To Copenhagen

22 August 2023


We drove the Växjö railroad station and turned in the rental car. We then boarded a fast train to Copenhagen Central Station, a ride of about 2 hours and 40 minutes. During the trip, we went over the large Øresund Bridge between Malmö and Denmark. We took a taxi from the central train station (adjacent to Tivoli) to our hotel located in the “Latin quarter” of Copenhagen.  After checking in, we walked about three blocks to the Torvehallerne Food Hall and had lunch from an outside food truck.

A selection of smørrebrod for sale at the food hall.

After lunch, we walked to the National Museum of Denmark. It boasts three floors, but we managed to cover only about one and three quarters during our two plus hour visit! We saw the interesting pre–history exhibit which had some overlap with what we saw in the Swedish History Museum, but also had artifacts from extensive burial mounds and remains of a lot of ancient peoples. 


We next visited the Viking Exhibit in the museum, which added historical context to what we had seen in Stockholm. The history of the Vikings, including the extent of their travels, is well documented. The Vikings controlled and plundered a lot of the world from the Caspian Sea to Canada. Once again, we were surprised by the wealth (lots of gold objects) displayed. Then we walked through the medieval and Renaissance Danish Collections.  Here are several gold items from the museum.

After that, we enjoyed a walk around a canal and through attractive squares to reach the 138 foot high Round Tower, built in 1642 as an astronomical observatory and a tower for a neighboring church. We climbed the ramps and stairs to the top, where we got nice views of Copenhagen on a sunny afternoon. We had only spent a half day in Copenhagen but walked over five miles!


Above, left, nice canal view; right the ramp at the Round Tower.

Below, left, view from the tower, and to the right, the tower from below.

23 August 2023


We took a regional train to the town of Hillerød, about 20 miles north. Then we took a local bus to the nearby 15th century Frederiksborg Castle. It is lavishly furnished with items from different periods from the 16th through the 19th century. There were many portraits of many important Danes over the past 400 years. The castle’s ornately decorated church boasts a 1,001 pipe organ from about 1600, which was being played while we were visiting.

Three exterior photos of the castle, above.  Below are the castle church and its very old organ.

Two more interior photos from the castle.

Great view of the Castle from near where we ate lunch.

We then walked down the shopping street of Hillrod and found a cafe for lunch. We continued back to the Hillerød train station by foot and then traveled by train to the Humelbæk station, from which we walked to the Louisiana Modern Art Museum


This museum is one of the best modern art museums we have visited anywhere. We saw pieces by Richard Sera and Donald Judd, both of whom we’ve been interested in for some time. There were also a number of video installations, many of which involved music. We took some time to enjoy a piece of cake in the café before looking at the outdoor sculptures to finish our visit. Here are some photos from the museum, from top, a Jorn painting and below, a garden sculpture by Alicia Kwade.

We walked back to the train station at Humelbæk Station, from which we took a train back to Copenhagen. We then spent about a half hour walking around pedestrian shopping streets to our hotel. Today, we walked over 8 miles!


Tomorrow we will visit another castle, some more museums, and Tivoli.