From Copenhagen I was able to catch a train about 50km north up the coast of Øresund (the Strait) to Helsingør, a town of around 63,000. On the eastern most point, closest to Sweden, is Kronborg Castle.

I got in fairly early, but the locals were already doing their morning shopping. Cheese being an important staple.

I wandered through town towards the castle, and past the maritime museum that wasn’t open yet.

Kronborg had been a stronghold dates back to the 1400s – used to control access to the Baltic Sea. The castle as it now was constructed in the late 1500s, but much of it was destroyed by fire in 1629. Kronborg was the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where it was named Elsinore.

The moat around the fortifications was mostly frozen over, that or the local gulls have worked out how to walk on water.

After entering the main gates you enter the casemates (cellars or basement) around the outside of the castle. Under the castle sleeps Holger Danske, a legendary figure going back over 1000 years who will wake when Denmark is threatened by its enemies. The stories are linked to King Arthur and Morgan le Fay, and Charlemagne.

After wandering around in the dark for a while I went for a wander through the castle above ground.

After the castle I walked back to the maritime museum and enjoyed a walk around it. The museum first opened in 1915 and used to be located in the castle. In 2013 it was moved to a new location in an old dry dock, under ground. There are a few things the Dane’s really love, one is their flag which has been around since the 1200s and another is their maritime history.

The museum was quite good. It had stuff going back to the age of sail, and then displays showing the enormity of some of the modern cargo ships from Maersk. Well worth the visit – even if I can’t find any photos at all from it.

After something to eat in the museum, I headed back to Copenhagen on the train.