Hundested, Nordsjælland - Wednesday, 3 August

Geoff
Well, it wasn't a perfect night. At 5.30am, we were woken by raucousness outside. It was a dozen teenagers arriving for a noisy early morning swim. They were harmless but I took the opportunity to finish reading yesterday's paper and then went for a walk of several kilometres, a circular route of quiet lanes and then a good path between fields back to Gershøj. It was a sunny morning, quite perfect.

Yesterday, we got a little confused about which castle were going to visit today. The names are similar and they are quite close to each other. There is the one at Fredensborg, which is now the Danish royal family's summer residence and open to the public. However, the one that we thought might be more interesting is at Frederiksborg, in the town of Hillerød. The building is magnificent. Lonely Planet describes it as a Dutch Renaissance castle spread across three islands. We went over a moat to the entrance. It was mainly built in the early 17th century. There were many rooms to visit, full of paintings, tapestries and furniture. The main large parts of the castle were the Knights' Hall and the Coronation Chapel, where Danish monarchs between 1671 and 1840 were crowned. All in all, it was well worth the 60DKK admission fee.

Frederiksborg Slot

Coronation Chapel

In the afternoon, we drove to the north coast for our nightly stop. It is at Hundested, in a car park by the harbour. It is quite busy. Adjacent to the car park are some small holiday chalets. There are many sailing boats, cafes, craft shops - and an Aldi. There is an end of the line train station and a vehicle ferry which goes back and forth the mile or so to the next place along the coast, across the mouth of a fjord. To travel round by road would take rather a long time.

We've had bouts of heavy rain this afternoon and evening but all is peaceful now.

Amanda

This place looked beautiful at 5.30 this morning, with a glorious sun shining on the water. That is when we were awoken by a dozen or so exuberant young people come for an early morning swim! They looked as if they had been up all night. Oh the joys of youth! By 6 they were gone again.
Now at breakfast there is a strong breeze and waves across the fjord. Still lovely, but we certainly caught it at its best yesterday evening. 

More culture today. Frederiksborg Slot is a most impressive castle in Hillerod on our way up to the north coast of Sjælland. As well as being a massive and attractive building, spread over several small islands so appearing to be multi-moated, and with lovely, extensive formal gardens, it is part furnished historic building, part art gallery, part museum and also has an exhibition of modern art. Amazing value for money, and three hours passed very quickly. I now know a bit more about the history here from the 17th century onwards.

Our stop tonight is at the harbour at Hundested, chosen so that we can explore the supposedly smart North Coast on our way to Helsinore tomorrow. By the time we arrived the rain had really set in so we were grateful to get settled, but I think the smart bit starts a bit further along the coast! The area around the harbour feels a bit like Butlins. Perhaps not what we would have chosen for what is likely to be our last night in Denmark, but the showers were fine and welcome after two nights without, and we have now mastered the use of the Tallycard! It may be a bit of a noisy night though.

Hundested

Later - spoken too soon! Our first cylinder of gas has just run out, which is a bit of a blow as we have tried to be economical in our use of it. We understand that the Calor gas cylinders we use are not available or refillable in Europe, where it is all Camping Gaz. We think we have adapters, but it is all a bit of an unknown quantity. We couldn't get the electricity supply here to work with our Tallycard, to switch the fridge over to electric, so G has bravely changed the gas cylinders over in the dark, a job he dislikes but is made easier with the wearing of gardening gloves to avoid hands being scraped in the confined space.

So, job for tomorrow, locate wifi and suss out a camping store or similar where we can ascertain what we are going to need. Sally SatNav is very good at finding the nearest Lidl or Aldi, but doesn't seem to stretch to Calor gas suppliers.