Weekend out of the City- Finally!

Hi,

Have been wanting to come back to write but just haven't managed, for reasons I can only find on hindsight. Hindsight is always perfect, isn't it ? :)

Anyways, I managed to do somethign today that I have been wanting to do for a while. Visited Roskilde and Helsingor, both towns about an hour's ride from Copenhagen. But just to clarify these towns are in different directions, so we actually went to Roskilde, came back to Copenhagen and then went to Helsingor.

You think we were crazy, but the business students that we were, we were just trying to maximise our return on the investment of 100 DKK we made in buying a 24 hour all-zone pass.

Roskilde is to West of Copenhagen and is situated in one of the most scenic areas of natural beauty in Denmark - in the middle of Zealand. The place has much of the typical old town charm and hums at a slow and sweet pace.

The town buildings and streets comfort you with their proximity and yet you are not away from an open field or park or the sea beyond a 10 minute walk. The private homes along the paved streets looked so comfortable and cosy, one thought if he could just keep one such house to spend some vacations.

We chose to walk across the main park on our way to the Viking Museum. Before I go on to say that Roskilde's main attractions are the Viking Museum and the Cathedral, I must say that Roskilde is more like a fantastic picnic place if you wanted to just relax in serene surrondings. And you have the green bills to keep a yacht, then its just more than perfect.

The park was beautiful, complete in all respects, with a stream flowing across it, a couple of ponds, lovely grass slopes, and huge trees. Autumn has set in, and so the fallen leaves just add an extra tinge of colour into the serene greens with their yellow-browns. I just wished i could lie down there in the Sun, and read a book or just get wasted.

BTW, the weather was extremely cold - touching about 0 degrees, but thankfully the wind was not there and the Sun was in full. So walking in the open grass was just pleasant.

The Museum was good, in the information content it provided. The Vikings practically were the centre of European power between the 9th and 11th centuries, and interestingly, their reach extended not only till Ireland, but also Russian, Spain and guess what, North America. The Vikings, with their shipping prowess had reached North America sometime in the 10th century, but didnt pursue staying there since they didnt fancy fighting the natives and didnt find anything that they couldn't get in Europe.

Comparatively, the rest of Roskilde and the trip to Helsingor was mundane. The only striking thing is the coastline that you can see when travel from Copenhagen to Helsingor(in the North). Helsingor is seperated by hardly a few kilometers from Helsingborg, a Swedish town. Helsingor is popular for the Kronborg castle, the stage for Hamlet, Shakespeare's famous play. Our visit the castle was rather circumspect, with the night setting in, and the chilly walk around the dark exteriors of the castle running a further chill down the spine.

But all in all, a good weekend trip outside the city. Just wish we could do more relaxed things than just being tourists. Hate to admit it, but I now want to rather feel and live a place rather than just see and visit it.

That reminds me I still need to blog my visits to Athens, ROme, Venice, Barcelona and Paris. For starters, I did them all one one tour - so it certainly was historical in more ways than one ;-)

later,
Satish

P.S.: I know I need to write lesser, but just never realise how much I have written. Promise to try conciously next time.