City Visit: Helsingør, Denmark

We were looking forward to visiting Helsingør, the city famous for Hamlet’s Castle. We arrived after a short 4-hour sail from Mölle, Sweden.

The Nordhavn (North Marina) is huge and well-equipped. You’ll find everything you need for your stay, including a chandlery and a small grocery store.  If your boat is 42 feet or less, you’ll always find a berth here. If you arrive early enough, you’ll even find a place for your larger boat (there’s room for about four boats of about 50 feet in length).  If there aren’t any spaces left for your larger boat (over 15 meters), you can stay at the small marina near the maritime museum, a short distance away, but you’ll hear the noise from the seemingly endless ferry traffic that passes nearby.

Here is what you’ll find in the north marina (Nordhavn):

• Showers and toilets
• Laundry facilities
• Fuel and pump-out facilities
• Free Wifi
• Water and electricity (16 amps)
• Beach
• Shops for provisioning and food as well as workshops for engine, rigging and sail repairs

Marina fees range from 140 DKK (10 meters and smaller) to 300 DKK (15-20 meters). The marina adjoins a small beach, well-loved by families with small children, dog owners and kayakers.  We noticed that the Helsingør has a huge number of kayakers, both young and old.  They all come out on the water directly after work or school, and since the evenings are now long, they stay until about 9.00 when the sun displays its last rays for the day.

Helsingør is a charming small city.  It’s large enough to be interesting and provide a great choice of restaurants, good shopping and museum/castle visit, yet small enough to easily explore by bicycle. The distance to the centre of town from the marina is a little over 1 km. We loved it so much we stayed for 4 days.

Kronborg Slott (Castle in Helsingør)

The famous “Hamlet Castle” Kronborg Slott is definitely worth a visit. Its amazing collection of sculptures, paintings and tapestries as well as the castle itself seems to be taken right out of a storybook. Known as being one of the most beautiful castles in Denmark, it was built during the period 1574-1575. Holger Danske, the legendary Danish hero said to be Denmark’s protector, is said to be asleep in one of the castle’s underground passages. According to Danish legend, he will awake if Denmark is threatening by enemies. During the summer, you can watch open air performances of Hamlet at the castle.

Here are a few images of the castle and its surrounding park.

 

We stumbled upon these amazing murals not far from the ferry terminal (ferries that go to Helsingborg, Sweden).

The food shopping in Helsingør is fantastic.  Several artisan bakeries sell enormous selections of fabulous Danish brown bread.  The cheese shop also sells some seafood and we bought some fish and some shrimp-based and crab-based mixes.  You’ll also find an excellent butcher shop in the main shopping area. The meat we bought was so tender it almost melted in our our mouths.

If you visit Helsingør, you must visit Landmad (Country Food) a shop that sells local farm food and derived products such as vinegar, oils, and herbal tea.  One of the signs in the shop asks “Have you kissed your cow today?”