The Virile King
Helsingor and Hillerod – 15th May
Helsingor:
The port city of Helsingor is situated in the North East of Zealand and is only 5kms across the Oresund Strait from Sweden. Travelling by car from Hvidovre it would take 42 minutes on the motorway or 85 minutes along the scenic coast road, most of that time is just getting out of Copenhagen. The houses along the coast are quite palatial, have Porsches parked in the driveway and have lovely sea views of Sweden but are, no doubt, subject to the constant sea breezes.
The first thing you see arriving into town is the ferry from Helsingborg, Sweden. The Danish are drawn to visit Helsingborg because it has over 500 shops and it only costs NZ$10 for the 20 minute ferry journey. During the busy season the ferry makes 52 crossings a day. For a car and two adults without the frequent user discount it would cost NZ$110, we however plan to go to Sweden by the Oresund Bridge.
We parked at the Vaerftets Madmarked to buy some cheese to go with our picnic lunch but found it was a food hall that cooks international meals, for NZ$31 you can get a hamburger and chips. The food hall is set up in the old shipyards and has a free maritime museum nearby. We did a quick tour of the wharf area and found a sheltered spot in amongst the castle’s barracks to eat our lunch.
From the wharf we went to Kronberg castle, the castle sits on a piece of land jutting out into a lake which looks almost like an island. The outer base walls from the sea up are made from small red bricks, currently each brick is being removed by hand, the weeds killed, and the bricks are scrapped clean and put back. In the past every ship that sailed through the strait had to pay the king a tax based on the value of the cargo, the king had the right to buy the cargo at the value stated, this was to stop the captain undervaluing it. Kronberg’s cultural significance is that the castle was depicted as Elsinore in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Elsinore is the Anglicised name for Helsingsor. A 21 gun salute is made from the castle on the birth of a royal child, it use to be 17 for females, but times have changed.
After a couple of geocaches in the north and central wharf areas we went to see two different churches, one was open but under renovation, the other was St Mary’s, a former monastery church. The monastery buildings and church have a long and varied history, as a monastery, Latin school, surviving the reformation, conversion to a German church, conversion to a hospital etc.
We were ten minutes to late to go into the church but could walk around the very intact cloisters.
To the right is the rat-catcher’s private entrance –>
Hillerod
Our principle goal of visiting the city of Hillerod was to visit the Frederiksborg Castle and gardens. The castle is built on three islands in a lake and can be accessed by car, foot or boat. We went by ‘Den Lille Faerge’, the little ferry, NZ$10 each, 3 drop off points. Rowing around the lake would be nigh on impossible as there is a strong persistent wind, the lady captain found the best way to land the boat was to ram the jetty. Apart from her driving skills she does tell a good yarn in English. The castle was supposedly traded fairly by a King wanting it as a hunting retreat and home, he offered the owner a manor in South Denmark and a monastery, due to the reformation of the church the king could do this as he technically owned them. Several kings later, many rebuilds and extensions have been done including the beautiful big gardens that have heaps of steep sloped lawns to mow. Here are some more photos before we get to virile King.
The Virile King
I love a bit of royal gossip and our Ferry Captain had lots to impart. Apparently former castle owner King Christian IV had to add several new wings to the castle, of which one was called the Princesses wing, because he had so many daughters. So where did he get all these daughters from? He fathered seven children to his first wife (she died of child birth complications), then he fathered twelve children to his second wife (she had no royal status pre-marriage), the last child is believed not to be his, he also fathered five children to three other women. The majority of the children were girls and because only the children from a marriage of equal status could claim any royal privileges, only three sons were acknowledged as being of royal birth.
More useless royal facts, since 1513, 20 monarchs ago, male monarchs have been named either Christian or Frederik. The two names alternate, with a father named Christian naming his oldest son Frederik and vice versa. So if you look up the history of Danish Kings from 1513 they go Christian, Frederik, Christian, Frederik, etc right up until Queen Margrethe. She however did keep the tradition going and her son is the present King Frederik and his son is Christian. Christian had his 18th birthday last year and posed for a photo with his 4 female equivalents from Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, so if ever the five of them get to reign Christian will be up against 4 queens. Not that he is shy of royalty as he is rumoured to be dating an Italian princess.
Today’s ABBA tribute is from ‘Man in the Middle’ (1975), for King Christian IV. For all his worth, his wife strayed and people viewed him as a lazy alcoholic who slept with whores. Just like the English kings, you were never safe, people used you nd tried to dethrone you if not kill you.
Even though he’s got all his servants and a mansion beside a lake
And the money too, all that he can spend
He can buy the most, nearly anything
But he can’t buy an honest friend