Hiking the to be North Coast trail

Reaching Elsinore, Denmark

By Frits Ahlefeldt

The trail had now turned away from the beach and instead went along small foot paths inside the last forests in the area  and up along the hills behind the expensive houses that now lined the seaside. As I continued along the trail the Swedish coastline was now just a few miles away on the other side of the narrow strait of Oresund.

I stopped for a second, I could hear the soft sound of the first drops of water on the leaves above. I was only a few minutes away from Elsingore and was standing between large trees from a time where the locals would have nurtured them as future living materials for building the big ships that used to be made here.

In front of me I could see the brick buildings of the old seaside town, where the ancient story of Prince Amleth according to the legend took place. A story that became famous when Shakespeare turned it into the famous play: Hamlet, a tragedy about a Danish prince from what was back then a small town with a huge monastery.

As the rain got stronger I reached the town and walked through the small narrow streets to my end destination, the old cloister with its central garden.

I opened the heavy door and walked in, again I was the only one there. I took off my backpack with my watercolors and sketchbook and continued quietly to the central garden with the large tree that I’ve come to know from my earlier hikes along what I hope one day will be an official hiking-trail, instead of just a project in my head.