We woke up to warm air wafting through our open windows and a glorious blue sky without a cloud above. With the promise of a glorious day, we immediately thought, “Road trip!” But, having no car we adjusted that idea a bit and decided to take a train ride about an hour north of Copenhagen to a seaside town called Helsingør. You pronounce it with the H being silent so it becomes “elsingør” and if you barely pronounce the g, it comes out sounding like “elsinor”. It is the inspiration for William Shakespeare’s Elsinore Castle in the story of Hamlet and the town has the actual castle that Shakespeare called to mind when he wrote the play. The actual name of the castle is Kronborg and it goes back to the early 1400s, about 170 years before Hamlet was produced. It was the home of Danish kings (Frederik II and his son, Christian IV) and served as a fortress to control access to the narrow sound of the Baltic Sea that the castle is perched upon. Just across the water is Sweden. Whoever controlled the waterway got to tax everyone who wanted to sail past and it was quite lucrative. The fun thing about Kronborg Castle these days is that, during the warmer months, you can visit there and tour all the aspects of a real medieval castle while being in the midst of actors performing their own version of the play Hamlet. It was quite something to experience knowing that you were in the actual place that Shakespeare pictured as the setting for his story while he was writing it. It was a long day of being on our feet, following the actors around the castle as different scenes unfolded in different parts of the castle, as well as touring on our own before and after the play portion. It was one of the most interesting things we’ve experienced in this trip so far!

As is our routine here in Copenhagen, we first walked over to the Farmer’s Market for coffee (we ordered Americanos today which were so much better!), pastries, and smoothies for breakfast. Across from the market was a flea market with all sorts of interesting items. Here’s just an example.The Danish are definitely not prudes!

After breakfast, we hopped on the train to head north to Helsingør. It followed the coast of the Baltic Sea most of the way there.

This is the train station in Helsingør, home of Kronborg Castle. Right next to it are ferry docks for large car-carrying ferries and passenger ferries which run back and forth to a Swedish town just across the water.

Helsingør is a small, typically Danish town and has interesting architecture. This row of buildings faces the town’s square.

We ate lunch at a great French cafe, called Bistro Francophile, which was along our walk to get to the castle from the train station. The owner’s daughter served us and, like so many people we’ve met in Scandinavia, her English was impeccable. She said she had studied 2 semesters of college at the University of Texas and that her boyfriend was from there. She knew so much about the geography and politics of the U. S. and it was interesting to talk to her.

Besides being run by such nice people, the food at this bistro was amazing! We enjoyed our Croque Monsieurs and salads while looking out at the sea.

Just across from the restaurant was a great view of the castle ahead. It was only about a 10 minute walk to get from the train station to the castle if we had walked straight there. Walking around Helsingør and stopping to get lunch first made for a nice break in the action.

We are now approaching the castle’s entrance. You have to cross two moats and two draw bridges to get into the inner courtyard of the castle. It’s a very imposing structure and makes us wonder how they built something so large and substantial back in the 15th century.

We were soon immersed in the story of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Here are Hamlet and Ophelia speaking of their love for one another near the beginning of the story.

This is Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and not such a good guy. He has become king and married Hamlet’s mother Gertrude (in the background) after the previous king, Hamlet’s father and Gertrude’s husband, has died under somewhat mysterious circumstances.

Yorick, a court jester in the king’s court provides comic relief in the telling of the story. He also serves to connect the scenes by filling in helpful information. Here, you can see how visitors to the castle could gather around the actors as closely as they liked to take in the storytelling. Sometimes the actors would break character a bit and bring tourists into the story, usually to get laughs or clarify an important piece of the story. Also, in between scenes, the actors might keep in character but come and talk to you and ask questions about you and your life. Yorick did that with us one time.

Nearing the end of the story, Laertes, a childhood friend of Hamlet’s, comes back to find that his father, an advisor to the king, has been killed. He first suspects King Claudius was behind the murder and draws his sword on him in the King’s apartment. But Claudius tricks him into believing he must kill Hamlet instead to avenge his father’s death,. It sets up the climactic final scene of the tragedy. We needed to move to the ballroom to watch that final act. They kept us on our feet!

After the play was finished, we climbed the 145 winding steps up to the top of one of the castle’s towers. The views from there were spectacular and you could see why they situated the castle in this very spot. You could see up and down the narrow sound of the Baltic Sea and across the water to Sweden for protection and defense.

Looking back at the town of Helsingør from the top of the tower is how we ended our visit to Kronborg Castle. Having had a wonderful time, we prodded ourselves to get on back to the train and then return to Copenhagen. It had been a long and tiring day but one we very much appreciated. Who knows what adventures await us here tomorrow?  To us, there’s definitely NOT something rotten in the state of Denmark!