,000 cafes, snack-bars and bars that dot the Danish capital. Larger restaurants offer a bewildering array of options in ordering smørrebrod (open-faced sandwiches); you usually choose from a variety of bread and toppings. The Danish gastronomic wonder is the smørgasbord.

        This buffet style offering consists primarily of cold meat and salad dishes, fish appetizers and a few hot foods. It is generally available for a fixed all-you-can-eat price. The cost conscious should seek out the dagens ret, a two course fixed price meal, or ask for the daglig kort, a list of specials that are usually less expensive than the regular menu.

        For the epicure and budget traveler alike, the Central Train Station holds a uncommon banquet. Within the train station is an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord that puts many an expensive gourmet shrine to shame. For around twenty dollars you can feast on crab, salmon, meatballs and pastries that would bring tears to the eyes and pain to the ego of a French baker. The staff of this delightful restaurant are unfailing in their patience with famished travelers who are unfamiliar with Danish food. No one looks askance as you tuck into your third helping of salmon or your fourth pastry.

        Having indulged your tastes in the aesthetic and culinary spheres, frolicked in Europe’s most distinctive pleasure gardens, sauntered through throngs of pleasant people and slept in a scrupulously clean room, leaving Copenhagen is a regrettable experience. Follow one of your heavenly dinners with the Dane’s own Cherry Heering. Lift your glass, say skal to toast Copenhagen and tell the little mermaid you’ll return.

On a clear day you can appreciate the majesty of Copenhagen from the water as part of a 45 minute ferry-trip to Malmo. As you speed across the technicolor-blue water, you follow the route navigated by hundreds of Danish citizens evacuating their Jewish countrymen during the Nazi occupation. Malmo offers some small museums, excellent shopping (particularly for Swedish jewelry) and a quick taste of a different Scandinavian country.

        There are a wealth of other museums to choose from: the Toy Museum, the Museum of Erotica and the City Museum (with a scale model of the city center dating from 1525-1550). The tourist office (Bernstorffsgade 1; opposite the station by ’s main entrance) or USE IT (Radhusstradede 13) purveyors of youth oriented entertainment information can impart all the information you could ever want about museums. While you are at either office, pick up a copy of "Copenhagen This Week" and "Wonderful Copenhagen and Northeast Sealand". Both of these useful, English language publications are free.Beyond partying in and immersion in the cultural wonders of museums, Copenhagen offers yet another bonus. The Danes have a word for describing their marvelous capital and their enviable way of life: hyggelig. Hyggelig translates as "cozy", "warm", "welcoming" and includes the rare beauty of baroque facades, cobbled pavements, fruit stands, pristine waters and warm pastry. The heart of Copenhagen is Town Hall Square (Radhuspladsen). With your back to the red-brick Town Hall you will see to your left. You can see beyond the eight-lane H.C. Boulevard to a swarm of bicycles. During rush hour, Copenhagen seems to contain every bicyclist in Europe. From the Town Hall you are a short walk to most museums, the university quarter and the pedestrian shopping area. At the Radhuspladsen bus stop you can catch a bus to Nyhavn, Amalienborg Palace or the Danish Royal Theatre. The Royal Theatre is the home of the Danish national ballet and opera.

        Armed with a Copenhagen Card—available at travel agencies, airline offices and many hotels—you will have unlimited use of Copenhagen’s efficient bus and train system, free entrance to many museums and sights and a discount on the hydrofoil between Copenhagen and Malmo. From May first until mid-September you will want to devote at least a day of your Danish holiday to the glories of . is reflexive of the Danish desire to celebrate life in beautiful, comfortable surroundings. Hundreds of flowers bloom, music from the world’s best orchestras vies with the om-pah-pah of beer hall musicians and the delighted shrieks of children, while the crowds cluster around snack-bars and gourmet restaurants.

        After the excitement of , the quiet thrill of viewing one of the most comprehensive collections of ancient artifacts in Europe is a welcome contrast. The Nationalmuseet (Bus 1, 2, or 6 from Radhuspladen) is a treasure chest of antiquities displayed in a well lit, vast, modern building. Even in a crowd, the museum is so well designed that you can view stone age carvings, bronze weapons, jewelry, coins and artifacts from pre-history through the Middle Ages, with unparalleled intimacy. The Nationalmuseet is peerless in its arrangement of archaeological treasures in an understandable sequence. If the fine arts are more to your liking, the Statens Museum for Kunst (bus 10 from Kogens Nytorv) houses works by Rembrandt, Matisse, Titian, and the world’s finest collection of Durer prints. For the true lover of fairy tales, there are several castle-museums open to the public. Rosenborg Slot (S-train to Norreport) has ornate decorations, a large collection of silver furniture and the Danish Crown Jewels. The Crown Jewels encompass 18 cases of crowns and many other priceless treasures. De Kongelige Repraesent-ationslokaler is accessible only with one of the regularly scheduled guided tours. The Royal Reception Chambers tour takes the visitor through the parquet-and-chandelier glory of the monarchy, to the balcony where Danish monarchs are proclaimed.