Roskilde Cathedral

The Roskilde Cathedral is another high red brick cathedral, built between 1170 and 1280, originally Romansque, eventually Gothic. It is unusual in that it is not cruciform. Rather, it has had a number of chapels and other additions built on to it over the centuries—Roskilde Cathedral is the burial site of most Danish royalty, going back to Harald Bluetooth himself. It is a beautiful, high church, very well preserved, and the tombs of all the kings and queens of Denmark and associated memorials add to the interest.

The Roskilde Cathedral west towers Cathedral interior Organ; anno 1632 The royal box Harald Bluetooth, who unified Denmark in the 10th century, is buried in the column Queen Margarethe's tomb; she was queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in the 14th century King Christian X and his wife Queen Alexandrine; when the occupying Germans decreed in 1941 that all Danish Jews were to wear Star of David armbands, Christian responded by wearing one himself; the rest of the Danish population followed his example 

Roskilde Viking Ship Museum

The city of Roskilde lies about 30 miles west of Copenhagen. Whereas Copenhagen faces east and Sweden, Roskilde is at the end of a long and complicated fiord facing the northwest, and Norway. In the 11th century, it was the capital of the Denmark that Harald Bluetooth had unified in the 10th century. Sometime in the 11th century, fearing invasion from Norway, the residents of Roskilde scuttled five ships in one of the fiord's channels, thus reducing their vulnerability to the main channel. The invasion never came, and the ships were forgotten over the centuries. Late in the 20th century, however, they were discovered, conserved and preserved, and are now on display, along with much else, at the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum. The discovery of these and other Viking ships has brought about great interest in learning the techniques and materials used in building them. After all, these ships sailed all over the North and Baltic Seas, the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, as far as the Black Sea, and what is now Russia. At the Roskilde Museum they pride themselves in replicating the ships, using only materials and techniques known to have been used by the 9th, 10th, and 11th century shipwrights. It is an impressive undertaking, with research, education and construction and fabrication buildings all around, a smithy, carpentry shop, rope-making, sail-making, a restaurant, a hostel, a teacher center, and a collection of the fruits of these labors in the little Viking harbor between the Museum and the ship-building center. Want to know which kinds of Scandinavian trees and woods are right for which parts of the ship? Go to Roskilde. In the summer they even conduct cruises on the rebuilt ships on Roskilde fiord.

Main building of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde Skuldelev 2, the warrior ship recovered from the fiord; there were four others, including a large merchant ship Part of the shipyard at the museum, where they are re-creating Viking ships The Sea Stallion from Glendalough, a re-creation of Skuldelev 2 (the ship was built originally in Dublin, a Viking outpost) The Sea Stallion at sea, on a voyage to Dublin from Roskilde Another of the Viking ship re-creations at Roskilde Viking Vicki (they encourage visitors to dress up) Viking Mark; how come I can't keep a straight face when trying to look fierce? I must have Dukakis' syndrome An interesting juxtaposition: Native American lodge frame, the Sea Stallion, and the Museum; so who "discovered" North America?

Roskilde

Monday morning we drove from Copenhagen to Roskilde. We had intended to see Roskilde anyway (see subsequent posts; it's a neat place), and the campground administrator in Copenhagen had recommended a camper dealer in Roskilde to look at our defective 220/110 converter. The museum we were interested in in Copenhagen was closed on Monday, so we drove to Roskilde. As it turned out, the dealer could not help us explain why the converter works fine in household situations but trips the switches at campgrounds. We spent our 41st anniversary eating Danish sausages and me drinking Carlsberg at a lay-by outside Roskilde.

We had noticed a Mercedes dealer nearby and were growing concerned about a”hesitation” phenomenon getting worse with the Grey Wanderer, so Tuesday we paid Mercedes another visit. They diagnosed and fixed the problem (some sort of regulator) (on warranty) in relatively short order. At that point we decided to do the wash in Roskilde, so wound up spending another night there. Wednesday morning we drove back to Copenhagen to continue our tour there.

Tivoli

Entrance to Tivoli

Typical Tivoli scene

Is this Pirates of the Caribbean?

Group bungy; they would never do it this way in New Zealand

Another high ride, spiraling back down

Hard Rock Cafe, among the many restaurants; Bruce Springsteen will appear this summer, they said

Many of the acts were amateurs or wannabes or school groups

I suspect the same ploy as with Missoula Children's Theater and other organizations; involve as many kiddies as possible, parents and grandparents are obliged to buy tickets...

Also right across from the City Hall, ground zero downtown Copehagen, is Tivoli, the grand-daddy of all amusement parks, founded in the 1850s. (We could hear screams from the rides in the Glyptotek). It covers, very economically, about 4 city blocks, and contains beautiful gardens, pavillions, concert stages, dozens of rides, arcades, and some 56 restaurants, cafes and beer gardens...very urbane and very family at the same time, at least on this Sunday afternoon. Many people our age were out, enjoying the sunshine, dining, drinking, etc. It was a very pleasant experience and a very different way (to us) of doing an amusement park. It was all the more pleasant for me since Vicki did not want to do any of the rides, some very violent, which are priced separately.

Glyptotek, Copenhagen

We saw much of the Glyptotek Sunday morning, mostly the ancient collections and then the 19th and 20th century French paintings. It is an amazing museum, overwhelming in its size and coverage.

Right across from Copenhagen's City Hall is

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (as in Carlsberg beer)

Mostly sculpture and archaeology; an amazing Egyptian collection

Roman copy of Greek Socrates

Late Roman sculpture, the Lady of Palmyra

Victor Hugo and his muse, Rodin

Rodin's Burghers

Cruising Copenhagen

Saturday we drove across the Big Island and right into Copenhagen, finding our campground, City Camp, near the Fisketevor shopping center, with unusual ease. After setting up, we decided to get a day pass on the harbor taxi, and thus spent the rest of the day cruising the sights, hopping off and on as interested us. The main shopping boulevard, all-pedestrian, stretches on for blocks, and was hopping with a fair weather Saturday afternoon crowd.

Downtown along the canal, just off the harbor

Canal-level sight

The Copenhagen Opera; far more attractive than that eyesore in Sydney

Queen Margarethe's yacht

Margaretheville

Main canal through Christianhaven

The polar bear statue; everyone else was taking pictures...

There she is, the Little Mermaid, Copehagen's answer to Checkpoint Charlie

A Viking boat replica in a harbor-side park; the Vikes held their community meetings under such boats



Vicki adds:

Copenhagen, Denmark June 6, 2009

We have been able to do a lot of free camping—which has been great, except that it means we rarely have Internet. What we are finding is that big cities have Internet cafes but they are few and far between and often hard for us to find. Small towns don’t have them at all. I think so many people have Internet at home and/or over their cell phones that Internet cafes are a dying business. We have used the T-mobile hot spot at some McDonald’s but it is about $12 an hour so not too practical. We need to compose more off line and then just have to post. But then I can’t really answer emails I haven’t gotten, off line.

Germany allows you to free camp anywhere it is not posted as restricted, so we have stayed in paid parking lots and in Berlin 4 or 5 nights in a rest area off the freeway that was only 2 miles from the city center. It was great and there were lots of other campers and, of course, truckers there.

In Denmark most free camping is not allowed except for up to 11 hours in motorway rest stops. Last night we stayed in our second one in Denmark, this one right on the coast south of Copenhagen near the island of Mon. There were about 20 camping rigs there. Because of our Montana license plates, we get lots of attention wherever we go.

We hope to stay 2-3 nights in Copenhagen. We are in a campground near the city center. It is just a parking lot next to a shopping center with a fence around it and 2 trailers with showers and bathrooms—the electrical hookups are temporary, too—like the kinds used at fairgrounds. For this luxury, we are paying $45 a night. Copenhagen is frightfully expensive. A hotdog and coke at a stand is $8 or $9—at the mall a burger with coke and fries is $18. Now that does include tax and tip, but it does make you catch your breath. We filled up with diesel again today--$111. We are averaging 20 mpg, but it is still $ .30 a mile just for fuel. Thank heavens we weren’t here last summer—I would have had a heart attack with every fill up. We were in a bookstore and hoped to replace the 9 year old travel guide we have to Scandinavia but the Lonely Planet for Norway was a mere $45. so we decided not to bother. We had planned 6 weeks in Scandinavia but it will really have to be great for us to stay that long!

I am sure Mark will tell you about the Hans Christian Anderson House and our megalithic tombs visits. He has gone over to the McDonalds in the mall where there is reputedly free Internet.

Oh, one sidelight. We still can’t get electric from the campsite lines. Our converter that we brought blows every campground outlet that we plug into. The campground guy here says that there is a specialist in American camper conversions about 20 miles from here. So Monday morning he is going to call for us to see if we can get it looked at. As long as we drive a lot we don’t need the shore power but there will be lots of times when it will be a necessity—especially when we visit big cities and will be staying put. Another adventure. (Did Mark mention he backed up Wed. in a parking lot, hit a pole and broke our $700 back window?)

Megalithic Denmark

On Mon we visited three sites, two tumuli with passage graves and one long barrow. All are about 4,000 years old. These sites are pretty much out in fields by themselves, with markers, but otherwise open and unbothered. I crawled inside the Kong site, which had a large inner chamber. Never done that before, without a guide, etc. A bit of a thrill, actually. The first tumulus had an interesting double aisle structure. Both were very low. The barrow was similar to the West Kennet Long Barrow in Salisbury.

The Klekkendehoj tumulus; the trail through the wheat fields takes you
to a double-aisled structure

Inside the Kong Asgers Hoj tumulus

Me emerging from the Kong tumulus

The Kong tumulus

The Gronsalen long barrow

Island-hopping

The big new bridge that connects the middle island to the Big Island

From the Big Island, we drove down to the island of Mon (more bridges) to see the white cliffs and also some megalithic sites

Our campsite that evening

The next morning

Han Christian Anderson Center

The Hans Christian Anderson center Birth house, adjoins the center; he was born into abject poverty Displays like this cover every year of his life The collection of editions and translations The rotunda in the center of the complex has six or eight murals, numerous statues, etc. Friday we drove to the middle island (Denmark is part mainland Europe, part a bunch of islands) and to Odense to visit the Hans Christian Anderson Center, one of the largest and best writer centers I have ever seen. He is, of course, the national literary hero, maybe simply the national hero (judging from monuments, gift-store fare). Interestingly, to me, the Fairy Tales were just a side-light. Most of his life he strove to be a novelist and playwright, and received recognition in Denmark rather late in his life, long after the Tales had covered the world.