Kronborg Castle and Stevns Klint

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kronborg Castle

   Hamlet never lived at Kronborg, but Shakespeare put him there, and the castle has been Elsinore in the imagination of the world ever since. It stands on a point of land at Helsingør where the Øresund narrows to about four kilometres, with Sweden clearly visible across the water, and for centuries it controlled one of the most important shipping lanes in Europe. King Frederik II built the castle in its Renaissance form in the 1570s and 1580s, and every ship passing through the strait had to stop and pay the Sound Dues, a toll that made the Danish crown rich for over four hundred years until it was abolished in 1857. Kronborg was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2000.

   Read the complete Kronborg Castle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kronborg Castle is where the day begins. Next is Roskilde Cathedral.

2. 2. Roskilde Cathedral

   Roskilde Cathedral is where Denmark keeps its kings. Since the fifteenth century, almost every Danish monarch has been buried here, and the chapels and crypts hold around forty kings and queens, from medieval stone tombs to ornate baroque sarcophagi and modern designs. The cathedral itself, begun in the late twelfth century under Bishop Absalon, the warrior-churchman who also founded Copenhagen, was one of the first big brick Gothic churches in Scandinavia, and it set the style for church building across the region. UNESCO listed it in 1995. Inside, look for the clock with the figure of St George slaying the dragon, which strikes the hour, and the pillar where royal visitors have marked their height.

   Read the complete Roskilde Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Roskilde Cathedral comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stevns Klint.

3. 3. Stevns Klint

   Stevns Klint is a white cliff of chalk and limestone, some fifteen kilometres long, on the east coast of Zealand, south of Copenhagen, and it holds one of the most important records of a global catastrophe. About sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth near what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, causing a mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and much of life on Earth. In the cliff, a thin, dark layer of clay, called the fish clay, marks that moment, and it contains high levels of iridium, a metal rare on Earth but common in asteroids. This layer was a key piece of evidence for the impact theory, and the cliff was listed by UNESCO in 2014.

   Read the complete Stevns Klint write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach Stevns Klint. Next is back through Roskilde Cathedral.

4. 4. back through Roskilde Cathedral

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Roskilde Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Roskilde Cathedral, late in the day. Next is Kronborg Castle.

5. 5. Kronborg Castle

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kronborg Castle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Kronborg Castle. That is the ride.