12-22 September, 2000
Tuesday, September 12th, 2000
One day later than planned, as Henri didn’t feel too well during the weekend, we left the Netherlands by car in the morning. From Groningen to Copenhagen we passed Oldenburg, Bremen and Hamburg in Germany. Lots of work was done on the road itself, which made our trip slower as Henri (I can’t drive a car) couldn’t drive there very fast. We stood in queues twice near Hamburg, where the traffic is always very busy. Halfway the afternoon we reached the ferryboat to Denmark in Puttgarten. It was very windy during the one-hour passage on the "Prince Richard". You see we started the trip to Denmark very royal already. From Rødby Havn in Denmark it was not as far to Copenhagen as we had expected and we reached the capital of Denmark early in the evening. It took us some time to find a hotel, but finally we managed. After installing ourselves in our hotel room we had dinner in a restaurant close to the hotel and had a nice talk with a Dane about the royal family.
Wednesday, September 13th, 2000
I didn’t have such a wet birthday, my 27th, in years. After breakfast we started the day shopping in the Strøget, the shopping area in central Copenhagen. We saw several royal postcards in the shops and decided to buy some later. In the afternoon we walked to the Christiansborg Palace. After an interesting walk underground watching the ruins of the castles that stood at this spot since the 11th century - the present Christiansborg dates from the beginning of the 20th century - we decided to do the guided tour through the Royal Reception Rooms of the palace. We found among others the thrones and the library absolutely impressive. The highlight of the tour is the Great Hall. Since April 2000 you can see the tapestries there Queen Margrethe II got as a gift for her 50th birthday in 1990. She didn’t receive them until 2000, when she celebrated her 60th birthday, as it took 12 years to finish the tapestries. They were made after paintings of Bjørn Nørgaard. Very colourful they show the long history of Denmark. We saw Vikings, kings, wars, and we saw the tapestry with Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik on it representing the present. The future was shown on the last tapestry with Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim. I am not sure I liked that tapestry, but it was certainly interesting. Back in the hotel I managed to buy the Billed Bladet and Kigind in the small shop on the other side of the road. Of course I was curious how they would look like, as I only knew the magazines from the Internet.
Thursday, September 14th, 2000
After breakfast we walked to the Rosenborg Castle situated at the edge of a nice little park. It was dark; to keep the castle authentic it seems there is still no good electricity inside. For all in the rooms at ground level that is a pity as some items are really hard to see. But the castle is really worth a visit. You pass rooms full of paintings, furniture, porcelain, silverware and from the windows you have a nice view on the park. We saw the royal guards exercising near the castle. Later when we came out, we were just in time to see that they had changed clothes and wore their official guards uniform now. Just after 11:30am they marched to the Amalienborg Palace. Under the Rosenborg Palace you find the crown jewels in some well-protected rooms. You can see three crowns and some interesting jewellery. After an extensive visit to the museum shop we walked back to the hotel to bring some stuff there.
In the afternoon we walked to the Amalienborg Palace. At ground level in the Christian VIII’s Palace (Crown Prince Frederik, Prince Joachim, Princess Alexandra and Princess Benedikte have their apartments on the first floor) you find a very nice museum. We saw for example the studies of the Kings Christian IX, Christian X and Frederik IX filled with wonderful personal photos and other things. We admired some work of Queen Margrethe II that was exhibited for a while, like drawings even from an early age, pottery and clothes she has designed for a ballet. In the shop of the museum they sold wonderful books and postcards. After Amalienborg Henri and I walked along the boulevard and paid a short visit to the very small statue of the little mermaid, but notice you pass a statue of King Frederik IX and a bust of Princess Marie before reaching that little girl. In the evening we visited Martin, someone we know via the Internet, and had dinner at his home. We went back to the hotel after a very nice evening.
Friday, September 15th, 2000
Today we decided to go to Roskilde, a town not far from Copenhagen. In the old Cathedral (Domkirke) of Roskilde Danish Kings and Queens are buried for centuries. Many of them have wonderful tombs. Some of the chapels they are buried in have big paintings on the wall. Outside the Cathedral is the burial place of King Frederik IX. We even discovered a room with coffins of several Counts of Rosenborg. You can walk around here for ages. After visiting the Cathedral we walked around in the town and then decided to visit the Vikingship museum nearby. Tens of years ago five Vikingships were discovered in the Roskilde Fjord and they were pulled out of the water. Now they are in a museum and it is certainly interesting to see them to get an idea how Vikings lived and how their boats looked like.
We left Roskilde and drove to Helsingør to visit the Kronborg Castle. The castle itself was enormous and the museum inside was great, we especially liked the huge Feast Hall. Also the casemates were big fun. We walked around the castle and to our surprise we saw Sweden on the other side of the Sont. We knew the distance to Sweden (Helsingborg) at that place was very short, but didn’t know it was this close. We drove back to Copenhagen after a very nice day.
Saturday, September 16th, 2000
We had invited Martin to join us today and had decided to go to the Fredensborg Palace first. Unfortunately a part of the front of the palace was being restored so we couldn’t enjoy it complete. We wanted to walk through the park first and passed the wing where Queen Mother Ingrid mostly lives. We also saw a royal car and for us that was an indication that there was at least one member of the royal family at the palace. Martin thought it was the car of Prince Henrik. The park was beautiful and we enjoyed a nice walk to the nearby lake. We were back just in time to watch the changing of the guards together with some American and Japanese tourists. I didn’t notice, but Martin and Henri noticed that the ceremony was disturbed suddenly. A car came from the palace and soon it turned out to be the car we had seen before, but this time with Prince Henrik on the wheel. He passed me and the others, smiled and drove into the village/town of Fredensborg. After buying some postcards we also left.
We drove to Frederiksborg Castle, the national royal museum, and found the courtyard already fantastic. We started in the chapel with the shields of people who have received the Order of the White Elephant. On the walls of the palacerooms many paintings of the royal family and of Danish nobility were hanging. Also the Great Hall was wonderful and we passed the privy passage where Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra let one of their official wedding photos made (the one with the white angel above them). After buying cards and books and a lunch in the centre of the town, we tried to find Sorgenfri Palace. We found it after a while. We couldn’t come very close to it, even not by walking around the palace, so we drove back to Copenhagen.
Sunday, September 17th, 2000
In the morning we drove to Jægerspris to visit Jægerspris castle. We were just in time for a guided tour through the castle where Frederik VII and his third wife Louise Countess Danner have been so happy together 150 years ago. After an interesting tour we visited the grave of Countess Danner in the park behind the castle. Back in Copenhagen we visited the stables with royal carriages and real horses and also the chapel at the Christiansborg Palace. We then decided to drive to the Charlottenlund Palace, which we could only see from the outside. Nearby was Dyrehavn with in the middle the Eremitage, the hunting-lodge of Queen Margrethe II. Dyrehavn is a huge park which are in fact the hunting-grounds of the royal family. We enjoyed the long walk to the Eremitage and saw several groups of deers not far away from us. Back in Copenhagen we had dinner and afterwards I decided to go to the Christiansborg Palace again where Queen Margrethe was going to attend a concert. I found out where they were going into the palace. I saw the cars coming and unfortunately the cars drove into the palace. The doors of the palace weren’t closed immediately so I managed to get a glimpse of Prince Henrik and Princess Alexandra, but unfortunately not of the Queen herself.
Monday, September 18th, 2000
Today we left Copenhagen after visiting the Bernstorff Castle first. In the park we found the graves of four members of the royal family who had lived there. We also found Bernstorffshøj, one of the houses in our Danish royal genealogy, still heavily secured with cameras. When leaving Copenhagen we passed the Frederiksberg Palace, which contains barracks now. We drove to Ledreborg Castle, where the counts of Holstein-Ledreborg live. It was only open on Sunday so we had to be satisfied with a walk around and a view on the castle from the back. We enjoyed the really beautiful garden. We drove further to Ringsted and visited the church of St Bendt where several Danish kings from the Middle Ages are buried. Driving further we wanted to visit Sorø Church where a few more royals were buried, but unfortunately it was closed. Finally we reached the kilometres-long bridge over the Great Belt. At the end of it we found Nyborg and a nice hotel with view on the harbour.
Tuesday, September 19th, 2000
We were able to walk to the Nyborg Castle where long ago kings had lived. Although many parts had been destroyed we got a good idea of how it used to look like in the past. We saw huge rooms and even toilets. After the Nyborg Castle we drove to Valdermars Castle that was built for Valdemar Christian, son of King Christian IV, in the 17th century. He never lived there and the castle came into the hands of naval hero Niels Iuel. It has been the Iuel-Brockdorff family’s possession ever since. We saw furnished living- and bedrooms with many family portraits and photos and the very nice chapel. At the loft was a hunting museum with many throphies of animals from all over the world. We drove to Odense and saw Odense castle. We also wanted to see the cathedral, but heard it was being restored and that we couldn’t go inside. So we went back to Nyborg.
Wednesday, September 20th, 2000
We left Nyborg and the Island of Fyn. We finally reached Århus after noon and it costed us a while to find Marselisborg Palace. No guards and we were able to walk around it. It was even possible to watch a little bit through the windows and saw some glassware. The garden was very nice although most flowers had stopped blooming. In Viborg we visited the Cathedral with the grave of one single King, Erik Klipping. Outside was a nice statue of Queen Margrethe I and her heir King Erik of Pomerania. We drove back south and arrived in Jelling, where Denmarks royal history started. This is the burial site of King Gorm the Old and his wife Thyra. There is a church between two burial mounds and next to the church are the two famous rune stones on which Denmark’s name is mentioned for the first time. At the end of the year a museum will open here.
Thursday, September 21th, 2000
In the morning we first visited the Koldinghus in Kolding. Inside we saw an exhibition about the famous Meissen Porcelain. We passed rooms about the history of the Schleswig-Holstein wars, rooms with silverware, a chapel and a library. It took us a while to see everything. We wanted to see the Brundlund Castle in Åbenrå, but there was not much to see. What we could see was not interesting. We decided to find a place to sleep in Sønderborg and found a nice hotel with view on the fjord.
Friday, September 22nd, 2000
Also Sønderborg has a very nice castle. We spent a long time visiting all those nice rooms, which were not only about the history of the castle and the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Augustenburg. The chapel was for all very interesting as it contains the burial vault of the dukes. In the shop of the castle we managed to get a list of all people buried there, including a plan of the vault. We drove to Augustenborg to see the palace there. It is a psychiatric hospital now, but you can visit the palace church. In the Gate House is a small permanent exhibition about the history of the palace and its inhabitants. You can visit it for free.
From Augustenborg we drove to Gråsten, the summer palace of Queen Mother Ingrid. We enjoyed the garden that was even beautiful in this time of the year and saw the swimming pool, tenniscourt and the slide (don’t blame me for trying it out). We drove all the way to Møgeltønder and found Schackenborg Castle, the residence of Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra. We could only see it from the gates, but found it very beautiful. It was at the end of the afternoon and we decided, as we were close to the German border, to drive back home to Groningen, where we arrived late in the evening