In 1819 a gangly fourteen-year-old named Hans Christian Andersen stowed away in a post coach from Odense, slipped off at Valby Hill, and walked into Copenhagen with a few coins and one dream: to perform at the Royal Danish Theatre. Its Old Stage, on Kongens Nytorv, has anchored the city's cultural life since 1748, though the grand building you see today opened in 1874.

Andersen never made it as an actor. Too clumsy to dance and too deep-voiced to sing, he was shown the door, and took up the pen instead. A short walk away stands the Royal Playhouse, all glass and dark stone, completed in 2008 with nearly half its bulk projecting over the harbour.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours begin at the Old Stage to trace Andersen's rocky start in Copenhagen, following him from the theatre that rejected him to the fairy tales that made him immortal.