Wherever we have been around Copenhagen and this coastal area we have noticed beautiful granite paving, couples, setts, steps, etc. These are in every possible colour, and form a beautiful and almost unnoticed walking surface. I wonder where it has all come from – because I think Denmark is mostly a sandy soil and not ancient granite. Perhaps it came from Sweden? I must find out.
We are heading home today, and I’m very sad because it’s all been so harmonious - some people have respectfully and mournfully mentioned Brexit but we have been able to avoid fretting about it.
Yesterday‘s outing was to the castle at what we call Elsinore, now known as Helsinger in Danish. Shakespeare has generated a lot of tourist money for the town – if Hamlet ever existed, who knows?
The castle is much later than the setting of the play. It forms a large square round a deep courtyard, a slightly gloomy structure with broad spiral staircases and pleasant rooms, some with views over the Øresund to Sweden. A steady troupe of tourists ambles around. A graphic display and tiny cell are used to illustrate how the poor – possibly ex-conscripts – and anyone convicted of theft, could be enslaved and made to labour there for decades. It was the Royal Castle but never used for permanent residence. In fact it seems mostly to have been a giant grocery store, piled up with goods, waiting for the king and his court to come back for his next visit.
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