If you had dropped by Copenhagen in the eleventh century you would have found yourself looking over a quite small fishing hamlet, with some lazy cattle gazing back at you while chewing fresh green grass from the meadows around the village. Looking east you would see a host of small islets protecting the small fishing harbour from harsh weather — really not the worst place to found a city. If you would rather trust the written word than the archaeologists, the earliest accounts date from the twelfth century, when a bearded clerk (or a renowned historian if you will) called Saxo Gramaticus scribbled down a few lines about the place, Portus Mercatorum, he called it, which was really just a fancy Latin version of Købmannahavn. This has since been mangled into København in modern Danish, and even further mangled into Copenhagen in English, but all it really means is "merchant harbour. "
Copenhagen, as in the rest of Denmark, has four distinct seasons. The best time to visit is definitely the warm period from early May to late August. The current weather forecast can be checked at the Danish Meteorological Institute website
Strøget is one of the largest pedestrian malls in the world which links City Hall, Kongens Nytorv, and Nørreport station. Impeccably dressed Copenhageners breeze through high-end fashion and design stores when not zig-zagging through the hordes of tourists during the summer and Christmas seasons. Your fellow visitors can make it all feel rather touristy at times but if nothing else, it is great for people watching. If all this strange outdoor shopping takes you too far from your usual habitat, head for Magasin du Nord (on Kongens Nytorv) or Illums (on Amagertorv) for more familiar surroundings.
Copenhagen (Danish: København) is the capital of Denmark and what a million Danes call home. This "friendly old girl of a town" is big enough to be a metropolis with shopping, culture and nightlife par excellence, yet still small enough to be intimate, safe and easy to navigate. Overlooking the Øresund strait with Sweden just minutes away, it is a cultural and geographic link between mainland Europe and Scandinavia. This is where old fairy tales blend with flashy new architecture and world-class design; where warm jazz mixes with cold electronica from Copenhagen's basements. You'll feel you've seen it all in a day, but could keep on discovering more for months.
Copenaghen (danese København, inglese Copenhagen, 518. 574 abitanti nel Comune, 1. 167. 569 nell'area urbana) è la capitale e la città più popolosa della Danimarca. È situata sulle isole Sjaelland e di Amager ed è separata da Malmö, Svezia, dallo stretto di Øresund.
Con il completamento del Ponte di Øresund nel 2001, Copenaghen e la città svedese di Malmö sono unite da un collegamento automobilistico e ferroviario grazie al quale dovrebbero migliorare l'interscambio commerciale, i rapporti tra i due Stati e il transito dei pendolari da entrambe le sponde.
Il nome danese è una corruzione di Købmandshavn, che significa Porto dei Mercanti. Il nome inglese per la città, Copenhagen (notare la posizione dell'acca rispetto al nome italiano), deriva dalla lingua basso-tedesca Kopenhagen.
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