Category: Denmark

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.

 

Saturday 3rd June – Fredericia, Denmark

New adventures and new country today.   Lots to learn about the rules and regulations of camping here.  Evidently motorhome parking is permitted pretty much anywhere as long as it is not near homes or in a “no parking” zone.  You can only park there overnight as long as you don’t “camp” there.  It is classified as camping if you set up anything outside eg tables and chairs or put up your awning etc.

Border control guards were out in full force but we got the go ahead without any checking.  We are just inside our ninety day Schengen rule so am keen to see how we fare with my Polish citizenship once we exceed that time frame in a couple of weeks. 

Camping is extremely expensive here compared to Poland and Germany but we have been led to believe it gets more expensive in Sweden and more so in Norway.  Think we will have to find free spots to help the budget whilst here.

Had our first taste of higher prices as we filled up with fuel just over the border (sadly missed the last fuel stop in Germany).

Pulled into our first “free camp” located right on Fredericia harbour called “Svovlsyrekoj”.  The harbour is a working harbour and there were cargo ships as far as you could see.    Being a Saturday the boardwalk on the harbour was filled with keen fishermen so we were entertained for ages.  Most of the fish caught were, we think, garfish.  Very long and skinny and very sharp looking pointed heads.  The fishermen were very careful handling these and hit them on the head as soon as they were caught.  Didn’t look tasty at all and can only imagine they were full of bones.

We were parked amongst 5 other motor homes so felt very safe.

We set off for a short 2km walk to Fredercia central in search of a bank to load up with Danish kroner.   Shame Denmark, Sweden and Norway do not use euros and while all are on kroner, each has its own individual currency.  We now have a stash of Aussie dollars, English Pounds, Euros, Polish Zloty and now Danish Kroner.

We set off again after dinner and walked back to town to check out the night life.  It was a Saturday night around 8.30pm and the town was empty – lucky if we saw a dozen people.   Came back to the harbour front around 10pm (still light outside) and sat and watched the view until dark.

Sunday 4th June – Billund, Denmark (Legoland)

Did a bit of research last night as we noticed none of the service stations we passed offered LPG gas.  It appears there are only 4 gas stations in whole of Denmark that supply LPG.  Our first port of call was a servo in Middlefart –  cost was 11.5 kroner per litre with our exchange rate at 5 kroner to 1 Aussie dollar that is over $2 per litre – we payed around $0.70 per litre in Poland.

Now fully laden with fuel, gas, food and alcohol, we Headed towards Billund (home of Lego).  Called Legoland Billund Resort, it is about one km north of Billund.  Cost is around $65 per person (for seniors) and parking for the day is $10 on top of that.

We found a park in the cargo area at the airport nearby (avoided designated parking at Legoland) and took a short 10 minute walk to Legoland.  The place was packed as it was Sunday, and we believe tomorrow is a public holiday in Denmark (Constitution Day).

Though expensive for these two old retired folk, this is something we really wanted to see – and we were not disappointed as the photos will show.  What a magic place.   Bit like the theme parks on the Gold Coast – all inclusive price for the attractions and rides.  We did not do any rides but really enjoyed Miniland and the other mini displays of scenes of homes, castles, farms etc. from many European countries including harbours, ships, airports, trains – even had a whole section on Star Wars.  There was so much to see, there is no way I can describe everything we saw.  There have been over 65 million Lego bricks used so far to construct Legoland.  There is also a massive new Lego building in Bellund currently under construction which will include so much more for the tourist to see here. This is expected to be completed in 2017 but looked like it was a long way off completion yet.

We have found out that two hours before closing time, the rides close and then they open the gates to anyone at no cost.  Check the website for closing times and then arrive two hours before that.

Really glad we decided to so this and after a short walk back to Ziggy, we headed to our next overnight stop in Vejle about 35 Kms away – a free camp offered by an auto camper dealer called Autocamp Centre.  Didn’t arrive until 7.30pm so had dinner, the regulation bottle of wine, good conversation and then some quiet reading until bed time.