May 22 - Heading north up the coast

Bad news - good news:  It didn't rain today - it was heavily overcast.  Despite the lack of partly cloudy skies, we had an interesting excursion by bus.

Our first stop was to the Karen Blixen House.  Karen Blixen (also known by the pen name Izak Dinesen) is best known to us as the author of Out of Africa which talks about her life in Kenya.  This house is where she lived before marriage and where she resided upon her return from Africa.

Inside we were able to go through several of the rooms.  

She was remembered for her beautiful and somewhat unusual flower arrangements.  The tradition continues at the museum.

Outside we took a tour starting behind the house.

The path went into the woods to a large tree.  Her grave marker lays at the base.

When we left the Blixen museum, we continued into Helsingeør (known in English as Elsinore.)  There we had a wonderful lunch at the Streifj Restaurant.

Following lunch we took a walk through some of the narrow streets and alleyways of Helsingør.  

We passed some houses that were built in the 1500's, 1600's and 1700's.

The next destination was Kronborg Castle also located in Helsingør.  Listed as a UNESCO heritage site, it is considered an important Renaissance castle.  It was immortalized as Elsinore in Shakespeare's play Hamlet.  It dates back as a stronghold to 1420's.  But it has had 4 other reincarnations.   There was a fire in 1629; rebuilt, it was captured and looted by the Swedes in 1658; it ceased being a royal residence in 1785 when it was taken over as an army barrack (until 1923).   

First sighting in the mist.

We continued our walk up to it for a tour of the inside.  Because of its varied history, the interior decorations are not original.

The chapel does contain original furniture.

Our big excitement as we left the castle was to see across the 2.5 mile expanse of water and see Sweden (still partly in the mist.)  Look back at the map.

Before we returned to Copenhagen, we stopped at Fredensborg Palace.  This is considered to be Queen Margrethe favorite palace.  It dates back to the early 1700's.  

We could only catch a distant glimpse since it was being well guarded.

Back to the hotel in Copenhagen by late afternoon.  Time to relax before we headed out for dinner on our own.