Another early day, the rain/drizzle is back today. We walk to the underground Metro Station, then take two trains further north, final a commuter bus to our first destination of the day, Frederiksborg Castle. It sits on an island in a lake in the town of Hillerod. It is known as the grandest castle in Scandinavia, and is often called the “Danish Versailles”. Built in the early 1600’s, rebuilt in the mid 1800’s after a devastating fire. Like putting ice cream on a wedding cake, over the top.
After the reconstruction, the royal family who had lived there for over 200 years choose not to return, so the Carlsberg Foundation, (the beer family), took on the project and turned it into a museum of Danish cultural history. This resulted in an overwhelming, overloading of art and furniture.
A room where the King mediated, filled with incredible paintings.
The Great Room, used for banquets, huge.
The chapel, huge.
More ceiling art.
The outside gardens.
Further north and on the ocean is the Kronborg Castle located in Helsingor. The castle's story dates back to the 1420s. It controlled the entranceway to the Baltic Sea from 1574 to 1585 demanding tribute to pass between Denmark and Sweden. We didn’t go inside, too castled out right now, but we did wander the surrounds.
After the castle walk, we went into Helsinger to walk the small, mostly abandoned streets, with tourist season over, it is very quiet and many of the stores and restaurants are closed. We were convinced we wanted an authentic Danish Smørrebrød and after asking found the restaurant that makes them. They consist of an open faced piece of dense buttered rye bread then they are topped with meat, cheese and vegetables. Alex had the very traditional 3 layered pickled herring, cucumber, capers, ham, potato salad, meat balls, cabbage, and pickles. Hannah had spareribs, pickled cucumbers, cabbage. Gloria had fish and egg salad, I had fish, shrimp and caviar. We were full. Oh, we also ordered “warm French stick”, just curious as to what it was, turned out to be french bread. “lost in translation”. Tomorrow we fly out to Stockholm. Two countries down, two to go.
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