Kronborg Castle, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Deep Fried Pork

“Alas poor Yorrick...” yadda, yadda, yadda. Today we took the train up the coast to Helsingør to visit Kronborg Castle which sits on a bluff facing Sweden, and which was the model for Elsinore Castle in Will Shakespeare’s Hamlet although there was no indication that Will ever made it to Denmark. Go figure. The structure dates back to the Middle Ages when it was heavily fortified and the Danish kings could use it to control entrance into the Baltic Sea – don’t pay your shipping tax to pass through, prepare for canon fire. It was your typical castle-ish sort of place, I’ve seen them in France, I’ve seen



entrance to the courtyard

them in England, there’s only so much I can take of this Game of Thrones kind of atmosphere, so as the others were preparing to check out the battle casements in the lower level under the living quarters, I trotted back to the train station and made for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which I LOVED.

 

not a castle, just the train station in Helsingør

who doesn't love a Joan Miro?

 I thought the Louisiana was mostly a sculpture garden but there are extensive galleries inside as well, and what was displayed from the collection as well as the two temporary exhibits was fantastic. It reminded me very much of the DIA Foundation’s collection in Beacon, NY (http://placestogo-manomi.blogspot.com/2012/09/diabeacon.html) although it’s on a much smaller scale. The garden is terraced with sculptures on different levels, almost all of them involving a view of water or woods. It was raining when I walked from the train station to the museum, but not very hard, and it cleared just as I got to the museum. I walked around the sculpture garden for a while and then headed in to the main galleries to look at the museum’s collection, and then to the two special exhibitions. The first exhibition I viewed was by Tara Donovan and it was totally spectacular – ordinary materials sculpted to quite extraordinary outcomes; and then I wandered through the retrospective of Yoko Ono’s work. Yoko started out as a visual artist and then moved toward music, sound, performance, and conceptual art. There were videos, sculptures, writings, photographs, articles, and interactive pieces on display. Her philosophy is simple and her message is clear... peace, love, look around. A lot of it was wacky but nevertheless, I thought it was pretty moving.  

instantly recognizable as Alexander Calder

 

Tara Donovan - folded mylar filling a room

sheets of plastic

After the museum, I took the train back to Copenhagen, and then the S train back to Sølrod Strand and met up with the gang for dinner. We took the S train two more stops down the line to Køge and on Bo and Laila’s recommendation, had stegte flæske for dinner at a quaint little restaurant that was not on the tourist path. Stegte flæske is roasted pork which is then sliced and fried. It’s served with boiled new potatoes and a parsley cream sauce; The blood has just been flying through my arteries lately so I’m sure it was fine... You order the dish per person and it’s served family style and we determined that while we had ordered for four (the kids chose other dishes) the amount brought to our table easily could have served twelve. It’s a delicious dish though and totally traditional so we decided that eating a plate of deep fried sliced pork was justified in the name of cultural experience. 


scene of the crime...

order for four, get enough for twelve - pork - roasted, sliced, and deep fried

One serving. I wish I could say I didn't have seconds.



in Køge



Roskilde



heading out - the residential road in front of our cottage

When the annual rock festival isn’t on, the big draw to Roskilde is the Viking ship museum and the Domkirke which is the Westminster Abby of Denmark – a church from the middle ages where Danish kings and queens are buried. The draw for me to Roskilde was the idea that it would be a nice bike ride from Solrød Strand. I talked to Bo and Charlotte about the distance, the terrain (there are no hills in Denmark), and whether or not it was a good idea – Bo was a little skeptical about the distance (about 15 km) but Charlotte thought it would a very nice ride and drew me a map of how to get there on the bike trails. So Susan, Chuck, and I set out in the morning on our trusty bikes and had a really nice ride to the town.

on the way to Roskilde

Susan and Chuck went into the Viking ship museum but I couldn’t muster enough interest in recreated and excavated Viking vessels (I just kept thinking of Far Side cartoons) so I sat out in the sunshine with my book while they looked around for about an hour. Then we rode to the Domkirke which Chuck, having been there before, said is quite phenomenal, but we couldn’t get in because guests were arriving for a very formal wedding taking place there. I can’t imagine that the inside of the church was more spectacular than some of the gowns we saw on the ladies, and having been in old churches all over Europe, I really didn’t mind missing the interior; European churches eventually all look alike, with the possible exception of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona which might be the only one which has made a real impression on me (don’t get me wrong, Notre Dame is a site to behold and the cathedral in Salisbury is pretty cool, I’m not a complete Philistine), but like I said, the real event for me was the bike ride. Until we started for home. And it began to rain. And rain. And the wind began to blow. Gale force. Possibly an exaggeration but the slight inclines which we should have been able to coast down became a struggle in first gear. We sat out the worst of the storm under a bus shelter for about 20 minutes and then continued on, peddling and dripping until we got home. It was still a nice day though and it was even a nice bike ride. The bike paths here are fantastic – there’s practically nowhere you can’t get to on a paved path, which is either completely off the road or clearly designated along-side the road. And while the ride home was in a way quite awful, it never really crossed over to painful. I think the photos show that it was in fact a delightful day.

 

Legoland and Stevns Klint

Instead of being rife with commercialism or being one giant commercial for the purchase of Legos, this place is a true homage to what can be done with the little colored bricks and a lot of creativity. It’s way more about engineering and imagination than commerce. The drive was a little over two hours and it poured most of the way but was sunny and dry by the time we go there. We spent the whole day there looking at the scenes – everything from landmarks in Copenhagen to scenes from the Star Wars movies. Many of them had motorized components including locks that took little boats through canals and trucks and cars that circled towns (no tracks in sight they must have been “programmed” some way). The tourist season hasn’t quite started in Denmark yet so there wasn’t much of a crowd which was great, and we never waited for more than a minute or two in the lines for the few rides (couple of fun/small roller coasters [made from steel not Legos]). Hotdogs for dinner before we left the park (Danish hotdogs... soooooo different from American dogs...) and an easy drive home with no rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

just under a million Legos used in this replica of the queen's palace in Copenhagen

To get to Legoland, we had to cross the Storebæltsbroen or "Great Belt Bridge." Next time you feel like complaining about the toll on the 520 bridge, it's $40 each way to cross this one.

We had the car through the next afternoon so first thing in the morning, Chuck drove Susan and me to Stevns Klint which is very old church (1250-1300) on a cliff that started eroding into the sea o the 1920s. The part that started dropping off was the old cemetery, and apparently, the coffins started sticking out of the cliff wall, exposing skeletons and other grisly matter.

After that excursion, we drove back to the rental lot at the airport, returned the car, and took the metro into Copenhagen for a little shopping at Magasin which is the Saks (sort of) of Denmark. Really nice department store with a beautiful housewares department from which I would have loved to have completely re-outfitted my house, if luggage and budget were not considerations.

The entire gang (Bo, Laila, Chartlotte, Per, Theresa, Alberte, and another cousin, Anita, plus Helle a Dane whom Ellen and Susan knew in Sacramento and who now lives in Denmark) were coming over for dinner so we got back in time to greet them for our “American night” party. These lovely people brought us all gifts – candy for the kids and two wrapped presents, one for Chuck and Ellen and one for Susan and me -- which turned out to be really nice Danish flags, one for each of us. I’ve said for years that being close friends with Ellen for so long makes me an honorary Dane, now I have the flag to prove it.

Theresa and me - she had fun reminiscing about her junior year abroad in Springfield, Illinois

 

Blue Planet Aquarium

Since all the others in the group live in Northern California and spend a lot of time at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Blue Planet (billed as the “largest aquarium in Northern Europe”) didn't quite measure up, but it was a nice way to spend the morning. We got there before the crowds and left around lunchtime, wandering into the neighborhood near the aquarium for a schwarma before taking the Metro to the airport where we picked up a rental car for the next day’s excursion.

check out the clownfish in the lower left - I heard "look, there's Nemo" in four languages

tank full of piranha

The evening’s entertainment was dinner at Charlotte and Per’s house. Charlotte is cousin Laila’s daughter and her house is a fifteen minute bike ride from where we are staying. They have a lovely backyard and they grilled hamburgers in honor of their American guests. Theresa (another cousin’s daughter) and her seven year old daughter Alberte were also there and we had a great evening with all the relatives.

Susan, Laila, Charlotte, Theresa, Bo, Ellen, Per, and me

Danes start learning English around the second grade so all Ellen's relatives spoke English. Sometimes they would struggle with a word and check with one another in Danish for specific translations but communication with them (and everyone at tourist destinations, shops, train stations, etc.,) was no issue. Alberte had just completed the first grade so her English was just the basics she had picked up from Theresa (who works for the Red Cross and speaks English every day at work, but Danish at home) and was fairly limited to "yes," "no," "thank you," "hello," and the like; I think she said "pleased to meet you" when we were introduced - adorable. Torunn and Steen can say about the same in Danish which a few other phrases for favorite Danish foods thrown in, but apparently the language of childhood is universal because the three of them ran around the yard playing (and Charoltte and Per have a dog who also spoke the universal language...) and having a great time despite their limited ability to actually converse with one another.

Steen 10, Alberta 7, Torrun 12

I’ve been hearing about all these people for the twenty years I’ve known Ellen, so it was wonderful to meet them in the flesh – incredibly friendly, hospitable folks who couldn’t be nicer.

A Bike of One's Own

 

Today our first order of business was to get our own bikes for the rest of our stay. We made our way to Biskeli which rents bikes; when the bikes are no longer suitable as rentals, they are refurbished and sent off to people in need in Africa. Our big plan was to get our bikes, get back on the train to Sølrod Strand, pack a picnic lunch and go for a bike ride around our town.

getting our bikes home on the S Train

The weather could not have been better. It was sunny and warm bordering on hot, and we couldn't get over how gorgeous it had been for our first few days here (a situation Ellen assured us was more miraculous than just general good fortune). By the time we had stopped at the grocery store and made lunch, we were hungry enough to skip the picnic portion of the ride we intended and instead took our sandwiches down to the beach to eat there before heading off. Thirty minutes later, it was raining as hard as it has ever rained in the history of precipitation (with the possible exception of my day at the U.S. Open last year http://www.placestogo-manomi.blogspot.com/2012/09/tennis.html).
 

We finished our lunch in the shelter of the covered back porch, played a fun dice game Susan had brought for just such a situation, and by the time the rain finally let up, Bo had offered to give Susan and me a driving tour of the area and had come to fetch us. Chuck came as well while Ellen rode off to the grocery store to get supplies for dinner.

Bo gave us a tour of the suburban/country-side past farm lands and fields, ancient churches, and spectacular seaside neighborhoods. He drove us around for almost two hours giving us commentary about the history of the area and taking us past pretty vistas and flowering fields.

 

 

 

Landmarks

Today we went into Copenhagen and Ellen gave us a tour of family landmarks (her favorite aunt's former apartment, the primary school her mother attended, the family plot at the cemetery, and other places from her childhood), as well as more obvious points of interest (the queen’s residence, the famous port neighborhood, beautiful parks). I had been to Copenhagen once before and remembered it fondly but didn't quite recall the booming metropolis it has become. And all those bikes... everywhere, ridden by everyone ("bike clothing" rarely seen [people are in their work clothes], helmets are non-existent except on very young kids who aren't seen much on the city streets anyway; city riding is about transport not leisure). I love walking around cities, but being on foot seemed uncool and inconvenient in this realm; we had a really nice day of city sightseeing, but it was a beautiful sunny day and we were all wishing we could join the crowds on two wheels.

lots of old courtyards...

...and new buildings

modern architecture

the new opera house

needs no explanation

Nyhavn

the queen's palace

 

Copenhagen: City of Bikes

[Prologue re: traveling with extremely limited internet access. Okay, maybe it wasn’t like losing an appendage, but I definitely did felt the loss of not being able to email my friends and post the blog as I went. The house where we stayed didn’t have a connection so every once in a while I’d peddle to the nearby library and use their wifi for a few minutes to check my email on my phone and say a quick hello to Peter and Cheryl; it would never occur to me to miss my work email while traveling, but it was a little strange not to keep in close touch with my friends or post to the blog every night – the whole point of the blog being to document a trip, as much as I can, while it happens, since I will have forgotten so much by the next day. That being the case, I wrote the posts each evening and saved them and I am inserting the photos now and uploading. – M. June 21, 2013]

I think people know about Amsterdam's bike culture but I can't imagine it has anything on Copenhagen. Most city streets have designated bike lanes with designated bike traffic signals, there are huge parking lots for bikes near the Metro stations, the commuter train we take from the little town where we're staying into the city has designated train cars for bikes, and even the highways out of town have bike lanes -- the entire population seems to travel by bicycle. The country being so flat - it's no wonder; the country being so cold... not sure how that factors in so many months of the year - probably not at all, they're hearty folks, these Danes.

bike parking lot in Copenhagen

I arrived two days ago after a quick transfer in Reykjavik. Ellen met me at the airport in Copenhagen and we took the Metro to the S train (the commuter line) to the town of Sølrod Strand, a little town south of Copenhagen where Chuck and Ellen had rented a little holiday cottage. Chuck, Ellen, the kids, and Susan, a friend from Sacramento, had arrived the previous day and settled into this great little seaside bungalow. It was a ten minute walk from the S Train station to the cottage which is at the very end of a dead-end road; the backyard has a gate right to the beach – nothing fancy but very comfortable for the six of us with easy access to Copenhagen.  

bike car on the S Train

The rest of the day was spent visiting with some of Ellen's relatives who dropped by to greet me. Ellen picked this town for our base because it’s where her cousin Laila and Laila’s husband Bo live. I also took a nap as I hadn't slept at all on the overnight flight to Reykjavik; we had an early dinner on the back porch where we have so far eaten all our meals, the dining room in this house promises to go totally unused given the glassed in back porch, and then we all went to bed early with the northern night sky still completely full of light.

 

our little cottage

dinner on the back porch
Chuck, Steen, Susan, Torunn, Ellen

 

the gate connecting our backyard to the beach is just beyond the big tree to the right

the stretch of beach behind our cottage