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An interesting day today, Kronborg Castle in Helsingor, aka Hamlet’s Castle at Elsinore. The guide said that Shakespeare was impressed with the 24 course banquets that the King of Denmark, in the mid 1500s, Frederick II, used to hold to show that he was the most powerful king in Scandinavia. It is very imposing, standing as it does on a slight promontory at the narrowest part of the entrance to the Baltic Sea with Sweden just 4 kms over the water. At that time the land across the water was part of Denmark.
Frederick made his money charging taxes of shipping that went through the passage. If they didn’t pay he fired cannons and then made them pay for the cannon balls. The cannons you see in the photos still work and are used on ceremonial occasions.
The castle really comes alive because throughout the day Shakespearean Players enact scenes from Hamlet in the appropriate setting, e.g. the stabbing of Polonius in the Queen’s sitting room and the duel in the grand ballroom. This by the way, was the largest ballroom in Europe in its day being 60m long. The players interact with the audience in a very humorous
way. So you never know when Ophelia might appear, or the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Actually you do know because a schedule is posted on a board near the entrance so you can be at the right place at the right time. It was very entertaining.
We walked the 145 steps up the tower to see the magnificent view but didn’t do so well exploring what they call the Casemates. Which really are the tunnels two levels below ground and go all around the castle. They are advertised as dark, dank and gloomy. We set off. We can do this we thought. Yeah. Nah. After picking our way about 50 m through very dimly lit, narrow, low tunnels, uneven ground, ie cobblestones, with other tunnels running off at all directions we gave up and retreated gracefully. The fact there weren’t many people there meant they all gave up too. We wondered if they did a search at the end of the day to see if anyone had got lost. Apparently the tunnels have been safe havens in the time of war.
Our next challenge was to get back to Copenhagen! We have bought 72 hour Copenhagen Cards which
have already proved their worth as we have been on and off buses and trains so many times today I have lost count. The book said just catch a train to Helsingor. Great we thought as we waited on the platform. All going to plan. Neck minute along comes a guard. “This is not the best way to go. Catch that train over there to ——- and then catch a Blue bus.” Ok. So off we trot and do as we’re told. We get to ——- where another guard says, “This is not the best way to go as the bus will take 2 hours from here. Go back 3 stops on the train, change to another line, go one stop, hop off and catch a bus there as it will only take 40 mins.”
It turns out that the train line was having repairs done hence the train-bus combination.
We catch a bus back but unfortunately it was one of the local 2 hour ones. So we changed again halfway back, jumped on the train again to complete the journey. So if anyone you know is planning to visit Helsingor tell them to contact us.
We
needed a beer after that so stopped off at a local bar and listened to live jazz.
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