Weeks 3 & 4 – Denmark

Let me see if I can catch you up since the last post. We are currently in Sonder Nissum, on the west coast of Denmark, very close to the North Sea.

Our first stop in Denmark, on the way to meet up with the family, was in Kolding. We stayed in a house that used to be owned by a ship captain, right on the edge of Kolding Fjord.

The small lake where the royals would have overlooked there kingdom.

Inside Kolding Slot

The city is the 7th largest in the country. This year it celebrated its 750th anniversary.  There is an old castle that was within walking distance of our inn. Leon and I took a walk before dinner and snooped around the exterior of the castle. It was closed as they were getting ready for an evening musical historical play.

We stopped for dinner at a local restaurant where Leon had the first of many typical Danish meals. Pork is a huge export of the Danes, so you eat pork a lot! His particular meal was a pork rind roast (mostly crackling, I guess) served with potatoes and a bechamel with parsley. Oh and red cabbage, you have to have red cabbage or beets!

The next day we drove to our rental house in Bagsvaerd, after a brief stop in Praesto to see the relatives.  The rest of the family (Leon’s children, spouses and grandchildren) were all meeting us later that day at the house in the suburbs of Copenhagen.

The house turned out to be a large family home with plenty of movies for the kids to watch, a large kitchen for us to cook in (mostly me and mostly pork!) and a good sized table to accommodate 12 for dinner or some great card games.

We spent the next day north of Copenhagen in Helsingore at the castle known as Kronborg or Elsinore. This is the castle that was used as inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. As we visited the grounds and castle, there were actors playing various scenes of Hamlet. It made for an interesting day.

One of the interesting things about Kronborg is that it is located directly across from Sweden. In old times, ships were made to pay duty to sail across the strait under threat of cannon fire.  The border between the 2 kingdoms changed many times. At one time, Denmark ruled much of the coastal sections of Sweden.  Today, Ikea seems to rule all these areas. I can’t tell you how many Ikea stores we saw on our drive from Germany to Denmark!

We ended our visit with a meal at a street food experience – food trucks all housed inside a warehouse. It was early days for most of our party, so many succumbed to jet lag as we watched a family movie in the cosy livingroom back at the rental house. Hygge at its finest!