Gratuitous automotive photos from Copenhagen

I saw this Austin Minor near the campus of the Copenhagen Business School. And I thought it was a beautiful thing. So was this Volvo driving through the City Hall Square: I’m flying back to the U.S. today (Friday). So this will probably be the last of my Copenhagen dispatches.

More Lego excitement

By popular demand, a couple more photos from the Lego factory in Billund. A molding machine rolls out some black Legos: And a robot, nicknamed “Olfert,” replaces a full box of translucent green pieces with an empty one:

The Danish prime minister says he’d cut taxes more but voters don’t want him to

Thursday afternoon I went to the annual summit of the Danish Confederation of Industries (Dansk Industri). There is nothing elsewhere in the Western world that compares with this organization: It is the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and several other corporate organizations whose names I can’t think of, all rolled into one. Plus it [...]

Charming Danish customs

This was at the employment ministry Wednesday. I assumed the sign said “take one” rather than, say, “poison,” so I took one and ate it. Pretty good. And I’m still alive. I’d heard of the Copenhagen city bike system, where you put in a 20 kroner (about $4) coin to get a bike, then get [...]

Obligatory scenic Copenhagen photo, and more

Yeah, I probably ought to be commenting on the GM-UAW deal. But I’ve been running around interviewing Danes all day everyday for an article I’m going to write on the swell Danish economy, and don’t have many brain cells left over for the American economy. I took this shot Wednesday on the way to a [...]

A shocking image from a Danish gas station

To translate: That’s $5.98 for exactly one gallon of diesel fuel, which is substantially cheaper than gas. (I was topping off the tank on my rental car before returning it at the Billund Airport Monday afternoon; hence the small amount–although I had no idea it would work out to be a gallon.)

Where I want to work when I grow up

This is part of the newsroom at Politiken, one of the leading Danish dailies (not the one that ran the cartoons, although they’re owned by the same company). I know it’s not much of a photo–I’m way too self-conscious to be any good as a photographer; I just want to take the shot quickly and [...]

Slices of Lego history and soon-to-be history

That’s the view from the room in Billund, Denmark, where Ole Kirk Christiansen founded Lego in 1932. Below is a Lego storage warehouse. Yes, every one of those boxes is full of Legos. I spent Monday talking to various people at the company, which is in the process of outsourcing most of its production to [...]

The Danes are concerned

Some fun headlines from Børsen, the Danish financial daily. I’m guessing the “frygter” in the main headline means fears. The rest you can figure out. (Maersk being the world’s leading container-shipping company.)

Killer slugs in Denmark

Meet a monstrous byproduct of European integration. The result of the Spanish slug moving north and breeding with the hardy local black slug. They call it a Draebersnegle, or killer slug. See, this is why the Danes won’t adopt the euro.