Saturday, 8 July 2017

Thursday 6th July 2017 – Hillerod, Denmark

Time to move on again and we have again plotted a picturesque route but, at last, the weather is glorious and the views are lovely. Our first stop, for coffee, was beside Lake Arreso at a wildlife reserve. The views across the lake were great, the birdsong was lovely and the lake was full of wildfowl – geese (on the lake and many flying over), coots, moorhens and crested grebes. Arreso was navigable from the Roskilde Fjord and was an important centre in Viking times, although no there aren’t any sites that can be visited now.
We saw lots of lovely villages but our favourite was Annisse. There was a very good example of a Danish church with its very characteristic design. There were two people working on the maintenance of the churchyard but I don’t know why as it was absolutely immaculate. There was also a cottage with a new thatch that had pieces of wood over the apex. We had seen this all over Fyn and Zealand but I had not been able to get a picture of a good example until today.
We also stopped to inspect the impressive Pibe Molle, a Dutch style windmill built in 1779 and set sedately on a small hill. It is open to the public but only about once a month and we weren’t there on the right day.
We drove on to Esrum Abbey where we were able to have a picnic, inspect the water mill and view the outside of the abbey before we drove on to Hillerod Camping. This site has a really good feel about it – the owner is very friendly, the site is very well looked after and the facilities are good – including excellent Wi-Fi!
We had time to walk the 5 minutes into the town and the very pretty lake with Frederiksborg Slot, the castle, over on the far side

Photos: The lovely church at Annisse; And its thatched cottage that looked out over the village pond; The Pibe Molle; A close up showing the curve of the blade and the sails furled and stored; This falcon took an interest in the mill as well; The water mill at Esrum Abbey; Frederiksborg over the lake with the little ferry.






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