Onwards to North Zealand and Beyond

Monday 22-Jul-2019 (Tasinge (beside Svendborg) to Nyborg)

(Uploaded from Kisa, Sweden, while staying with Hamish and Johanna Struthers)

“Lovely” weather forecast for today, expect drizzle / rain … and 16C – so not such a good day to visit what are said to be one of the most beautiful gardens in Europe… and the associated “slot” (castle to us) – but that is what we will be doing.

But first, a couple of comments about some of the more interesting “tents” that are used here, presumably for glamping (as they don’t seem very portable). We have seen quite a number of yurt-like tents – and, as you will have seen from a previous post, tepees have been noticeable since Croatia (See the post on the Plitvice Lakes). Now we know better – while those in Croatia almost certainly were tepees, many of the others may not have been. Instead they were more probably modern day representations of Saami lavvu’s… not to be confused with a tepee… because although they look the “same”… the lavvu is less vertical, and more stable in high winds!  Apparently, it is also important to not confuse it with the Saami goahti – which also just happens to look like a tepee (sorry Lavvu)…. but is bigger – and may be covered with fabric, peat moss or timber.

Yurt glamping. anyone?

And here is a Lavvu - perhaps with aluminium poles!

Now – about today, Tasinge (the island to the south-east of Svendborg, which is on the island of Funen (or Danish Fyn)). Funen is the third largest island in Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy…  so soon we shall be New Zealanders, visiting Zealand!).

Tasinge has a grand castle (Danish, “slot”) – Valdemars Slot – built in 1639-44, for Valdemar, son of Christian IV – but perhaps he found the thought of life on Tasinge to slow, because he never lived there, preferring instead to be in more adventurous locations – such as wars… where he duly died, at age 34.

Valdemars Slot

A section of the garden at Valdemars Slot - very peaceful.

Ultimately, the whole island, including Valdemars Slot was given to Admiral Niels Juel, who lead the Danish Fleet that beat the Swedes in the Battle of Koge Bay (1677, 8 Swedish ships and 3000 men lost, no Danish ships sunk) – when the King found he didn’t have enough gold to pay the Admiral his prize money (10% of the value of the captured vessels).  The current owners, who live there, are direct descendants of Admiral Juel – 12 generations so far.

As we drove around Tasinge and Langeland, we were surprised to see thatched houses… for some (silly) reason we had the sense that thatched houses were more likely to be found in the Cotswolds, and other quaint English counties!

Tree lined Street beside the bay on Tsainge and thatched houses. 

Egeskov Slot (built in 1554), is on Funen,  is said to be one of Europe’s finest Renaissance castles, and has been in the family of the current owners (who actually live in it too) since 1784. Based on this sample of two, Valdemars Slot, and Egeskov Slot – it looks like these Danes are a contented lot – and appreciate what they have!  With the rain setting in… we read that the “park” at Egeskov was awarded the title of “Best Historical Garden” (in Europe), in 2012.  A pity the weather was not cooperating!  However, Egeskov has a lot more to offer than a “house and garden” – it also has car, motor cycles, moped, camping car (motorhome), carriage and toy museums… as well as a few aircraft to view.  Then there is the maze (not good in the rain), a tree-top walkway, a “sound” garden, sculptures, children’s play area etc.  Easily a place where a family could while away a day, or two, or more. We spent about 3 hours there. 

Egskov Slot (and moat)

Quite a lot of animals had to die, to furnish this room...

The car museum at Egskov, plus an aircraft or two (including a Starfighter - which did not include any comment about their rate of crashing...

The car used by Woodrow Wilson's wife.... (Madam Wilson's) - from 1922, and Electric... the range was poor...

But perhaps the most intriguing (astounding!) thing “in” the castle is Titania’s Palace – a “dolls house” created by Sir Neville Wilkinson and a staff of “skilled” craftsmen, for his daughter Gwendolen – for the fairy’s in the garden (who were currently living in holes in the ground) to live in. It contains 3,000(ish) components -many of them small art pieces – acquired from all over the world.  It was completed in 1922, and “opened” by the Queen. The Lego World Foundation own it now… and it is on loan to Egeskov.

A small section of Titania's Palace.

Here and below - a closer look at two of he rooms in the Palace... the decorations (including the paintings) are essentially indistinguishable from their full size equivalents. 

Titania's Palace...

Tuesday 23-Jul-2019 (Nyborg)

Yesterday (Monday), 16C and drizzle /raining, today, 26C, sunny, not a cloud in the sky.  What a difference a change in airmass makes.

Nyborg Slot (currently a building site as it is undergoing renovations) is also important for its role in Danish history. It was here that King Eric V signed Denmark’s first constitution in 1282, and it is the site of Denmark’s first parliament (a Danehof). Unfortunately, the castle was badly damaged during one of those wars with Sweden (1657-58), after which  most of the buildings were “de-constructed” and the stone used in the construction of Odense Palace… Restoration work began in 1915… until the money ran out in 1925, at which point most of the building had been restored (except for the north wing) to its state at the time of King Christian III. So it was closed… but we looked from the outside.

Nyborg Slot - photographed from an angle that excluded all the building works!

The associated museum in Nyborg… and yes the front wall is somewhat bowed, inwards... and the colours are true to reality.

The fife and drum Corps of Chasseurs beating the Tatoo.

As well as visiting the Slot while in Nyborg on Tuesday evening – we were also able to:

1. Experience the re-enactment of a “real” Tatoo… where a Corps of Chasseurs playing the fife and drums work their way around all the pubs rounding up the sailors for duty, and
2. Join in a church service at the “Church of our Lady” – and which had a most interesting Gothic Crucifix – showing in small images at the ends of each arm, paintings of : Adam and Eve in the garden, Isaac’s sacrifice, the Death of Absalom on the thorn bush, and with reference to Numbers 21:8, the image of the bronze snake on a pole that Moses made (and the basis of the Medic Alert symbol).

As we were spending two nights at Nyborg Strand Camping (no travel), a stone’s throw away from a long sand beach on the “Great Belt”, we were able to both enjoy the beach… and swim… at 55.5N.  The water here is “quite shallow”… and there is a certain amount of weed near shore – so they build jetty’s to allow swimmers to get in the water, beyond the weed. At the campsite, these jetties were perhaps 30 m long… at which point you were waist deep in the briny. Apart from the sand on the beach (strand), which was very fine, and quite deep.. the swimming was quite nice, and definitely much warmer than Lake Taupo (even in Summer, I suspect).

You will likely need to click on this image (to enlarge it) - the bridge over the Great Belt - and one of the many wind turbine "farms" you see around an over Denmark sea areas. 

For reference – the highest point in Denmark is, “Sky Mountain”… it reaches to 170.86m above sea-level.

A view from our camp site at Nyborg.

Wednesday 24-Jul-2019 (Nyborg to Hornbaek (North Zealand))

So over the Great Belt Bridge we go (the Great Belt is the name of the Strait between Funen and Zealand). This is an impressive piece of infrastructure: 18 km long, with a suspension bridge in the middle that has a span of 1.6 km, and provides a clearance of 65m.  The GPS indicated that the carriageway reached 106 m elevation  but the top of the towers are, at 256m rather higher than anywhere else in Denmark!

And this is what the suspension bridge pylons look like, close up... the same pylons that were just visible in the image above.

When driving across the bridge (and it was quite breezy) – it seems like you are ascending the suspension part of the bridge for a long time.  The scale of these types of engineering works are hard to appreciate.

As we note in the title… this bridge takes us to the Island of Zealand (Danish Sjaelland), a name that we were completely unaware of (something missing in our geography lessons from High School,  or memory failures since).  And in case you are wondering, Wikipedia confirms that this Zealand is not historically connected to New Zealand – which is  named after the Dutch province of Zeeland (a curious coincidence of spelling?)

On the way to Hornbaek (which was of no special significance to us, except that it was near Helsingor – where Kronberg Slot can be found, we stopped at Roskilde which has (at least) two really interesting things to see, a Viking Museum, and Roskilde Cathedral – which has a lot of bodies in it… mainly of past kings and queens. We chose not to look inside the Viking Museum (we only had time for one “experience”) – so chose the Church… which from the outside looked like “another” very large (Gothic) brick church. But, relative to where we were parked (this was another Fiat class vehicle friendly city) it was on the other side of a lovely park, which implied shade, which in turn is very nice on a hot day (it was 29C). 

Roskilde Cathedral!

Another view - to perhaps give a sense of the scale of this building, together with one of the added side chapels in the foreground. 

The nave of Roskilde Cathedral

However, rather than being just another brick church, it was almost ceratinly the prototype for the other brick cathedrals and churches we have seen in northern Europe (e.g. Lubeck). When construction began in 1170, brick was a new technology for use in buildings, and Roskilde Cathedral was the first brick Gothic Cathedral. It is 86m long, 27m wide, and 76m high. And the bodies?  It has been the main burial site for Danish monarchs since the 15^th Century… which means that as time has gone by, it has been significantly altered through the addition of side-chapels, to accommodate the 60 or so monarchs buried here.

One of the side chapels (with bodies) and a painting, showing the king as a wise judge. 

The current queen has not died, but her sepulchre has already been made. While the real monument will not be made visible to the public till after her death - this is what it will look like...  Quite different from all her predecessors - but in keeping with the "current" times, as were those of previous kings and queens! 

Just one (other) interesting aside about the perils of dealing with third pariteis and foreign suppliers during periods of unrest.  In 1569, Frederik 2 ordered a sepulchral monument for his father, Christian 3 from a famous sculpture in Antwerp. Installation of the monument was however delayed. First, the middle man kept the payment for himself, and then Spanish troops looted the monument, when they sacked Antwerp in 1576! A word about Christian 3.  He was at the Diet in Worms in 1521, and was greatly impressed by Luther (recall,it was at this Diet that the Holy Roman Empire condemed Luther). In any case, Christian 3 introduced Protestantism to Denmark in 1536.  So it is fitting to have a significant sepulcher monument (even if it is in the Baroque style).

The Baroque sepulchre for Christian 3.

As regards the Viking Museum – we viewed the outside exhibits (the free ones)… Both of these vessels contained movable ballast – a large pile of round rocks – perhaps 150 mm in diameter .

One of the several Viking ships on display at the Roskide Viking Museum... they didn't have a lot of freeboard... The boat on the left of the image is a "Church boat", used on lakes to take people to Church.  This one could hold up to 60 "passengers".

This vessel was longer than that above, and nicely decorated... the one above "looked" more like the genuine article - being covered in what looked like pitch (or similar).

That night we camped in Hornbaek - in a very high (spatial) density camping site – with very strict instructions as to how we must park (the pitch number must be under the front of the vehicle (which in our case would have required the removal of the power supply post and distribution board).

We rode into Hornbeck for a meal – via a nice forest path. The town was “rocking”… with vast numbers of bathers on the beach, the beachside restaurants full of revellers. We ate at a Pizzeria… it seemed like the best of a poor set of options.  It was very busy… but I think it was the worst pizza I/we have ever been served.

Thursday 25-Jul-2019 (Hornbaek to Copenhagen)

The primary reason for visiting North Zealand (“NZ”) – apart from that, was to go to Kronberg Slot, in Helsingor – which is where Shakespeare set Hamlet.  Between 1420 and 1857, this castle was the toll gate to the Baltic. As Denmark (over most of those years) controlled both sides of the strait (which is only about 4 km wide), every passing ship had to pay a toll, initialy by vessel, but later a more innovative system was applied – the toll depended on the value of the cargo. It would seem that until 1857, the general understanding was that to not pay the toll would have grave consequences. However, in 1857 an  American ship refused to pay… and that ended the tolling process for all! 

Kronberg Slot  ("to be or not to be…")… and, hand over the money (or else)!

The view across the Oresund Strait to what is now Sweden. At this point the Strait which is 78 km long, is at it's narrowest - being just 4 km.  Denmark used to control the land on both sides.

The visit to the castle was entertaining for other reasons too – with actors strolling around the castle, and at set times performing parts of Hamlet.  The first of these that we saw, was actually at the end… where everyone dies! 

We encountered them several times – and they were all willing to engage in conversation, in keeping with their roles…

Hamlet discussing the meaning of life with a skull, where he contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life, but acknowledging that the alternative may be worse...  

The "nasty" king (Claudius) and the queen (Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and not much in love with the king!) - enjoying watching a perhaps 6 year old boy draw a picture in the book of visitations... 

Polonius (Lord Chamberlain and father of Laertes and Ophelia) and Laertes.

The Danish Maritime Museum us also in Helsingor, underground, in what was once a dry dock – we didn’t have time to visit – but their was an interesting sculpture in the adjacent port area.

I'll leave you to interpret the meaning of this sculpture... but it did have a lot of plastic detritus attached to it...

After that – it was a short drive down to Copenhagen.

Friday 26-Jul-2019 (Copenhagen)

We were camped to the south of Copenhagen, in Denmark’s oldest camp ground, and a 25 minute train ride from the central city.  It also boasted its own beach – which we visited. We have to say that many of the beaches we visited in Denmark came with a “certain aroma” – close to that we discussed about anaerobic bacteria in our grey-water tank.  Quite pongy from rotting sea weed lying in the zone adjacent to the shore. A couple of photos to indicate key features of Danish beach bathing…

Karilyn walking on water - or merely going for a stroll in the ocean (note, in full, normal, street clothing)… the sea seems to be quite shallow... far, far, out...

And to give the above image context... that is Karilyn that you can see in the far distance... after stepping off the end of this bathing jetty... in the foreground, the source of the distinct aroma that seems to be associated with many beaches!

Before touring the city,  we did manage to join (with full video) our regular Book Club meeting (Wellington + Auckland + Copenhagen) using the free WiFi in the Visitors Centre.

As regards Copenhagen – we tried something new – a hop-on-hop-off bus-and-boat-tour. Accordingly we have seen the “Little Mermaid” from both sides now! 

The Little Mermaid... from the other side..

And from the front side... who could image how long it took to get an image without somebody's head in the road!

We also experienced  Copenhagen “cycling” behaviour. It seemed to us that you probably had a better chance of being run down by a speeding cyclist, than a motor vehicle!  But it is true – on nearly every street it looks like the cyclists reign supreme.

Copenhagen - cyclists on a mission!

Same location... tricycle transport. 

So apart from the little mermaid – the sites that we will remember are those of the canals and beautiful public buildings (one of the Kings – I forget which one, liked Paris so much that he wanted to re-create it in Copenhagen… and the canals of Amsterdam).

Nyhavn, 17th Century water front... and ex redlight district of Copenhagen - now very upmarket (mostly). 

Cruising along one of the "canals"...

The Marble Church - with the Danish Royal Palace on each side.

It also has some modern buildings… such as Maersk House (the “blue eyes” building), and the new Opera House (which comes with various alternative names, such as “the toaster”, or the container – and is on the opposite side of the harbour from Maersk Headquarters).

The new Opera House, Toaster, or Container support...

A small section of the building that houses Maersk Headquarters... known locally as the "Blue Eyes Building". 

We overheard a guide talking about the design of the Opera House (which also supports a high diving competition  – from the roof into the harbour… 27m (part of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series). It was interesting! It turns out that A. P. Moller (one of the founders of Maersk), through a Foundation “donated the building to the state”… making all costs tax deductible, meaning that Moller essentially forcing the State to pay for it (causing some political controversy). Moller also made the ultimate decisions about design (overriding the architect who apparently had the idea of a “pearl” in mind, for the design). As the guide commented though… it now looks more like a building with a container plopped on top – which when viewed from the front – does make it look a bit like a toaster.  Also, Moller, although in his 90’s used to visit the building on most days during construction, demanding to know why “this” wasn’t “right”, or “that” was the way it was – and generally making a pest of himself. The guide went on to say that when Moller wanted the height of the toilet seats changed for the second time – there was a bit of a revolt from the trades people!  Needless to say – the relationship between the architect (Henning Larsen) and A.P. Miller – was “problematic”.  Hopefully, none of this is defamatory...

Lastly two churches. The Marble Church (Fredrik’s Church) is known for its “rococo” architecture, and is Evangelical Lutheran – and is a focal point in the Palace district of the city.  They started building it in 1749. It was completed in 1894 (read, delays due to budget cuts etc…. which ultimately lead to the deletion of “marble” and its replacement with limestone)… and it doesn’t quite conform to the architects original plans -e.g. there are a couple of spires missing. But the dome is large, at 31m it is the largest in Scandenavia. It has a beautiful alter. 

Looking up to the dome of the Marble Church.  Eleven (original) 12 apostles and Paul are pictured on the 12 panels. 

The simple Alter in the Marble Church.

The other is the “Church of our Saviour” – which we didn’t visit… but it does have a really curious Baroque Spire… with an external spiral staircase to the top…  As you may have gathered… we are not the greatest admirers of the Baroque style.

How is that … for a Baroque Spire, on the "Church of our Saviour"?? And yes it is a staircase that you can see on the outside - all 400 steps of it.

Tomorrow, is Karilyn’s birthday, and we are off to Sweden – what could possibly go wrong?

Saturday 27-Jul-2019 (Copenhagen to Ystad, Skillinge, …, Simrisham Stelplatz)

Before leaving Copenhagen, I did buy a cheesecake for Karilyn’s “birthday cake”, and planned to eat at a restaurant in Ystad (near our planned campsite) that night.

Crossing the Oresund Bridge to Sweden was fun… we got to 106m elevation, and it was very windy,… from the side! Its 12 km long, including 4 km “undersea” – but with a longest span of only 490m it’s a tiddler compared to the Great Belt Bridge’s 1600m span!  Likewise – it is only 204 m high, and it “only” has 57m clearance below, but unlike the Great Belt Bridge – where the railway is in a tunnel under the longest span, on the Oresund Bridge – the railway (double track) runs on the bridge, below the carriage way.

The Oresund Bridge...

After paying the toll (900SEK, or about NZD135) we found the border posts unoccupied (unlike a year or so ago)… and no “Welcome to Sweden” signs… or even flags! Our plan was to stay in Ystad that night – but we were in no hurry, as the drive was quite short for the day.

The countryside in Skane (southern province of Sweden).

Encountered along the way, at Smygehuk, which just happens to be the Southern most point in Sweden  - a craft market, held in a former "Merchants Store) that dates back to the 18th Century, and in the early 19th Century, during the Napoleonic Wars,  may have been involved in smuggling operations.  We had lunch here, a local dish composed of bacon (lots of it, Monina), some kind of "jam" and an omelette-like "component"... that is like an omelette, except it has flour added, or maybe its more like a runny pancake?  We enjoyed it (apart from the jam component).

Pretty… but flat is how I would call the geography!  But when we got to the campsite in Ystad – the notice “Fullt” was outside. But we had passed a lot of campsites – so lets just go onto the next one… fullt too…, and the next, fullt… and the next.  At this point we understood that a nice meal out for Karilyn’s birthday, and a restful relaxing camp site was not going to happen.  But Sweden does have a lot of “Stelplatz’s” – which are places you can park-up, with various levels of services. Park4Night found one for us that was “On the farm”, adjacent to a wheat field overlooking a seaside hamlet near Simrishamn.  It was a beautiful location – even if the wind rocked us to sleep, and the sound and light show provided by the atmosphere woke us up early in the morning.  We also got to use our shower again (but I had not filled with water before leaving Copenhagen… as it was EUR1.00 per 25 litres… and we would be able to fill in Sweden for no cost). I attempted to cook dinner, but really, it was a joint effort, then it was a walk down to the seaside hamlet – where most of the houses were built in the 19^th Century.

Our - "On the Farm" stelplatz… by the wheat field.. and overlooking the ocean...