This is a guest trip report written by Carol, who sailed on the most recent 10 night cruise to the Norwegian Fjords and Iceland on the Disney Magic on August 16, 2018. You can start the trip report from the beginning by clicking here.
Copenhagen: Day 3
Our third day in Copenhagen was one where we actually spent very little time in Copenhagen itself. We wanted to see 2 castles which actually lie outside of Copenhagen. The first was Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerod, about 40 minutes north of Copenhagen. If you have a car, it is an easy drive, but we did not so we choose to take the train. Public transportation is relatively easy to figure out in Copenhagen, although I do suggest you have done some research ahead of time to know where you are going and how to get there. This makes the process much simpler. However, the people in and around Copenhagen are extremely nice and willing to help you with directions. To get to Frederiksborg Castle by train, the easiest way is to start at the Central Station in Copenhagen and take the S-tog line E to Hillerod. When we were there, this train appeared to be running every 20 minutes or so. Once you get off at the Hillerod stop, you can take a short 15 minute walk to the castle, or take the bus – it would be bus 301 or 302, just be sure to get on the bus going in the direction of the castle. Then get off at the castle stop, it will be practically right in front of you.
Frederiksborg Castle was built (as were many other things in Copenhagen) by King Christian the Fourth. It was often used as a royal residence in the 17th century, but fell mostly into disuse until King Frederik favored the castle as a residence again in the 1850’s. However a fire broke out in 1859 and the palace was largely destroyed. The palace was rebuilt and has been used as a Danish National Museum since 1878. It is stunning to look at from the outside, built Renaissance in nature, and houses many portraits, historical paintings, furniture and decorative art from over 500 years of Danish history. It was amazing to visit – I highly recommend it if you are in Copenhagen. You can get a free audio guide to walk you through all of the building, which will describe the rooms and what you are seeing. The highlight of the tour (at least to me) was the amazing chapel which holds an absolutely beautiful pulpit, an unbelievable organ which dates back to 1610 and many coats of arms of members of the Orders of the Elephant and the Dannebrog, which are the highest, most noble Danish orders.
Fountain outside of Frederiksborg Castle:
The castle:
Chapel inside Frederiksborg Castle:
King Christian the IV’s coat of arms:
Inside the chapel:
Another view of the chapel:
First Danish translation of the Bible:
These chests were in so many rooms, all ornately decorated:
This globe represented the planets revolving around the sun – quite a new thought at the time:
Explanation of the Celestial Globe:
Old grandfather clock:
An example of the old furniture:
We then went to see Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. You can easily take the train, as we did, from Hillerod after finishing your visit to Frederiksborg Castle to Helsingør, where Kronborg Castle is located. Once you are off the train, it is an easy 10 minute walk to the castle . Kronborg was built in the early 1400’s as a fortress to control the entrance to the Baltic Sea. However, it is most famous for being the castle Shakespeare used as his inspiration for the castle Elsinore in Hamlet. Now, they do reenactments of scenes of Hamlet during the day, and will perform Hamlet in its entirety on certain dates and times. The castle itself was also a residence for the monarchy from the mid 1500’s until the mid 1700’s. Today you can visit it and see the Royal Apartments, Chapel, the Cannon Tower and the Casements. The Royal Apartments are just that, where the royals lived. They are furnished with paintings, portraits, and many different types of furniture. The Chapel is simple, but beautiful. The Cannon Tower is 145 steps ( up AND then down!!!) – I did not do this, but my husband and son did and they said the view was amazing!!! And the casements – these are passageways under the castle where the soldiers could go and fortify the castle if needed in time of attack. There are many things to see down in the casements, one of which is Holger the Dane. According to a legend , a Danish king known as Holger the Dane was taken to Avalon. He returned to rescue France from danger, then traveled to Kronborg castle, where he sleeps until he is needed to save his homeland. His beard has grown to extend along the ground. A statue of the sleeping Holger has been placed in the castle. In addition to this legend, there were roaming “players” around the castle doing scenes from Hamlet. We had a great time at Kronborg.
Kronborg Castle:
Tapestry in the King’s Apartments:
The organ in the Chapel:
The chapel:
From the top of the Cannon Tower:
Also from the top of the Cannon Tower:
Holger the Dane:
The casements:
Some of the furniture in the King’s Apartments:
Fireplace in the King’s Apartment:
Outside of Kronborg Castle:
When you are visiting Kronborg, you can look across the sound and see Sweden. If you have time, there is a ferry that takes you to Sweden from Helsingør. We unfortunately did not have time, nor did we have our passports with us just in case. After finishing our visit at Kronborg, we took the train back to Copenhagen and got off at the Central Station again.
We then walked one last time to Stroget Street, did some last minute shopping and had a good dinner as we knew this was our last night in Copenhagen. The next day we were boarding the Disney Magic for a cruise around the Norwegian Fjords and Iceland!
A few tips about Copenhagen:
If you are planning on visiting Copenhagen for more than a day or so, I highly recommend purchasing a Copenhagen Card. It gets you into SO many attractions for free – all of the places that we went to in the last 3 days we all covered by the Copenhagen card, including the canal tours. It also covers all your public transportation, so all the train rides, and the bus are included. I truly believe for us it saved us SO much money. Next, the public transportation is fairly easy to navigate, but in general people are SO nice so don’t hesitate to ask anyone anything! They really genuinely seemed to want to help, even with just ordering coffee!
I would HIGHLY recommend Rick Steves book about Copenhagen. My husband read it and it gave us many great ideas of where to start (and it is how we knew about Rich Karpen’s tour, which was amazing!)
Last, but certainly not least, there are SO many things to do in Copenhagen that 3 days was certainly not enough, but it was all we had. Since I went in with the expectation that we weren’t going to see everything, that helped when we didn’t get to some things I had wanted to do. I think when traveling that this is in general good advice but things often take longer than you anticipate, or you will stumble across something else equally amazing! Don’t expect to see or do everything a place has to offer. Just enjoy the things you have a chance to see, and make that your reason to go back and visit that place again!
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Up Next: Boarding the Disney Magic!
Click here to visit Carol’s blog about her family’s travels all over the world.
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