It’s difficult to keep me from snapping photos if the camera is in my hands even if I’d probably taken nearly-identical photos to those from the platform on previous Princess Cruises ships (or even the same one, as this was our second time on Crown Princess). You can never take too many photos, though.

We’re always fond of seeing or experiencing things that are the most or the least or the biggest or tallest or smallest, etc., so it was good to know that outside Asia the suspension bridge span of the Great Belt Bridge under which we would cruise was the longest in the world. There was a bit of haze on the horizon as the Crown Princess headed north between the two Danish islands of Zealand and Funen and it felt a little odd to notice the time ticking down when we were due to pass beneath the bridge yet still have no sight of it ahead. Slowly, the area on which we were standing in the shade started to fill up with more people.

Looking back at one point I noticed quite a bit of smoke coming from the stacks on the top of the ship. If you’ve seen many of my photos then you might be aware that I’m fond of the industrial feel in a photo; there’s a sense of brute force there and I think it forms a lovely contrast to a pleasant cruising picture. There’s no point pretending cruise ships don’t cause pollution, because they do. However, they’re vastly outnumbered by all the cargo transport systems around the world many, many times over so whenever someone moans about it using their phone or computer that will certainly have contributed to it all as well just roll your eyes and say nothing.

There was a noticeable buzz of excitement as the bridge started to loom into view and a sudden influx of more passengers onto the top deck and platforms of the ship. I’d selected my spot at the rear of the foremost, highest platform for a couple of reasons: because it was the highest, obviously, and because I quite like having some foreground interest in photographs. Whereas there seemed to be a lot of jostling for position and holding of cameras up high to take photos without obstructions I was more than happy to ensure people made up a portion of the pictures I was taking.

Cruising under the Great Belt Bridge was exhilarating. You can almost hear a whoosh! in your head as the concrete structure slips overhead surprisingly fast. You never really get a feel for how fast you’re travelling on a cruise ship at sea – especially one as placid as the Baltic – until you pass some static marker very close. And the underside of the bridge felt very close indeed. With the various masts ahead of us on the ship forcing the perspective somewhat there were gasps from people all around as it seemed like we only just cleared the bridge by a couple of metres; the reality was probably four-to-eight times that amount, but it still made for a fabulous experience and memory to treasure.

Another wonderful thing about an experience such as this one where a large group of strangers share a moment of amazement is the sudden sense of camaraderie that breaks out. Cruising with Princess over the years we’ve found that people who also enjoy our love of holidays at sea are generally sociable people anyway but you could see instantly far more talking amongst the groups who’d gathered to see us pass by the bridge. People were showing the photos they’d taken to everyone to compare and there was lots of small talk about how close the ship had been or how it compared to other under-bridge cruising that people had witnessed. I ended up speaking for some time to a solo traveller about photography in general who then turned out to live only a few miles away from us. Nice when that happens.

We waited for the stairs to clear a bit before making our way slowly down and back to the cabin to put away the camera, stopping for some shots of the busy top deck of the cruise ship. The day was young, there was a quiz coming up, and the lure of beers or early cocktails was starting to grow.

By the time we reached our room the Great Belt Bridge was starting to fade away into the haze in our wake.

To date this has been the only time we’ve passed under a bridge while on a cruise ship and it was a wonderful experience. Personally, I’d recommend getting where lots of other people are when it’s happening so that the excitement that emanates from your fellow travellers washes over you. I also think that if you can then try to get some people in the photos you take when you do something like this as they make for more emotive pictures to look back on later.

We’d been told that the Little Mermaid was smaller than you imagine and had anticipated something quite tiny but it was fairly close to life size and I was quite pleased that you could get very close to it. The statue had been vandalised with paint shortly before we’d visited the country and it was vandalised again shortly after we left but for our stop it was perfectly clean. Some fellow cruisers remarked how lucky it was that we got to see it in pristine condition but from a unique photographic memory perspective I wouldn’t have been dismayed to have been there while it was the victim of mindlessness.

Although our next stop would involve us heading southwards and further into the Baltic Sea in order to make for Sweden we couldn’t pass under the bridge between Sweden and Denmark and so had to track northwards initially in an anticlockwise direction around the island of Zealand (we would pass under the Great Belt Bridge during the night but on our return journey get to experience the event in daytime). This meant that the cruise ship would pass between the two countries near Helsingør and would give everyone a chance to see and take photos of Kronborg Castle. We’d already visited there on our tour so I entertained myself with a few shots of the top deck and the people who ventured out but it was still good to see the stronghold from the sea especially as we’d only recently explored inside it that day.

But first there was a break for lunch. Billed as a traditional Danish meal it was… interesting. We were told that the meal contained a variety of different types of food in small portions and that this was something that, historically, the Danes ate. Well, as with all these sorts of things you have to accept that things are often played around with for tourists and talking to a Danish friend of mine confirmed that she had never tried most of the food we ate. On the plus side there was some genuine Danish ale to drink; a lager, which isn’t my first choice of drink (or second through twentieth for that matter), but it was refreshing and helped some of the food down. Why does anyone need two different types of pickled herring anyway?

Our coach dropped us off about five minutes away from Kronborg on foot and we promptly made our way towards the castle. Helsingør seemed to be a fairly interesting place from the little we saw of it and is probably worth a visit in its own right.

The approach to Kronborg took us past a scale model of the stronghold, through a couple of gates, and across two moats. The structure’s location and heavy fortifications were due to its proximity to mainland Sweden with whom the Danes had frequently been at war over the centuries. Indeed, when we would get to look inside Kronborg Castle we would discover very little in the way of art or sculptures due to many of them having been taken as spoils of war in battle long since gone.

Inside the courtyard of Kronborg we were introduced to an actor playing Hamlet’s friend, Horatio. He would proceed to take us on a tour of various locations from the Shakespeare play, recounting events from the tale as if they happened to him. I would imagine that if you’re familiar with the story then there was interest in seeing the locations whereas if, like me, you’re not then this provided a compact form of the play acted out by a single person; this turned out to be really quite entertaining and there were even some special effects such as the appearance of ghost at one point.

Our guide, Horatio, wasn’t the only Hamlet actor present. As we came out of one section of the castle and made our way across the courtyard to enter another area we saw several others. Entertainingly, they stayed in character while interacting with tourists in our group and in others. A tennis-type game broke out at one point with the ball getting carried on the wind towards some visitors to the castle; this was met with commands to return the object at once by the queen. Everyone found this very amusing.

Back inside Kronborg we finished up our visit to the castle with Horatio guiding us through the Little Hall and some of the few tapestries remaining from a series commissioned in the 16th century by Frederick II, the Chapel, and, finally, the paintings-lined Ballroom which had been the largest hall in northern Europe when it had been built.

While not the most visually impressive castle inside, Kronborg was architecturally very interesting and its layout of moats and gates to the entrance was particularly nice. The historical connection to Shakespeare was good to experience and as part of a full day including the other castle and palace we’d visited this was an excellent excursion for our day in Denmark.

Since there’s only limited scope for trying to reword what’s already available on the internet I’ll quote from Wikipedia here:

Fredensborg Palace is a palace located on the eastern shore of Lake Esrum in Fredensborg on the island of Zealand in Denmark. It is the Danish Royal Family‘s spring and autumn residence, and is often the site of important state visits and events in the Royal Family. It is the most used of the Royal Family’s residences.

With our visit taking place in the summer there was nobody home. Well, I don’t think so, anyway. This stop was a brief one just to hear a few details about the building and to hop out to take some photos for five minutes.

Architecturally, the building wasn’t the most impressive we’ve visited and with no chance to explore closer on this visit there wasn’t a lot to recommend. While we’re happy to have seen it I wouldn’t say it’s worth going out of your way to take a look although if you’re in the area, as we were, then it’s something to check off.

The only point of interest in our brief photo stop at the Danish palace was watching the lone soldier marching back and forth in front of the building. We were able to get very close to him. It was interesting to see his reaction when a car turned onto the road approaching Fredensborg; while he never broke step once his head and eyes were turned and locked onto the vehicle the entire time. Good to see that level of alertness.

As we left Fredensborg Palace and made our way back to the coach we passed a group of soldiers drilling off to one side.

The Chapel

The chapel in Frederiksborg Castle was the first area we ventured into. We entered on the balcony level and were taken around slowly in order that our guide could point out the main points of interest, those being the artwork on nearly every surface, the altar and pulpit, the organ, and the prayer chamber. While other parts of the castle had been gutted by the fire that swept through the building in 1859 the chapel had mostly escaped damage so most of what we saw were the original 17th century pieces.

The Audience Chamber

From the chapel we then headed to the audience chamber, a mostly bare room with at first only a single point of interest in the form of a piece of trompe-l’oeil artwork. This room encompassed some Baroque features into the other Renaissance style of decoration and our guide pointed out the motifs of the various kings of Denmark that adorned the walls and the base of the central dome.

Frederiksborg Castle Artwork

As we ventured through various other rooms and corridors in the musuem section of the castle we stopped a number of times to take a look at some of the artwork that had also survived the fire in the 19th century. It would be fair to say that beauty certainly is in the eye of the beholder and time has a way of changing what’s considered attractive.

The Great Hall

By far the most impressive room in the castle was the Great Hall. The hall was almost entirely destroyed in the fire of 1859 but architectural paintings allowed for a complete restoration by 1880. Having the large room practically to ourselves helped to picture just how magnificent a place it would have been for entertaining. A balcony for musicians along one wall and a fireplace at the far end of the hall with a table, chairs, and a statue were the only elements in the room allowing for the ceiling ornamentation, wall decorations and tapestries, and beautiful flooring to really be appreciated.

We gathered back in the courtyard after this (and were briefly sprayed with water from the Neptune Fountain when it suddenly activated and the wind caught the jets just right) before heading back to our coach for the next part of our full day excursion in Denmark. I snapped just a few more photos as we departed Frederiksborg Castle but for the pictures of the building’s exterior you can see my previous post: Frederiksborg Castle (Outside).

Should we return to Denmark we’d probably explore its capital city but for this trip we’d booked a full day excursion that my wife had titled “Castles, Castles, Castles”. The first of the castles we were to visit was the home of the Danish Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle.

It was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway in the early 17th century, replacing an older castle acquired by Frederick II and becoming the largest Renaissance residence in Scandinavia. Situated on three islets in the Slotssøen (castle lake), it is adjoined by a large formal garden in the Baroque style.

The castle building had suffered a serious fire in 1859, although most of the artwork inside had been saved. Reconstruction allowed the place to be opened up to the public around twenty years later and was undertaken due in part to donations from the founder of the Carlsberg Brewery, J.C. Jacobsen. The fountain in the courtyard was a replica produced at the same time, the original having been taken by Sweden during wars with the country in the centuries beforehand.

Many of the artefacts of the castles we would visit during this excursion had been taken by Sweden and the grudges were certainly still present. While our guide on the tour was Australian the driver was Danish and had taken the microphone on the coach at one point to ask if anyone on the coach knew what to do if they saw a Swede drowning.

“No,” we replied, assuming it to be a serious question.

“Good,” was his response.

As you can see we had wonderful weather for our visit to Frederiksborg Castle and we’d had a very easy drive to the historic location too, arriving in plenty of time to take a leisurely walk beside the gardens, stopping for a discussion of the history, then onto the exterior courtyard area to the rear of the castle. The museum part of the castle wasn’t yet open so there was a chance to grab some photos of the Neptune fountain and other buildings in the area.

Crossing a short bridge we entered into the walled courtyard part of the castle. This gave some in our group a chance to use the toilet and our guide to pick up the tickets for our visit. Other than a handful of pairs of tourists there was only one other tour group which got our guide quite excited as he’d never visited the castle when it wasn’t heaving with people.

The interior of Frederiksborg Castle is covered here.