1982 Hillerød, Fredensborg, and Køge, Denmark (7/23/1982)

Friday, July 23, 1982

We were given a blue ticket at check-in that we had to give up for breakfast. There was tea and milk, a roll and a couple slices of bread with butter and jam. We went to the train station to make cuchette reservations for the night rain to Belgium, but they were full. So we made seat reservations for 12 DEK/$1.40 each. We put our bags in lockers, and found out we could use our Eurail Passes for the S-Tog/S-Train/Metro. Took the 9:02 train to Hillerød, arriving at 9:40 on a beautiful sunny day. We checked the station map of the town to plan our walk, then found signs pointing the way for pedestrians to reach the Frederiksborg Slot/Palace (1560, most 1602-1620). After a block we found ourselves in an area of warehouses, so we walked over a block to follow the main shopping street.

At Frederiksborg we crossed a moat, passed through a square, through a gate to cross another moat on a slight s-curve bridge, through a guardhouse, and into the main courtyard to face a tremendous palace.

Frederiksborg Slot/Palace

We paid 11 DEK/$1.30 and checked our backpacks. The clock played a familiar hymn at 10:00, as we started the tour.

Started in a large wood and gold room with a few pieces of furniture, then up stairs to a balcony around the Baroque Royal Chapel with an old organ and the highly decorated Royal Pew. The King’s Oratory had an ebony ceiling with ivory rosettes. We passed from one room to another, all decorated with paintings, plasterwork, and furnishings, to the Royal Living Quarters. Down a corridor and over a bridge to the audience hall, upstairs to another highly decorated hall, and next to that an even more decorated Knights’ Hall. Again through room after room of furniture, inlaid knickknacks, etc. And portraits galore! Out of the thousands of portraits, we found only one good-looking man. The subjects were royalty, military, literary, and government figures. Many of the older ones had bulging eyes, big noses, and prim mouths. We retrieved our packs at 11:15 and walked around the lake for another view before sitting in the shady grass for lunch.

Frederiksborg Slot/Palace

Returned to the station to take the 12:26 train to Fredensborg and arrived in thirteen minutes to walk for 15 minutes to the Fredensborg Slot/Palace (French-inspired baroque palace, 1720–1726). We walked through the gardens of long intersecting paths through woods, then a more formal garden behind the palace with shrubs and flowers in the shape of a coat-of-arms, perhaps. A rose garden with a water-lily filled moat, a pond with a spray fountain, a tennis court, and a mound with a zigzag path up it lined with low trimmed hedges.

We returned to the train station for the 13:40 train back to Hillerød, and changed to an S-Tog to Copenhagen. There we thought to take an express train to Roskilde, but the conductor would not allow us to board without reservations, So we took the 15:00 local, arriving in 25 minutes. In Roskilde we changed to the 15:50 train to Køge, a one-car train of the Ostbanen. That trip took 25 minutes across flat farmland. In Køge we found a supermarket to do some grocery shopping before exploring the town. Turned right on the main street of Nørregade and found red brick Sankt Nikolai Kirke/St Nicholas Church (1450-1500) with a thick square clock tower, where it is reported that prisoners were once held. Here and there were older timber buildings that were settling, and floor and roof lines were wavy and uneven. Some of the oldest timbered houses in Denmark are located here. We came to one end of town and turned around to walk back along another street, Kirkestræde, with more of these timber houses where people still lived and kept shops. Came to a busy Køge Torv/market square where an impromptu band was playing. Entered the City Hall (1552, Denmark’s oldest) courtyard to see the ultramodern addition behind it. Continued to the other end of town at a canal.

Køge canal

Turned around to walk back, taking detours down side alleys.

Medieval timbered buildings

Passed the Køge Museum which was also in a timbered building.

Køge Museum

Stopped at a bakery where Sue asked for a typical Danish pastry, getting a wienerbrød/Vienna bread (flaky pastry with sugar icing) and a specialty item, (kransekage/wreath cake, a small almond cake ring) that people have at weddings and christenings, ours was covered in pastry and dipped in chocolate.

Caught the 17:35 train to Roskilde, and the conductor spoke to us in Danish, perhaps telling us that this train ends in Roskilde and we would have to change. Arrived a few minutes after 18:00 and ran to the Inter City train that had just pulled in two tracks away, to arrive in Copenhagen at 18:30. Found a restaurant to each have a bowl of cream of asparagus soup, then share a mixed salad (very few lettuce leaves, mostly cabbage and celery, a green pepper, tomato, and cucumber) and a plate of a grilled half-chicken with French fries, peas and pickles, for a total of 122.25 DEK/$15. Spent the rest of our Danish change on a Herald Tribune newspaper and a pack of gum. Changed our Danish bills to Belgian francs.

Copenhagen to Liege seat reservation

We boarded the 21:10 train to Paris at 20:20 and were joined by a lady with a senior Inter Rail pass and an American couple from the Midwest. The old lady sitting by the window closed the window and put on a sweater. The rest of us were warm in the stuffy compartment, but Sue and I managed to keep the compartment door slightly open. At 23:30 the train boarded the ferry to Germany.