Friday, August 14th, 2015
We land in Billund after lunch and rent a car. I’d like to stop at Legoland, to visit the theme park and see all the buildings made of Lego, I dream of it since when I was a little child, but unfortunately we have no time, our itinerary includes other stops. So after a few photos at the entrance to Legoland, we head in Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city. Before going to downtown, we head to a park, Dyrehaven, where there are a lot of deers. While we walk, we see tmany Danes feeding the deers, but without food, we cannot get near to the deers, they seem to be pretty scared by people. After leaving the park, we reach the center of the city with the cathedral of the 13th century, Denmark’s largest church.
Then we go to Den Gamle By, reconstruction of an old Danish village. It’s almost 5pm, we wait a few minutes: after 5pm they close the doors of the buildings of the village, but you can walk in the streets. We still have time to see some buildings inside, but unfortunately we have to hurry (and it’s just the first day).
At 6pm, we should be at the apartment in Aalborg where we booked for the night. We can not get there in time, but we inform the owner of our delay. Once in Aalborg we get the keys, and after a short break, we go out for dinner and walk a little in the center of Aalborg.
As for accommodation, the apartment is full of objects of all kinds, a mixture of everything, but still not bad. The rooms are ok, the bathroom is a bit ‘strange: the shower is in the kitchen, the toilet very narrow, but since there are only 2 rooms and we booked both of them it’s not a problem.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
In the morning we visit Aalborg: the cathedral, a former convent (S. Spirit) of the 16th century, the town hall and other buildings on the main street. Then we head to the castle and then to Hjelmerstald, a characteristic narrow street with old houses and shops of craftsmen.
We leave the town center and head to Lindholm hoje, an ancient Viking burial site, with about 700 graves. There are stones arranged in an oval shape with stones at the ends higher, that recreate the shape of a ship. In the middle of the stones they arranged pyres on which the bodies were cremated. We enter in the small gift shop and buy salt with the special fragrance (I bought the salt juniper – I still don’t know how to use it, maybe I will find some receipes).
Then we go straight to Skagen, but before arriving we stop near Bunken to see the beach and the first dunes. We walk a little, play and run down the sand dunes. After a while we stop again to see Den Tilsandede Kirke, a church buried in the sand, of which only the bell tower still exists. We finally reach Grenen, the northern point of Denmark, where the two seas (Skagerrak and Kattegat sea) meet , creating strong currents. Although it is cloudy, and a bit rainy, but a lot of people are walking along this stretch of sand.
We go on the other coast to reach the Råbjerg Mile, a sand dune that shifts every year and now is no longer near the sea. It ‘very large, approximately 1kmq, the largest moving dune in Europe, and is more than 300 years old. Our last stop for the day is the lighthouse of Rubjerg Knude Fyr: this should also be buried by sand, but it seems completely out of the sand.
For the night we will stay in Viborg, but we would like to continue along the coast and through the fjords. Once again it is too late and we have to eliminate this part of our itinerary. We arrive around 9pm in Viborg, the apartment tonight is cute (and also the next day’s breakfast is very good). We have dinner in the only restaurant that is still open, and then we walk to the Cathedral to take some pictures with the lights.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
We visit the center of Viborg, and few minutes before 10 we can also see the cathedral inside (it opens at 1pm, but it’s Sunday and just before the Mass we are allowed to go inside and take some pictures. Then we reach Odense, where we visit the cathedral and the main streets. Shortly after, we meet Susanne, a friend of mine from Slovakia, that moved to Denmark just 2 days earlier to study. With her, we would like to go to the castle of Egeskov, but we take the wrong way: there is a town called Egeskov, while the castle is located in a town with a different name. When we realize the mistake it’s too late to turn back, and so we decide to look for something near: we choose Kolding, where there is a lake and another castle.
We stop for a while near the lake and then we walk around the castle, without visiting it, and then we drive back to Odense. We leave Susanne and we go to Roskilde. Even today we arrive late. The apartment is bit far from the center, has 3 bedrooms (and we take 2), also here it’s good. We have dinner in the center and take some pictures.
Monday, August 17, 2015
We get up early: I and Oscar decide to go downtown, taking advantage of the sun (we leave the house at about 6:30) and then we go back to the apartment, we have breakfast and then all together back downtown. Since the cathedral is still closed, we head to the harbor, then we visit the church: built in the 12th century, it’s the burial place of many Danish kings. Finished to see the cathedral, we drive to Hillerod, where there is Frederiksborg Castle, which stands on three islands. We cross the gardens, and then we visit the interior.
Then we head to see Kronborg Castle in Helsingor, which, according to the legend it’s Hamlet’s castle. From here you can see the coast of Sweden, just a few kilometers far.
Around 6pm we reach Copenhagen. The apartment we chose for the evening (seecopenhagen) is not good, we don’t like it at all: the room, a double room has been turned into a quadruple (we booked 2 doubles), it’s in yje basement and it also seems dirty. We call the owners that arrive after a while. At this point we talk with them, but we understand there are no chances to get an acceptable accomodation so we decide to give up and look for another place. We ask to some hotels, many are full, at the end we stop near the airport. Unfortunately we lose the whole evening, and once we get the room we don’t go back anymore to the city center.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Last day of our holiday in Denmark, entirely in Copenhagen. We park the car near the Kastelett, a fortress, but we cannot visit it now, there is a military parade or something like that, so we head to the Little Mermaid, surrounded by tourists, including many Japanese.
From the Little Mermaid we continue until we cross the square where the Amalienborg palace is: it consists of four identical buildings in circle. From here we visit the Marmoritenkirke. We walk around the Nyhavn canal, which together with the Little Mermaid is perhaps the most famous image of Copenhagen. We cross the Christiansborg and see the Vor Frue Kirke (the cathedral), Skt. Petri and the round tower. Back to the car through the park surrounding the Rosenborg Slot and this time we can also cross the Kastelett. We meet then with Daniele, an Italian guy who has lived here for some years. He shows us the harbor area, Christianshavn. After greeting him, we reach the townhall square and we walk a bit on one of the channels, where some people are sunbathing or swimming. Our time is over, so we have to go back to the airport.
