Well my friends, it starts off slow when you are married to a passionate runner. First it is the occasional run together with strong ‘encouragement,’ then it becomes a weekly run with the occasional park run. Fast forward 6 years of marriage and you are waking up early in single digit temperatures in a Nordic country to go for a jog, luckily- it was beautiful.
Sights of the day
- Kronborg Castle- Beautiful castle in a harbour town 45 minutes by train outside of Copenhagen. The castle has a huge moat around it and is remarkably well preserved although the building itself has been plundered multiple times over the years. There was a 1st of December celebration happening with lots of live music and of course- more Christmas markets! Kirsten bought a leather over the shoulder bag for equivalent AUD $40.
Country of the day
Today it undoubtedly goes to Sweden! While on the way to Kronborg Castle we realised it is also the harbour you can take a ferry for 20 minutes over to Helsingborg in Sweden. We decided to pop over for a couple of hours and it was absolutely beautiful. We arrived as crowds started to form as well as a stage set up, we spoke to someone who told us it was the 1st of December Christmas Tree lighting and ‘Lucia’* was coming to play.
We walked up to the top of a big set of stairs above the crowds and enjoyed an amazing view while there were performances of ‘I’ll be home for Christmas’ and ‘White Christmas.’ It was really incredible.
*We never saw Lucia but Googling it afterwards it looks like it is a tradition of a choir dressed in white singing for Saint Lucia, not quite the pop princess we had imagined her to be.
Music of the day
We stumbled onto a line for a free violin concert in the beautiful chapel of Kronborg castle. A Danish woman played Christmas songs beautifully, click on the link below to check it out.
https://vimeo.com/user105822180/review/376892739/f50ed46b68
Eats of the day
- We have been planning to try the Danish Smorrebrod (rye bread topped with meats and vegetables) for a while, today was the day. We got too hungry though while at the castle and ended up buying a sandwich from the Christmas market. Fresh bread, chorizo, loaded with salad and fresh pesto. While the Smorrebrod we found afterwards was yum, it sadly couldn’t compete.
- Kirsten had been waiting to try Abelskiver since watching them be made on the Great British Bake Off on the flight over. They are little domes of pancake like mixture that traditionally had apple inside but don’t tend to anymore. We had them with jam and icing sugar and they were delicious (7.5/10- keeping our standards high).
Day 4- A planned adventure to Sweden
Today was a travel day to Stockholm on the train (5 hours), it was a beautiful train ride through the countryside and quite enjoyable and relaxing.
Before hopping on the train we went on another beautiful run and stopped in at the bakery and supermarket to get supplies for breakfast and lunch (delicious bread and salad).
Our Airbnb is in an eco village about 15 minutes outside of Stockholm and is near a beautiful nature reserve that we look forward to checking out tomorrow. A quite night in with some soup bought from Co-op and a movie. It is a bit colder here than Copenhagen and there is snow on the ground!
Brewer Tour 19-20 
Abelskiver looks amazing and we’d love to try it over at your place in Newtown when you get back!
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Glad to see you are packing the activities into the days.
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Loving the music section. Also the high standards- no need to settle for mediocre food in Europe!
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