Søren Kierkegaard's legacy lives on

«It was a misty, struggling day when I landed for a weekend break in Copenhagen. There was something distinctly Kierkegaardian about the atmosphere: a piercing wind blew and it rained heavily. Søren Kierkegaard, whose bicentennial the city is celebrating from May 5, is known as the father of existentialism, the philosopher of anxiety and the scourge of the church. A man who preferred the shade to sunshine, in the popular imagination he was gloomy and hard to please.

But even in his darkest moments, he found that a good walk could do wonders. "Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being," he wrote. "I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it." With this in mind, I joined a voice tour guide, for a walk around the sights associated with the city's gloomiest philosopher.»