Hamlet, Hygge, and HEY I CAN SEE SWEDEN FROM HERE! - Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen, Denmark
Where I stayed
AirBnB.com home
Today was an amazing day of castles and culture. (note: hopefully that means tomorrow is liquor and lowbrow)
We took a train 40 minutes north to see Fredericksborg Castle, yet another Danish castle. If it's possible, this one was even more over-the-top grand than yesterday's. Set on a lake, this ginormous Baroque masterpiece had all the towers and spires of fairytales. Beyond the lakeside setting, however, it was weirdly surrounded by suburbia, but lovely nonetheless. We spent a few hours exploring the castle rooms and grounds, and then hopped another train farther north. We had one more castle to see: Kronburg Castle, also known as Castle Elsinore from Shakepeare's Hamlet.
For those unfamiliar, "Hamlet" takes place at this castle, as Hamlet broods over whether to revenge his father's murder. But here's the thing: Shakespeare never set foot in Denmark, and Hamlet never existed. But that hasn't stopped centuries of (mainly British) tourists flooding this castle town, asking where Hamlet's grave is. Well, he may not have been real, but tourism money talks. So they built a Hamlet's Grave nearby to satisfy the hordes. They seem to have a love-hate relationship with Hamlet here; we heard a tour guide sneering to a group that "I hope you didn't just come here to find Hamlet," but yet they sell To Be Or Not To Be T-shirts in the gift shop, and show Hamlet performances in the courtyard all summer. For us, the castle was just cool. It sits out on the edge of a bluff overlooking the North Sea, and you can see the buildings of Sweden from the beachhead. It's all very brooding and dramatic, much like Hamlet himself. And cold. Really, really freaking cold.
After our literary expedition, we wandered the castle's town of Helsingor. It was very cute and snug in a wintry European way- lots of twinkly lights on the pedestrian-only cobblestone street, and holiday-festive arrangements of veritable TUBS of liquor were set out for Swedish day trippers (note: the Swedish drink. A lot. In massive quantities.). We stumbled upon a very hygge-Danish cafe that had candles burning and low-timbered ceilings, and served us smorrebrod sandwiches and coffee and stuck us with another $50 tab. (go ahead, Denmark, and do your worst. I've already paid $9 for a cup of coffee, you can't hurt me anymore.)
(Also, side note on the burning candles thing. Every single castle we've been to mentions that it's been burned to the ground a MINIMUM of two times. Yet everywhere we've been in Denmark features a lethal combination of open table flames and drunk people. Seriously, Denmark, I'm just saying, perhaps there's a pattern here.)
After our late lunch, we got back on the train and headed south back to Copenhagen. We got off halfway before Copenhagen in a little town that houses the famous Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. They had a Jackson Pollock exhibit or something. I'm not sure. I tend to tune out modern art as a general oxymoron. Matt seemed to like it, and he bought me some gingerbread to keep me pacified during the visit, so it's all good.
We had planned to storm Tivoli for another round of Christmas-awesomeness, but we ended up killing a bottle of wine with our wonderful Danish hosts (we are staying in their apartment through AirBnB.com). Tomorrow we plan to hit the Carlsberg Brewery, and attempt to find Copenhagen's best pastry.