Sweden day 3: Kronborg Castle

Day 3 was a long one: we managed to hit two countries in the one day. Our final destination for the day was Copenhagen. But we were going via Kronborg Castle, which is north of Copenhagen in Denmark.

Kronborg castle is in Helsingør, which is right across the Baltic Sea Sound from Helsingborg, Sweden. To get there, we caught the bus to Lund, the train to Helsinborg, and the ferry over to Helsingør. The train ride up was pretty quick: 40 minutes or so. And the ferry ride was really fast - just 20 minutes!

There are LOTS of wind turbines around Sweden and we saw some of them from the train.

The ferry was pretty big: it runs every 15 minutes and serves as a bridge across the sound. Cars and trucks are on the bottom and people are on the top. You can pay a flat fee and ride back and forth. Which could be kind of fun since there was a nice big snack area and lots of good seats for watching the view.

Michelle and I found the upper deck. And it was pretty darn windy up there!

From the dock at Helsingør, it was just a 15 minute walk to the castle. Or it theoretically should take 15 minutes. It was soooo windy that I think it took us close to 20!

We made it to the castle, where it was, if anything, even more windy. We took a tour that included a walk around the ramparts outside, and I was a little bit afraid we'd blow away!

Luckily, most of the tour was inside the castle. It was an interesting tour, but it mainly focused on how Kronborg Castle was possibly (or probably) the inspiration for Shakespeare when he wrote Hamlet. We did learn a little bit about the history when we walked through the rooms afterwards. The castle was built in 1420, but basically had to be completely rebuilt in 1629 after a fire. The royal family only stayed there about half the time in the early days, and in the 1700s, they stopped living there at all. So it's been a "traditional" castle for much less time than it's been anything else.

After a few hours at the castle, we headed back to the train station in Helsingør. That little town was so cute, and it looked like it would fun to spend a day wandering in. Maybe next trip!

Some respite from the wind between buildings!

The entrance to Helsingør station

Then, less than two hours later, we were walking around Copenhagen and taking in the city!

Toby was really feeling the city.

We walked around for an hour or two, just strolling the streets and keeping an eye out for a place for dinner. We ended up at an Italian place near our hotel, but also knowing that we could see more of the city in the next two days. Our Copenhagen adventure was just beginning!

 

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