Helsingor turns out to be a nice place to walk around for a day, and it’s a good place from which to go see a couple of nice attractions, Frederiksborg Castle and Fredensborg Palace and the Royal Gardens around it.
Like other Scandinavian cities and towns, it has its cute old town, with narrow cobblestone lanes with restored and maintained old buildings.
Anna Queens Straeda, a famous cobbled street in Helsingor
Skyttenstræde, a historic cobblestone alley located in Helsingør
Carmelite Priory and St. Mary’s Church in Helsingør. Founded in 1430
You may ask, but what do you do besides walk around. Myung is into European churches and the amazing art in the museums. We learn the history in other museums. Picking out a couple of places like that is a good way to get started on just seeing things a little deeper and observing the locals’ behavior. We kind of do as they do, like sit in coffee shops, ride the trams, ferries or whatever here and there, and go to the parks. And we take pictures for our own memories. I like what pops up on my desktop slideshow screensaver. I also like how Myung and I have something in common, like walking around bemused by any old thing. It’s always been that way.
Cute doors in old town Helsingør
Kronborg Castle in Helsingor is Elsinore in Hamlet, written between 1599 and 1601. Shakespeare likely never went there, but actors in his plays did go there for several months in 1586. Features of the castle and Danish customs were well known, so some of the play is close to a possible reality. To be sure, Hamlet was not a real person and the events are fictitious. That doesn’t keep the tourist industry in Helsingor from taking full advantage of the fame.
Kronborg Castle in Helsingør
Inside the courtyard of Kronborg Castle
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy:
In Korea, we call this kind of setup a “photo zone.”
A better castle is Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød. Frederik the Second’s son, Christian the Fourth, built this because he wanted a better castle than Kronborg. He had an enormous ego and compared himself with the likes of Caesar Augustus. Hmph! Denmark is about the size of the nascent Roman “empire” when they defeated the Samnites in the early 3rd century BC. Anyway, it’s a good attraction.
Frederiksborg Castle (Frederiksborg Slot) located in Hillerød, near Helsingor
Danish Renaissance architecture, built by King Christian IV in the early 17th century. Current Use: Houses the Museum of National History (Det Nationalhistoriske Museum), featuring a vast collection of portraits and historical paintings.
Neptune Fountain in Frederiksborg Castle
Chapet in Frederiksborg Castle
Pipe organ in the chapel in Frederiksborg Castle
Ceiling painting Gefion pløjer Sjælland ud af Sverige (Gefion ploughing Zealand out of Sweden) by Lorenz Frølich, located on the walls/ceiling area at Frederiksborg Castle
Great Hall in Frederiksborg Castle
Baroque garden and Frederiksborg Castle. These hedges don’t look shoulder high, but they are.
Even closer to Helsingor is Fredensborg, where the Danish Royal Palace and Gardens are. The king and queen live there when they aren’t in Copenhagen. In fact, they were there when we visited. You aren’t allowed to go in, but you can walk around the outside and in the gardens.
Changing of the guard at the Royal Palace in Fredensborg
Changing of the Guard at the Royal Oalace in Fredensborg
In the Royal Gardens in Fredensborg. The leaves are beginning to change already, now in the first week of September.
Lakeside restaurant at the edge of the Royal Gardens
That was the last place we went before taking the ferry 4.5 km across the water to Helsingborg, Sweden and the train up to Gothenburg. We are there now, and I will blog about it next. Until then…
In a Prince Hamlet photo zone