Yoko's Visit to Copes! (2)

While Yoko was in Copenhagen of course we went to see the typical tourist attractions, Lille Havfruen (the Little Mermaid), Nyhavn (the harbor area), and the main shopping street. We also ventured outside of Copenhagen a few times. I have posted pics of all these places before so will not do that again here.

During Yoko's visit she and I also tried out the Øresund Rundt Kort. This is a card you can get from a Skane Trafiken office in Sweden or I believe at the DSB travel office in Copenhagen. It is a deal I highly recommend. Just 250 Swedish kroner for unlimited travel on buses and trains in the Copenhagen area and Skane (southern Sweden)! The only requirement is you have to take the Øresund train one direction between Malmø and Copenhagen and take the boat in one direction between Helsingør and Helsingborg. Plus discounts on museums and youth hostels!

We started our Øresund Rundt travel by going to Kronborg Castle in Helsingør about 1 hour north of Copenhagen. Kronborg Castle is the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet and was at one time a very strategic castle for Denmark. I went to this castle before with Morten and posted the history about it in a former post (one in May or June 2008 I think if you want to try to find it in the archive).

When M and I went though we did not go in the castle, but Yoko and I did. Here is a view of the castle from inside the court yard...


















Inside the castle museum there was a lot of information about the story of Hamlet. It seems that perhaps the origin of the Hamlet story was not Shakespeare. At Kronborg Castle they suggest that Shakespeare was inspired by a French author, though I can't remember his name.

There was also a lot of information about the castle's tapestries and the stories they told. The story of this tapestry was a bit dark...



















The story goes that a king (I think Persian) had a son and was afraid that when the son grew up the son would kill him to take over the thrown. So afraid was the king that he decided to take the boy away from his mother and kill his son. But the king was not able to do this so he gave the baby to a hunter and ordered the hunter to kill the baby.

The hunter accepted these orders and took the baby. However, the hunter's wife recently had a baby and that baby died. So instead of killing the king's son, he and his wife raised this royal baby themselves as their own. When this baby got older, around 8-9 years old, the hunter took the son to to his father the king. The hunter revealed to the king that he could not carry out the order to kill the baby 9 years ago, and presented the boy to the king. Since the hunter disobeyed the king he expected to be punished but instead the king invited him to a celebration dinner, where the hunter was served many tasty courses of food.

Seems like a nice story right? Well no, when the waiter carried out the last course of the meal the platter had the head of the boy (the king's son) placed in the center. It was then that the hunter understood that the delicious food he had been served that evening contained parts of the dead boy. Thats the dark part, horrible isn't it? Anyway the tapestry shows different parts of this story in the foreground and smaller scenes in the background...

But the museum wasn't all about doom and gloom. There was also a few rooms to play, intended for kids, but big kids can play too right? Yoko and I spent some time relaxing and making some of our own Lego creations in the kids room ;-)














There was also a mini Kronborg Castle on display for kids to climb in and out of. Here is Yoko, always the funny photo gal...


















As I mentioned at one time this castle was of strategic importance to Denmark, so they could defend themselves from the stinky Swedes ;-), hence the old cannons on the lawn over looking the ramparts toward Sweden in the distance. This is the narrowest area between Denmark and Sweden, I think...