11 August 1988

The next two days proved quite interesting.  We drove up to Helsingor and saw Kronborg Castle - known for being the setting for Hamlet.  It is a beautiful castle and what I remember most from visiting it was the statue of Holger the Dane which according to legend when Denmark is threatened it will turn to flesh and bone and rise to defend the country.  During the Second World War, one of the most important resistance cells was named after Holger.

So that night we spent in the backyard of friends of my honourary grandparents.  We had never met them before and when we were going over my grandparents had said call them and stop by.  So we did, only my grandparents had forgotten to mention this to the Christensen's.  Opps!! Anyways being the wonderfully nice people that they were, they invited us to stay with them and fed us absolutely delicious food!  They had however on inviting us to stay with them had mowed their backyard and my poor mother to this day despairs of all the grass we tracked into the house.  So after our tent was up and the dinner was eaten, they phoned my grandparents to make sure we were who we said we were.  This was the start of a long friendship that still goes on to this day.

From my album I'm guessing that this is our car at the Christensen's House but I'm not 100% sure.   As you can see it was quite an art to packing it with all our camping gear.

Our tent set up in the Christensen's backyard.  They lived on the water looking towards Sweden. 

10 August 1988

This morning we started by visiting  Lejre an "historical archaeological experimental center".   The current description says there are 19th century farm houses that is either new or we did not visit when I was there.  It is an Iron Age centre where they had recreated the settlements building them and using the tools they would have used at the time.   We went out in hallowed out canoes.  I made in note in my scrapbook that "The life jackets were not vintage".

In the afternoon we went into Copenhagen and saw Rosenborg Castle and the crown jewels - including three fantastic lion sculptures.  Then the Geological Museum where we saw a moon rock.  Lastly we went to the Worker's Museum.  This was really fascinating as it did an excellent job of depicting how families lived and showed how families went from living in one room, to two, to three.

9 August 1988

Our first day in Copenhagen!  I don't know about my brother and sister but I certainly felt our Scandinavian roots during our time here.  My mother is 1/2 Swedish and 1/2 Lithuanian and we certainly learned plenty about our roots here and Scandinavian life.  As you can see, we had a bright sunny day.  The first thing we did was get our Copenhagen Cards.  These were available in many different cities as you can see and covered public transit and museum entry.  

The first thing that we did was to take a boat ride around.  From the boat we saw plenty of Copenhagen including the mermaid statue from Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales.  Which in finding the link I have just discovered will be turning 100 years old this month.  

Next was a visit to the Parliament and Christiansborg Palace.  The Palace was on the site of two previous castles, The Bishop's Castle and Copenhagen Castle.   I remember this being really interesting as we went to the foundations and you could clearly see the foundations of the two older buildings.  

We also visited Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest amusement park in the world.  See my sister and I eating our ice cream cones above.   It is turning 170 years old this month (quite the month for anniversaries in Copenhagen apparently!)

Lastly that day we went to The National Museum where we saw an exhibit on Christian IV.  I have a note in my scrapbook that we saw exhibits on him all over Scandinavia.  He was King of Denmark from 1588 to 1648.

The only other note that I have about that day is that we had bad pizza for lunch.  I think this is the first time we had seen sweet corn on pizza.  Having lived in England I have since become a fan of sweet corn (and tuna) on my pizza.

8 August 1988 - Viking Ships

A wonderful day in Roskilde where we saw the Cathedral and Viking Ship Museum.  

The Viking ships were amazing! 

7 August 1988 - Roskilde, Denmark

Here we are at our trusty camp site in Roskilde.  We based our selves here until the 11th and went into Copenhagen from here as well as a few side trips.  We spent a lot of time in that green tent and sitting around that table.  Being Scandinavia, the showers here did not have any doors or curtains.  This was an excellent camp site but while we were there someone drowned.