Fredensborg

Fredensborg is an 18C palace that apparently is still occupied by someone important, as there were at least 8 uniformed guards there, and the interiors weren't open to the public. The palace, as you can see from the picture, has a very long approach. We are maybe halfway there.





I watched this guy walk back and forth for a while, trying to capture his fancy footwork on video (like a true tourist) as he made his turn.





The palace's gardens were beautiful... very woodsy and semi-natural, with long, long pathways.

Frederiksborg Slot

You might not think something this big would be hard to find, but we got quite lost looking for it. There was no "Giant Tourist Attraction This Way" sign from any of the highways ringing the town, so we had to wander around and around until we ran into it. Frederiksborg Slot was built from 1599-1622, and its has extremely ornate interiors.





This chapel has a rather different look from the village church we saw in the morning. The next three pictures give you a hint of what some of the rooms were like.








By the time we were done wandering the castle, it was time to eat, so we had lunch at the cafe that was there. The plate on the right has curried pickled herring, marinated pickled herrring, and plain 'ol pickled herring, served with very dense brown bread, capers, boiled egg, etc, and a package of something called "fedt" which was... nasty... with a mysterious taste that I couldn't quite place. The herring was quite tasty though. The plate on the left are chicken and asparagus tarts.

Keldby Kirke

Isn't this the cutest thing? We saw many of these little cottages with the interesting wooden 'spine' as we drove around the island of Mons.




This is Keldby Kirke, which we saw from the road and decided to explore. It was still pretty early in the morning, and there was absolutely no one around. Its nice enough from the outside, but, as is my wont, I tried the door, just to see if it was unlocked. It was, and inside we found this:





Now, its hard to show just how jaw-dropping these frescoes were in a photo, but this was really a tiny church in the middle of a very rural area, and these came as a complete surprise to us.





Christ here suffers not only from the usual five wounds and crown of thorns, but it appears a madman has gone after him with an ice pick!





Check out the great human headed snake, and the crazy spiny wings on the angel.





How about a demon leading people in chains to the gaping, flaming mouth of a... whale? And lets throw in a unicorn to cavort above the pulpit! This place felt like our own special discovery until I happened to look in my guidebook later in the day and found Keldby Kirke prominently featured in the section on Mons, complete with a picture. It turns out there were three churches on the island, all built and decorated in the 13C, with additional frescoes added in the 15C, and they are considered some of the best in Denmark. We were, however, incredibly lucky to find it unlocked (that time of year)...90% of the doors I would try on the rest of the trip would be locked.