Denmark 12: The end: Frederiksborg and a waste management plant with a ski slope

 The last day had us finally getting to visit Frederiksborg, which closed to early for us to reach on our way up to Helsingør.  We arrived not long after it opened.  We parked near the gardens and walked around the moat until we were able to approach the front.  The grounds were extraordinary.

    The inside of the castle was very extensive and had by far the most to see, of all of the castles we visited in Denmark.  I am now going to bombard you with a ridiculous amount of pictures of the beautiful things we saw inside.

  Our second of three stops for the day landed us at the round gardens.  This community of oval shaped properties was designed by a landscape architect named Søren Carl Theodor Marius Sørensen.  None of the homes have parking for cars, which makes the area very green.  This design was meant to encourage walking and socialization with neighbors.  The owners were allowed to choose the location of their cottages and design the internal organization of their plots.  We parked nearby and spent a few minutes walking around the properties.

  Our last stop was based on a recommendation by Janne, from back in Copenhagen.  It is a waste management plant that houses a cafe on its roof and a ski slope down its side.  With such an odd combination, I just had to check it out.  

  Rather than walk up the side, I decided that we should take the elevator to the roof cafe and then walk down.  We entered the elevator and there was a single button other than the ground floor.  As we began to lift, I realized that both sides of the elevator was see through, and the factory was extremely open.  The gliding motion of the elevator, combined with having nowhere for me to safely focus my eyes gave me a bit of a height related panic.  I dropped to one knee, held the wall, closed my eyes, and breathed.  Once we reached the top, luckily alive, I immediately jumped out of the elevator onto the solid roof.

  We walked down the stairs to the bottom, while watching a few people attempt to ski.

  Copenhill was only ten minutes from the airport hotel, which was across the street from the airport.  We got our covid test in the airport, which would allow us to reenter the US.  We ran into a bit of a conundrum when trying to submit paperwork to the airlines.  We were required to fill out the combined passenger disclosure and attestation to the United States of America.  This was a 7 page document, which required us to each fill out 3 pages.  I had the hotel front desk print this up for us.  At first, I tried to sign on Miles' behalf, but the airlines threw it back at us as "insufficient information."  I guess, correctly, that they wanted him to sign his own paperwork, as they listed his airline ticket as "adult." 

  Another small adjustment to our schedule happened during the night, which was Denmark's daylight savings time.  With an 8:45 AM flight, we did not get much sleep that night.

Demark 11: The journey to Helsingør- The 2nd best troll, 2nd best church, and 2nd best castle

  We journeyed northward toward Helsingør.  Our first stop was an attempt to see Skovtårnet, a viewpoint that spirals upwards.  The plan was just to make a short stop, take some pictures, climb up as high as I could stomach it(5 feet, give or take), and then give up and move on.  It turns out that this installation is part of a broader "Camp Adventure," that has a whole admission fee that includes treetop ziplining, etc.  I tried to exit the parking lot, but was stopped by a gate, asking for parking fee proof.  I had to go into the reception area and ask them to help me escape.  They gave me a paper to scan, and it let us go.

  Once we were freed, we went to the other side of the highway, to see the quarry called Faxe Kalkbrud.  Janne, the German woman that I had burgers with, suggested it.  You can actually bring a hammer and chisel, that they provide, and you could look for fossils in the quarry.  She suggested visiting to see the blue ponds.

  I didn't feel like we had time to go down into the quarry itself, so we looked from a viewpoint.  There was a cafe that offered tons of ice cream options, so I sent Miles inside.  He came out and explained that he thought it was a scam because their ice cream freezer was broken and their ice cream was melted.

  Our next stop was eighteen miles west of Copenhagen proper.  We visited one of the six trolls of Copenhagen, when going to the fake hippie part of the city.  This second one is tucked away in a forested part of a random park.  Its name was Tilde.

  Grundtvig's Church was next on our schedule.  I had my eye on it, but couldn't make a trip out there work via public transport.  The original plan was to visit Frederiksborg Castle, but it closed at 3:00, and we got trapped in a parking lot for too long, so that was out.  Grundtvig was in.  This church is lauded for its architecture.  I'll be the judge of that!

  The last stop of the day before arriving at our hotel was the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.  Even more interesting than the art was the design of the facility.  Swerving this way and that, with subterranean tunneling, it was fun to maneuver through.  The art was modern art, meaning it ranged from the ludicrous to only slightly less ludicrous.  Miles exhibited the beginning stages of teenagerdom by grumbling under his breath(and above his breath) about how they let just about anyone and their three brush strokes into museums these days.  It isn't necessarily that I disagree with him when it comes to modern art museums, it is just that he needs to practice when it is ok to say things out loud and when it is not well timed.

  I liked the statues.

    Our hotel was right across from the absolutely beautiful train station that I never got around to taking a picture of.  

  We took our time leaving the hotel in the morning.  The main attraction of the town is Kronborg Castle, known as the model for Elsinore in Hamlet.  As I have never read Hamlet, I do not know who this Elsinore woman is.

  The castle insides weren't particularly interesting, but the outside and the courtyard were fantastic.

  Just before you reach the castle, there were a bunch of interesting boats.  In the town itself, there were three interesting churches.  Two of them had a small side area with peculiar markings that I have not seen elsewhere.  There was also a pink house that caught my eye on the first night that I made sure to revisit.