You remember my trip last year to Bulgaria - right? Well the young man, named Lyuboslav, whom is the nephew to my good friend Nasko, is here in Copenhagen for half of the summer. I offered to take him and Nasko's husband, Lars, up north on a little travel adventure to the town of Helsingør. Helsingør is also known as Elsinore. It's a port town on the north-east part of Denmark. It overlooks the Øresund strait which is the entrance of the Baltic Sea. It is also the back drop for Shakespeare's "Hamlet" which takes place in the 15th-century Kronborg Castle. Nearby is the Maritime Museum which covers the 600 years of Danish seafaring history. We just walked around for the day to see the old town and the castle. Here are a few shots of the day visit.
In a gift garden shop there was a bird feeder
in the shape of a wide opened cat mouth.
The walking streets were very festive.
Charming old houses - very old.
And of course we went to the very old church of St. Mary. Built in the early 1400s. It has gone through some fire in 1450. What is left after the fire is what you see today. What is left remaining, has gone through complete renovation with extra attention given to the frescos painted on the ceilings between 1900 and 1907.
And of course the standard ship hanging from the ceiling in the Danish and Scandinavian churches. It has lots of representation in meaning. It also pre-dates Christianity in it's meaning.
The cloister of St.Mary's
Next - we hit up the main event - the castle.
You can see it, way in the background.
Built in the 1420s.
Is now a UNESCO world heritage site.
From the top of the castle I can look down on the
very handsome train station.
We can also see all the way to Copenhagen.
In a straight line, it's 36km/23miles away.
The castle church
Under the castle
This is a really cool Viking. All the Danes love him. His name is Holger Danske. His history is long and actually goes beyond Denmark. Many countries have one or another version of a folk hero legend who will in time of need, wake up to save their country. But unfortunately, he kept sleeping from 1939 to 1945. Still sleeping too so, shhhhhhhh
Back at ground level, we've come up the to very dangerous cannons that protected the passage to the Baltic Sea. A tax was collected from each ship that wanted to pass. And you better pay or you'll get a nice ball of iron thru the side of your wooden ship. Notice how narrow it is at the entrance to the Baltic. Less than 5 km / 3 miles. What is now Sweden, was once long ago in history, Denmark.
Soon it is time to go home. But first a late lunch / early dinner.
Our last little walk through the old town
before we find our way to the parking lot.
