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1400 -7000 DKK
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Radisson Collection Royal Hammerichsgade 1, Copenhagen
Parnassos.dk, Overgaden oven Vandet 58A, 2. 1415 Copenhagen
45 52736316
overtoner@parnassos.dk
Parnassos.dk ApS is a member of the Travel Guarantee Fund. It guarantees your money, while we guarantee your experiences.
Return to Kongens Copenhagen
Restaurant Geranium, the best of the best.
Visiting the Royal Summer Residence
Meet the Man Who Triggered the Watergate Scandal
Dietrich Buxtehude’s Organ
Celebration Dinner at Kronborg Castle
In Sweden with Queen Victoria’s grandson and great-grandson
Helsingborg – Helsingør, Hornbækhus and Danish coziness
Chamber concert among gigantic sculptures
A taste of the Viking Age
Museum of Modern Art, Louisiana
Dinner at Karen Blixen’s author’s home
Copenhagen is not only the gastronomic capital of Northern Europe and Scandinavia. With its canals, medieval quarters, modern architecture, and a ‘backyard’ with kilometers of white sandy beaches, royal castles, wild nature, seaside resorts, cultural gems and a thousand years of history, Copenhagen and the ‘North Zealand of Kings’ are the ‘Jewel in the Nordic Crown’.
There was a reason why Shakespeare had his classic Hamlet set at Kronborg Castle in Helsingør. And why the author Karen Blixen, after her return from Africa, sat in her childhood home at the country estate Rungstedlund and wrote her world-famous novels and stories.
Nyhavn, København
SAS Radisson Royal – with Arne Jacobsen as architect
We start in Copenhagen on Monday, August 11, where we will stay at the 5* hotel SAS Royal right in the middle of the city.
It was the Danish architect, Arne Jacobsen, who was chosen as the designer and architect when the University of Oxford was to have its brand new St. Catherine’s College in 1960. At that time, he was known as a master of modernism.
Therefore, we have chosen to stay for the first two nights in the Royal North Zealand at his famous and listed 5* Hotel SAS Royal in the center of Copenhagen. Danish design has made its way into all kinds of homes in all countries of the world and is an integral part of the Scandinavian soul.
When all our guests have been assigned their rooms, we go to their restaurant on the 20th floor. Here we are greeted by a glass of welcome champagne, followed by a dinner, which is included in the price. From here we have a formidable view of the entire city, the “bridge”, and the Swedish coast.
Denmark is, as you know, the homeland of the Vikings.
On Tuesday morning, August 12th, we will go to the old royal city of Roskilde, where we will visit the National Viking Ship Museum. One of Denmark’s leading experts on the Viking Age will welcome us and give us a lecture. He will also show us the Viking ship that sailed up the English rivers when the Danish king Canute the Great conquered England in 1013. He was crowned King of England on London’s Thorney Island, where Westminster and Parliament are located today.
It is true that the Vikings were Europe’s hooligans, but they were good at building ships.
At the Viking Ship Museum we will experience the original Viking ships that archaeologists have found and restored. We will taste the Vikings’ noble drink, Mead. Plus a taste of their meals on their raids, which consisted of country bread with smoked salmon, smoked cheese, nuts and dried fruit.
It doesn’t necessarily taste particularly good – but it is authentic.
On our way through the medieval town of Roskilde, we pass the local cathedral, where Danish kings and queens have been buried for the last 1000 years.
Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde
Lousiana Museum in North Zealand, with the Swedish island of Hven in the background
We leave Roskilde and continue north along Strandvejen along the picturesque Øresund coast and its many historic houses and buildings. We end up at the ‘Museum of Modern Art Louisiana’ in Humlebæk.
The museum is located directly on the Øresund and not only houses current exhibitions and a large collection of the great masters of modern art. It is in itself an architectural and modernist gem of the highest international standard.
There are often long queues to get in and experience the exhibitions, but we have gained direct access to the museum, which originates from an old privately owned patrician villa. From the late 1950s, the villa has been expanded with the discreet modernist architecture that today winds into and under the landscape, which also contains a sculpture park.
The museum in Humlebæk has become a ‘game changer’ in the way art is experienced and a role model for museums in both Denmark and the rest of the world. At least that is the general attitude… in Denmark.
You can follow their program and upcoming special exhibitions via this link.
We leave modern art in favor of classic literature.
10 kilometers south of Louisiana lies the old country house Rungstedlund, which was the childhood home of the author Karen Blixen (also known as Isak Dinesen).
Apart from H. C. Andersen, Karen Blixen is probably Denmark’s best-known author outside our borders. Her book ”My African Farm” (“Out of Africa”) became widely known worldwide when it was made into a film in 1985 with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in the lead roles.
Another film adaptation of her novels is ”Babette’s Feast”, which won an Oscar for best foreign film in 1988 with Stephane Audran as Babette.
Rungstedund, where Karen Blixen lived from 1931 until her death in 1962
After living in Kenya for 17 years and creating a coffee farm, Karen Blixen returned home from Africa in 1931, aged 46, and settled in the family country house. It was here – with a view of the Øresund – that she sat and wrote all her novels and stories. Today it is one of the world’s most famous artist’s homes, where all the rooms are as they were when the author lived and worked there.
The historic buildings are surrounded by a large and atmospheric flower garden, which Karen Blixen herself created. In connection with the garden and the house, there is a 15-hectare protected nature area designated as a bird sanctuary. “A real paradise for birds that sought it across the World’s Oceans”, said Karen Blixen, who, according to her own wishes, is buried in the middle of the sanctuary.
We visit both the author’s home and its impressive surroundings, which today are called the Karen Blixen Museum. And we finish by having our dinner at the author’s home before driving home to SAS Royal Hotel.
Dinner is included and, as usual, wines are between you and the waiter.
The Øresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö, which gave its name to the famous Danish-Swedish crime series, Broen or the Bridge
Wednesday morning we check out of SAS Royal. We are going to North Zealand, via a detour. We start by crossing the narrow waters between Denmark and Sweden via the Øresund Bridge, which is known from the TV series ‘The Bridge’.
Denmark and southern Sweden have always been closely linked. For hundreds of years, and right up until around 1700, southern Sweden was part of the Danish kingdom. And even today, southwestern Sweden and eastern Denmark are collectively called the Øresund region.
The Øresund link was completed in 2000, connecting Copenhagen and Malmö.
After crossing the water, we drive north to end up at the peninsula and the Kullen mountain range. From here we have a magnificent view back towards Denmark, before continuing to the pleasure palace of Sofiero. The palace is known for its beautiful park, which is inspired by an English country garden. And for good reason.
In 1905, the future King Gustav Adolf married the English Princess Margaret of Connaught, who was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The Crown Prince couple received Sofiero as a wedding gift from the king and transformed it into a more spacious country house with the aforementioned English country garden. Together they had, among other things, their daughter Ingrid, who later became Queen of Denmark.
Margaret died at the age of 38, but three years later Gustav Adolf married the English Lady Louise Mountbatten. He was the brother of Lord Mountbatten, great-grandson of Victoria, great-niece of King Edward VII and Princess of Battenberg. In 1950 she became Queen of Sweden. A piece of English history on Swedish soil.
In addition to experiencing the gardens and visiting the castle, we have lunch in the Castle’s restaurant with a view of the water – and over to the North Zealand of the Kings.
Swedish Helsingborg with a view of Danish Helsingør
Rudolph Tegner’s Museum and Statue Park – Credit Tine Uffelmann
A short drive from Hornbækhus, we find Tegner’s Museum and Statue Park, located in a large protected heath, where the heather will be blooming.
The octagonal concrete building is in the middle of the landscape, looking like a spaceship from a distant galaxy. Here we will experience a chamber concert. Artist Rudolph Tegner acquired the entire area to build a museum for his sculptures in 1936.
In this landscape his huge, vitalistic, bronze sculptures are enthroned, which we will experience in the late afternoon sun, between juniper bushes and heather, before a drink at the museum’s tree-lined café. And then it’s time for our private concert.
Parnassos has been given exclusive access to the museum after hours, so we will have it to ourselves. The ceiling in the museum’s main hall rises 11 metres above the floor, and many of Tegner’s plaster sculptures of mythical creatures almost touch the ceiling.
In the middle of this breathtaking spectacle, with its very special acoustics, we have set up a concert hall, where a chamber ensemble will entertain us with classical works that match the spirit of the place.
This has never happened before in the museum’s 89-year history, so it will truly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Considering that we are visiting the Kings of Nordsjælland or North Zealand, what would be more appropriate than to start Thursday, August 14th, with a visit to the Danish royal couple’s summer residence in Fredensborg, which is beautifully located next to the large Esrum Sø or Lake.
Our host will be the Royal Head Gardener, who will talk about the Palace’s history and show us around the impressive park. Fredensborg Palace was built as a pleasure castle for the Danish king Frederik IV in 1722.
In the second half of the 19th century, the castle was the setting for gatherings of the crowned heads of many of the European royal houses. The Danish King Christian IV was known as Europe’s father-in-law, because his daughters married into the other royal houses.
Among the summer guests you would have found the Russian Tzar, married to Danish Princess Dagmar; the English Crown Prince and later King, Edward VII, who married Alexandra of Denmark (further close family ties between the English and Nordic royal houses); the new Greek King, George I, who was the son of the Danish King, along with nobles and royalty from other European countries.
Today, Fredensborg is the summer residence of both the now abdicated Queen Margrethe II and Denmark’s King Frederik X and Queen Mary. The probability that they will be present at the palace when we visit Fredensborg is quite high.
Fredensborg palace, the king and queen’s summer residence, seen from Esrum sø or lake.
Tisvildeleje – idyll throughout
Our lunch for the day will be the luxury version of traditional Danish smørrebrød (you may know the word from the Swedish version, Smörgåsbord). We will enjoy it in one of Denmark’s oldest and most popular seaside and summer towns, Tisvildeleje.
For a century and a half, Tisvilde has been sought by artists, intellectuals and people eager for sun and nature, who have set up their summer residences here. One resident was Nobel Laureate Niels Bohr, a genius of our time, who discovered the atom and founded quantum physics.
Today, you can stumble across Hollywood stars, media personalities, well-known artists, and politicians. They unabashedly mingle with the local residents and other summer visitors, on the beach and in the city’s unpretentious restaurants and cafes; perhaps running into American actor Bradley Cooper, the speaker of the Danish Parliament, or a former prime minister.
Parnassos’ guide, Poul Arnedal, lives in Tisvildeleje. He will take us on a stroll around the atmospheric city and tell us about the place’s incredible history and its famous personalities. Lunch is served in the Garden in the middle of Hovedgaden, or the main street, where we will meet R. Spencer Oliver, who, more than 50 years ago, triggered the Watergate scandal, and the downfall of President Nixon.
During the presidential election campaign of 1972, Oliver was a key member of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate Office Building. It was his phone that was tapped by Nixon’s ‘Plumber Gang’, so that the president’s team could eavesdrop on their opponents’ election strategy.
Oliver later became secretary general of the OSCE, based in Copenhagen, married a Danish woman, and bought an old fisherman’s house on the beach in Tisvildeleje as his summer residence. Despite his 86 years of age, he is still politically active, with close connections to the inner circle of the Democratic Party. Stories to follow! He spends all his summers with his wife Jeanie in Tisvildeleje.
We leave Tisvildeleje and drive to Helsingør. Here Parnassos has arranged, together with one of Denmark’s foremost organists, Søren Gleerup Hansen, an organ concert specially for us, including works by one of baroque music’s greatest composers, Dietrich Buxtehude, performed in St. Mariæ Church, on an organ that dates back to Buxtehude’s time as organist there, from 1660 until 1668.
Born in Helsingborg (when the city was still Danish), Buxtehude grew up in Helsingør, where his father was organist in the Cathedral of St. Olai.
He later moved to Lübeck, in the principality of Holstein, which until 1864 was part of the Danish kingdom. His reputation as a composer attracted and inspired younger talents, such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Friedrich Händel.
The young Bach stayed with him in Lübeck for a few months, where he was taught a thing or two about fugues and polyphony. One can therefore argue that Northern Europe’s classical music started in Helsingør.
You can read our article about this little-known but central figure in the firmament of classical music. (In Danish only).
St. Marias kirke in Elsenor, where the composer – and Johann Sebastian’s Bachs music teacher – Dietrich Buxtehude, worked.
Kronborg castle’s ball room where we will have our gala dinner.
You can’t think of Helsingør without thinking of Hamlet. After being enriched by Buxtehude’s and his pupil’s organ music, we will stroll the short way to Hamlet’s castle, Kronborg, immortalised by Shakespeare as Elsinore.
Here we will enjoy a celebratory dinner in the Blue Gallery, with a view of the castle courtyard. According to tradition, Shakespeare was inspired by Helsingør and Kronborg, where an English delegation studied the Øresund toll: a toll levied on the ships that had to pass the narrow strait between Helsingborg and Helsingør in order to go to and fro the Baltic Sea.
The cannons of both cities’ fortresses ensured that all ships paid their taxes. 150 years later, the medieval castle was rebuilt as the magnificent Renaissance castle we know today. The former Royal Castle forms a significant part of Danish heritage.
For major royal events, Kronborg’s cannons fire a 27-gun salute, at noon. However, we will skip the cannons and instead focus on enjoying a renaissance-inspired gala dinner in one of the castle’s most beautiful rooms, before we return to our beds at Hornbækhus, happy, full and satisfied – we trust.
As early as the 17th century, the first French Huguenots settled here and founded the Protestant churches, which were banned in France. In the 19th century, a new wave of immigration came, consisting of Jewish immigrants fleeing pogroms and persecution. By that time, our French Protestants had moved up the social pyramid and moved out to other, wealthier neighborhoods. And instead of building new ones, the Jews took over the Christian churches and converted them into synagogues.
Around the year 1900, there were about 200 synagogues in the East End, and one of the largest congregations was found in the narrow alley, Sandy’s Row, where the church had become a synagogue as early as 1854.
Today, there are only a few synagogues left in the East End. Many of them have been taken over by a new wave of immigration, especially Bengalis from the former East Pakistan, who came to London and the East End in the 1960s and 70s.
But Sandy’s Row Synagogue still exists, and the imprint that Jewish immigrants left on Spitalfields and the East End is still evident. For example, there are two 24-hour bagel shops nestled among the many Bengali curry houses in the legendary Brick Lane, the oldest of which dates back to 1855.
On the same Tuesday morning, Parnasso’s guests have been invited inside the aforementioned historic building, followed by a walk with a local guide around the Jewish East End, where immigrant groups and their locales mix peacefully with hipsters and smart business types from the City.
Canal Cruise with a view over Copenhagen’s Opera House
Restaurant Geranium, the best of the best
The evening consists of an exquisite gourmet dinner at the three-star Michelin restaurant, Geranium, which in 2022 was voted the World’s Best Restaurant, and whose head chef, Rasmus Kofoed, has won the Bocuse d’Ore. Geranium today belongs to the small circle of “Best of the Best” restaurants in the world.
The dinner takes place on Friday 15 August with an accompanying overnight stay at the Royal Radisson. This evening must be purchased (which you can do during the booking process).
It’s a fantastically expensive pleasure, but then you will also have one of your greatest culinary experiences ever.
You may be tempted by the above trip. But in this day and age, with rampant fraud on the Internet, we understand if you may be a little hesitant to purchase a trip from a foreign company. We are a member of the Danish equivalent to ABTA. We could also, to ease your doubt, invite you to our evening at Burgh House in London, Monday 23rd April 2025, for our private event with William Hanson.
You are also welcome to call us on +45 6141 6505.
Kind regards, Erik Bach Christophersen
We want to create exclusive experiences – without excluding anyone. Granted, our tours are not among the cheapest, but they are still accessible to most of those who walk in the footsteps of Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish poet who once said, ‘to travel is to live’.
The ‘trick’ is to be larger than small groups. We’re talking about around 40 people. Being many has its own dynamic.
And a larger budget allows us to offer truly unique adventures, that surely will be beyond most of us if we acted on our own. Our purpose is to tear us away from our day to day lives, to ensure that when you are back home again, you will ask yourself, ‘did I really experience what I think I experienced’?
Please Note: The price covers accommodation and experiences in Denmark only and does not include the flight.
This is to give you as much flexibility as possible, such as when you fly during the day and from where. Maybe you also want to extend your stay.
If the trip is canceled – regardless of the reason – we will compensate your flight ticket of up to £ 150/person.
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