Our holiday in Copenhagen
Thursday 26th June
Once again, we left the city, this time heading for Helsingør and Kronborg Slot. The present castle/palace dates largely from the 17th century, though portions survive from the earlier 16th century castle, most of which burned down in 1629. The earlier castle was itself built on the foundations of an even older fortress that guarded the sound, together with a counterpart on the Swedish side at Helsingborg.
Although Kronborg has no particular historical connection with Shakespeare's (largely fictitious) Danish Prince, it is known as "Hamlet's Castle", presumably due to the name of the town of Helsingør being anglicised as Elsinor. There is a long tradition of performing the play in the castle grounds each summer. English language productions over the years have featured, amongst others, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Richard Burton, Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh and Simon Russell Beale, with actors of similar stature taking the role when performed in other languages.
The approach to the castle passes through extensive earthworks, added in the late 17th century as protection against attacks from the landward side (Kronborg was captured in this manner by a Swedish force in 1658). The castle itself is much lighter and more spacious than Rosenborg, and while still pretty palatial, is somewhat less gratuitously opulent. We spent the morning touring the royal apartments, marvelling at the sheer scale of the ballroom in the south wing (at 62 by 12 metres, with a modern height of about 6-7 metres, it was the largest hall in Northern Europe when originally built in 1582) and visiting the rooms where King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) stayed in 1590 with his wife, who was a sister of the Danish king, Christian IV.
We ate a slightly late lunch at the cafe in the outer fortifications. Excellent food (A club sandwich with curry sauce? Tasted good though, so I was happy) good weather, and idyllic surroundings. Perfect. Apart from the sparrow that decided to pass comment by, um, making a deposit on my plate whilst flying overhead. Still, it only hit the fringes of the side-salad, which I rarely finish in any case. Dessert was good too, with the only avian intervention being a particularly cheeky specimen that actually worked up the nerve to eat out of Cal's hand.
After lunch, we walked through the casemates - passages under the earthworks, which served as magazines and, during wartime, barracks. Nowadays, the most famous resident is a statue of Holger Danske, a hero who, according to legend, will rise to defend the nation of Denmark from outside attack. In World War II, one of the more significant Danish resistance groups operated under his name. Holger is mentioned in French medieval epic literature, and Hans Christian Andersen wrote a tale in 1845, telling how he slept in the casemates at Kronborg. The statue is more modern, being a plaster original used to produce a bronze statue for a hotel in Helsingør in 1907.
To end the day, we visted the Danish Maritime Museum, which has been housed at Kronborg for nearly a century. Given that Denmark has far, far, more coastline than land borders, we should have expected a lot of maritime history. Unfortunately, we misjudged a bit and had to skip about half the museum to avoid being locked in at closing time.
Just to prove that continental railway services aren't perfect, our train back to Copenhagen was running so late it was cancelled. However, the next one was due only 20 minutes after the first (therefore arriving only 5 minutes after the earlier service was cancelled) and had plenty of room for all the waiting passengers to get a seat. I hereby state that I am perfectly happy for the British railway system to be privatised, but only on condition that we sell it to the Danes.
In the evening, we made our way to Tivoli once more, to a restaurant which claimed to have served 750,000 racks of spare ribs over the years. We added two more to their tally and left, absolutely stuffed, but happy.
Kronborg Slot, towering over its protective earthworks and the modern
port of Helsingør.
The flat square tower, nearest the camera, was rebuilt in its present plain shape as a flat gun platform, after its more ornate domed form was shot to pieces during the Swedish siege in 1658. It is now known as the "Telegraph Tower", after the signal mast it supported in the Napoleonic Era.
Just to prove that vandalism is far from new - I spotted this graffiti etched into a window pane
in a room in the north-east corner tower at Kronborg. It would appear that Thorkild Jacobsen woz
'ere, 12th July 1926.