Denmark is a low-lying, flat country. The highest point is around 350 feet above sea level and there is no place in the country that is more than 50 miles from the ocean.

Outside of Copenhagen, Denmark is very rural with farmland and small hamlets covering the landscape. The farms extend to the coast, which was protected from development until the 1960s when the government allowed the farmers to sell a strip of land along the shoreline for development of summer houses so that Danish urbanites could also enjoy the countryside.

We are staying in one such locale, the hamlet of Hald on the north Zeeland coast, about 7 miles east of Hundested. Though this house was originally a builder’s shed, a number of the houses in the neighborhood were built in the 1960s as the first beach houses in this area. Meanwhile, this “builder’s shed” has been transformed by the Giles into a fabulous summer home. Here’s a view walking up to the house from the carport that sits alongside the road:

When the weather is nice (as it was today), it’s nice to sit outside. This is the front door patio:

Here’s a view around back:

There’s lots of room here and a nice patio around back, too:

Like a New Orleans shotgun house, the original structure is narrow, but with the additions and extensions that Bob and Johnna have been added, it’s very roomy. Here’s a view looking in through the rear window…

…and another from inside, looking back out:

Dale likes the kitchen. Salmon for lunch!

I like the view from our bedroom, over the carport, looking across the adjacent farm fields:

Only Danes are allowed to own these summer houses. Were that not the case, the fear is that buying pressure from Germans and other Europeans (and, possibly, an American I know) would drive up the prices, making these properties unaffordable for ordinary Danes.

Could be; I know that’s what happened to the condo market in Miami. Regardless, we’re glad that the area is so thoroughly Danish in culture; it makes for a much more interesting visit for us.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, Bob is English; Johnna is Danish.