I clearly remembered when the postman still wore their red uniforms. And were a part of the "Etaterne" = the uniformed branches of the civil service. Like police, the engine drivers and conductors on trains as well as the King's bailiffs. (None of your neighbors were in doubt, if you owed money!) And so on.
I guess the postal service to and from Amalienborg is top quality.
Because for the rest of us, it sure isn't!
Quite a number of years back in the holy name of efficiency, it was decided to privatize Danish Royal Mail. So now the service has gone from post being delivered six times a week, to twice - at best, if it arrives at all...
So surprise people have stopped sending letters, so has the public authorities, businesses and so on. In fact the last two letters to me found in our mailbox - was the election card prior to the general election on 1st November and the bi-annually bowl-cancer-home-test-kit last week.
So what do you do, if you are an organization dedicated to delivering letters to people? You push the price for postage way up and cut down the delivery times. So we are now in the astounding situation that Post Nord, as Royal Mail has been renamed, now takes just as long to deliver a letter as they did in the 1600s!
It will be cheaper and faster for me to hire four guys and a sedan chair, to carry me and my letter to Copenhagen than it would to send the letter by mail.
It's a pity the service was privatized, because while being more expensive, it was a respected and popular job to be a postman. Wearing a uniform usually meant a certain bearing and standard of personal grooming as well - some of the Post Nord dudes in contrast look like cavemen. - Talks like cavemen as well...
Being a postman, meant a job for life and very good pension so they took pride in their jobs and offered extra services. And in places like Sweden, they were to regularly check up on people who lived in isolated places, to make sure they were alive and well.
In DK a postman in rural places could expect a cup of coffee several times a day and he doubled as the local, cycling newspaper. No wonder it took all day to deliver mail in the countryside.
Of course there were downsides to being a rural postman as is evident in this photo from 1907:
https://www.stamps.dk/image/158797/...dpost-olsen-sanatorieposten-fotokort-u-no.jpg
And there was no such thing as bad weather hindring the post from being delivered as is evident from this photo from 1968:
https://filweb.azurewebsites.net/filer/visning/c9a7fea68421442795e77d6f027edab6
Well, perhaps they deserved their coffee and cookies.