Our Scandinavian Tour - Day 27 - 29

Monday 4th June 2018  🌞🌞🌞⛅🌞 and slightly cooler - only 25 degrees today
Mileage - about 28
Parking Coordinates 55.92372, 12.29571

This morning we were up a bit earlier than usual and quickly ready (but with some trepidation)  to take T4rdis2 to the Bije caravan dealership which is about 14 miles away to see if they could fix our fridge.  We arrived slightly early but they soon whisked our van into the workshop and and invited us to wait in their very comfy coffee lounge where they had a magic grand piano which played classical music all by itself!!

We waited about an hour then Yippee, Hooray, and Three Cheers 👏👏👏😄 cos they managed to half fix it!!  I say 'half' because the heating element for the electric function of the fridge is Kaput, Broken and no longer working, and the repair for it requires the fridge to be removed from it's orifice!   Therefore, it's a big job that they hadn't got time to do, and even if they had they hadn't got the correct part.  However, the gas and 12 volt functions are now back on line, and as we're mostly planning on wild camping for a good part of this tour those are the ones that we would have been mostly using anyway!

Oh and the cost - well that was only about 35 quid - but I think our bill will be slightly more than that when we get back to the UK and have to have it fixed.

Anyway, after our lucky escape from Bije with most of our bank balance in tact we headed to the local Aldi to do a bit of a  restock and then back to the campsite to decide what our ongoing plan should be.  Now, as I said in my last post, we haven't got much LPG gas on board and there isn't any available in this part of Denmark, therefore to get more we need to cross over the toll bridge into Sweden.  However, tomorrow is a Bank Holiday for Constitution Day, and although it isn't widely celebrated here a lot of businesses are closed, so we've decided  to stay put for one more day.

We passed the afternoon doing a few boring but essential tasks, and then in the early evening we sat nattering to our Swedish neighbours before toddling up to the camp kitchen to cook our tea - but that was a bit of a smokey affair because a Dutch couple very nearly set it on 🔥🔥😂


Tuesday 5th June 2018  🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞 - if the weather doesn't change soon I'm going to ware this emoji out!!
15 bike miles


Today is our sixth  here at Hillerod Camping but so far our bikes hadn't seen the light of day, so we decided to remedy that and take them on a little trip to Fredensborg Palace.  The Palace is located near to Lake Esrum and has huge informal and formal gardens where the public are mostly free to roam.  The history of the palace goes back to 1720, and at certain times of the year it's state rooms are open for guided tours.   However, Spring and Autumn are favoured by the Royal Family  so the Palace itself and it's immediate perimeter were off limits today, and this was enforced by armed guards who's job it was to keep the bus loads of tourists at bay.

Fredensborg Palace 

Rig's Monuments (of which there were 2) - Lady's Guarding the Palace

However, we were able to wander in the lovely Baroque gardens and admire the many sculptures that form a double avenue that lies along one of the Palaces main facades, and additionally, we visited the Nordmandsdalen which is a unique attraction that it seemed not many people knew about!  It dates back to 1764 and depicts a valley  where 70 sandstone statures of Norwegian farmers and fisher folk form a circle around an amphitheatre, and it also has two lovely shady and quite pagodas which we took full advantage of to sit and eat our lunch.

Hey Sarah - Where's Wally?

Then after our visit we meandered back to T4rdis2 but on the way we paused for another break by a lovely lake in the Castle grounds near Hillerod.  Here we watched swans and ducks peacefully gliding across the mirror like water's surface, while we baked a bit more in the hot afternoon sunshine!


Wednesday 6th June 2018  🌞🌞🌞but with a good breeze so it feels much cooler!
Just 17 miles from Hillerod Campsite to Helsingor Campsite
Parking Place Coordinates 56.04327, 12.60498

This morning we left Hillerod Campsite (which is probably the best we've stayed on in Denmark) and travelled the short distance to Helsingor Camping (which is probably the worst), and that's for a few reasons really!  Initial impressions are of an oldish site that sits  right on the beach of the Oresund Sound which is the body of water that separates Denmark from Sweden, and in the sunshine it looked quite inviting.

That's Sweden Across the Water and the Ferry we could catch if we hadn't chosen to
go over the Oresund Bridge

However, the pitches are small tiny, and once we'd parked we realised that the tram line runs within about 5 metres of the back of our van (I really hope they don't run all night), and it's right next to a noisy building site.  Also, after the pristine-ness of our last site this one looks a bit tatty and neglected, but hey ho, it's only for one night and it's very conveniently located to the town that we've come to visit!




Anyway, by now it was lunch time but because of our fridge issues I hadn't got anything that looked particularly appetising, so that, along with the fact that I'd still got plenty of Danish Kroner to spend encouraged us to seek our lunch along the quay side.  And guess what we found -  the Danish version of Fish and Chips which were delicious!!

We'd chosen Helsingor for 2 attractions -the first being the Elsinore Walk which follows a trail marked by blue dots that leads you around the town's main historical and cultural sights, and secondly we also wanted to spy the UNESCO listed Kronborg Castle which was built in the late 1500s.

Our walk started with us passing through some of the main shopping streets where the outlets and eateries were mostly thronged but many were unique rather than the run of the mill chains.

You'll be quite glad you can't smell that lot 😣 but the samples tasted good😋!



However, quite quickly the dots led us into quieter quarters where we found narrow cobbled streets with half timbered houses, and I'm sure if two people had leaned out of opposite upstairs windows they could easily have shaken hands!

We were very glad the channel down the middle was no longer in use !!

As we went we also found several murals and a restaurant that was hiding behind a window full of steins!

Indications that Hamlet had been here!


















The Town's old hospital from 1516 which today is a museum

And, then after about 2 miles we came to the boat yard which was given a face lift in 2010 and became The Culture Yard.

Wally's hiding again!

Within the 'Yard' there are museums, restaurants and facilities for concerts, but also there are grand sights of old masted schooners, sculptures, and of course views of Kronborg Castle.

So after the Boat Yard the Castle was our next target, but we'd already decided we were only going to enjoy it's magnificent facades from the outside because a lot of the summer events hadn't yet started.  The info boards told us that the castle was home to Shakespeare's Prince Hamlet, great Danish King's and the legendary hero Holger Danske who sits asleep deep down in the underground passages - a place where he has slept for hundreds of years.  The story goes that he will only wake up if Denmark is threatened by enemies! There was also lots of info about Hamlet and apparently  these days he 'returns' to the castle each summer, and during his 'stay' he often appears along with Ophelia within the castles' galleries!

From the outside, the castle was another very beautiful one with domed copper topped towers and lots of cannon filled fortified walls that were designed to scare passing enemies as they sailed up the Sound.

And that really completed today's tour so then it was just a slow stroll back to T4rdis2 and tomorrow we'll be leaving Denmark behind and venturing into Sweden which will be another new country for us!

Take Care  😚😚


PS. Hey Mum - Glad you found your Kindle but we hope you can remember which book your on 😂

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