When I say that Denmark is the perfect country for a four-and-a-half year old, it goes beyond amusement parks, canal tours, and Lego to include castles, Vikings, and the world of Hans Christian Andersen. Each day a new adventure genre.
Starting with castles. Forty-five minutes north of Copenhagen are Fredericksborg, arguably Denmark’s grandest castle and a former royal residence and Kronborg, a castle made famous as the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We stopped for breakfast in Hillerød the small town where Freeericksborg is located. Nobody does hygge like Charlotte. One of our surprise favorite things of Denmark was the Normal store logo. Normal is a Target type store, one with a smaller, city location footprint. There logo is a man(?) with a long nose and his hands (if he has them) stuffed in his pockets. Charlotte thought this was the funniest logo. We got a few photos and made two shopping stops picking up some Normal gear for back home.
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Fredericksborg is an impressive castle even when going under some renovation. There’s a Neptune Fountain in the front courtyard.
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We visited Fredericksborg’s two most impressive rooms - a chapel and a ball room. Charlotte danced her princess dances in the ball room.
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In between those rooms are tens of other rooms filled most with paintings although a few had other artifacts, like armor. In one room we came across a painting of Princess Charlotte. Charlotte was excited to have her photo with another Princess Charlotte.
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We walked around the back side of Fredericksborg to view its gardens from a distance then continued on our way to Kronborg.
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Before visiting Kronborg we walked through the town of Helsingør. We finally ate traditionally smorrebrod and Danish meatballs. It was a nice break from McDonald’s.
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Not much to Helsingør otherwise, even a little disappoint, glad we combined this with a stop in Fredericksborg, and we walked back across the town’s waterfront to Kronborg, where we saw the silver merman.
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Also there’s not much to Kronborg besides the Hamlet connection. The castle looks cool from the outside, it’s sitting out along the water, and has a nice courtyard inside its walls. But that’s about it. Its rooms weren’t packed with paintings like Fredericksborg – the rooms were mostly empty.
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Beneath one section of walls is Holger the Dane. Holger is a sleeping warrior who supposedly will re-awaken when needed during Denmark’s darkest hour.
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We headed north along the Danish Rivera - it had a southern California vibe minus the 80 degree weather - at least we had some sun. Ice cream stop in Hornbæk. Stopped for a beautiful view stop at Fyrkroen, a restaurant overlooking the water. This felt like we were somewhere between Laguna Beach and San Clemente.
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To complete the Danish Riviera experience we spent the night in a cottage through Airbnb in Gilleleje. We took a walk along the beach to Gilleleje’s town center, then to the harbor, and enjoyed an early evening at a playground. Charlotte got her hygge on back at the cottage.
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Viking day started in Roskilde, about an hour drive south of Gilleleje. Roskilde was a former Viking stronghold and later served as an early capital of Denmark. Its cathedral is similar to London’s Westminster Cathedral in that former royalty and cultural significant individuals are buried within the church. It’s Denmark’s “Mother” church. But first the Viking museum. In a crazy coincidence, while building the museum, five Viking boats were discovered. It’s believed they were intentionally sunk 1,000 years ago to prevent a warring tribe to enter the town. Those ships are now on display in the museum.
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Outside the museum is a Viking ship building area where carpenters are recreating Viking ships. We were able to take a ride on one of the recreated ships, the only place in the world where you can do so.
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Charlotte didn’t seem too excited to ride the ship but a smile appeared on her face as soon as we boarded and stayed with her for the entire ride. It was more than a ride on the Viking ship - Vikings rowed when there wasn’t sufficient wind and row we did. Charlotte would have made a good Viking warrior if she was born 1,000 years earlier.
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We took a quick spin through Roskilde. Walked along the main pedestrian street. Got an ice cream. Took a tour of the church. Saw the crypts.
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There’re a few other Viking sites in the extended area. We went to Trelleborg because it has a large Viking community earthwork ring still intact. It gives a good idea of the size and structure of the community.
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Trelleborg also had a reconstructed long house. Outside the long house were two sets of swords and shields. A Viking battle ensued.
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We drove across a ten mile bridge from Zealand to Funen. In Funen we stopped in Nyborg. Ok town. We picked up some snacks and merchandise at Normal.
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We spent tonight at Broholm Castle. When planning for this trip, I searched for unique stays, Denmark’s got quite a few but the one that caught my eye and was on our route was Broholm Castle - beyond just visiting a castle, we also spent a night in one. I had been looking forward to this night for two months. The castle did not disappoint. The rooms were basic, however, guests had free range of the entire castle. We hung out in these amazing castle rooms before and after dinner. Truly felt like royalty. Stuffed quail dinner at the castle’s restaurant. To cap off the magical experience, there was a rainbow over the castle when we left in the morning.
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Odense was Han Christian Andersen’s birthplace. The town celebrates this one of the best museums I’ve been in period - a well organized museum that takes you through HCA’s life and recaps many of his short stories. We took a walk around town before visiting the museum. There’re are a few statues related to HCA’s stories. The Emperor Has No Clothes statue captured Trump perfectly.
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I thought Charlotte would like the HCA museum - she saw more museum with a gift shop at the end than a beautiful showcase of all her favorite stories. Although HCA’s stories are a bit dark. Disney had to rewrite a happy ending for The Little Mermaid. The museum is stunning, absolutely beautiful on both the exterior and the interior. Beautiful displays that summarize HCA’s life and stories. The museum was smaller than I expected – we spent less than an hour here but even if Charlotte wasn’t racing to the gift shop we still would have been here for less than two hours.
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