Denmark Day 11

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Day 11 A few tidbits I want to talk about before delving into my day: 1. Every day we walk by a bookstore that has 3 window displays devoted to L. Ron Hubbard...I sure hope scientology is not big over here. And 2, they give out free samples of alcohol in the supermarket. Mom had some red vine, but no one else tried the rum and coke or gin that was also available. Pretty odd. Anyway, on to Helsingor! Today we took the train to Helsingor. The train took us up the coast, so we had a view of the coastline, woods, small towns, and sprawling estates. Man the weather was bleak and rainy, which was worse since we were right on the shoreline. Helsingor is not the name of the castle, it is the name of the town. I didn't know that. The actual castle is called Kronborg Slot, and is the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet as well as being 3 separate museums. First, we saw the Royal Chambers. It was pretty grand and neat and all, but slightly disappointing because it had been redone after a fire in the 1600 or 1700s. Instead of ornate marble floors and fancy ceilings, we had plain wood floors and a still impressive ceiling with paintings, although they were stucco. The best part was that most of the exhibits were only half there, with signs stating 5 out of the 16 tapestries are in the Swedish museum taken as spoils of one of the countless wars between the two countries. You could even see Sweden from the shore, the distance between the two is miniscule. The second museum was the maritime museum. I wasn't too interested in the history of Danish ships, but it was still a neat place. We saw some bits on the company my dad is working for, so that was pretty cool. Finally, and my favorite part, was the dungeon! You had to buy a flashlight because it was too dark to see! We also found a statue erected in honor of Holger Danske, who is the big mythological protector of Denmark. I got a good picture of the awesome shrine and also a small statue as a keepsake. But yeah, the dungeon was pretty spectacular. After finishing up at the castle, we grabbed some lunch at a chinese place and then decided to check out the rest of Helsingor. Unfortunately, we learned that most of the shops closed at 2pm on Saturday (really bizare) and we got out of the castle around 2:30. Most unfortunate, so we just got back on the train and traveled the 40 minutes back to Copenhagen. All in all, a great day, even if the weather was lousy. It certainly was a good day for ducks.