Monday 5th June – Gillelege, Denmark
Bit of a nothing day today. Travelled for some time and then pulled into McDonalds around lunchtime (for an Internet lunch). My production manager had a lot of photos to download before he could finish the next blog, so an hour so later after a coffee frappe with ice cream and a Mc chicken burger, he downloaded the next tall story for everyone to read and we then headed north.
We wanted to visit the Viking Museum in Roskilde but decided against it after reading a report from another blog writer who said it was a little disappointing and recommended another that was better to visit.
We then travelled on to Helsingor to see Kronborg Castle and the Maritime Museum. Guess what – we couldn’t find our next camp site “Parking Nordhavnen” at the marina. We parked Ziggy and walked the streets and asked many people but no one could help us. We phoned the number but this went to message bank. There is a very large car park (not the one we were looking for) at the marina but the parking inspector (who was booking many cars) could not help us. He advised us against staying at the marina overnight as there were many break ins happening during the night so we decided to find a safer spot to park without having to pay a million dollars.
So glad we did as we found this magic spot called “Pudsagergard” in a little rural place called Gilleleje. Beautiful manicured lawns, flowers and herb gardens and for 50 kroners or $10 dollars you got a safe place to stay with water, electricity, toilet and shower. It is about half an hour away from Helsingor but an easy trip in tomorrow morning to see the castle and museum.
Settled down with couple of drinks with my driver (think he needed one or two) and enjoyed the tranquil setting until the light faded from the sky.
Tuesday &’Wednesday 6th & 7th June – Copenhagen, Denmark
Headed back to Helsingor and parked on the Marina where we had been the day before. The parking attendant we met the day before had absolutely no idea about anything. Firstly the place we were looking for was right here and he didn’t know that. He obviously is only employed to book people whose parking docket had expired. Parking Nordhaven is really centrally located on the marina in the main car park . There are double parks in the middle suitable for motor homes and for 50 DKK you can park overnight until 8am the next day. Had there been other motor homes there, we would have been happy to stay there (safety in numbers) but there were none. Though inconvenienced with finding another location, the end result was that we had found a magic place instead.
We took a day ticket 50DKK and headed to Kronborg castle a short 5 minute walk away. Set on the headland and overlooking the sea between Denmark and Sweden, this castle was built early in the 16th century? and has quite a history.
It was restored after being almost totally burnt out. Only the chapel remains in its original condition. The restoration includes furniture and paintings very close to the original works and some magnificent king’s tapestries. A very impressive castle, though not as good as Schoenbrunn Castle in Austria (our all time favourite).
We spent many hours there and opted not to visit the maritime museum as we had already climbed the 145 steps to the top of the tower of the castle, we were tired.
Then off to the big smoke in Copenhagen only about an hour away.
We arrived at around 4pm and settled in at the marina named “Svanemollehavnen” for the rest of the afternoon with a front seat view across the harbour. The marina has hundreds of boats and our motorhome park was right on the boardwalk overlooking these.
We booked an online “hop on and hop off” tourist pass for the next day, which entitled us to a total of 48 hours of being able to get on and off buses and boats wherever we wanted.
The marina is not centrally located to the city centre so we headed off with a 3km walk to “the Little Mermaid statue” in the harbour which was one of the stops where we could link with the bus tour.
From there we took three city double decker bus trips and one harbour cruise before thinking of heading home. An unbelievable day where we had no time for a lunch break. We saw so much but unfortunately we picked a dismal day to do this. It had rained all night but looked promising when we set off in the morning. All I can say is that we were so pleased it did not rain on the 3km walk home as it had rained on and off all day.
Happy and warm in our little Ziggy bus, we settled in for the night and listened to the rain on the roof top, hoping for a better and warmer sunny day for our trip into Sweden tomorrow.
Having read your blog since the beginning of your journey, I’m now feeling like I’m literally following you, albeit a week in arrears. We entered Denmark on 12 June and, having just spent a couple of days in Copenhagen, entered Sweden today, aiming for Norway. I wonder if our paths will now diverge, or whether we’ll find ourselves bumping into each other somewhere along the way.
Hi Gayle good to hear from you We are now at Flam, Norway, staying overnight and then going on the Flam Railway Tour tomorrow and then heading in the direction of Kaupanger and then up to Stryn. If you are planning coming to Flam and going on any of the tours you may want to book in advance as some of the cruise ships book out complete land based tours. Be careful on some of the roads which follow the Fjords – thet are very narrow, one lane roads with blind corners Regards Rob and Krys