DENMARK

COPENHAGEN – 16th -18th July, 19

It felt so wonderful to be in Denmark again. We stayed at Hotel Kong Arthur, situated in a beautiful part of Copenhagen on Nørre Søgade, just across from a lake and very close to Rosenborg Castle. The first thing I wanted to do as soon as we checked in was get out and walk the streets. My plan was to walk to the gardens of Rosenborg Castle, but as is my habit, I got hopelessly lost and we found ourselves in a cemetery instead. Yet because of getting lost, we found ourselves in a beautifully tended and tranquil cemetery. I don’t know who funded it, but every grave, even those from 1790, were beautifully maintained with lovely flowers and cool pathways shaded by leafy trees.

We’d walked for a few house before we arrived back at the hotel and it was so unusually hot that we were absolutely dripping with sweat and decided on a cooling gin and tonic before getting changed for dinner. We had eaten before at the wonderful ‘New Nordic’ restaurant, Høst, and were delighted to have the opportunity to do so again. Every dish was visually stunning and had flavours that burst in our mouths.

17 th JULY, 2019 – HELSINGØR

Just 45 minutes out of Copenhagen lies the lovely town of Helsingør. Across the Sund and a 35 minute ferry ride from Helsingør, lies Helsingborg, Sweden.

Helsingør is really lovely with pretty cobblestoned walking streets, but the real attraction here is Kronborg Castle, the famous setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The location of Kronborg, commanding the Sund, a narrow stretch of water between Sweden and Denmark was of great strategic importance between the 16th and 18th Centuries.

In the Casement of Kronborg ‘Holger Dansk’ sits sleeping. One of the most legendary Danish heroes, who may or may not have ever existed, it is said that if Denmark ever gets into trouble and needs his help, he will wake up and come to the rescue.

Back in Copenhagen we had time to get me a Skagen step-counting watch, that not only looks better than the ugly plastic model that I’ve been wearing for five years, but with 48% off on sale, was even a lot cheaper!

Them it was time to do some serious birthday shopping at Georg Jensen before a leisurely stroll back to the hotel before dinner at Zeleste. We had asked for a traditional Danish restaurant to be suggested to us since the one we had really wanted to revisit was closed for the summer (as so many were) so we were disappointed to find ourselves in another over priced New Nordic establishment that was nowhere near as good as Hørst. We brushed aside that minor disappointment as we knew that we’d have plenty more opportunities to sample traditional, old fashioned Danish food.

18th JULY, 2019

We checked out of Hotel Kong Arthur and took a cab to the Eurocar office. We were pleased to be allocated a Skoda ‘Superb’ station wagon which, with barely 1500 kilometres, was a virtually new car. Fortunately for us it was equipped with navigation. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the most user friendly system, and always required an exact address, otherwise the predicative text would suggest multiple possibilities from half of Europe! We had to park outside of Eurocar until we had successfully programmed our destination on the island of Møn. Our hotel was to be Liselund Nye Slot, situated not far from the famous white cliffs, a unique feature in an otherwise predominantly very flat Denmark.

Reacquainting ourselves with the ‘unnatural ’ driving position, the drive out of the CBD of Copenhagen was a very cautious one. Not only does the brain have to laterally invert every action, assimilate curious new road signs and over cautiously , giving way to all pedestrians, other cars, and a myriad of bicycles as well! Turning any corner is a total nightmare. Are there cars coming? If no, start to turn! Then suddenly scream, ‘Aaaargh!’ And stand on the brakes, and watch as the bullet like kamikaze bicycles fly across in front of you, imperiously, on the designated bike path! It was a relief to get out of the 130 km/h limit freeway. Mind you, even at that speed, you had to stay in the slow lane! Being passed by Danes driving at 150 mph Or more, was a common experience!

As we got closer to the bridge that crossed of the island of Møn, the countryside was more agricultural, with only small groups of houses and a few shops. We were keen to find a pharmacy (for Barry’s Bedouin belly) and a shop that sold electrical plugs. An important hair curling iron had been battered in transit, bending a blade of the power plug. Straightening it became an oops moment amputation. One solution was to fit a local plug, if only we could find one. At last we came to a larger town, Stege, just before the bridge across to Møn. The pharmacy was a modern one, like a Medicare office in Australia, requiring you to take an electronic ticket, nominating your purpose, prescription or something else incomprehensible!

Across the street was a store selling a range of gifts and small electrical appliances. It was also having a sale. Thinking, but not too optimistically, they might just sell a power plug, we went in to browse. In the end, we never did buy a plug. There on a shelf at the back of the store, was a curling iron. Courtesy of the sale, it had been marked down, in stages, from an original 600 Danish kroner to 200 Danish kroner. Problem solved!

We continued on to Møn and navigated our way to the hotel, Liselund, an original mansion from the 1850s now run as a boutique hotel. Surrounding the hotel is an awe inspiring manicured garden area, with small lakes, glades of trees, pathways, bridges and a few gloriously preserve thatched roofed houses and outbuildings.

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After we checked in, we took a drive to find the best vantage point to view the cliffs. The road from Liselund was very narrow and unsealed, barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other safely, much less all the camper vans and occasional buses. It was just a matter ..of pulling off the road as far as was safe and easing slowly by. There were a number of Camping grounds and parking areas we pass along the way. But without realising it, we passed the main tourist park, containing the cliff walking trails and fossil museum.

We drove on to what was clearly a private residence, but it was also the start of a cliff top walking trail open to the public. After more than 45 minutes exploring there, we drove further on toKlintholm. We saw a restaurant that claimed to serve 15 types of pickled herring in their Danish style buffet.

Unfortunately it was closed then, but would be open the next day. Nearby the word crab caught my eye! My mouth watered for a delicious crab roll. I went in and asked for their crab. After many blank looks, I realised it was just a burger and chips place. As we left, Barry pointed out that it was called ‘Grab and Go’. My lightheadedness from hunger had created a food mirage. Out on the pier, we saw a converted fishing trawler was about to leave for the afternoon cruise around the cliffs. The cost was 175 Danish kroner iseach. We immediately asked to join the cruise but sadly there were no places left. We decided to come back for the 10:15 cruise the next morning. That way, would be back in time for the herring buffet at 12 midday. So being disappointed about the cliff’s cruise, we decided to drive back to the main tourist attraction at Møns Klimt.

There was a boardwalk and a long steep flight of stairs down to the stony beach below the towering cliffs. The boardwalk was a gentle gradient, allowing disabled access, while the stairs were obviously going to be very challenging! As it was late in the day, the temperature was well into the 30s and we had already walked a long way at the previous Cliff path so we took the easy option! The view at the end of the boardwalk was great, but far from the best one available. But it was as much as we can achieve that day.

Next morning, after a delicious breakfast, we packed the car and headed back to the pier hoping to take the cliff cruise. We hadn’t booked ahead because we weren’t certain that we would be able to get there in time.

As it happens, we got a relatively clear run to the town. We parked and made our way to the pier. The boat only had about six passengers on board with only about 10 minutes to go. We asked for a place on board, to which the skipper ‘asked do you have a booking?’ Plainly we didn’t. But he said we could wait and if anyone didn’t turn up we could have a place. At the last minute a crowd of 10 people sauntered along the pier and up the gangway! All our hopes were dashed.

We decided to go back to Møns Klimt and go down to the beach. After an eternity of steps, we set foot on the grey, stony beach. Just comprised of either hard grey stones or soft chalk white stones, all rounded into random sizes, just like with river stones. In a number of places they were springs of bubbling water out of the limestone cliff. In places, the limestone dissolved into a white, wet slurry. People used sticks as brushes with this to paint their names on the grey rocks, then placed them on the chalky rock face. I spied Astrid’s name immediately, and a little further along, ‘The Hansen Family’. The cliffs themselves were an impressive 320 m high, towering over us on the beach. In places there was evidence of rockfalls where large sections of the clifftop had carved off. Alarmingly, there was a precarious overhang high above us, looking like it was overdue to separate from the rock face!

We started to climb back up the stairs. Thankfully, there were rest areas every so often. We stopped occasionally, but mostly made the upward trip without too much trouble. Others, older than us, weren’t so fortunate! At the top of the stairs, we settled at a picnic table and bought a cold bottle of water. We heard other saying that there were 500 steps in the descent to the beach. It certainly felt like it to us! It was nearly midday so we returned to the car to drive back to Klintholmhavn for the buffet. It was everything it claimed to be. There were herrings I’d never seen before, even a licorice flavoured one, which I must say had an unusual but delicious flavour.

19th JULY, 2019 – NAKSKOV

After lunch it was time to drive from Klintholmhavn to Nakskov with the assistance of the car’s navigation system. We arrived in Nakskov at about 4 pm. Ole and Anne-Grethe had very generously invited us to stay with them for two days. On our last visit, at Christmas time 18 months ago, we stayed in a hotel, so as not to impose on any family members. But Ole had insisted that the next time we were to stay with them. So we found it impossible to refuse their hospitality.

As Ole had been a seaman on many ships over the years, he had a good level of English, so Barry didn’t have to struggle to engage in reasonably basic conversations. After more than a year of Duolingo Danish lessons, my skills were about to be put to the real test at last. It became evident quite quickly that my Danish had improved in leaps and bounds. We sat together for coffee and the conversation was easy. We had been there for less than an hour when the telephone call came from Mogens prompting us to go to his house to meet the rest of the family and to have the evening meal.

The dinner at Mogens and Bente’s was a continuation of the generous family hospitality. We were joined by Preben and Dorrit, and the conversation and laughter came easily. We sat eating and drinking until well after dark – and it only gets dark in Denmark in the summertime when it is very late! We were exhausted. Me, from my Danish gym workout. Barry, from struggling to appear animated and engaged in the language black hole. It was a wonderful evening.

20th JULY, 2019 – NAKSKOV

We slept late, so after a delicious breakfast, it wasn’t long before it was time to head off for Nakskov for the long awaited ‘cousins’, lunch to celebrate so many of us who were born in Nakskov seventy years ago. It was generous of Marielle to travel all the way to Nakskov after having so recently flown back from her holiday in Bali.

Then it was back to Ole’s for the afternoon on the patio with Marielle, Preben, Dorrit, Mogens and Bente. As Mogens, Dorrit and Bente spoke scarcely a word of English, I was pleased, for the first time to be able to talk easily with them as I’ve never been able to before. I felt really heartened later, when Ole said how much my Danish had improved and how good my accent was. But it was so very tiring! It was another very late night. Earlier in the day Ole had asked how we were going to get to Odense, our next destination. It appeared to us to be a four hour indirect Island hopping trip by road. Ole pointed out that there was a ferry that would take 45 minutes to cross us to a point that would save us 200 km of driving. He went to check the ferry times. When he came back, he’s already booked and paid for us on the 10:15 am ferry crossing. Again, their generosity and hospitality were humbling.

21st JULY, 2019 – ODENSE

That night we set an alarm for 8 am in the morning. After we had breakfast, we followed Ole and Anne-Gethe to the wharf. They insisted on leading us to the ferry and seeing us safely on board. The efficiency of Danish ferries is a marvel of organisation. They get cars on and off with a minimum of fuss and without a minute wasted. Getting the cars off quickly is probably assisted by Danes knowing to go straight to the vehicles as soon as the announcement to do so is made. Both departure and arrival were absolutely punctual. Not like the dawdlers of the Spirit of Tasmania who leave their cars blocking lanes despite repeated announcements calling for them to return to their cars.

Ole and Anne-Grethe waved and took photos of us as we drove onto the ferry. We went up on deck and found them still standing there, looking up expectantly. We waved, they waved and took even more photos. It was sad to see them disappear into the distance and I hope that we get them to see again soon.

To be continued…