First Capital City in Europe: Copenhagen!

I bought this carpet for fun. :) It's about S$2+ from a second-hand store in Lund. It's pink on one side and purple on the other side. So pretty! Hope I can lug it back to Singapore. :)

The sinful Swedish chocolate balls! It's chocolate cream mashed with coconut inside and coated with more coconut outside.

Hillerod Station at 5.12pm local time. Thankfully, the sunset is getting later. :)

View from Frederiksborg Castle. It's so tempting to walk across the snow to reach the other side but I believe it's water beneath the large expanse of snow.

View from the castle: Ski-ers on the slope.

This is only a tiny part of the castle.

The front facade of Frederiksborg Castle.
Policemen patrolling on horses in Copenhagen.

Christianborg Palace.

Entrance to the National Museum of Denmark.

I love this picture in the museum!

A view of the canal in Copenhagen.

Storget: longest shopping street in Europe.

The Town Hall

Committed two sins today and yesterday: ate two Swedish chocolate balls. It's awesome!

I made two day trips to Copenhagen City yesterday and today on a two-day Oresund rundt aka around-the-sound pass.

Yesterday
I took the train to Copenhagen train station and walked along the Storget (longest pedestrian mall in Europe). It's such a lovely place! The number of shops and cafes are endless! Bought two tops from Zara. On sale. haha! I saw a pair of Timberland boots going for S$50. Unfortunately it was sold out when I returned since it was the last pair left. Sigh. Anyway I ate this caramel-coated nut which tastes really awesome! I was cheapskate lah: tried the free sample without buying. :) But it's pretty expensive, 100g costs about S$6+. I walked along the Nyhan (hope I got the spelling right) canal and enjoyed the view of the water. I love the city. It's lively and bustling!

Today
I made a trip back to Copenhagen city. This time, I visited the National Museum briefly before hopping over to Christianborg Palace - a palace of ruins.

The train system in Denmark is slightly more efficient than that in southern Sweden. Each platform serves a particular route and there are signboards that indicate the end station for individual platform. I took a train from Copenhagen to Hillerod to visit Frederickberg Castle. The 40-minute journey was great cos the seats are new and comfortable. There were also electronic signboards on-board the train that indicate each current stop. Moreover, there was an announcer for each stop as well. Halfway through the journey, my train broke down but I didn't understand the announcement. I just followed a lady to the next train on the other platform. :)

Hillerod is a small town in northern Zealand and is well-known for the Renaissance Frederiksborg Castle. The castle is stunning! I didn't have time to admire the entire castle cos I needed to catch the train to Helsingor. It was 5.20pm when I boarded my next train and the sky was dark already. It felt like 10pm. I took the train to Helsingor and train ride was horrible and bumpy. The seats are old and the carriages reek of cigarette smoke. Moreover there were no electronic signboards or announcer indicating the respective stops. I really had to concentrate and peer out of the window into the dimly lighted stations to look at the station names. I finally arrived at Helsingor at about 605pm. In Helsingor, the Kronborg Castle is famous because of Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's also listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. As the ferry was already at the dock, I decided to board it and forego exploring the town. The ferry from Helsingor to Helsingborg (twin city in Sweden) was HUGE since it's both a passenger and a car ferry. The journey lasted 20 minutes and you can see people carrying cartons of alcohol back to Sweden. Apparently, the Swedes go to Denmark to buy alcohol, the Danes go to Germany and the Germans go to the Middle East.

At Helsingborg, I took the train back to Lund. It was really an around-the-sound trip.

Point to Ponder:

Danish, Swedish and Norwegian: language or dialect?