Blue sky and bright sunshine today! It was colder, but cheerier for it! Mondays a lot of attractions are closed, and while I'd asked for "best castle" recommendations from friends, I went to Frederiksborg Castle because it was the only one open today!
It's a stunning, amazing castle built in the 1500s, and it hasn't been a residence since a fire in the 1800s forced major renovations. In 1878, the restored building was reopened as a Danish history museum and portrait gallery. Many of the rooms were restored to their most spectacular days, and there are enough rooms to boggle the mind.
In the ornate rooms with walls and ceilings covered with the carvings and gilt and plaster and fabric of different historical periods, you can get lost in the surfaces. In the less ornate rooms, the walls are covered in floor to ceiling paintings of Danish royals and nobility and military campaigns.
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| This small study done to prepare for a larger painting was absolutely my favorite painting of the hundreds on the walls. I had no idea if it was used to create a big group portrait with fine/invisible brush strokes, and fully resolved faces and fabrics, but I loved seeing the study. (note -- I've now looked up the painter Laurits Tuxen, and yes, there's fully realized versions of the work you can see online.) |
I had downloaded the castle's audio guide before going, so I had my headphones in and the guide's run through of Danish history and the development of different painting/decorating styles you see as you go through the castle. The building and the moat are so impressive, it was a really lovely way to get into a Danish castle, a goal I'd had for the trip. It's a bit of a shlep to get there, but I don't know if that deterred anyone else from going -- it was nicely uncrowded today.
With the help of a few minutes on the castle's wifi, I was able to figure out how to stop on the way back to do a canal boat tour. I'd done one in Amsterdam and I like getting the perspective from the water in a port city. This tour was just fine but wow it got cold being on that boat, which was mostly, but not fully, covered. The audio guide on the boat filled in more of the story of Danish history as Copenhagen grew from its earliest days.
From there, it was a short walk to the Georg Jensen store, which is like Danish Tiffany's (which had a store a few doors down). I am done buying decorative items, but happy to swoon over them in the store.
Somehow it was suddenly 4 pm and I had missed lunch, so I headed to a nearby pizza restaurant to have great pizza with a sourdough crust. The pizza place was next to Hart, a bakery opened by Tartine/bread cookbook author Richard Hart. I'd tried their pasty loved it and I was glad not to do another train/bus/walk to get a warm & tasty dinner.
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| pastry at Hart - I had the black current fastelavnsbolle |
Last night's dinner was at Jatak, a Michelin-starred restaurant opened by Noma alum Jonathan Tam. The restaurant has a set menu that they serve either at the 8-seat counter with kitchen prep happening in front of you, or at the 8 or so tables in the restaurant. It's tiny and they have as many people working there as there are people eating there. The price-fixe menu is just served to you and other than asking them to please make the portions a little smaller for me, I was totally game to try each of the 12 courses of the chef's invention. It was all wonderful and really fun to talk to the chefs who were preparing the food about what they were doing.
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| That's Jonathan Tam in the center of the photo |
It was super indulgent to eat there and I loved it. I had to make the reservation a month ago to get a seat and it was worth it.
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