When I mentioned going to Esbjerg for a few days off this spring, many of my friends in Copenhagen said - why? Esbjerg doesn't have a reputation as a vacation spot, even though its fifth-largest city in Denmark and the youngest big city.

For Copenhagen snobs, Esbjerg is a fishing town, which it was 50 years ago but isn't really anymore. It's an oil and wind energy town, industrial but very modern.

I like Esbjerg, perhaps because it is a very masculine town. If you're a woman who likes men, if you're a guy who likes men, really rough and ready type men, Esbjerg is your town, because it is the home base for the oil workers and windmill mechanics who work on the North Sea coast of Denmark.

In addition, all that oil makes for great museums, and Esbjerg is also a great base for visiting the Viking town of Ribe and Fanø, a picturesque fishing island turned tourist attraction.

No matter what the tourist brochures suggest, you probably won't go *everywhere* on a bike in Denmark.

And along with food and housing, getting around is a big part of the cost of living in Denmark.

Here are a few tips to save money on trains, buses, cars, and even bike maintenance.

Anyone who has spent time living in Denmark knows that it's one of the most expensive countries around. That's true when it comes to food shopping, too.

One Dane who had lived in the US explained it this way: "In Denmark, every supermarket is priced like Whole Foods."

For those of you who haven't visited the States, Whole Foods is a high-end grocery chain nicknamed "Whole Wallet" or "Whole Paycheck."

But there are a few creative ways to save money on food in Denmark.

Danes hate food waste, so the prices of some food in grocery stores actually drops near the end of the day or right before the item's expiration date.

You can visit farmer's markets, or if you live near the border, go shopping in Sweden or Germany to save cash.

I love old books. I love the kind of old books you get at antique bookstores or on the Internet Archive. And I have a good collection of old books about Denmark.

I like old travel guides, most of which are still pretty useful because Denmark doesn't tear a lot of things down the way they do, in say, Los Angeles or Hong Kong. In Denmark you'll pretty much fine most castles and monuments right where somebody left them hundreds of years ago.

If you want to see a famous church or square or the Jelling Stone, your Baedecker guidebook from 1895 will work just fine for you in most cases.

But I can also recommend two great old books on Denmark, which you can probably find at your local antique book shop, or on DBA, the Danish auction site owned by eBay.

While I'm not an authority on the Danish visa or immigration systems, I'm often asked for practical tips about moving to Denmark. So here are a few things to think about when you're packing your suitcases or, if you're doing a corporate move, packing your shipping container.

Number one, make sure you bring money. Denmark is an expensive place to live where you will own less stuff, but better stuff.

That said, there's no need to bring much furniture, even mores if your furniture is nothing special.

You can often buy Danish design furniture cheap at local second-hand stores and flea markets, and for everything else, there's always IKEA - in Denmark, or across the water in IKEA's homeland of Sweden.

Denmark has had two female prime ministers and about forty percent of the people elected to the Folketing, the Danish Parliament, are women.

But when it comes to private industry, Danish women have one of the lowest participation rates in management in Europe. According to the OECD, only 26.5% of managers in Denmark are female, compared to 39.8% in the US.

It's not unusual to see a senior management team made up entirely of Danish males, with perhaps a Swedish or German male thrown in for diversity.

That said, the majority of adult Danish women hold paying jobs. The Danish tax system makes it very difficult for a couple to survive on one income, even a hefty one.

It might seem like a counterintuitive time to talk about beaches, in the middle of a long, very cold winter.

But in these times of COVID, beaches are one of the few places in Denmark you are currently allowed to meet up with family and friends.

Beaches, parks, frozen-over lakes: these are the big social meeting points at time when cafés, restaurants, bars, shops, gyms, schools, theaters, museums, places of worship, and hairdressers, barbers, and nail salons are all closed.

But getting a small group together outdoors is still allowed, and the beach can still be a nice place to be – even if you have to put up with sand's that frozen solid, slippery rocks, and bitter, bitter wind off the icy cold water.

I like to drive. I like to be on the open road, like in the American Southwest - Arizona, Nevada, Utah. Put your pedal to the metal, no one in front of you, no one in the rear view mirror. Just you and the road.

You will not get that experience much in Denmark, a small country with a lot of people packed into a small area. There's not a lot of open land here, not much living off the grid. Which doesn't mean drivers don't long for it. You'll see those open roads in Arizona and Nevada in a lot of Danish TV advertisements.

It's frequently said about Denmark that it's not a car country. You hear a lot of well-meaning internationals say that in Denmark you don't need a car that you can bicycle everywhere you want to go.

That is true in the big cities - I don't own a car myself. But most of my Copenhagen neighbors do. And cars are pretty much a necessity in the countryside. There are now 2.5 million cars in use in Denmark, roughly one for every other resident over age 18.

When visiting Denmark, you'll be offered Danish food, and expressing enthusiasm for it will go a long way towards generating harmony with your Danish friends.

The good news is, Danish cuisine offers something for everyone.

If you're a carnivore, don't miss the Danish pork dishes, particularly "flæskesteg". That's a crispy, fatty fried pork that's the official national food.

For people who prefer fish, there's a great selection in this country surrounded by water. Curried herring and fried plaice are popular, and so are many types of salmon.

Vegans can enjoy a wide choice of root vegetables, wonderful fresh Danish berries, or the sweet elderflower juice that is sometimes blended with vodka or champagne.

It's a funny kind of summer this year in Copenhagen, quieter than usual, and more like a family event than a cosmopolitan city.

Coronavirus came early to Denmark, the borders were shut down early, but they're mostly open now to other Europeans.

But the change came too late for many people to make summer vacation plans, so many of the usual tourist attractions are slightly forlorn.

There are a few Europeans around the Little Mermaid and the Royal Palaces, but not many. And there are no huge cruise ships full of Americans docking at Langelinie, or the busloads of Chinese tourists stopping to take pictures with the statue of Hans Christian Andersen.

Copenhagen has become less of an international city than it was a year ago.

Meanwhile, many Danes are spending their own summer vacations in Denmark, which has one major drawback - the Danish summer weather.