Ask any Dane about the best things to do in Copenhagen, and you’ll get a long list of answers: someone will certainly recommend the quaintly old-fashioned amusement that is Tivoli Gardens, with its bandstands and its Viking merry-go-round; someone else might send you to see the daily procession of the Royal Life Guard at Amalienborg Palace; and you will surely be urged to see at Den Lille Havfrue, the Little Mermaid monument to Hans Christian Andersen’s most famous and most sentimental tale. But one traditional trip they might not mention is the annual ritual of escaping of the capital altogether. Every summer, thousands of city folk pack their bags and head north to their holiday homes amid the beaches and the sunlit greenery of the Danish Riviera.
The Riviera is the name for the stretch of seaside between Copenhagen and the imposing town of Helsingor. There is a train that hugs the shoreline all the way between the two cities, so it is perfectly possible to take a day trip to some of the main sights in North Sjaeland, or to make an easy overnight stay of it. But if you have the time and the energy, perhaps the best way to explore is by bicycle. There are plenty of places to hire bikes. The distances between the main attractions are long enough to make an outing of it, and short enough that you will always have time for a well-earned beer or a good meal at the end of it.
Ghost world
The Riviera begins where Copenhagen ends. Almost as soon as you are out of the suburbs you find yourself amid whitewashed beach homes, all facing the water and the morning sun. As you head north, the waters of the Oresund are to your right. Beyond this enclosed sea is the western fringe of Sweden. The Swedish uplands shield this part of Denmark like a cloak, and the result is that calm, sunny, windless days are a feature of the Riviera even when the weather is less fine elsewhere in Denmark. If you’re lucky, you will be enjoying one of these happy days as you head towards the first important destination on the route, Karen Blixen’s house at Rungsted.
Blixen is the celebrated Danish author of Out of Africa. She returned from hotter climes after the sudden death of her English lover, Denys Finch Hatton. Her childhood home is a lovely old coach-house filled to bursting with mementos of Africa. Her father’s rather grand furniture is here, as are her books, typewriter and wonderful portraits of relatives and African friends, for she was a first-rate painter as well. The house seems haunted in the kindliest way by her spirit, perhaps because she is buried beneath a tree in a quiet spot in the garden. There is always something melancholy about a home that has been preserved just as it was when its owner died, and it is impossible not to feel a little sad when one leaves Blixen’s draughty house.
Fortunately there is a more joyful place to visit up the road at Humlebaek: the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Housed in a converted mansion near the water’s edge, the museum was founded by rich art collector Alexander Brun, who had three wives all named Louise, and the museum is named after them collectively, which surely would not have pleased any one of them.
All the same, one senses that Brun must have been an optimistic soul by nature, and his essential cheeriness floods the museum like the limpid light that comes in from the Oresund. The collection began as a purely Danish affair, but is now international in character. The glass corridors and airy exhibition spaces feature wonderfully witty and thoughtful paintings and sculptures by world-renowned 20th-century artists. The delightful grounds are full of pleasing sculptures and installations. Catch a summer concert here if you can, or simply sit on the grass and gaze at the sea.
Hamlet’s house
A short distance from Humlebaek is the city of Helsingor, where the train line ends. Once an important commercial hub, the city stands at the narrowest point of the sound – it was perfectly placed to control the flow of shipping into and out of the Baltic Sea. It became rich on customs duties and export taxes, as did its identical twin half a mile away across the water, the Swedish city of Helsingborg. But Helsingor’s fame rests not on its now-faded fiscal might, but on the fact that William Shakespeare chose the city – specifically its castle, Kronborg – as the setting for Hamlet.
It doesn’t seem to matter that the castle had not yet been built at the time that the play is set, or that it is extremely unlikely that Shakespeare himself ever came here, or even that Hamlet himself did not exist. A literary industry has grown up around the Prince of Denmark as he is described in the world’s most famous drama, and Kronborg castle is its HQ. A Shakespeare festival is held here each August. At other times, Shakespeare buffs can visit the (entirely fictitious) graves of Hamlet and Ophelia in the grounds of the Marienlyst castle.
Hamlet’s ghost haunts Kronborg just as Blixen’s haunts her house by the sea. Elsinore, as Shakespeare called it, was no more than a name on the map for him, but it’s exciting to stand on Kronborg’s battlements looking at the nearby Mariakloster, and to remember Hamlet’s contemptuous dismissal of Ophelia: “Get thee to a nunnery.”
The legend of Holger
Kronborg is also connected with a home-grown legend. It is said that the hero Holger the Dane lives in the dungeons beneath Kronborg, and that if Denmark is ever in mortal danger he will awaken and lead an army of boys and old men to save the country. You are welcome to explore Holger’s domain, a dark and spooky space. The hulking statue of Holger himself, looking gloomy and irascible, does nothing to cheer the place up. Maybe it is Holger’s brooding presence, but beyond Helsingor the countryside grows a little wilder. The white sandy beaches are some of the most tranquil and beautiful in Europe. In springtime the rolling dunes are covered with crops of untamed pink roses: rosa rugosa. These flowery patches extend well into the shade of the old forests that run parallel to the sea. Check out the seaside villages of Hornbaek and Gilleleje, where stalls sell delicious fried fish, caught that very morning.
At this point cyclists should strike inland. Five miles south of Gilleleje you will find the mazy paths of the mysterious Gribskov forest. Press on and you will happen upon the placid shores of Esrum Lake and Fredensborg Palace, the Danish royal family’s holiday home. Its formal gardens, which are open to the public, are a strange sight after the shaggy undergrowth of Gribskov. But the planned pathways and architecturally precise shapes of the lawns and beds are a reminder that you’re now on your way back to the well-ordered streets and urban pleasures of Copenhagen.
Where to eat, what to see and where to stay
in Helsingor:
Restaurant Ophelia, Bramstraede 5, tel: +45 49 21 05 91. European cuisine amid lots of Shakespeare memorabilia.
In Rungsted:
Rungsted Kro, Rungstedvej 84, tel: +45 45 86 30 62. Danish and European cuisine.
Restaurant Nokken, Rungsted Havn 44, tel: +45 45 57 13 14. One of the best seafood restaurants on the Riviera.
In Humlebaek:
The café in the Louisiana Museum, Gl. Strandvej 13, tel: +45 49 19 07 19
Gamle Humlebaek Kro. Ny Strandvej 2a, tel: +45 49 19 02 65. Danish food in a pubby atmosphere.
Karen Blixen House, Rungsted Strandvej 111, Rungsted, tel: +45 45 57 10 57, www.isak-dinesen.dk. Open 10am-5pm Tues-Sunday, closed Mon.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Gammel Strandvej 13, Humlebaek, tel: +45 49 19 07 19, www.louisiana.dk. Open Mon-Sun 10am-5pm (10pm Wed).
Hamlet Festival 4-13 August, Helsingor, www.hamletsommer.dk
Hotel Marienlyst Helsingor www.marienlyst.dk. Huge hotel with casino and seaside restaurant.
Havreholm Slot www.havreholm.dk. An old manor with cheery rooms in a series of wood-built annexes. Located deep in the countryside near Hornbaek.
Hotel Fredensborg Store Kro www.storekro.dk. On the Esrum So, near the Gribskov Forest.
| 
