Denmark (the real one, not the fake WA one!)

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On Tuesday morning I headed to Hamburg central train station and boarded my train to Copenhagen. The journey was nice, but uneventful. Total time was about 4 hours, but that was broken up by a 45 minute period where we had to leave the train. As it travels in the hull of the ferry, I guess it’s a safety issue. It was a perfect time for lunch and the ferry offered much more than the train did, so it was good.

Arrived at Copenhagen station on time and, after grabbing some kroner, I took a taxi to the hotel. When I showed the driver my hotel name, I caught his eyes lighting up briefly - I figured that meant it was either a long way away, or very close. Within 2 blocks I knew the answer as I could see the hotel myself! At least I knew I could walk to the station when I leave.

Checked in, the staff were really nice, and the order of business for what was left of the afternoon was to send a parcel home. I had collected quite a few books in Greece and Turkey, plus I was finding the Stephen Donaldson novels (“The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant”) a real trial to read so I sent them all. I needed to clear some room in my suitcase and get the weight down. I have to say, this was by far the easiest postal experience I’ve had in any country I’ve visited - including England!

The next day I had a tour booked - Castle Tour of North Zealand. Zealand is the name of the island upon which Copenhagen sits. By the way, New Zealand is actually named for the Dutch province of Zeeland, not the Danish island. I booked the tour back in Australia based on the name and was soon to find out that the castles were not actually medieval castles - instead dating from the reign of Frederick II in the late 16th century.

We began by heading up along the eastern coast. The area used to be just small fishing villages, but once the road and railway were built in the 19th century, it became more fashionable and prices there are now very, very high. We then headed inland to visit the Queen of Denmark’s summer residence. The residence is in fact occupied all year round by Fred and Mary (the Aussie princess).

Next stop was Kronborg Castle, near the town of Helsingør. The castle is best known as Hamlet’s castle Elsinore, although it was not the castle of the historical Hamlet. It was probably used by Shakespeare as it was the newest and greatest castle built in Europe around the time that he wrote it. It was very nice to look around it though, even if it wasn’t as old as I would have liked.

We headed into town for a taste of authentic Danish cuisine - something that I found hard to find in Copenhagen as it is a very cosmopolitan city. It was not overly unique, for the most part, mostly being variations on other European foods really.

In the afternoon we headed to Frederiksborg Castle at the centre of the town of Hillerød. It is built over three islands in a lake in the middle of the town. Very impressive, but not overly different to Kronborg Castle, really. One difference was the fact that all the decorations are original, unlike the Kronborg items which were added during the restoration from fire in the 19th century.

We then headed back to Copenhagen. On the way back to the hotel I came across an interesting game of soccer being played on the Radhuspladsen (plaza outside the main town hall). It was a very small pitch, 4 players on each side and while the ball could rebound off the lower part of the wall, if it hit the net above it was a throw-in. It was very fast and quite entertaining for 10 minutes.

The next day I was very slow in getting out of bed so did not get out and about until about midday. I’ve decided I’m now on holiday mode so will not be doing as much each day. My only target for the day was food (I missed breakfast at the hotel) and a look around the National Museum. The museum was great, at least the pre-history section. The Danes seem to view the Viking age as pre-history and their medieval period began with their conversion to Christianity around the year 1,000. The pre-history section took up the entire first floor and was excellent. Very informative and very well presented. Highlights were a large silver cauldron (probably of Thracian and/or Celtic origin) and most of a Viking longboat. The Viking gold was also very impressive. Upstairs were the Medieval and Renaissance sections. The Medieval section was dominated by Christian stuff; the Renaissance was similar to much of what I saw in the castles the day before. One thing that impressed me though was a portrait that looked like a mess of paint with a chrome cylinder coming out the middle - if you look into the chrome, you can actually see the portrait reflected.

My final day in Copenhagen I finally got out and saw the city. I wandered round the street and saw lots of stuff. I walked and walked and walked. The photos tell a better story of what I saw. But one place that I could not take photos of was the “free town” of Christiana. It was supposed to be some kind of hippy utopia but it has apparently gone down hill in recent years. It just seemed really, really seedy to me - basically just a drug-dealing shanty town. I did not feel safe so did not stay long.

So on Saturday I re-packed my suitcase (now with more room and less weight!) and walked down to the train station. After some confusion (the train was splitting in two along the way but I thought the sign saying the other destination was a little confusing as the sign to Aalborg was at the far end of the platform) I boarded the train and we were off. It was just over 5 hours and was pleasant but mostly uneventful. After Arhus, the first class section was almost empty and I was quite surprised to find that the rest of the train was packed when I went to the toilet. Also, many of those standing up were drinking. I didn’t give that much thought - but it was a sign.

Arriving in Aalborg was quite a shock. The train station was full of people, many of them drinking. But that was nothing compared to outside the train station. The streets were full (and I mean full!) of young people, in various attempts at costumes, all drinking like there was no tomorrow. It was quickly apparent that no taxis were coming so I was forced to find the hotel myself. I walked up the street to the main street dodging drunken Scandinavians the entire way. My hotel was on the main street, but of course I picked the wrong direction at first so I spent quite a lot of time walking around the drunks with my suitcase. Eventually I found my hotel and I think the receptionist was a little amused by the look on my face. Truly, you have no idea what it was like - may be think NYE near the harbour in Sydney, but taking over the entire town on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Turns out it was “Carnivale”. I had to head out again soon after because I had not eaten since breakfast. Fortunately it was beginning to quieten down as the police herded people to the official party down the road. One thing though, was that on my second journey it dawned on me that the large drunken crowd lacked a lot of the aggression one would expect at such a gathering in Australia, so I was probably worried unnecessarily.

However, after getting a good feed (The name “Full Plate” was not wrong! A delicious meal of nacho’s, burrito and salad) I spent the rest of the night in my hotel. Today I headed out to Denmark’s largest Viking burial ground at Lindholm Høje. The Lonely Planet said it was 4km from the edge of their map, making it about 5km from my hotel, so I asked the receptionist about it. She uttered those magic works (“Oh no, you can’t walk there”) so I was off. To be fair, she did qualify it with “unless you are a good walker” and suggested that I catch the bus there and if I thought I could walk it I could then walk back. That didn’t work for me as I had no idea where to get off the bus, so I thought I might do it the other way round.

The walk was about an hour, but very easy. I started off by looking through the museum. It’s small, but informative. Unfortunately part of it seems to be missing as there was a bunch of numbers missing as I was trying to follow the exhibits with the English guide. After a quick stop in the museum shop, I headed out to the fields (literally - it is a sheep’s paddock) and walked around the graves. It looks quite chaotic but that’s because they were added over many centuries and the older ones would have been covered by the shifting sands. It was quite interesting to see and when I was done I decided to walk back to town. It was easily doable, but I admit I was a bit tired when I stopped to eat back in town. I did little else but take a scenic detour back to the hotel and here I am.

Tomorrow I need to catch two trains to get me to the port of Hirtshals (should be about an hours travelling time though) to catch a ferry to Kristiansand in Norway. Looking forward to it!

One final note, I really am unsure as to why they have daylight saving here. It’s now 10pm and it is still light outside. Do you really need to save daylight when you have so much of it?

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