Random Freewrite on a Previous Trip
There is a castle. Not just any castle. This is a special castle. This is a castle in Denmark. Kronborg Slot in the small town of Helsingør. Now I know why they call it something’s rotten in the state of Denmark. Hamlet was set in Denmark and it is a spoof about Hamlet that is in Denmark! I get it! Denmark was once the great power in Europe. Mmm…interesting…
…so anyways this castle…this was the castle that Hamlet was supposed to be set in even though Shakespeare had never been there…the morning I was there was foggy. I couldn’t even see the castle from the main street along the bay in town. It was extremely foggy. I like fog. It is cool and damp and creates a certain misty aura about a place that makes it mysterious…I wonder if Shakespeare knew this when he wrote Hamlet. I should like to read Hamlet again after seeing this castle. Oh right…the castle. Well, the fog muffles any sound so as I approach it seems as if we are on an island far away from any real world. It is surrounded by a big stone wall that has no algae or moss growing on it. The stones to the main entrance are slippery with the fog and ocean mist this morning. The castle is right on the edge of the ocean…supposedly when the fog clears one can see the coast of Sweden.
I enter through the gates. There is a small hill in front of the gates that looks out to the ocean. Further past that is a low wall but it is partially obscured by the fog. I go into the gates to the outer court yard which is just a narrow strip of stone street basically between the outer gate wall and the inner wall of the castle proper. I enter through the second gate that has the coat of arms of Denmark above it.
There I enter the inner courtyard that is surrounded by the castle on all sides. There is a fountain in the middle but it is dry because it is winter. It is a cold morning and the voices of the few people who are here echo off the walls like empty caves deep underground.
The ticket has three sections: the chapel, the royal apartments, and the dungeons. The chapel is boring…the apartments interesting but too long…I saved the dungeons for last. The catacombs. This is my favorite part…quite the stuff of tales.
…cold air rushes at me as I open the door to a narrow, dark hall into the stone interior of the dungeon... turn right and there is a long, very low, wide hall with an arching roof. Down into the cold abyss of stone…there is a gianormous statue of an old and tales-past king who is sitting with a sword on his knees with an inscription below. It is in Danish and too dark for me to see what it says.
keep going…the only light comes from tiny kerosene lamps randomly placed here and there. There are black holes in the walls that are blocked off to keep inquisitive tourists from wandering too far and getting lost…no, one would not want to get lost in a place like this. Just imagine that these now dark, damp, and echoing halls were once filled with slaves, soldiers and prisoners who had to live down here…never seeing the light of day for months on end…
…so anyways this castle…this was the castle that Hamlet was supposed to be set in even though Shakespeare had never been there…the morning I was there was foggy. I couldn’t even see the castle from the main street along the bay in town. It was extremely foggy. I like fog. It is cool and damp and creates a certain misty aura about a place that makes it mysterious…I wonder if Shakespeare knew this when he wrote Hamlet. I should like to read Hamlet again after seeing this castle. Oh right…the castle. Well, the fog muffles any sound so as I approach it seems as if we are on an island far away from any real world. It is surrounded by a big stone wall that has no algae or moss growing on it. The stones to the main entrance are slippery with the fog and ocean mist this morning. The castle is right on the edge of the ocean…supposedly when the fog clears one can see the coast of Sweden.
I enter through the gates. There is a small hill in front of the gates that looks out to the ocean. Further past that is a low wall but it is partially obscured by the fog. I go into the gates to the outer court yard which is just a narrow strip of stone street basically between the outer gate wall and the inner wall of the castle proper. I enter through the second gate that has the coat of arms of Denmark above it.
There I enter the inner courtyard that is surrounded by the castle on all sides. There is a fountain in the middle but it is dry because it is winter. It is a cold morning and the voices of the few people who are here echo off the walls like empty caves deep underground.
The ticket has three sections: the chapel, the royal apartments, and the dungeons. The chapel is boring…the apartments interesting but too long…I saved the dungeons for last. The catacombs. This is my favorite part…quite the stuff of tales.
…cold air rushes at me as I open the door to a narrow, dark hall into the stone interior of the dungeon... turn right and there is a long, very low, wide hall with an arching roof. Down into the cold abyss of stone…there is a gianormous statue of an old and tales-past king who is sitting with a sword on his knees with an inscription below. It is in Danish and too dark for me to see what it says.
keep going…the only light comes from tiny kerosene lamps randomly placed here and there. There are black holes in the walls that are blocked off to keep inquisitive tourists from wandering too far and getting lost…no, one would not want to get lost in a place like this. Just imagine that these now dark, damp, and echoing halls were once filled with slaves, soldiers and prisoners who had to live down here…never seeing the light of day for months on end…
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