Helsingør & Bakken

On Friday (7/12) I went to Roskilde again to meet with Bunny and Bjarne. We met Lillian (Bunny's daughter-in-law for lunch) at a bagels to go place. Upon learning that I am taking a Danish language class, Bunny suggested a tongue twister that she thinks will get me a good mark on my final oral exam. The phrase is "rød grød med fløde" meaning red porridge with cream. I will practice that some more in hopes of impressing my teacher.. :D 

After lunch, we drove to Helsingør to see Kronborg Slot aka Hamlet's castle (Elsinore). Kronborg has served as a royal castle/fortress for almost 600 years. Bjarne, Bunny, and I explored the damp underground casemates. The underground passageways/rooms served as soldiers' quarters during war times. We then climbed 145 steps to the top of the telgraph tower. It was nice and warm on top of the roof and we had a great view of town (Helsingør) and Øresund (a strait between Denmark and Sweden). 

Kronborg Slot

Holger Danske - a legendary Medieval hero

Bjarne, Bunny, and I (Helsingbørg, Sweden is in the background across the strait!)

Our last stop of the day was Bakken, the world's oldest operating amusement park. We checked out the fairway games and watched the rides. One game that sparked my interest was a lottery wheel that had giant chocolate bars as the prize. Another fun amusement to watch was the strongman game-- instead of just winning a prize for striking the hammer hard enough to hit the bell, it is an endurance contest to see who can ring the bell the most consecutive times. We watched a guy break the daily record by hitting the bell 55 times. This seemed impressive to me, but the all-time record is 1035! 

Chocolate Lottery

Strongman Game