Copenhagen Re-Visited
This morning (Tuesday) we cruised into our last port - Copenhagen, again! Since we spent a good amount of time at the beginning of our trip in the downtown area of Copenhagen, we decided to go out into the countryside and visit some castles in the northern areas of Denmark. So after breakfast we all met our guide Ivan, and set out on our last cruise/tour adventure.
Ivan - we call him Ivan TheTalker - drove us along the eastern shore of Denmark to see some harbors and small towns to illustrate the origins of Denmark as a seafaring country. We gave him this name because he was a talker, great sense of humor and full of knowledge. Then he took us inland to illustrate that years later the Danes moved into farming. The country side was beautiful and varied between farming fields and forests. We stopped at an old windmill that was no longer in use but very stately showing the history of Denmark.
Our next stop was Frederiksborg Castle. Ivan let us out of the van with instructions to walk through the beautiful Baroque garden. We had spectacular views of the castle, moat, and gardens.
Ivan wanted us to see the ballroom and chapel in the castle, but in order to get to those rooms we walked through many other beautiful rooms. The chapel was extremely beautiful and we had the great fortune to hear the organ being played while we were there. I hope the pictures do it justice because words don't.
He took us into an adjoining room with beautiful biblical artwork that belonged in a museum instead of a small room off the chapel. We enjoyed an accidental curiosity with two paintings next to each other. One was Jesus on the cross and the other was Jesus' spirit ascending in to heaven. They installed a plexiglas partition between them and when you looked at Jesus on the cross just right into the plexiglass, you saw him ascending into heaven overlaping the cross. A really blessed curiosity.
We continued into the ballroom and a few other rooms. The ceilings in this castle were amazing art pieces of wood and color. This was the most beautiful castle we have seen on this trip (according to us).
After seeing the castle it was lunch time and there was a lovely place to eat on the castle grounds. We sat outside on a lovely day and had salads and traditional open faced Danish sandwiches (except Bill who had a really good burger).
Next we drove to Kronborg Castle which is located on the shore of Denmark that is closest to Sweden and was a strategic location to make sure that any ships who wanted to sail into the Baltic would have to pay taxes to Denmark. If they didn't, they shot the ship with their cannons.
This is also know as Hamlet's Castle. Ivan took us down into the casements where the servants worked day and night and many never saw the light of day. They were also given several liters of beer a day as part of their pay so they would be in good spirits.
Since this was our last day on board ship, we had a somewhat subdued dinner and reflected on our great cruise and then were forced to go back to our cabins and pack. Tomorrow we fly to Berlin, the Greens head to the Hilton near the airport for one more night in Copenhagen and the Colacito's fly to Paris where they will meet up with Karen's younger sister and husband.
Ivan - we call him Ivan TheTalker - drove us along the eastern shore of Denmark to see some harbors and small towns to illustrate the origins of Denmark as a seafaring country. We gave him this name because he was a talker, great sense of humor and full of knowledge. Then he took us inland to illustrate that years later the Danes moved into farming. The country side was beautiful and varied between farming fields and forests. We stopped at an old windmill that was no longer in use but very stately showing the history of Denmark.
Our next stop was Frederiksborg Castle. Ivan let us out of the van with instructions to walk through the beautiful Baroque garden. We had spectacular views of the castle, moat, and gardens.
Ivan wanted us to see the ballroom and chapel in the castle, but in order to get to those rooms we walked through many other beautiful rooms. The chapel was extremely beautiful and we had the great fortune to hear the organ being played while we were there. I hope the pictures do it justice because words don't.
He took us into an adjoining room with beautiful biblical artwork that belonged in a museum instead of a small room off the chapel. We enjoyed an accidental curiosity with two paintings next to each other. One was Jesus on the cross and the other was Jesus' spirit ascending in to heaven. They installed a plexiglas partition between them and when you looked at Jesus on the cross just right into the plexiglass, you saw him ascending into heaven overlaping the cross. A really blessed curiosity.
We continued into the ballroom and a few other rooms. The ceilings in this castle were amazing art pieces of wood and color. This was the most beautiful castle we have seen on this trip (according to us).
After seeing the castle it was lunch time and there was a lovely place to eat on the castle grounds. We sat outside on a lovely day and had salads and traditional open faced Danish sandwiches (except Bill who had a really good burger).
Next we drove to Kronborg Castle which is located on the shore of Denmark that is closest to Sweden and was a strategic location to make sure that any ships who wanted to sail into the Baltic would have to pay taxes to Denmark. If they didn't, they shot the ship with their cannons.
This is also know as Hamlet's Castle. Ivan took us down into the casements where the servants worked day and night and many never saw the light of day. They were also given several liters of beer a day as part of their pay so they would be in good spirits.
Since this was our last day on board ship, we had a somewhat subdued dinner and reflected on our great cruise and then were forced to go back to our cabins and pack. Tomorrow we fly to Berlin, the Greens head to the Hilton near the airport for one more night in Copenhagen and the Colacito's fly to Paris where they will meet up with Karen's younger sister and husband.
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