From Skagen our route took us down the eastern side of Jutland, then across the Little Belt straights to the island of Fyn, then across the Great Belt to Sjælland. We're now in the north of Sjælland in the seaside town of Gillelege. The countryside we've been passing through is scattered with beautiful half timbered houses, many with thatched roofs, as picturesque as anything from any tin of west-country clotted cream fudge. Plenty of history here.
We even visited an open air museum in Arhus - 'Den Gamle By' – which is a collection of old houses from around Denmark. The oldest are from around 1550 and the most recent additions are shops recreating life in the 1970s (as if that's history!!) There are a varirty of buildings including some which have staff in period costume performing household tasks and a bakery where you can buy the goods (modern prices apply unfortunately).
Another thing their history has given them is an embarrassment of castles, so many we've had to be rather picky about which ones we visit. The ones we've seen haven't been the massive stone Norman fortresses we're familiar with from Wales, but much later and more comfortable buildings. Many of them look so decorative and airy that it's hard to see them as having a defensive purpose, but as you approach you find them enclosed by elaborate earth embankments, moats, drawbridges and gun emplacements. The castle itself may be tougher than it looks, but the main defence is in the earthworks, where every star shaped battlement is covered by the guns of its neighbour and the attacking enemy can fire as many cannonballs as they like into the earth embankments and they're never going to crack – this is military engineering for the age of gunpowder rather than the crossbow.
Egeskov castle is not a huge place compared to Caernarfon or Blenheim Palace, it's more a fortified manor house than a castle, but it's the centre of a large and thriving estate. The last few generations of the family have opened it up to the public so that income from visitors can supplement the profits from the surrounding agricultural land.
We hesitated about the entrance fee, but found it to be superb value with something for everyone. Before visiting the castle we thought we'd peek into the barns where there were exhibitions of old cars, bikes and rescue vehicles. We found ourselves spending the whole morning wandering fascinated past a vast collection of immaculate vehicles (yes, even Stella and she's a girl!), many dating back to before the first world war. They have everything from a Wallace and Grommit style grey Austin A40 van to a Danish airforce Starfighter.
The current owner, Count Michael, seems to be a bit of a character, and is enjoying his inheritance. A keen diver, he's thoroughly explored the moat and brought up all sorts of debris. In the banqueting hall is a tailor made suit of armour, fulfilment of a childhood dream, based on armour made for the man who originally built the castle. The banqueting room displayed several pairs of duelling pistols, from as late at the mid nineteenth century. Michael thought that as he was Count of Egeskov he should have a pair, but this being the 21st century he had to settle for a pair of paintball guns – displayed in a case with the words of the duelling ritual typed out and hand corrected.
Freidericia is clearly a military town (parts of it reminded us of Berwick Upon Tweed, with smart but plain neo-classical buildings keeping their heads down behind dominating ramparts). In case you forget its military history, the pedestrian crossings display a red soldier standing to attention and a green soldier marching.
The ramparts are now a pleasant green space for the townsfolk with swings in the trees. They don't seem to have been very effective as defences as the 17th century Swedes got in, followed two hundred years later by the Prussians.
All that remains of the outer wall of Nyborg's royal castle is two towers and the intervening stretch of battlement, with a grand hall built up against the wall. Beyond this are more 17th century earthwork battlements which in turn overlook a wide moat. Now its military purpose has passed, the moat is a lovely lake crowded with ducks and swans, and overlooked by some very desirable houses.
Then there's Frederiksborg, where spectacular grounds lead you down to a spectacular baroque palace. The baroque formal garden was built by Frederick IV, it's very elaborate with Italianate fountains and statues, and neat hedges which spell out Frederick's monogram. The castle itself is one of those that looks too decorative and frothy to be a fortress, but it stands in a moat so wide it is more like a lake.
Fredensborg Castle is a grand neoclassical palace approached by a long wide carriage way. We just peeked through the gate (we were castled up to the eyes by this point).
Kronborg Castle in Helsingør (Shakespere's Elsinore) is one of the 'must see sights' in Denmark according to our guidebook, and we were pleased to spend the night in a parking spot at the marina with a view of the castle through our back windows.
It was built to control shipping between the North Sea and the Baltic. Denmark made a lot of money over four hundred years by imposing tolls. The castle is a sixteenth century fantasy of spires and decoration, but in Shakespere's time it was famous for its strength as well as its luxury. You approach it through line after line of defences, overlooked at every moment by the Danish Department of Palaces' beautifully restored guns.
And for each of the castles we've visited we've ignored two or three other tourist signs saying “'Slot' this way”. There are plenty more to see.
It's not been all castles, we've seen some other interesting sights, notably the Frigate Jylland (a nineteenth century warship, the largest surviving wooden ship), the Roskilde Viking ships and the Jelling runestones.
We've found that being without Scooby has led to us spending more time on sightseeing and less time walking on beaches. It's costing us a fortune and we're constantly looking enviously at dog owners. It has also led to us wanting to spend time at attractions with furry mammals to look at; oddly these seem to be aquariums. In Silkeborg we visited the freshwater aquarium and as well as a wide variety of fish, repiles, amphibians and water fowl we cooed over goats, beavers, raccoons, mink, coypu, raccoon dogs (which we'd never heard of) and best of all, a pair of gorgeous otters who put on a great show for us.
We're currently parked up near Gilleleje, on the northern edge of Sjælland, planning to head south to Copenhagen tomorrow.
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