Affair in Elsinore

A quote from Hamlet: ' But what is your affair in Elsinore? We'll teach you to drink deep 'ere you depart.'

Our affair in Elsinore lasted longer than expected. And we drank deep of lemonade on a surprisingly hot morning. 

We were ready to head out west on our anti clockwise tour around Sjaelland, when we realised we didn't have the paper charts to do it. We never take the risk of navigating only with the electronic chart plotter- it could spell disaster. You always need the paper chart as backup. Maybe we could buy the charts here, maybe not. 

It got us musing, and second thoughts set in. If we headed west we would also be motoring into the teeth of westerly winds - which are set to continue and strengthen.

So we dropped the plan and decided we will head for Malmo in Sweden thirty miles away. But there was no hurry, so we decided to take another day in Helsingor and started with a walk through the grounds of Kronborg...known to all as Hamlet's castle, an elegant but brooding presence behind huge brick moats.

The sun beat down fiercely, which was inconvenient given we were dressed for the rain which has plagued us for the last few days. So we dropped into Hamlet's posh cafe for a quick lemonade but eschewed the whole ghastly castle experience with actors in Shakespearean dtess hamming it up for hundreds of tourists from the cruise liner anchored nearby. 

Back into the cobbled medieval streets of the city to see the quiet face of Elsinore.

Until that is, we were nearly run down by a Segway tour. They look so smug in their helmets on their ridiculous machines. What's wrong with using your legs?

To the fine cathedral church of St Olaf, which displayed the customary Scandinavian model ship hanging from the rafters. As our sailing guru Tom Cunliffe would say ' it's a symbol of our journey through life.'

To hear Lesleys latest programme on BBC World Service - ' why we love being at sea', click here. It includes lots of Tom's wise words.

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswrkb

At the back of the cathedral we found an entrance to the vaults where bodies were buried. (See pic) The death's head reminded us of poor Yorick. A fitting end to our Elsinoire affair.