Danish Pastries and Danish Castles

On 12/2
My last day in Denmark we bought a 24 hour rail pass so we could check out some castles outside of Denmark. We started by heading to Fredricksborg Slot in Hillerød. It was supposed to be an express train yet we ended up having to switch to three different trains to get there. We weren’t really in a hurry so I didn’t care and at one of the train stations we got some grub while we waited. There was a small pastry stand where I could get 2 pastries and a coffee for 39 kroner (around $8). The guidebooks say that the Danish pastries are the best around and Wim had told me as much as well but I wasn’t expecting 2 pastries from a stand at the train station to be so good. They were probably the best I’ve ever had. Yay for train mix-ups!

Once in Hillerød we headed straight for the Fredricksborg Slot because we could get into the castle/museum for free with the 24 hour rail pass. It was totally worth it. The inside of the castle was breathtaking and we roamed the large halls, hallways and rooms for quite awhile. I tried to take some photos but they didn’t allow flash and depending on what room we were in we didn’t get much natural light. I think my two favorite rooms of the castle were the chapel and the great hall. The chapel was so large that it actually once functioned as the town church so I thought it was crazy that the royalty once thought of it as something small and quaint enough to be called a “chapel.” Chris and I spent some time hanging out in the Great Hall and picturing what it would be like to have a camp dance in the enormous space and wondered how long it would take 150 campers to heat up the room once they got their groove on since the place was obviously not heated.

Next it was on to Helsingør to see the Kronborg Slot, better known as the castle that was the setting for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” though no one knows if he ever actually visited the place. It too is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and stages the Hamlet play there each year. Now THAT would be something to see for sure! By the time we got there it was too late to go inside owing to the earlier winter hours of the museum closing at 3 p.m. And, like Malmö, owing to its location a bit further north the sun set earlier there as well. We had just enough time to take a quick walk around the grounds before it was completely dark. The biggest thrill was standing at the top of a row of tumuli on the grounds with the castle to my back and looking out over the water to Sweden and the town of Helsingborg. It gave a complete perspective of the notion of watching your enemies crossing the sea for an attack. Chris and I just kept saying to each other, “yeah – that’s Sweden over there. We’re looking at another country.”

On our way to and from the castle we walked through yet another Christmas Bazaar complete with ferris wheel. Though this time there was also what we thought was an ice skating rink as well. Upon closer inspection we noticed a girl in skates having a devil of a time skating across owing to the fact that it wasn’t actually ice. It looked like it was slippery blocks that fit together and had been doused with water to make them icy. It didn’t make sense because it wasn’t really ice at all. On our way back through the kids had given up on the ice “skate” part of it and were wearing instead these sort of blue plastic coverings for their shoes and just sort of sliding around on them. Interesting.

Taking the train we headed back to Flintholm to warm up for an hour before striking out again to go back to Copenhagen and hit Tivoli. Tivoli is the city’s amusement park and it’s open all year round. Complete with whizzing rides and games of chance they even have a few roller coasters. The entire place was lighted for Christmas with some of the buildings dripping in white lights. We were able to get in for free with our 24 hour rail pass which made it worthwhile. I don’t know that I would’ve paid to go there during cold weather like that considering there was no way you’d get me on a ride in the freezing cold. I mean, you could see your breath for Pete’s sake! But sure enough, those roller coasters were zooming past anyway with people screaming their fool heads off. Tivoli itself was also decorated like a Christmas Bazaar with all of the vendors selling lots of hot chocolate and warm nuts. The smells were delicious (but expensive!) and it was cool to walk around checking it all out. At 8pm there was a laser light show on the water and I have to say, I haven’t seen a light show that good since I saw Poison open for Warrant on the Cherry Pie tour back in 1995. The highlight of Tivoli was that they had put together this winter wonderland sort of place where you could go inside and see elves hanging around in the North Pole kind of like the “It’s a Small World” ride…except it wasn’t a ride and it was just elves. The bizarre part was that every little stop along the route it seemed one of the elves was in peril and none of the other elves noticed. In one spot an elf had taken a tumble ice skating and clearly had hurt himself, in another an elf was dangling from a snow capped cliff like he’d lost his balance and would fall. My favorite though was the one that was falling off of a wooden bridge that connected one mountain peak to the next. Hmm…maybe they named the room “Elves in Peril” and we missed it.

Exiting Tivoli we headed for a pub so I could blow the last of my kroner on something worthwhile: beer. Well, more correctly we ended up at a Scottish Pub and ordered ourselves two Crownmoor Ciders. Instead of $10 a pop they were $11. But man was that tasty cider! How tasty you ask? One sip and out came the money for the second round it was that delicious. We each bought 2 rounds while we listened to some guy doing a live performance. We never quite caught his name but he was pretty good and we decided he looked like a shorter, less attractive version of Paul Bettany. His first set was just okay but the second set was really good. He did some Petty, U2, Beatles, Dylan, Eagles, Billy Joel, Van Morrison…and then he asked if there were any Americans in the bar. Chris and I clapped along with a group of women in their 40s who’d been intermittently on the dance floor. He then dedicated “Jack & Diane” to the Americans. Not sure why – most of the stuff he was playing was “American” music but whatevs. I got out and danced with the old ladies and found out they were from Maryland and Virginia and on a vaca with their husbands. During one of the set breaks when the radio was on a Kenny Rogers song came on. I said, “this is the part where Kenny breaks it down” and Chris said “Kenny Rogers ALWAYS breaks it down.” True dat.

I was sort of writing down the play list as Chris and I talked and at one point the guy came over to say hello (though we still didn’t find out his name.) He called me out, asking if I was writing down the set list. I said yes but explained we were also writing down other stuff as well, like Chris’s top 5 favorite songs, our favorite Christmas tunes, etc. (Chris’s favorite is Bruce Springsteen’s version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” Mine is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You.”) He was nice – said he was from Northampton and had married a Danish woman 10 years ago. He’s lived in Denmark since then but only just started trying to learn Danish last week. He ended up playing about 4 sets and I think my two favorites were when he played “Piano Man” with the whole bar belting it out with him and “Closing Time” by Tom Waits just because I love the song and he did a nice job with it. Chris and I left right when he decided to finish for the evening and by the time we got back to the train and walked back it was again 2 a.m.