Copenhagen - North Zealand Coast Travel Guides | Copenhagen | Sub Regions | Copenhagen - North Zealand Coast

Copenhagen is on the island of Zealand and the northern coast of the island stretches as far as the town of Helsingør, 1¼ hours away by train from Central Station. Train-window views of the flat countryside between Copenhagen and Helsingør are unexciting but the beaches and the variety of accessible museums and castles makes for a number of possible excursions.

Sights

Gammel Strandvej, Humlebæk, T 49190791, http://www.louisiana.dk Mon-Tue and Thu-Sun 1000-1700, Wed 1000-2200. Adults 68kr, children 20kr. Humlebæk is 30 km north of Copenhagen – easily reached in under an hour on frequent trains from Central Station. From the station walk to the left along leafy Gammel Strandvej. It is a 10-min signposted walk.

Louisiana, a museum of modern art, is a fairly unmissable gallery for anyone interested in art. Quite apart from the permanent collections, the temporary exhibitions are often highly prestigious ones and a 2002 showing of the works of Georgia O’Keeffe at Louisiana, for example, was the only one in Europe. This translates into a steady and sometimes relentless stream of visitors, and a summer weekend is not the best time for a quiet contemplation of Giacometti.

The museum has an enviable coastal location, looking across the Øresund to southern Sweden, well away from urban distractions and able to spread itself across a green so that the gardens become home to a stunning display of modern sculptures by Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Joan Miro and Max Ernst. Aroundthe gardens, gleaming pure white, single-storey rooms arespread out in an overlapping and sometimes confusing pattern. Highlights in the collections include a treasure trove of Giacometti’s bronzes, canvases by Picasso, Bacon and Rothko andasparkling array of Pop Art from the 1960s with work by Liechtenstein, Warhol, Oldenburg and Rauschenberg. Some aspects of modern European art are better represented at Louisiana than in London or New York, and not just modern Danishartists like Carl-Henning Pedersen and Robert Mortensen. There are examples of work by the COBRA artists, named after the first letters of the cities COpenhagen, BRussels, Amsterdam, a politically-conscious group which formed in 1948 and existed for three years before disbanding. The Danish painter Asger Jørn was afounding member of COBRA, which went on to influence Situationism. Louisiana has two floors devoted to shopping and there is also an excellent café, dispensing sandwiches, meals and drinks.

Dyrehavsbakken (Bakken), Dyrehavevej 62, Klampenborg, T 39637300, http://www.bakken.dk 22 Mar-Jun and 5 Aug-26 Aug, Mon-Fri 1400-2400, Sat 1300-2400, Sun 1200-2400. Jul 4-Aug 1200-2400. Free or 198kr for a day pass (35 rides). From Central Station it’s a 20-min train ride to Klampenborg, from there it takes 10mins to reach Bakken.

Bakken amusement park, built for the working classes in the same sort of way that Tivoli was designed for the well-bred, has rides galore, amusement arcades with hundreds of gaming machines, beer halls and fast-food joints. All the fun of the fair is here – carousels, shooting galleries, a wooden roller coaster from 1932 – and visitors often find it more enjoyable and less expensive than a trip to Tivoli.

Leaving Klampenborg station and walking in the opposite direction accesses the most attractive beach on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Bellevue. Its clean and safe water and green space for picnics and games attracts packs of semi-nude city folk in the summer. If it’s all too much, consider retreating to the calm expanse of Dyrehaven (Deer Park) behind Bakken, where walking trails wend their way through beech woods. The manor house building that is hard to miss is Eremitagen, built as a hunting lodge in the early 18th century but no more open to the public now then it was then. Deer wander freely in Dyrehaven, and it is a relaxing spot in which to picnic and recharge batteries before succumbing to the alluring lights of Bakken.

Kavalergården 1, Charlottenlund, T 39623283, http://www.danmarks@ akvarium.dk Early Feb-late Oct 1000-1800, Jan-early Feb and late Oct-Dec 1000-1600. Adults 65kr, children 35kr. Buses 6, 166. S-Tog Charlottenlund.

Just a little way south of Klampenborg, there is another small beach at Charlottenlund, and though not as pretty as Bellevue it becomes equally packed on a warm day. A more likely reason for being in Charlottenlund, a residential area for very well-heeled Copenhageners, is the wonderful Danmarks Akvarium. One of Europe’s largest aquaria, it is awash with fish, turtles, corals and crocodiles, and you don’t need to be a child to feel enraptured by the eye-dazzlingly colourful collection of tropical fish. During school holiday periods and at weekends there are ‘touch pools’ for children, and the fish feeding time is 1400 on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday (daily during school holidays).

Between the aquarium and Charlottenlund railway station, less than 20 minutes from Central Station, lies Charlottenlund Park, a happy hunting ground for picnickers. The park was the grounds of a 1690 royal residence and although the palace building from 1730 still stands it is privately owned and not open to the public. Around the palace there are walking trails and quiet spots to rest.

Vilvordevej 110, Charlottenlund, T 39641183, http://www.ordrupgaard.dk Tue-Sun 1300-1700. Adults 35kr. S-Tog train to Klampenborg and bus no 388.

The art museum at Ordrupgaard, lying in a park of its own close to Charlottenlund Park, has a small but select collection of French and Danish art from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Danish paintings are not as interesting as those to be found hanging in Den Hirschsprungske Samling but Ordrupgaard excels in French works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Ingres, Pissarro, Degas, Gauguin, Matisse and Cézanne. The enchanting house, built in 1907, was the home of the wealthy Wihelm Hansen who built up the collection and bequeathed everything to the state.

Rungsted Strandvej, Rungsted, T 45571057. May-Sep Tue-Sun 1000-1700, Oct-Apr Wed-Fri 1300-1600, Sat-Sun 1100-1600. Adults 35kr. Trains to Rungsted depart from Copenhagen regularly and take 30 mins. From Rungsted station it is a 15-min walk or bus 388.

Unless you have read or are planning to read some of Blixen’s stories, or remember the 1985 film of the book Out of Africa starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, a visit to the house may prove a little insubstantial. The rooms are furnished as they were when she died here in 1962, hence the typewriter, the library of books and the favourite chair of Denys Finch Hatton. There are exhibits relating to her life in Africa and examples of her paintings and drawings. The grounds of her house, where she is buried, are large enough for a pleasant stroll and besides the centuries-old beech trees there is an area set apart as a bird sanctuary, as Karen Blixen wished. There is a café with an outdoor terrace and the shop has the books, recordings, videos and posters relating to the writer.

Tuborg Havnevej, Hellerup, T 39273333, http://www.experimentarium.dk May-mid-Sep, Tue-Sat 1000-1600, Sun 1000-1700. Mid-Sep-Apr, Tue-Sat 1100-1500, Sun 1100-1600. Adults 89kr, children 62kr. Free Wed. Buses 6, 21, 650S. S-Tog Hellerup and a 10-min walk.

Roald Dahl would have loved the idea of turning a beer bottle factory into a children’s adventure playground, and this is more orless what happened when the Experimentarium, the Danish Science Centre, opened in an old Tuborg plant just 6 km north of thecity centre of Hellerup. The place can be overrun with school parties, mostly morning visits, and weekends are busy times but thewell-deserved popularity of Experimentarium makes a visit worthwhile, even without children. The world of nature, technology, health and the environment is explored though hundreds of hands-on experiments in a variety of simulated settings like the moon’s surface, the Hall of Mirrors, Mathematics, Moving Images.

Kongevejen 100, Lyngby, T 33134411, http://www.natmus.dk Apr-Sep, Tue-Sun 1000-1700, Oct Tue-Sun 1000-1600. Adults 40kr. Free Wed. Bus 184 from city centre, S-Tog to Sorgenfri and a 10-min walk.

Using nearly 90 acres of land for the display of farmsteads and rural cottages, Denmark’s largest open-air museum makes for a grand day out as there is lots to see and the surrounding parklands are ideal for a picnic lunch. More than 100 listed buildings, from the 17th century onwards, provide tangible evidence of how people lived their daily lives in rural Denmark, southern Sweden and parts of northern Germany. Avoiding kitsch, the museum invites visitors to wander at will, and having the English version of the site plan is essential because the houses and buildings are not signposted as such. Farm animals graze about the place and in summer there is a schedule of demonstrations of folk arts.

http://www.visithelsingor.dk Trains every 15-20 mins from Central Station or Nørreport S-Tog station. It’s a 10-min walk to Kronborg.

What wry comment would Hamlet make if he could see today’s steady flow of visitors to his castle at Helsingør (Elsinor)? Would he be content with an ironical ‘Welcome to Elsinor’? The famous castle of Hamlet, Kronborg, seen when you step out of Helsingør’s railway station after a leisurely 45-km journey by trainfrom Central Station, is where most visitors head for, but thetown itself has its own appeal. Helsingør had prosperity thrust upon it when a royal toll was imposed in 1425 on every ship passing through the Sound at this, its narrowest, point and the town’s history springs into a new life from that moment on. Nowadays, the toll having ceased in 1857, money is collected from willing Swedes who pilgrimage over on the ferry from Helsingborg for bulk purchases of beers and spirits. Whenever the ferry docks you’ll see foot passengers heading in a beeline forthe waiting off-licences, wheeling beer crates. Not only is the price of alcohol dearer in Sweden but it is also far more conven- ient to purchase in Denmark, as in Sweden it is only sold in special stores where proof of identity is required. With a copy ofthe useful map dispensed by the tourist office it is easy to find pedestrianized Stengade, the main shopping street, wander around the narrow alleyways that make up the medieval quarter of the town and rest in the market square, Axeltorv, for a drink. From Axeltorv, it is less than a five-minute walk to the town museum, or head back to near the tourist office where a venerable old ice cream parlour still enjoys a roaring trade onwarm days.

Helsingør, T 49213078, http://www.kronborg.dk May-Sep 1030-1700, Aprand Oct 1100-1600, Nov-Mar 1100-1500. Closed Mon between Jan-Apr and Oct-early Dec. Adults 60kr, children 25kr (the Copenhagen card only covers entry to the maritime museum section). See Helsingør, above, for transport information.

Hamlet’s castle first saw the light of day as a coastal fortification built in the 15th century by Erik of Pomerania (there could have been a famous tragedy by Shakespeare called Erik), the reigning king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, to secure the control of the Øresund, the narrow strip of water between Denmark and Sweden and accessing the Baltic. A castle came soon after and Frederik II commissioned large-scale renovation work around 1600 only to have it all burn down some 30 years later. Rebuilt by Christian IV, but later plundered by the Swedes, the castle lapsed into a quiet existence and served as army barracks until the 1920s when the army moved out.

The Shakespearean atmosphere is all to be garnered on the outside, passing the moats and the oppressively heavy walls andstepping into a large cobbled, Renaissance-style courtyard that is wonderfully theatrical; not surprisingly, productions of Hamlet have been staged here. The castle interior is disappointing, relieved a little by some of the otherwise bare walls displaying information panels on Kronborg and the Shakespeare connection. The castle chapel falls short of any echoes of Hamlet or Ophelia that might be hoped for, and the maritime museum section of the castle can only muster a fairly sad collection of tired artefacts.

View the castle exterior and see the courtyard, but consider skipping the interior and blow the money instead on a bottle of wine and a picnic on the castle green.

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