Shakespeare called it Elsinore, but he never actually visited the real life Kronberg Castle in Helsingør. Some actors from his company performed there, then must have told him about it, and he used that for the setting of Hamlet.

The dude is King Frederick II and here is is with his bride (and first cousin—eww!) Sophie. When Sofie first arrived at Kronberg, she was not impressed with the old medieval-style castle. Frederick got really busy having it redone in Renaissance fashion and by 1585 it was complete.

It was a rainy day today, and that made the perfect atmosphere to walk towards the castle from the train.

You’re probably wondering where Frederick got all the money to remodel a castle. Well, Kronberg is on a narrow waterway between Denmark and Sweden, and he made all the boats that traveled through pay a big tax and if they didn’t pay the tax he hit them with cannonballs.

There’s a ginormous hall on the upper level, where Frederick and Sophia would throw parties. Frederick would make toasts at those parties, and then drummers inside the hall would hit their drums in response. Guys with trumpets would hear that and blow their horns, and the dudes outside waiting to hit non-tax paying ships with cannonballs would hear the trumpets and set off the cannons. Here’s a quote from Hamlet that describes those cannonball toasts:

No jocund health that Denmark drinks today/But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell/And the king’s rouse the heavens all bruit again/Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

There are some splendid tapestries around the castle—doesn’t this one seem like you’re looking at it with 3D glasses?

I really missed HOB today. If here were with me, I would have pointed at these and said “Look, it’s you!”

By the time I got back to Copenhagen, I was hungry and tired and—miraculously—here was this falafel stand by the train. Not only was the falafel cheap (50 DKK) but the cook made the bread fresh; rolling it out, stretching it and toasting it right on the grill. Mmmmm…tasty!

How I got to Kronberg Castle: Train from Copenhagen to Helsingør.

Where I slept: CPH Hotel.  Price: €157 for a single. Recommended: meh.