James Moar

That was my last full day in Denmark, flying back to London tomorrow and home the day after.

Dessert was a traditional Danish dessert, æblekage. It’s stewed apple topped with cream, and restaurant menu translations disagree about whether it’s a cake, a stew or a crumble.

Tenderloin stew with paprika, bacon and sausage for dinner (no lunch today).

Foodposting — as the park didn’t open until 11 I made a leisurely start and had pastries and filter coffees for breakfast.

Also did a centrifuge ride, and the park’s three rollercoasters which are harder to get pictures of. One of those, Rutschebanen, is the oldest coaster still operating in Europe.

It dates from 1914, is wooden, and it’s interesting that it’s very train-themed, maybe suggesting rollercoasters hadn’t become fully abstracted from their trainlike elements yet? It has turns and peaks, but is *relatively* sedate compared to the later coasters.

The most recent coaster, called The Demon, is much faster and has much sharper turns even before it starts combining those with upside-down loops.

Also did this tower drop ride — you get raised to the top, dropped in freefall, then decelerated and waved a few times before being returned to the ground.

This ride (called Tik Tak) is an evolution of a spinning-teacup ride. It adds a tilted floor, and seats that rock back and forth, meaning the ride moves on several axes at once. The seats eventually rick hard enough to start doing 360 degree loops during the ride.

This is the ride I chickened out of (though as a contributing factor unlike the other rides you weren’t even allowed to carry items in zipped pockets.)

The park dates back to the late 19th Century, and some of the older parts have this sort of Chinoiserie to them. Meanwhile the most recently added section goes in for Japonisme with much more current themes.

Spent most of today at Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park in the centre of Copenhagen. Went on several of the rides marked as “For the Brave” on the map.

Tomorrow’s my last full day in Copenhagen. Planning to visit Tivoli Gardens, a pleasure garden and amusement park.

The castle was the main thing I did today. Also went back to Copenhagen and went round the Museum of Copenhagen though, taking advantage of Thursday late night openings.

Poster of actors who have played in Hamlet at Kronborg Castle — Vivien Leigh was playing Ophelia rather than being cross-cast as I initially assumed.

If you’re wondering whether Kronborg plays up its Hamlet connection — yes, it very much does. At weekends there are some scenes played in their ‘actual’ locations. There’s this wall carving of Shakespeare and a bunch of Hamlet goods in the giftshop.

The Great Ballroom of the castle, its largest room.

Holger is supposed to sleep in the casemates under Kronborg castle, a maze of passages which served as soldiers’ living quarters and a line of defence (being thick-walled with small windows that facilitate firing out into open space more they do than firing in)

The casemates can be explorer by visitors today, but they’re surprisingly underlit for a space you’re meant to make your way through, without warning of that.

(Maybe they’re just trying to make sure it’s nice and dark while Holger’s having his snooze.)

Statue of Holger Danske (or Ogior the Dane), a figure from the Matter of France. The same ‘hero who sleeps until his country’s time of need’ story that attaches to both King Arthur and Charlemagne is also told of Holger, though he’s a slightly lower-ranking figure than the usual for the story type.

Two of the tapestries in the castle. The tapestries depict royal figures, mostly fictitious and used to build up the lineage of the monarchy at the time.

The castle chapel. This is the interior closest to how the castle as a while would have looked in Shakespeare’s time — fire gutting the castle not long after resulted in rebuilding in a different style. If you want to connect Hamlet with actual castle locations, Claudius prays here.

Entrance gate to the castle courtyard. Statues are of Poseidon and Hermes.

View from the sea wall of the castle. It stands next to a narrow strait between Denmark and Sweden, and the Swedish city of Helsingborg can be seen across the other side (yes, very similar name to Helsingør.)

The original purpose of the fortresses on both sides (Sweden and Denmark were united at the time) was to control access to the strait and charge transit fees. A little historic anecdote with no present-day resonance.

Kronborg seen looking up from the innermost of the three moats.

View across a couple of the moats surrounding the castle. Helsingør is a harbour town — a lot to do with why the castle was built — and the moats connect to the seafront.

Main thing I did today was visit Kronborg Castle, some way to the north of Copenhagen. It’s the castle Hamlet is set in — the name Elsinore is an Anglicisation of Helsingør, the castle town.

To caveat that ‘set in’, the story of Amleth which Hamlet is based on is set in Jutland, not on the island of Zealand where Copenhagen and Helsingør are, while Kronborg was a very new castle when Hamlet was written, having been built within Shakespeare’s lifetime.

There was an older fortress, Krogen, on the site, but that wasn’t the settled royal residence Elsinore clearly is.

Pizza for dinner, with ragù, peppers and onions.

Foodposts first. More smørrebrød for lunch. One was salmon with taramasalata and a pesto dip, the other spiced herring with pickled veg and sour cream dip.

Right, that’s it for tonight. Hoping to get to Kronborg Castle (aka Elsinore) tomorrow.

Unusually, for most of its height instead of stairs it’s climbed by a ramp stretching across the tower, with only a small core at the centre which it spirals round. (There are stairs towards the top.) Some side galleries now stretch into the church building.

After the museum, and a false start in getting back from it, I visited the Copenhagen landmark the Round Tower (Rundetaarn). Attached to a church, it was once an astronomical observation tower.

Important early work on measuring the speed of light was done there (including establishing that it *has* a speed), though the Einsteinian complications came a lot later.

This train carriage had a large section (about twice the width pictured) primarily designed to stow bikes in. It’s Denmark, this is probably just practical space allocation.

Even a ‘little manor’ like this one still uses the same building techniques as smaller Danish farms.

A Faroese croft. The stone building is like some older Orcadian ones, the wood is from driftwood.

There are a few Swedish buildings at the park, with noticeable differences from the Danish. They’re built largely of wood using horizontal beams, and often have turfed roofs. Most are unpainted instead of Danish whitewash, but this is a striking exception.

Apparently the Danish use of timbering has roots in wood being reserved for the Navy — while it still uses some, of course, it’d be less than the Swedish buildings.

This windmill stands on a shaft so the entire mill can be turned to face the wind.

This is both an example of whitewash over the beams and one of the most unsteady-looking buildings in the park. Many of the larger farms, like this, are wrapped around a square courtyard with large cobblestones for paving.

While there are some examples of other wall colours, most of the buildings were whitewashed, either between the beams (the nicer effect) or right over them.

Main thing I did today was visit the Open Air Museum (Frilandsmuseet) north of the city. It’s largely dedicated to farm buildings. Historically Danish ones had a very strong tendency to be half-timbered with thatch roofing. Not quite sure what the infill tended to be, though.

For dinner, malatang (hotpot). Instead of the communal cooking approach, pick out the bits to put in it and choose a broth, and they bring it to you. I chose a herbal beef bone broth.

Foodposts first. Lunch at the Open Air Museum, frikadeller with a slice of rye, pickled veg and potatoes.

8 Sept

Stegt flæsk, the Danish national dish. Fried pork belly with new potatoes and parsley sauce.