Hillerød; Monday, 31 August, 2026

It might have been a public holiday in England and Wales, but it wasn’t in Denmark, which meant it was a normal Monday and breakfast stopped being served at 10, so I couldn’t have that much of a lie in if I wanted to eat.

Breakfast completed I headed back up to my room to pack and then checked out before heading round to the pier for the little ferry that runs around the Slottsøen, making the first journey of the morning, which nobody else was on, so I got my own personal tour with lots of opportunities to take photos on the 30 minute cruise before it dropped me back off where I started. The journey was helped by the sun coming out and the weather was really rather pleasant for about 45 minutes.

From the pier I walked the short distance into the castle, taking a few more photos, but making a quick move towards the building as the sound of thunder started to rattle around the town centre, with several very hefty downpours passing through whilst I was wandering around the palace.

The bulk of the palace is reconstructed following the 1859 fire, but the Kings Chapel, home to the Orders of Chivalry of the Kingdom of Denmark, is still original with most of it surviving the fire. Denmark, along with Sweden, Scotland and England are the only nations that still award orders of chivalry, so it is pretty unique.

I spent a good couple of hours wandering around the palace, which is also home to the National Portrait Gallery and part of the National Museum, so there is quite a bit to see. It also meant I managed to avoid several of the hefty showers, though there was still one – turned out to be the last of the afternoon – passing through as I finished my tour, so I spent about 20 minutes sheltering inside the building before walking the short distance over to the café for a late lunch.

With the weather apps suggesting I had about 90 minutes of good weather left I decided it would probably be a good idea to think about heading back towards the station, taking a long route up and through the castle gardens and the Baroque Garden before heading back past the Bymuseum and then down to the station.

I arrived just in time to miss the S-Tog heading back into Copenhagen city centre, but as they run every 10 minutes, and the next one had just arrived in from the city, I could go and sit on that, with the choice of seats.

I changed at Østerport onto the airport train that started there, meaning I once again had the choice of seats for a comfortable journey out to Copenhagen Airport, though it did mean I arrived with more than four hours to spare before my flight.

However, Copenhagen airport never fails to disappoint and with a 15-minute queue to get through security and a 30-minute queue to get through passport control I was really quite glad I was so early as it made the journey significantly less stressful. It did though mean I still had about 2½ hours to kill in the lounge before my flight back to London started boarding.