Copenhagen to Stockholm

I have been know to oversimplify in my time....


Similarities

Lots of 7-Elevens
Lots of H&Ms
Bicycle Lanes
Royal Families
Royal Palaces that you can walk into
Candles on all the tables in restaurants and outside to indicate a "cozy" atmosphere
Nordic (or North Germanic to be more specific) Languages, though in Denmark it is Danish and in Sweden it is Swedish, obviously, you can still hear the similar words and pronunciations. I bet that if you knew one you could hold a fast-paced conversation with someone speaking the other.
History of Vikings and trade
Used to part of the Union of Kalmar, which was a political alliance between Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Differences


Stockholm is more surrounded by water than Copenhagen. Stockholm consists of 14 islands that are linked together while Copenhagen juts out of the Zealand island of Denmark.

Royal Guard in Sweden consists of male and females and the units are not organized by height. In Denmark the Royal Guard is all male and the units consist of men of the same height (meaning when you visit the palace all the guards uniformity short, tall, or average).

Sweden was never occupied by the Nazi. While Copenhagen's monuments and building still remember the Nazi occupation, Sweden was able to remain neutral throughout World War II. In fact, over 7,000 Danish Jews were refugees from Denmark to Sweden during the war (out of the 8,000 Danish Jews that lived in Denmark at the time).

To be fair I shouldn't be making any comparisons between these two unique cities, but seeing as they share so much of the same history it is hard not to.

As I mentioned, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway belonged to the Union of Kalmar united under Queen Margaret originally from the 1300s until 1523. Then, Sweden breaks from the union. This is a problem because then the control over the Baltic is seemingly up for grabs.

From Wikipedia

While Denmark originally controlled land on both sides of the strait, in 1658, Charles X, the Swedish king claims the whole of the Swedish peninsula as theirs.

So Denmark and Sweden have a very interesting history, and Copenhagen and Stockholm, as the predominate seats of power have their share of history. To read more about it, and to understand how religion, royal families, and eventually Germany fits into the story: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=561&HistoryID=aa59&gtrack=pthc

To be quite honest, I'm still not sure of the whole story, because depending on what side of the Sound you are on the attitudes change.