Posted by Seth on July 16, 2009 under Uncategorized | 
The grand plans for our summer vacation this year had one main focus: kayaking on the fjords of Norway. A good friend of ours had done a similar trip a few years back and both the photos and stories she’s shared were unbelievably amazing. I say unbelievable because they really seemed that way. And then we went over to Norway and did it ourselves. Now I absolutely believe her and know that she wasn’t exaggerating even the tiniest bit in describing just how amazing the trip was. I believe, and I now get to try to make others believers, too.
The trip we booked was a 6 day, 5 night kayaking and camping adventure. We covered about 100 kilometers across the 6 days – some days as many as 25 and some days as few as 5 – setting up camp along the way on some pretty amazing patches of grass in what certainly qualifies as Top 5 in the most beautiful surroundings I’ve spent time. Even better, we got to do it with 10 other folks with whom we quickly became friends. It was an amazing journey and not without a bit of extra sweat and exertion to make it so.
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| Out into the water on day 1 |
The western fjords of Norway run pretty much the entire coast. Our trip with Coastal Odyssey focused on the Geiranger fjord and the Sunnmøre Alps. The trip began in Ålesund – quite a nice town, really; more on that in a future post – with a bit of drama. Sure, we had read the packing list. We planned, purchased and planned some more. And then we packed everything into a bag and schlepped it through Denmark on the way to Ålesund. And then we met Brian and Jimmy, our guides for the trip. They handed us each two dry bags and simply said, “Make it fit.” Easier said than done, to be certain. We rather quickly determined which items absolutely needed to be dry through the trip and which we could risk a bit of splashing with. And we learned that with two people squeezing and pushing a dry bag can be made smaller than it seemed possible. We left things behind at the starting point and otherwise manipulated our packing but we eventually managed to make it all fit. We even managed to jam it all into the kayak somehow, along with some of the food and other “common” supplies that we’d be using through the week. And with a shove from behind we were off onto the water. Yippeeee!
The skies were blue and the water was crystal clear. The wind was at our back. Everything was simply great. Being out on the water with nothing but the sound of the paddle pulling through the water was incredibly calming and wonderful.
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| One of the goats we met on the island where we lunched day one. |
Day one was a pretty long paddle – about 20 kilometers – and we spent a long time out on the water. It felt good to be out moving and we made great time on the water, no doubt thanks to the wind. Before we knew it we had made it to our lunch stop and then, after a few more hours of paddling, to our campsite for the first night.
The meals were certainly camping food but the veggies were fresh (hard not to be on the first day) and the we settled in to share some stories and otherwise chat as the evening rolled on. And then the bad news came. Brian had been reviewing the weather forecast and the tide charts and our routing for day two. There is one stretch of water where the currents get tricky and if we don’t time it right we’d never make the pass. Unfortunately, to time it right meant leaving the campground no later than 5:30am. That put us up for a 3:30am wake-up call. On vacation. Ouch.
The good news about the 3:30am wake-up was that it was bright daylinght out when we woke up so I didn’t really notice just how early it was and we were pretty much done paddling by noon. We had arrived at our day two campsite and had a ton of time to spare, exploring the grounds of Ytste Skotet, an historic farmhouse that is now operated as a museum. The site has been inhabited since the turn of the last milennium (yup – over 1000 years) and the oldest current building dates back to the 1700s. They do real farming there (though they also have to import some goods because of the number of folks passing through) and they have kids come out to play and live on the farm as part of a summer camp experience. The kids learn all about life on the farm, from chopping wood (yes, they give 7-year olds axes to play with) to where their meat comes from (at the end of the summer the kids are around when the pigs are slaughtered for the following year’s meat supplies). They also cook up some pretty delicious local foods and were incredibly hospitable to us. There was a small stream running through the farm and a pool just off the edge of the farm house where we were able to rinse off in fresh water. The water was cold but certainly refreshing.
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| One of the kids hanging out at the farmhouse the night we were there |
The farmland surrounding the house covers about 750 acres, with fields and trails to go along with the historical buildings. We certainly had no trouble finding ways to spend our time. And we had plenty of time. Thanks once again to the tides we weren’t actually leaving until the following afternoon. We had a full 24 hours off from paddling to explore.
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| One of many fields of flowers on the farm |
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| This is about as close as it got to sunset while we were in Norway. It was light out non-stop! |
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| The view from the outhouse. Not too shabby. |
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| Looking back down at the fjord across the field of flowers |
That’s all for the first couple days of the trip. There are a ton more pictures here, part 2 of the tale is here, and part 3 is here.
Posted by Seth on July 15, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Of the 72 hours we spent “in” Copenhagen a surprisingly large amount was actually spent in the surrounding towns, not the city itself. That is certainly a shame in many ways as the city has a ton to offer for visitors. Plus, it is reasonably compact, easy to navigate and ridiculously well served by mass transit options, making exploration both simple and rewarding. Among the highlights that we got to experience…
Climbing to the top of Vor Freslers Kirke: The spire extending up from the top of the church has an external staircase wrapping around it. Walking up on the outside that high above the ground was certainly exhilarating. And the views of Copenhagen were hard to beat; the top of the spire is the second highest point in town. It is a lot of stairs, some inside and some out, with low overheads and generally an all around “exciting” climb. But absolutely worth it. They also play music from the church bells on the hour through most of the day so you can try to time your climb to match that if you want. - Drink on the Nyhavn: The Nyhavn is the new canal, built in the 1670s to provide access to the central part of town for ships. Then it was a red-light district, complete with rundown bars, tattoo parlors, flop houses and brothels. Now it has been gentrified and is filled with overpriced restaurants and bars as well as a few hotels. So while I wouldn’t recommend spending a ton of time there, the people watching does make for an enjoyable couple hours. Head to the Magasin du Nord around the corner and take a BYOB approach to save a few bucks on the drinking part of the afternoon.
- Wander Tivoli Gardens: This one is somewhat hard to recommend because the admission price (DKK120, ~USD$25) is rather high. Still, the gardens are quite amazing to meander through. Apparently the climate in Scandinavia is perfect for growing roses – they were pretty much everywhere we turned – and Tivoli Gardens is no exception. They had huge displays throughout the park, mixed in between rides and restaurants. I have no idea if the restaurants were any good. A few were recommended but the price point was above my comfort zone. And I’m pretty sure you had to pay for admission to the park first to even get to the restaurants which adds to the crazy costs. But wandering the grounds and enjoying the gardens is definitely a beautiful way to spend some time.
There are plenty of other things to do in Copenhagen, too. There are a ton of museums and enough to see that one could easily spend a full 3-4 days and not cover it all. Pretty much any direction you wander you’re bound to run into something beautiful (and I’m not just talking about the locals). 
Posted by Seth on July 14, 2009 under Internet |
While I love the concept of Aircell’s gogo in-flight internet service, I never really felt that the pricing made much sense. It is too expensive on the shorter flights and since the vast majority of passengers are connecting the costs could really get out of hand in a hurry. Aircell appears to have seen the light a bit and has announced a couple different alternate pricing options since the initial $13/$10 launch point.
The latest pricing option seems to be a change for the $13 version. Previously it was offered for flights greater than three hours in duration. It is now being reported that as of July 15th the $13 option will be a 24-hour day pass. That is great for folks with connections, day-trips or other similar schedules who will have multiple flights in a single day. There is also the $50 monthly option that is available on either Delta or Virgin America. Not sure why they can’t make the monthly good on all their systems regardless of the carrier but I’m willing to bet it has something to do with who gets paid how much for the subscription.
Both of these options, along with the $8 mobile device option are moving very much in the right direction of reasonable pricing for the service. Hopefully the downward pressure on the pricing will continue and it will become a more reasonable opportunity. Or I’ll just continue to read books on my Kindle (which I love) while listening to music that I bring on-board. I do like the down time quite a bit.
Posted by Seth on July 14, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Finding a hotel in Copenhagen was a challenge that I was not particularly excited by. The rooms were generally a bit more expensive than not and that was exacerbated by the fact that the US dollar still carries a rather poor exchange rate with most of western Europe. Still, when I stumbled across the Hotel 71 Nyhavn I was quite enamored with it. The hotel is situated right at the end of the the “new canal” that was built in the 1670s and is housed in two converted warehouses. The reviews online were somewhat mixed – typical complaints of small, hot rooms that one generally finds when reading reviews of European hotels from Americans not used to that style. Plus, the weather forecast that I had seen for Copenhagen had high temperatures in the 70s so the warmth wouldn’t be a problem. The rate was within our budget (for a basic room without breakfast included) so I booked away and hoped for the best.
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| The view of the canal from the back patio of the 71 Nyhavn Hotel (along with some supplies picked up from the Magasin du Nord around the corner) |
The location was truly wonderful. It is a quick 5 minute walk over to the Magasin du Nord department store (one of the largest in Scandinavia) and the associated metro and bus stations that can easily get you to anywhere in town rather quickly. The proximity to Magasin also gave us easy access to alternate dining options that saved us quite a bit of cash on breakfasts and one dinner. In the other direction we found ourselves right on the canal, with easy access to the ferries that ran up and down the main canal.
We even managed to score an upgrade to a Junior Suite, either thanks to dumb luck or that I noted we were celebrating our anniversary in the comments field of the reservation. The room was located up on the 5th floor and looked out onto a side street and the Nyhavn. As a converted warehouse and in keeping with the Scandinavian design aesthetic the rooms were somewhat sparse, with exposed wood beams. Being near the top of the hotel we even had the pleasure of a slight angle in the ceiling of our room near the couch. I was quite impressed with the room and the hotel and convinced that all the negative reviews were just plain wrong. And then night set in.
Unfortunately, because of the design of the hotel, there is very little air flow in the rooms. There is no central ventilation so the only real option is the window. And thanks to the very well sealed entry door there is no reasonable means to create a draft in the room to get the air circulating. Combining this with a bit of a heat wave that saw high temperatures spike into the upper 80s and our window facing westerly into the sun at its hottest time of day and our room became a bit of a sauna in a hurry. We had kept the window open but closed the blackout curtains and those seemed to also block the air flow while letting the noise from the Nyhavn drift up and into the room. Not good. I actually crawled over to the window and slept on the floor for a couple hours because it was a touch cooler there but not really enough to quell the sweating and general lack of comfort in the room.
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| The view of the Nyhavn canal from our room on the 5th floor |
We got a small fan from the front desk and left the blackout curtains open the following two nights, opting to use our own eye masks and earplugs instead. That definitely got around the heat and noise issues and I was able to sleep in the bed and actually enjoy the room quite a bit. But that first night was rather brutal.
Otherwise the hotel was really quite wonderful. The style and decor were right up my alley in the “boutique” genre and the location was absolutely top notch unless you are doing business near Tivoli Gardens and really want to be right there. But even if that is the case it is only about a 20 minute walk to the gardens and I think that the Nyhavn neighborhood is much more pleasant to spend any reasonable amount of time in. As long as you’re able to secure a fan from the front desk or Copenhagen isn’t in the middle of a heat wave the Hotel Nyhavn 71 is definitely worth considering as a base for exploring the city.
Posted by Seth on July 13, 2009 under Dining, Trip Reports |
I have no problems with paying a sizable sum of cash for a truly delicious meal. At the same time, however, I’m not particularly into paying $400-500/person for dinner, nor am I a fan of paying $100/person for blah food. Unfortunately, much of the dining in Copenhagen fits into one of these two categories – outrageously expensive or mediocre (at best) food. That proved challenging to deal with during our three nights in town, but we managed to get by while experiencing a broad spectrum of the options available and not going broke in the process.
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| A kid enjoying an ice cream cone one afternoon in Copenhagen |
First off, the bad. Our hotel was on the Nyhavn, a truly tourist district just across from the opera house. The quarter-mile long strip used to house Copenhagen’s red light district, with brothels and tattoo parlors along the sides of the canal. The storefronts have now converted to a couple dozen restaurants, bars and ice cream shops along the uneven, paving stone drag. And I suppose a few of them might have offered up good food or a reasonable value but we didn’t manage to find that. We did find a $5 scoop of ice cream that was OK and plenty of $12 beers. And we found a place that had a reasonable seafood salad and hamburger, but there is no way that the meal was worth the $85 that it cost. The food wasn’t particularly bad but the value certainly was. So dining on the Nyhavn was pretty much off the list for us, though hundreds of others didn’t seem to mind the mediocrity that it offered based on the crowds we saw. Indeed, I think that having it revert to its previous use might actually be a better use of the space, though that is a different story. And it seemed that dining around Tivoli Gardens was simply asking for more of the same so we were forced to search farther afield for a reasonable meal.
That search led to the Internet (of course) and then to an interesting concept restaurant called Madklubben (translated version here). The restaurant is a couple years old and takes after the typical Danish style of a menu offering a prix fixe menu rather than a la carte dining. But unlike most of the other good restaurants in town the price points on the Madklubben menu were very much in the $50-75/person range rather than the $300/person range. Toss in a bottle of wine from the rather broad wine list and the meal came out to about $200 for the two of us but I was much happier paying that price for the food we got than the Nyhavn meal the previous night. The menu seems to change roughly monthly so there is always something different to try should you go back again.
Our meal at Madklubben was a three course affair meaning that we tasted six different items between the two of us. The smoked herring appetizer was delicious and typically Danish. The broiled bone marrow was plentiful and served with a nice pesto sauce spread that was quite tasty. For main courses we had a pork belly and a brine-cooked beef. Both were quite delicious, with the beef approaching corned beef in flavor and the pork juicy and savory. And then we had the cheese plate and the ice cream with summer berries. It is hard for me to say definitively that any one of the items served was particularly a huge stand out winner and the meal wasn’t the best of my life by any stretch, but the food was all very well prepared and at the end of the night I didn’t feel any disdain or annoyance when the bill came. Oh, and the restaurant had a full-size plastic moose with a lamp sticking out of the head in the entryway which was quite entertaining.
And then there is the best alternative we could come up with for dining – DIY! We were fortunate that our hotel was very close to the Magasin du Nord, the largest department store in Copenhagen. And inside the store, on the bottom floor, there is a grocery, a deli, a coffee shop and a bakery. The bakery and coffee shop served as a great alternative to the $30/person breakfast in the hotel and we managed to put together a quite respectable dinner on our last night in Copenhagen with a quick tour through the aisles of the grocery. A block of cheese, a baguette, some sliced meats, some smoked herring, some grapes and a bottle of wine were more than enough to sate us and it was incredibly affordable. We borrowed some flatware from the hotel restaurant, took our food out to the waterfront at the end of the canal and had a fantastic picnic while watching the traffic pass by on the water and the people pass by on land. All in all, a great alternative to the high priced options of dining in Copenhagen.
And, if you dare, there are always the hotdogs.
Posted by Seth on July 12, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Continental is rather well know for announcing “enhancements” to their OnePass program that are nothing of the sort. This most recent change that they announced doesn’t quite hit that level but it certainly leaves a lot of unanswered questions out there with respect to just how they are able to manage their upgrade inventory and the yields that they are seeing on ticket sales. Sadly for them the answer doesn’t seem good for either of those categories. And sadly for the very frequent flyers in the OnePass program this has translated into what I see as a downgrade for the vast majority of the customers, in the guise of an “enhancement” to the system.
This most recent change follow on a change made in January. Back then Continental expanded their “instant upgrade” program to cover not only the Y fares (the most expensive coach fares) but also the B fares (the second most expensive bucket). These upgrades were available as long as there was a seat in the forward cabin available for sale so access to them was not too difficult except for very close to the date of departure on a couple specific routes (namely EWR-SFO and EWR-LAX). And since the B fares were most commonly the lowest refundable fares available many customers were suddenly getting first class seats for buying their refundable fares where they previously were in coach on those same fares, at least until the other upgrade routines kicked in closer to the date of travel.
So this program reduced the amount of F seats Continental had available to sell and that was a problem. Clearly the solution is to scale back the free instant upgrades on the B fares – an easy enough thing to do – but Continental also doesn’t want to annoy any customers at this point since they are not really making all that money anyways and losing customers would make things even worse. So how to proceed? They’ve increased the availability of instant upgrades for their top-tier elites while reducing them for all elites. That’s right. They’ve both increased and decreased the availability of instant upgrade seats at the same time, even for the same customers in some cases.
Instant upgrades are now available for Platinum elites (top tier) who purchase M fares (third highest fare bucket), in addition to the Y and B fares. That is a net increase. But for all elites the upgrades for B and M fares now come from a much more limited fare bucket. So instead of being available as long as any revenue seat in the front cabin is for sale the instant upgrades now track on one of the reward inventory buckets. It is hard to know just how much this new limitation will actually limit access to seats up front but on its face it seems to be a net negative across the board for folks who are buying the cheapest refundable fare and ho have previously been upgraded immediately at that point.
It is almost certainly better for Continental as they can limit access to the instant upgrade bucket on the routes where they really want to be selling more first class seats, such as the transcon routes noted above. And in many cases those transcons feed into trans-Atlantic routes where the premiums paid to sit up front are even higher except that when there are no front cabin seats available to sell Continental loses that business to competitors.
But is it really better for the customer? At first blush the answer seems to be a bit mixed. Sure, another fare bucket that gets the instant upgrades is a great thing, but the overall reduction of instant upgrade inventory seems to work against that benefit, especially for the Silver and Gold elites who don’t even get the extra upgrades on the M fares.
There is also the issue of their implementation. The change was made in their systems on Friday, the same day that it was announced. Except that instead of only implementing it for the domestic routes where the instant upgrades are typically available they managed to make instant upgrades an option for ALL flights booked in the M bucket, even the longest of the long-haul flights. Want to fly to Hong Kong up front? The M fares are in the $1,500-2,000 range depending on where you are starting from and they indicate that there are instant upgrades available. Of course, these flights are not actually eligible for such upgrades but Continental made a similar mistake when they made the change for B fare upgrades back in January and ended up honoring at least some of those upgrades for free so this has the potential to cost them a bit of money. It is particularly strange that they managed to make the same mistake twice in a row; you’d think that they would learn from prior mistakes. Apparently they didn’t. At least they’ve finally recognized that they did make an error and fixed the website. Now to clean up the mess…
Posted by Seth on July 8, 2009 under Uncategorized |
It should hardly be surprising that travel between the Scandinavian countries is very much a nautical affair. The coastlines are enormous and water is truly integrated into the daily life of the vast majority of folks in the region. And so getting between Copenhagen and Oslo can be done either by hopping on one of the many daily flights between the two capital cities or by cruising with DFDS Seaways on one of their ships plying the waters between the two countries. There is a daily sailing in each direction that takes about 16.5 hours. It is certainly not the fastest way to get between Copenhagen and Oslo, nor is it necessarily the cheapest or the most luxurious. But it is probably the most relaxing and certainly it is an enjoyable way to cover the distance.
The amenities on board the ship are typical of most cruise liners, albeit not quite as involved as the mega-ships of the Caribbean. Yes, there is a sun deck, duty-free shopping, a night club, a discotheque and a few restaurants. But there are no swimming pools, ice skating rinks, rock climbing walls or midnight buffets. The ship carries cars in addition to people which limits the number of passengers a bit but there are still about a thousand folks on board enjoying the crossing. And they seem to be a typical distribution that you’d find on any cruise (at least the few I’ve been on). There are families, a slightly higher percentage of older folks and the random collection of guys that seem to be straight out of central casting as “Jersey Guidos” though I’m not entirely sure where they find those guys in Denmark. There was even the random guy who just walked by at 8am with one open beer and about four more rolled up in his shirt; I hope he realizes that they won’t go bad if he doesn’t drink them all this morning.
The ship sets off at 5pm from the ferry terminal in Copenhagen, plenty late that you get a full day for your last day in Denmark. And it arrives in Oslo at 9:30am, just after the morning rush. In between the coastlines of Denmark, Sweden and Norway are the views off the deck of the ship, scrolling by at about 20 miles/hour. Yes, it is a much slower means of transportation than flying, but it is worth it to take a bit of pause in a hurried life of travel.
The arrival onto the coast of Norway is a rather stark change from the Danish coastline. Sure, most of Denmark that you see is part of the capital city area while the Norwegian coast is decidedly unpopulated a a similar distance from Oslo. And that is also part of the allure of this region of the country. Shrouded in a morning fog there are small islands and towns with a few dozen homes carved into the wooded hills of the coast. Truly rather beautiful.
We’ll arrive in port in another hour or so, back to the hustle and bustle of city life for a few hours before heading back out of town and off to the west coast of Norway and the centerpiece of this trip – the fjords.
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A decidedly craptacular photo of the moon and its reflection on the sea.
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Hmmm…interesting juxtaposition.
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Note: This post is showing up a couple days later than it actually happened because I’m off in the middle of nowhere enjoying the fjords but didn’t want to leave the blog empty all week.
Posted by Seth on July 7, 2009 under Dining, Trip Reports |
One of the bits of advice I received in my planning for the trip to Copenhagen was to “try the hotdogs.” I was assured that they were a great way to get a relatively inexpensive meal (though it truly is relative – they are $5-8 each on the street). And it was suggested that they were really quite delicious. Well, I’ve had the hotdog, and it was definitely less expensive than most every other meal option. But I’m not entirely sure that “delicious” is the word I’d use to describe them. Maybe it is my fault because I ordered the wrong one. But at that price I wasn’t going to try the full range of choices they had. Or maybe it is just that the hotdogs are strange there and I had no business ordering one in the first place. Perhaps I’ll never know.
The hot dog carts are scattered about in the touristy areas of town but not on every street corner or even in most of the squares that we passed through. Perhaps that should have been a hint that it wasn’t meant to be. In fact, I had to eat an extra meal that day and go out of my way to find a hotdog cart because there weren’t any around each time we went to eat. Or, perhaps I should have taken the closure of one of the more written about hotdog options – the Grill at Nimb in Tivoli Gardens – as a hint; even the relatively expensive $10 versions there weren’t enough to keep them in business using quality ingredients so how good could the cheap ones be?
Still, when I showed up at the kiosk near Nyhavn I was reasonably impressed with the selections available on the grill and forged ahead with my plans to dine on these delicacies.
The guy in front of me in line ordered and was served and then it was my turn. I certainly could say the name of the version I wanted in Danish – it was “Frankfurter.” The woman working the cart asked what I wanted on it and I went with the “everything” approach. Perhaps a mistake there, but I was trying to experience the true Copenhagen hotdog and toppings didn’t seem like a place to skimp. I handed over my 30 Kronor and I received back this behemoth, virtually impossible to eat without making a complete mess of myself, especially since I was trying to do so while walking.
I found a quiet place to stop and try to eat this thing. That only helped a tiny bit in the mess department. The dog was twice as long as the bun and the bun did nothing to contain the toppings on the sides. The skin was a bit crunchy – I actually like that in general as it shows the grilled nature of the dog rather than boiled like one gets in New York City – but that also made it harder to eat because it “bounced back” each time I bit in, shaking a few of the toppings loose.
I made it through about half the dog before finally giving up, licking my wounds (and fingers, hands and forearms) and making my way back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to the ferry terminal for the ride to Oslo. I had most certainly been defeated by the hotdogs of Copenhagen and there was nothing I could do about it.
Posted by Seth on July 6, 2009 under Uncategorized |
One thing that Europe doesn’t struggle with is castles to tour. From the heart of Prague to the chateaux in France to the ridiculous number of fortified structures in the Irish countryside, there seems to always be a castle available when you’re looking for something historical to see. Denmark is no different with well preserved castles all over the country. There are a few right in and around Copenhagen that make for great visits when in the area. One of these is Kronborg Castle at Helsingør, home of the King, Queen and – in Shakespeare’s mind – Hamlet.
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| The courtyard of Kronborg Castle |
Hamlet does not really exist in history so claiming that the castle is his home is rather off. But there definitely is a royal castle there and it setting works quite well for telling the tale. Plus, it makes for good business with drawing tourists to the site. The Danes have readily adopted Hamlet into their lore and are happy to tell his tale in Helsingør as long as you’re willing to show up.
Helsingør is about 40 kilometers north of Copenhagen, an easy ride of about 55 minutes on the train from one city center to the other. The castle Kronborg is just a short walk outside of downtown Helsingør and is easily accessible to take a tour or simply to wander around the grounds and bask in the glow of royalty. In fact, large parts of the castle grounds do not have any access controls or admission charges. There were a large number of folks simply taking advantage of the well groomed lawns as a site for their picnics and other summer fun. Certainly it is possible to get a good feel for the castle this way, but to truly experience it takes buying in for at least one of the three tours that they offer.
Of the three tours offered the most enjoyable and focused on the history of the castle is that of the Royal Apartments. As it would seem, the tour covers the residential areas of the castle including the royal chambers, guest facilities and the great hall that is still used even today for some royal events. It is also available to rent if you’re throwing a party, though I have no idea just how ridiculous the rates are. There are occasional guided tours of the Royal Apartments and we were fortunate enough to stumble onto one. Having explanations of the history certainly was better than simply walking through the rooms and seeing old furniture and whatnot.
There are plenty of placards around if a guided tour doesn’t seem to be in the cards, but the guided tour is definitely recommended. Taking the guided tour exposes you to such details as the fact that King Christian IV had “seven children by his first wife, eleven by his second wife and five on the loose.” So maybe half the fun of the guided tour is the translations but it was still rather useful information about the history of the castle.
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| A close-up of one of the tapestries. The level of detail is truly amazing. |
The highlight for me of the Royal Apartments tour was the tapestries. They are incredibly detailed and ridiculously large. Some took four years to produce while others were made with threads of silk, silver and gold (that one is rather smaller). The fact that 500 years later they still show much of the same vibrancy and color is truly impressive.
Another impressive bit from the Royal Apartments was the globes they had on display. There are a couple that are about 500 years old and are not completely accurate but certainly give a great insight into how the sailors of that era navigated. Even with the less that perfect maps they seemed to do a pretty good job.
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| One of the 500 year old globes that they had on display. Truly amazing! |
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| Looking down on the courtyard from the tower in the Maritime Museum. |
Looking out through one of the leaded glass windows in the tower stairs. |
In addition to the Royal Apartments there are two other sections of the castle that require a paid admission. One is the maritime museum. There is a bit of older history there but most of that museum seems to be a display of random models of ships. They are pretty neat but not all that compelling, particularly as many of them are from the modern shipping era. But the Maritime Museum tour does include access to one of the towers of Kronborg. I’m actually convinced that the only reason to pay for admission to the Maritime Museum is to gain access to that tower – the views from up top are pretty amazing. That, or you’re a big fan of Maersk and their history as a shipping company.
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| The statue of Holger, the basis of the Casements tour. |
The other – and most strange – tour available at the castle is of the Casements. The Casements are essentially the damp, dank, dark basement of the castle. The folks running the show have purposefully kept the casements dark. As in black-out level. I actually used the flash on my camera to light up various areas along the way or I don’t think I would have been able to make it through. Of course they are happy to sell you a flashlight/torch as you enter the basement but it is very, very dark without a light. More than just dark, it is really rather strange. The entire area is set up as a tribute to the legend of Holger the Dane. The walls contain messages written in silver paint that tell the story of Holger, a great defender of Danish life and tradition. Still, without a light it is almost impossible to figure out what the hell is going on or otherwise enjoy the exhibit. Even with a light it still seems a rather strange way to experience the Casements, an area that has housed hundreds of soldiers at various times throughout history.
Beyond the Kronborg Castle there is really little else to recommend Helsingør. There is the church and a few other shops. And there is their single largest industry – selling booze to Swedes who come across to save money on the taxes. But otherwise Helsingør is pretty much just the town that holds Kronborg. Not a bad thing by any stretch, but don’t plan on seeing a lot of other things during the visit unless you head over to Sweden, too.
Note: This post is showing up a couple days later than it actually happened because I’m off in the middle of nowhere enjoying the fjords but didn’t want to leave the blog empty all week.
Posted by Seth on July 3, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Our trip to Scandinavia was supposed to only really cover two countries – Denmark and Norway. Still, when I learned that we were going to be visiting a friend of my wife’s up in Helsingør, Denmark – just a 20 minute ferry ride across the way from Helsingbor, Sweden – I became somewhat hopeful of adding that to the trip. That hope was realized yesterday as we headed over to Sweden on the ferry for lunch and to wander around for a couple hours.
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| One of the many ferries serving the Helsingborg/Helsingor route. |
The ferry ride between Helsingør and Helsingbor is quick, cheap and easy, with three different companies plying the route and ferries running several times per hour. And at less than $10 for a return ticket the ferry is actually one of the more affordable things in Denmark. We hopped on Scandlines’s ship Hamlet (cute, right?) and cruised across the sunny calm waters and docked in Sweden about 20 minutes later.
Entry into Sweden consisted of just walking off the boat. No immigration checks. No customs. Nothing. Even if we had wanted someone to check out our passports or if we had taxable items on which we needed to pay duty that would not have been possible as those desks were not manned at the terminal. So we successfully invaded Sweden. We then set off to wander about downtown Helsingborg and grab some lunch.
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Locals enjoying the beach near the ferry terminal in Helsingborg, Sweden.
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Helsingborg, Sweden is a much prettier town than Helsingør, Denmark so wandering around was rather more enjoyable. The shopping areas seemed to be a bit more upscale rather than focusing entirely on selling alcohol to Swedes who cross over to Denmark to avoid taxes on their booze (truly the backbone of Helsingr’s economy). There are also the typical tourist sites, including the 500 year old church and remnants from an old castle. Both are quite well done, actually, and worth wandering over to see.
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The only remaining bit from the castle at Helsingborg.
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A rose out in front of the medieval church. Lots of roses all over the region.
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| One of the many shops in the shopping area of Helsingborg |
We also dropped in to the local Italian restaurant for a surprisingly good lunch. My preferred choice was not available and so I ended up with a curried shrimp over pasta, decidedly un-Italian but still rather delicious. And the carbonara was pretty delicious. As an added bonus, I also got to sample the local beer, a lager by the name of Spendrups. Nothing to write home about, but it certainly qualified as cold, wet and beer, three things that I needed at that point.
Overall I must say that Helsingborg is definitely worth the visit. It is a fun, quaint town and has more to offer than Helsingør, assuming that you’re not looking for Hamlet’s castle. Plus it meant that I got another new country on this trip which is always a good thing!
