Canoe, Camp, Cook, Fish and Travel: ROOTS - not the movie

    Denmark, the place of my birth, is as countries go in size not particularly large, but what it lacks in square kilometers / miles it makes up for in other areas. In area, Denmark proper, that is to say the principal islands of Bornholm, Falster, Sjaelland, Fyn (Funen), Langeland, Moen, and a number of other smaller islands as well as the peninsula Jylland (Jutland) cover an area of 43,094 km2 / 16,639 m2. On a list of countries, excluding Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Denmark is in the 109th place in terms of size.

    There are about 400 islands in Denmark, not counting the Faroe Islands or Greenland, of which only a few, about 70, are inhabited. It is most certainly a sailors paradise, lots of water, lots of little interesting harbors, but it also has quite a bit of very "thin water" in some areas, which requires great navigational skills.

     If we were to add Greenland, named Kalaallit Nunaat in the native tongue, Denmark would suddenly increase in size by about 2,166,086 km2 / 836,109 m2. In other words, Greenland is about 50 times larger than Denmark proper, or 3.1 times larger than even the State of Texas, and as we know, everything is bigger in Texas, but apparently not when held up to Greenland. Add to Denmark the Faroe Islands, in the local language named Føroyar, and Denmark grows even more; 1,400 km2 / 540 m2.

    Thus Denmark, in its totality, is 2,210,580 km2 / 853,288 m2 or only 15% smaller smaller than Quebec and Ontario combined, including the areas of water within those two provinces. To compare all of Denmark to states in the US, it is almost 3 % larger than all of Alaska and California combined.

    It is obvious that the above facts, and so some extend those below gives Danes a certain amount of "bragging" rights.

    There are other interesting facts about Denmark which should give one pause to think about quality of life; If living in Denmark rather than the USA you would ... (statistics from the CIA World book of Facts). All italics directly below are mine.

have a 53.8 % better chance of being employed.
use 50.2 % less electricity because of the efficient use of wind generated electricity.
consume 45.5 % less fossil fuels because of fuel efficient automobiles.
experience 35.6 % less of a class divide.
be 30.1 % less likely to die in infancy on the average better nutrition and better health care in infancy.
have 24.8 % less babies. (The cruelty of contraception and abortion meaning that Denmark is not even having a birthrate high enough to replace the existing population.)
make 22.8 % less money after taxes. (Average pretax salary (2012) was US $78,200.00 and average net income (after taxes) about US $40,000.00)
spend 43.8 % less on health care. (See the amount of taxes paid, above and below)
have 13.8 % more free time because of a shorter work week, in other words, more leisure time.
be 66.7 % less likely to have AIDS / HIV
live .23 years longer.
have a maximum individual income tax rate of 51.7%.

So this is the country of my birth and childhood.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark,
http://denmark.dk/, http://www.infoplease.com/country/denmark.html, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3167.htm, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3167.htm,
http://www.visitdenmark.com/en-us/denmark/tourist-frontpage-usa
http://www.archipelago.nu/SKARGARD/ENGELSKA/DENMARK/sailing%20Denmark.htm
http://video.visitdenmark.com/video/952646/sailing-in-Denmark

The Danish Flag "Danebroge".

The legend of the history of the Danish flag follows, but please note that the flag is the oldest unchanged flag in the world. (The information below from Wikipedia)

The legend states the origin of the flag to the Battle of Lyndanisse, also known as the Battle of Valdemar (Danish: "Volmerslaget"), near Lyndanisse (Tallinn) in Estonia, on June 15, 1219.^[7]
The battle was going badly, and defeat seemed imminent. However a Danish priest on top of a hill overlooking the battle prayed to God, which meant that the Danes moved closer to victory the more he prayed. At a second he was so tired in his arms that he dropped them and the Danes then lost the advantage and were moving closer to defeat. He needed two soldiers to keep his hands up and when the Danes were about to win, 'Dannebrog' fell from the sky and the King took it, showed it to the troops and their hearts were filled with courage and the Danes won the battle.
According to the legend the flag, Dannebrog, was given to the Danes from God himself^{[citation needed]}, and from that day forward, it was the flag of Denmark and the Danish kings.

Dannebrog falling from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse, June 15, 1219. Painted by Christian August Lorentzen in 1809. Original located at Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark

No historical record supports this legend. The first record of the legend dates from more than 300 years after the campaign, and the first record connects the legend to a much smaller battle, though still in Estonia; the battle of Fellin (Viljandi) in 1208. Though no historical support exists for the flag story in the Fellin battle either, it is not difficult to understand how a small and unknown place is replaced with the much grander battle of Reval (Tallinn) from the Estonia campaign of King Valdemar II.