Copenhagen & Roskilde

July 05, 2012

Copenhagen & Roskilde

Apologies, I've been busy trying to fit all we can into our last two days and haven't gotten to posting. This post is a compilation of June 1-3, our last days in Europe, which we spent in and driving to Denmark.

June 1st Drove from Simrishamn to Copenhagen. Along the way we stopped in Oslunda. We visited a small brush boutique there, as well as the graveyard to look for relatives. No luck. Later we had the pleasure of being able to visit Ales Stenar.

Flowers at the church graveyard.

Stopped at Glimmingehus for lunch (crepes!) and explored the buildings. This medieval manor is "the best preserved... in Scandinavia. Jens Holgersen Ulfstand began to construct the stately fortress in the year 1499. ... Glimingehus was established as an imposing residence for the Danish knight Jens Holgerson Ulfstand and his family. At that time Skane belonged to Denmark. Finds from archaeological excavations have revealed the highly exclusive nature of the Glimingehus household. The most expensive objects available in Europe in the early 16th century have been found, including Venitian glass, extruded Rhineland glass and Spanish ceramic ware."

Kung Carl in his throne at Glimmingehus.

Some Danish influence could be seen on the Swedish architecture as we got closer to DK.

Ales Stenar is a "megalithic monument in Scania in southern Sweden. It consists of a stone ship 67 meters long formed by 59 large boulders of sandstone, weighing up to 1.8 tons." A bit like Stonehenge. If you looked closely you could see some of the original carvings of a constellation (the swan, people 2700 year ago in Scandinavia called the "people of the Bore" worshiped the "sun swan") and the sun symbol.

Flush toilets in portapotties. We had to take a photo.

June 2nd Our first full day in Copenhagen we woke up early to head to the train station. Breakfast at the hotel had Swedish pancakes. (This was the first time we found them, we had been looking for them and then finally had some but in Denmark.) Even just buying the tickets was a whole new experience... (if you ever go, hold your bag/purse in the front of you, not on your back!). On the way there we finally figured out the ticket machine but on the way back we somehow only bought tickets to travel 2 zones (we needed to go over 8 zones). The conductor was nice enough to let us on. I think he realized we were tourists. While in Roskilde (where we traveled to by train) we visited the cathedral and the Vikingeskibsmuseet (viking museum). We ate lunch by the viking museum as well. We happened to visit Roskilde on one of the four days of the Roskilde Festival. It was created in 1971 by 2 high school students and is now one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe.

Accidentally sat in first class on the train. Free water and coffee!

Roskilde Festival

Something put in the fountain that settles on the bottom and you can write on the bottom.

Nothing to do with the festival, just a cool mural.

Orange fountain water...

Painted vinyls

Roskilde Cathedral - the burial place of many of our royal Danish ancestors (if name captions are present, they are my family's ancestors)

A bit of orange and the two steeples in the background.

Beautiful beautiful ceilings.

Caspar Fincke's gratings

Christian IV - he had a whole room devoted to him ("Christian IV's Chapel")

Christian IV

Not related, but the controversial tomb of Queen Margrete I.

Frederick V

Christian VII

Christian III

The King's Column and Frederick II & Sophie

Christian I & Dorothea

Vikingeskibsmuseet

Tying knots!

The Emster writing in Runes.

Nyhaven

Dinner and then our first Swedish ice cream afterwards.

June 3rd Short summary because I don't feel like typing anymore. Took a canal boat tour in Copenhagen. Saw the Hans Christian Anderson statue as well as the Little Mermaid (Langeline). We visited Christian IV's Rosenborg castle and later the Danish Resistance Museum (aiding Jews during WWII).