ODENSE AND ON TO VEJLE, DENMARK – AUGUST 25th

It’s Thursday morning and we’re on the train to Vejle in Jutland, Denmark. Last night was our final stay in a CabInn Hotel, five in Copenhagen and two in Odense. We’re thinking now, that’s enough of tiny hotel rooms (Photos below). Yes, we’d do it again because it’s a significant savings, quite clean and well located. But, it will be nice to have a bit more room to maneuver.

The last few days have been a mix of overcast, mist, light rain and sunshine…nothing to slow us down though. In our brief stay in Odense, we took a short picturesque river cruise down the Odense River which runs through the center of town (Photo below left). Odense is to Denmark as the Salinas Valley is to California; it is one of the most fertile areas of Denmark and where most of the Country’s fruits and vegetables are grown.

A special town highlight was a visit to the birth home of Hans Christian Anderson, located in Odense’s medieval District (photo below center). The adjacent museum is full of interesting tales and anecdotes from the writers amazing life, his drawings and paper cuts and an extensive collection of books. We were particularly struck by his ability to overcome the incredible adversity of his early life and family.

The Hans Christian Anderson house (yellow)

The medieval district has many well preserved homes from the 17^th century, most being of the brick or half-timbered style. Through the centuries, some of these, particularly the two story buildings, show differential settlement (no longer level) giving them a twisted and unstable look (Photo below).

VEJLE - AUGUST 25th

We arrived in Vejle mid-morning where we immediately purchased train tickets to the nearby towns of Jelling and Horsens. Once we’ve checked into our hotel in Vejle, we’ll spend the afternoon visiting the Jelling Monuments, another UNESCO site. Then this evening and tomorrow morning we’ll be touring Vejle on foot before training to Horsens for the Medieval/Viking Festival.

JELLING – THE JELLING MONUMENTS – AUGUST 25th

In Jelling, we walked to the Jelling Monuments, erected by the 10^th century Viking King Gorm the Old and his son, King Harald Bluetooth. This monument consist of two runic stones, two earth mounds, a medieval church and the more recent finds of buildings, a palisade and a stone ship setting (Photo below left). Combined, the Jelling Monuments are an outstanding manifestation of pagan culture and the transition to Christian beliefs in Scandinavia.

The Jelling monuments site dates back some 1,000 years, when Danes primarily practiced Paganism. The original site of the monuments was defined by a large line of vertical stones in the outline of a ship hull, typical of a pagan worship site (Photo below right). Gorm the Old introduced a runic stone to the site to honor his wife, Queen Thyra.

In later years, King Harald added a second and larger runic stone near the first with the following inscription; “King herald bade this monument to be made in memory of Gorm his father and Thyra his mother that Herald who won for himself  all Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian”. 

Of the two earth mounds on the site, the northernmost mound is believed to be the burial site of King Gorm. However, separate archaeological explorations over several centuries have yet to confirm that belief. The Christian church situated between the earth mounds was erected by King Harald to end the practice of Paganism and cause all Danes to be (by decree) Christian. I suppose what the King says, goes; I can only imagine the consequence of disobedience!

RETURN TO VEJLE

Following a store-bought sandwich and chips picnic in Jelling, we returned to Vejle mid-afternoon and went to the hotel to get settled and regroup. We washed and hung a few of our clothes, easier now that we have a slightly larger room.

We walked Vejle’s main pedestrian street with its mix of modern and medieval shops, discovered a gathering promoting electric cars and bicycles, visited an indoor shopping mall and explored several side streets where we photographed fountains and sculptures. The street was quite busy with shoppers, but unlike back home stores closed promptly at 5 PM.

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed one of our typical budget dinners…a great pizza accompanied by a bottle of Cabernet…not the really expensive one, but a $5.00 (US) bottle from Chile…full bodied, quite good…even better than “two-buck Chuck” (sorry, Chuck!)

TO HORSENS AND THE VIKING FESTIVAL – AUGUST 26th

Our morning was spent walking Vejle’s central district as well as its canal promenade. We also visited the Saint Nicolaikirke (church), where the well-preserved body of “bog lady” is interred, visible under Plexiglas (Photo below left). In early-afternoon we took a 15-minute train ride to the City of Horsens where the annual Medieval Festival was getting underway.

THE MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL

What a fun experience…a first for us. We have Medieval festivals near home at Tilden Park, and also in Marin County, but we’ve never been to one. I always felt they got too rowdy. But this one was a comparatively calm family event…seeming to reflect the Danish culture.

It was a huge event…covered roughly six square blocks of central Horsons. The streets and pathways were covered in heavy wood chips, every structure (tents, cabins, vendor stalls, craftsman shops were all authentically constructed of the era. Gas lamps replaced normal street lights at night and all participants and many visitors were in authentic middle ages garb.

The big event was the Friday parade, the best was to see all the participants and their wide range of costume. Everyone from poor beggar waifs to the working class to the velvet clad medieval royalty were represented. Street performers of most every kind were everywhere (Photos below)

Food was everywhere! We’re not big “foodies” but we did share a huge Danish pancake, spread with a hot chunky apple sauce and folded into quarter-size. Mmmmmmmm! We also snacked on hazel nuts, freshly roasted in a sugar and cinnamon mix too. Then there was the wild boar, just removed from the fire pit (Photo below). Jeannie was in for that; I was skeptical, but decided to go for it. It was delicious! It wasn’t gamey as I expected…much the same as ordinary pork.

We returned to Vejle and our hotel around 8:30 PM. Good thing, as by 10:00 PM we were in the midst of a massive downpour accompanied by an electrical storm! Time to get out of town! Good timing, because we train early tomorrow to Flensberg, Germany, just across the Denmark Border. Hope the rain lets up by morning, although we are just a short block from the train station. Good planning!

We’ll be in Flensburg late morning. Then we walk about a mile, luggage in tow (another reason we pack light), to pick up our rental car at AVIS. Here’s where we hope the AVIS people speak a little English! And, we hope the rain doesn’t follow us!

COPENHAGEN OUT TRIPS

DAY TRIP TO HELSINGOR – KRONBORG CASTLE: AUGUST 20th

Helsingor is a 50-minute train ride from Copenhagen. We walked the old town in the morning before meeting up with our friend Maria from Sweden. We visited an old monastery and enjoyed a latte in a local café.

Once Maria arrived we enjoyed a nice lunch together, then visited the nearby historic Kronborg Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Phto below left)

 Kronborg Castle dates back to the 1430’s, and has been occupied by numerous Kings over the years.  Its initial purpose was to control ship traffic to and from the Baltic Sea along a narrow channel between Denmark and Sweden. It was also the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

When used for this purpose, the King required passing ships to lower a sail in deference to the King’s power and to pay a toll for using the channel. If a ship refused either, a cannon ball was fired ahead of the ships’ bow. If the warning shot was ignored, a second shot was fired intended to hit the ship. Then the ship was required to pay not only the standard toll, but to pay for the cannon ball as well (Photo below right).

Canons positioned to enforce toll collections.

Now Jeannie and I never pass an opportunity to climb a tower. Kronborg’s Telegraph Tower was no exception. We climbed the many spiral stairs up several stories to the rooftop for spectacular views back to Helsingor and across the water to Sweden (Photos below).

View of harbor from tower roof.

Jeannie on the tower roof.

View into courtyard from castle tower roof...Sweden beyond

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ROSKILDE DAY TRIP - VIKING MUSEUM AND CATHEDRAL: AUGUST 21st

This side visit required another train trip out of Copenhagen…only about 20 minutes. The City of Roskilde is situated in a sheltered bay at the end of a fiord leading to the waters of the Kattegat, and enjoys an important Viking history. Roskilde was the first capital of Denmark and founded by Vikings in the 11th century.

VIKING MUSEUM

We set out to visit both the Viking Museum and Roskilde’s UNESCO Cathedral. The modern Viking Museum was built around the remains of five original Viking ships that had been salvaged by archaeologists in the fiord near Roskilde.  The 1,000 year-old ship remains have been carefully excavated and re-assembled in steel frames that re-create the full size and shape of the original ships. (Photos below)

 

ROSKILDE  CATHEDRAL:

The Roskilde Domkirke or Cathedral, built in the 12th century, has been the main burial site for Danish Monarchs since the 15th century (Photo below left). Thirty-eight Danish royalty have been interred here to date, and all their regal coffins are on public display throughout the church. Most of these are quite large and ornate, suggesting the persons popularity and importance in the royalty (Photo below right).

Ornate coffins of some thirty-eight Danish Royalty.

A most unusual coffin has been designed for the current Queen, Margrethe II, and is currently being constructed. It will be partially transparent allowing the interred body to be visible (Photo below). This definitely seems a little gruesome. We can only hope that when it is time for the Queen to join her royal ancestors, her unusual choice of coffins will be viewed favorably by them.

Queen Margrethe II's planned transparent coffin!

HILLEROD DAY TRIP – FREDRIKSBORG CASTLE: AUGUST 22nd

The 40-minute train ride to Hillerod took us westerly from Copenhagen, through some beautiful agricultural countryside. More flat land, fields of grain, clusters of farm buildings and small farming communities. The weather this day was ideal; partly sunny, no rain and moderate temperature.

The Fredriksborg Castle is affectionately known as the “The Danish Versailles”. Seems everyone wants to lay claim to having the most palatial castle, symbolic of power and strength! We must admit, though, it IS beautiful. We have toured numerous castles in both France and Germany; Fredriksborg certainly ranks among the best.

The setting for Frederiksborg is spectacular; it sits along a lakeshore, opposite the Hillerod town center and is prominently visible from the town square (Photo below left). Frederiksborg is a Renaissance-style structure dating back to 1560 (Photos below). The castle is now home to a Danish History Museum.

The castle as seen from Hillerod's central town square.

The castle church is still in use.

The castle’s Great Hall is by far the most extraordinary room; a huge space with tapestry walls, inlaid marble floors and gold-gilded carved ceiling (Photo below left). Paintings, furniture and objects in some rooms exemplify the pompous magnificence of the early period of absolutism. One wing of the castle also is a huge church that now serves Hillerod and surrounding areas, and still retains the private enclosed Royal viewing room opposite the pulpit (Photo below right). 

Aside from the remarkable castle, the surrounding gardens are equally incredible. There are actually two very different gardens; the first a huge symmetrical Baroque garden set out on terraces, with a cascading water feature on the central axis, and surrounded by geometric flowerbeds and neatly shaped shrubs and trees. The Baroque style demonstrates how the ideal of the 1700’s was the human desire to control nature (Photo below left).

The Baroque ideal contrasts distinctly with the Romantic style of the second garden. The Romantic style expresses the passion of the 1800’s for free nature; thus, this garden consists of free-growing woodlands, large lawns, lakes, streams and meandering pathways (Photo below right).

The formal Baroque garden.

The free-nature garden.

EXPLORING COPENHAGEN

Copenhagen is the capital city of Denmark, Europe’s oldest Monarchy. It is quite the amazing city, characterized by castles, Cathedrals, canals and Hans Christian Anderson-type houses. For Jeannie and me, mystery, intrigue and high anxiety have been added; namely my “donating” a wallet to a train station pickpocket plus an e-coli scare in the water system that required boiling before use (a first ever event we were told)! Sure we travel for adventure, but enough is enough!

Jeannie’s response, after realizing no credit or bank cards were lost was “It’s OK…I’m SURE he needed the money more than we do”.  So philosophical she is! Besides, it could have been far worse; we only lost $50 US and my insurance ID cards.

So, we’re here to enjoy ourselves and we will not let this minor incident ruin the rest of our trip. After all, these things happen and, while we never think it will happen to us, we DO plan for such possibilities. We bring with us copies of ALL important cards and documents we’re carrying such as passports, credit cards, insurance cards etc. Plus, I carry a “fake” wallet with old credit cards (closed accounts) and a bit of cash, a strategy that obviously failed in this case. The “lifted” wallet was actually in a lower cargo pant pocket. With its Velcro flap, I thought it quite secure; guess I was wrong!

Bicycles…bicycles…bicycles! That IS Copenhagen! We found it to be a lovely city full of friendly and helpful people. Most speak English which is helpful for mono-lingual travelers like us. The old city center is where most historical sites are and therefor is quite touristy. Nevertheless it is relatively clean with an architectural diversity reflecting its centuries-old history. Its 550,000 population make it one of Europe’s densest cities at nearly 16,000 people/square mile!

Copenhagen does have an incredible public transit system; trains, Metro trains, busses (even public bicycles). All are clean, frequent and on time. One does not need a car to get around. Of course our preferred way of getting around is on foot, and Copenhagen is very walk-able. Our hotel is about one-mile from the central core and we’re walking an estimated five miles each day.

LATTE’S…AN EXPENSIVE VICE

We DO enjoy our daily café’ lattes. OK, call it a vice…it’s our only one. REALLY! So we’re strolling Copenhagen searching for our first Denmark latte…we found a little sidewalk café, sat down and checked the menu. The price…about $8.00 a cup (US$). We almost changed to plain black coffee at $2.00 less, but at opted to pay the premium for the morning fix.

Over the next few days, we came to realize just how expensive it is here…not just in Copenhagen but in outlying communities as well.  We found prices generally about 50% higher than at home, even in the non-touristy areas. Our latte’s are averaging about $6.00…and we aren’t giving them up, just limiting to one a day.

TRAIN TRAVAILS

Copenhagen has a wonderful and extensive rail transportation system, and its relatively straightforward to use. That is unless you’re Maury and Jeannie. Yes, we know the rules…know your train number, know the departure track, remember to validate your ticket in the yellow box before boarding. Twice now we’ve forgotten to validate our ticket and we’ve had to scramble off and back on the train, coming way too close both times to missing it.

And we must confess also to twice boarding trains, getting seated and then, after reading the lighted route information inside, concluding that we were on the wrong train. We’d grab our belongings and out the door we’d go…again! Then we’d quickly realize, no…this IS the right train, and back onboard we’d go! I'm sure other passengers must have thought we were crazy!

Hardly nothing creates greater anxiety than a huge dose of uncertainty over trains. But we keep telling ourselves…how bad could it be; a citation for not having validated our tickets, or having to travel to the next stop if we board the wrong train. Neither would be catastrophic! Oh well, here's the good news; we’ve just about figured out the Denmark trains. However, the bad news is we’ll soon be in Germany; more to learn!

 

CANAL TOUR

We’re not big fans of planned tours, but we do make exceptions. In Copenhagen, the two-hour canal tour along the city’s major canals is one such exception. We find that tours such as this one are useful in getting a basic orientation to a city’s main attractions. It begins in the very touristy, characteristically Danish, Nyhavn neighborhood (Photo below left). The ground-level floors of most the buildings in this photo are restaurants with outdoor seating, by far one of the largest single attractions in the city. The tour also went through the Christianhavn neighborhood (Photo below right).

  



AMALIANBORG CASTLE

One fun activity we enjoyed was watching the changing of the guard at Amalianborg Castle, location of Denmark’s Royal Family Residence; such an impressive sight to see the guards in full dress march into and around the public square. The Royal Family Residence stands majestically in the background as the guards proceed through this daily ceremony. (Photo below right)

As we were walking to the Castle, we passed by an open garage door containing several vehicles, one of which was a beautiful black Rolls Royce Salon car. A guy was in the midst of meticulously detailing the car. One look at the license plate and we knew we were looking at the official car of Queen Margreth II! To our complete surprise, we had no problem at all capturing a photo. (Below left)

Later, while visiting the Royal Garden at Rosenborg Castle, we observed an enormous stage being set up on the adjacent grounds of the Royal Guard. Was this for some huge concert? No, a young Danish teen explained to us that Denmark was preparing to welcome home their troops from Afghanistan.  He told us the Queen would be participating, so we concluded that her car was probably being prepared for that event.

CHRISTIANIA “FREETOWN”

One of Copenhagen’s more “interesting” neighborhoods is Christiania. Freetown Christiania is a self-proclaimed autonomous community within the borough of Christianshavn, once a separate, walled 17^th century city. Much of the city wall was demolished in the 19^th century except for what surrounded the military barracks that is now Christiania. The walls are today considered among the finest surviving 17th century defense works in the world.

Christiania itself is, in essence, a “hippie-style” commune of 850 artists and non-conformist individuals that began with the takeover of the military barracks when they were abandoned by Denmark in the early 1970’s (Photo below left). Although the takeover was not necessarily organized in the beginning, some claim this happened as a protest against the Danish government and a lack of affordable housing in Copenhagen.

We walked Christiania’s main pedestrian street, “The Green Zone”, where hash and skunk weed were sold openly until 2004. We were unable to photograph the Green Zone as photos are prohibited due to fear of authorities’ attempts to arrest drug users.

The people in Christiania have also developed their own set of rules, independent of the Danish government. The rules forbid stealing, violence, guns, knives, bulletproof vests and bikers' colors. And, despite the open use of marijuana (the smells drifts freely throughout the Green Zone), the community does have rules forbidding 'hard drugs', such as cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy and heroin. Clearly the rules allow most kinds of free expression, including painting vehicles in most unusual ways. "Sorry, Jeannie. That one's not for sale!" (Photo below)

Civic authorities have tried unsuccessfully to break-up the Christiania commune, but to little avail as the area has a unique status; it is regulated by a special law, the Christiania law of 1989 which transfers parts of the supervision of the area from the municipality of Copenhagen to the state.

COPENHAGEN’S LITTLE MERMAID

Many of you may remember the Little Mermaid movie based on author Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of a young mermaid willing to “give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince”. Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid sculpture is one of the city’s most visited sites, evidenced by the many tour buses parked nearby. (Photo below right)

We did visit the sculpture as part of our walk along the city’s major waterfront promenade. It does seem odd to us that, of all the historically significant places to see in this city, a fairy-tale based mermaid sculpture would be the big draw.

 

GAY PRIDE

Denmark has an open accepting approach to people and this was exhibited in the weekend parade & party of gay folks. Jeannie and I are always up to taking in new and different cultural activities, so naturally we couldn't pass on this event. We mingled amidst lots of colorful, happy, costumed and beer-drinking “individuals”. What a celebration...lots of street dancning and so many interesting photo ops...interesting to say the least! (Photos below)

DENMARK - THURSDAY, AUGUST 18

We arrived in Copenhagen this morning to beautiful weather…moderate temperatures, no rain at all, just a few clouds. Other than some anxious moments about Delta not being able to find our Atlanta to Copenhagen flight reservations and a roller-coaster landing approach through Atlanta thunderheads, we had a smooth, uneventful flight. 

Copenhagen’s Metro (local commuter rail system) has a terminal immediately inside the airport. We found it easy to use and, as expected, a convenient 15-minute ride to our hotel. Our hotel is ultra-compact, reasonably priced for this city, and is aptly named CabInn. The rooms are modeled after the efficiency of a cruise ship room. If you’ve ever cruised, you’ll have a good notion of what our rooms look like.

The bathrooms are especially interesting; when you’re ready to shower, the entire little bathroom becomes the shower stall…drain in the floor and all. Fortunately there is a shower curtain that allows the water spray to be confined so the toilet paper doesn’t become waterlogged.

Today begins our nine days exploring southern Denmark, spending five days in Copenhagen with day trips to nearby towns; then two days in Odense and two days in Vejle. A special highlight of this leg of our trip will be meeting a friend, Maria Corneliusson, in medieval Helsingor for a visit to Kronborg Slot (castle), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We met Maria during our 2009 visit to Portugal. She lives in Sweden and will travel over two hours by car and ferry to meet us.

Another planned Copenhagen day trip is a visit to Roskilde Domkirke (Church/Cathedral) and a Viking Museum, both in the nearby town of Roskilde. In Odense a visit is planned to the former home of Hans Christian Anderson, and in Horsens, near Vejle, we will join in a large Viking festival. In Jelling, also near Vejle, we’ll be visiting another UNESCO site, the 10^th century Viking burial mounds of Gorm and Harald I, also known as Bluetooth (who doesn't know Bluetooth). And believe it or not, there is a connection between this Bluetooth and the wireless system you're more familiar with.

Enough for now; were heading out for an afternoon exploring Copenhagen on foot. More to come.

DEPARTURE FINALE

Always a little anxious the day before departure; so many things to think about…mostly, what have we forgotten. Looking back on past trips, we’ve done pretty well; at least we’ve never overlooked a super-critical item.

We’ve pre-packed, so now it’s just stuffing the final items into the carry-on’s; triple check…passports…. prescription drugs…boarding passes. We print our boarding passes on-line, allowing us to slip past long check-in lines at the airport and thereby decreasing stress.

Final packing also means being “airport security ready”. So many little rules; liquids in 3oz or less containers, pack these in a easy to reach transparent baggie ready to show to security.  Nothing sharp or pointed…extra baggie for coins, watch…anything metallic to avoid setting off the machines...suggest slip on shoes as they go through X-ray minus your feet! . It helps to mentally walk through the airport process…to visualize the steps. There; I think we’ve got it.

The house and yard are prepared for our absence; household accounts are pre-paid. Neighbors alerted…gardening service arranged for…newspaper and mail on hold…emergency information and itinerary left behind for family. Finally we turn down the hot water heater, turn off or unplug all the energy-sapping electronic devices. No sense wasting energy on an empty home.

Overseas trips generally mean early AM flights; this one’s no exception. Our flight boards at 6:30AM…means we have to be at SFO airport by 5:00AM. Our BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system takes us right into the international terminal; very convenient. We could catch an early AM BART for the one-hour ride to SFO, but our “what-if” thinking deters us; there is the occasional delay and we won’t chance missing our flight. Just yesterday there were major commute delays due to protestors in downtown San Francisco.

So we’ve reserved a hotel room near the airport…one with a free shuttle. It’s a Super 8 with breakfast. Yes, we do travel frugally. But cleanliness is essential and this one is… was recently renovated and up-graded.  Not coincidentally, the hotel is a block away from Celia’s, our favorite Mexican restaurant in San Bruno. http://www.celiasrestaurants.com/

What…Mexican food the night before flying? Oh well, we’ll just risk it…hope nearby passengers aren’t offended. Should be okay…we have aisle seats, so easy restroom access if necessary. Seat selection is important to us…just part of our careful planning.  The first flight leg is to Atlanta, a 5-hour flight. But Margaritas are out this time; the airport shuttle leaves at 4:30 AM. Rise and shine!

Now it’s off to San Francisco and on to Atlanta; then to Copenhagen, our first destination. We’re looking at about 24-hours door to door with layovers etc.

More later,

Maury and Jeannie