We headed to the pedestrian shopping street first to get acquainted with the town and get some coffee and breakfast (pastry). My parents also discovered the cheese shop.
We then headed toward Kronborg Slot, enjoying the narrow streets and Danish village architecture of this charming town.
Kronborg Slot would serve as a nice comparison to Rosenborg, which we saw yesterday.
A scale model of the castle is just within the outer walls. You can see the bastions and buildings that once surrounded this once economically important castle.
The Christians made their mark on the entrance to the castle.
You can see the outline of the cannons that were used on any ships that refused to pay the toll to travel down the Øresund.
For some reason, this time through Kronborg I seemed to be focusing on the fireplace mantles throughout the castle. I love the craftsmanship evident in their creation, whether masonry or carpentry. The nice thing about Kronborg is that it is presented in an authentic way, so you can see how it was likely furnished and decorated when it was occupied.
This man, however, is not original.
The Danes are very precise with their sword positioning.
He, too, is not original to Kronborg.
After seeing the royal apartment, we looked at the castle chapel. The pews of the chapel all have very ornate woodwork with crests that commemorate royalty and nobility throughout the region.
This one, I believe, is in honor of the Stanford Griffins, although it looks like the color scheme is slightly off.
From the chapel we headed to the Casemates of the castle, which are underground tunnels below the grounds. Helgor Danske, the great Danish hero, is resting in the casemates of Kronborg, awaiting his next battle.
The Danish Maritime Museum is also housed in Kronborg, and that was our next stop.
From the maritime museum, you can climb the stairs of one of the castle towers to the roof of the castle and get an amazing view of Helsingør and across the sound.
Our last piece of business in Helsingør was to get lunch. Lunch #3 at the delicious Sicilian pizza place on the Helsingør square. We met Scott Boer there and the four of us had a delicious Sicilian meal including Caprese salad, bruschetta, and pizza. It was nice to see Scott again. His season has also ended, but he is still working with his club as a coach of two of their junior teams.
We took the train back to Copenhagen and went to the airport via the hotel shuttle, which was driven by a Swede. We had some extra time before the flight so we took it by wandering through the shopping area of the airport, which included, of course, duty free shops.
Will somebody who drinks please tell me how this poster helps sell cognac?
Finally, after a just under two hour flight, we made it to Amsterdam. Finding the hotel, though, was a rather unpleasant trek that included a train ride (fine), and tram ride (ok), and a rather long, windy walk through Amsterdam at 10:30 at night thanks to getting off the tram 2 stops too late.
Our hotel room. Hard to find, but family run and pleasant, with a large room. Good thing, as we'll be staying here for the next 6 days.
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