Finalmente - La Primavera!

Primavera means spring in Italian and I use it here mainly because although I have learned to read (though not speak in any manner that a Danish person could reasonably understand) many Danish words- spring unfortunately is not one of them - thus Italian remains my most proficient Euro language, so far anyway ;-). Since I last wrote the chilly early April days have slowly been replaced by warmer ones and the improvements in the weather are visible in everyone's mood. Maybe this time of year is called spring because we all get a bit more spring in our step with the warmer more cheerful weather. I for one am thrilled for spring and the fact I don't have to wear a scarf and hat all the time when biking around the city.

Prior to the start of my fourth term of classes (aka the 4th part of Cathy's Copenhagen academic marathon) a friend and I headed up to the North part of Zealand (the island that Copenhagen is on) to where I was promised that the air at the beach would have the look, feel, and most importantly - smell of the ocean. Although Copenhagen is a coastal city you don't really get the feel and smell of the ocean here. So we headed up on a perfectly sunny Sunday to do some castle carousing and relaxing first in Helsingør. Helsingør is known for 3 things: the ferry service to Helsingborg (Sweden) a short 4km away, Kronborg Castle, and it is the settling for Shakespeare's Hamlet (my favorite).

Due to the high cost of alcohol in Sweden the port in Helsingør and even the train station are equipped for the many day-tripper Swedes coming over to stock up and save money. Funny thing about this region and maybe Europe in general - everyone travels somewhere else to get cheaper stuff. In this case the Norweigans go to Sweden for alcohol shopping, the Swedes to Denmark, and the Danes to Germany. With the high cost (MUCH higher than the US usually) of gas it doesn't seem like they could possibly save that much money but old habits die hard I guess.

I had been to Helsingør once before, we took the ferry on a forest excursion to Sweden last fall but somehow I missed both the castle and the liquor stores! My friend and helpful tour guide informed me that the castle was built a long time ago (around 1420 - thanks wikipedia) by the Danish king at the time to extract payments from all ships wanting to leave or enter the Baltic Sea. The castle passed through the hands of other owners and from the 1730s until the 19th century it was a prison for male convicts that essentially became slaves and had to labor to maintain the castle's fortifications.

Here is a pic of the castle















Here is pic from the castle area of Helsingør
















We got to spend some extra time in Helsingør due to a bit of a mix up with the train times for the trip further north so I had the chance to take this shot of a pedestrian street in town. It was quite peaceful for a Sunday and a much more relaxing place to stroll than the big shopping street in Copenhagen.
















From Helsingør we headed further north to another port city called Gilleleje, this time one with a harbor full of fishing boats. It was late in the afternoon so the weather was getting a little cooler but finally it was an ocean-like breeze scent I could recognize. We sat on some rocks in the late afternoon sun and my friend explained to me that this town across the water in Sweden was a wonderful town to visit in the summer. I can't remember the name of it but I wanna go there! You can see the water is pretty calm - not the idea surfing spot but a nice beach nonetheless ;-)
















This pic reminded me of the rocky beaches in Maine.