My Travel and History Blog, Focussing mostly on Roman and Mediaeval Times
28 Sept 2025
Autumn Tour 2025 – The Fjords of South-Western Norway
Another journey, or rather, voyage this year was to Norway via Bremerhaven in Germany. I had traveled along the coast of Norway on the Hurtigruten Tour in 2011, but most of the fjords aren’t part of the tour (and Geiranger is not called at due to ice and avalanches). This voyage – on a smaller ship, not one of those 6,000 passenger monsters – concentrated on the fjords of south-western Norway. Bus tours to some of the most scenic sites were offered while the ship was at anchor. In for some spectacular Norwegian landscape? *grin*
Fossen Bratte waterfall in Eikedalen
We start with one of the many waterfalls. This was on a tour from Bergen to Øystese at the Hardangerfjord, across the Eikedalen/Kvamskogen area popular for its skiing resorts. It’s not always possible to take photos out of the moving bus, but besides the longer official stops, the driver added a few what he called 'Japanese stops' ("five minutes for photos and don’t dither").
Closeup of the Fossen Bratte waterfall
The waterfall is also called Eikedalsfoss or Brudesløret (bridal veil, since it looks like one, but there’s another fall with that name in Norway). The Eikedalselva river falls 79 metres into the valley; measured by laser. You can get closer to the fall, of course, but for a quick stop the roadside parking lot is sufficient. We got some time at several more waterfalls during the tours.
Mountains surrounding the Eikedalen
I liked how this photo came out, with the sun shining into the ravine between the mountains.
Eikedalen Valley
And here is one of the valley.
Steinsdalsfossen
That’s one of the falls we got time to explore: the Steinsdalsfossen ('fossen' meaning waterfall) near Norheimsund. It is part of the river Fosselva which springs from the Myklavatn Lake 814 metres above sea level, and empties into the Steindalselva (you may have guessed that 'elva' means river). The waterfall developed when the Fosselva changed its course in 1699; its height is 50 metres.
Behind the Steinsdalsfossen
What makes this fall a tourist destination is the fact that you can walk behind the fall without getting wet. So here’s a photo from that angle.
View from Øystese to the Hardangerfjord
The Hardangerfjord which is located east of Bergen, is 180 km long – making it the second largest fjord after the Sognefjord (more than 200 km). The shores alternate between mountains and more gently sloping districts where orchards thrive; the apples of Hardanger are famous in Norway.
The weather was a mixed affair that day, clouds and sunshine, a few raindrops, and an overall rather hazy atomsphere that veiled the more distant mountains, turning them into fairy tale shadows.
Impressions out of the Flåm Line train
Next stop was Flåm in the Aurlandsfjord which is a branch of the Sognefjord. The tour included taking the Flåm Line to Myrdal and another train further to Voss, then changing into a bus that would take us up to Stahlheim and then along the Nærøyfjord (another branch of the Sognefjord) back to Flåm, going through several long tunnels on that last part.
Another view from the Flåm train
The Flåmsbana is a 20 km long railway between Flåm at the fjord and Myrdal which is at 866 metres above sea level, so no wonder the gradient can be as steep as 5.5 percent. The railway connects the district of Sogn to the train line from Oslo to Bergen that stops at Myrdal. Construction started in 1924, but it took until 1940 for the railway to be operational. Not an easy terrain to build 20 tunnels and a bridge.
Kjosfossen
Even the Flåm line got a 'Japanese stop', at the Kjosfossen. Its fall is 225 metres, so it’s one of the more spectacular ones. The fall continues under the railway bridge to the other side and powers a small power station for the railway. Norway gets its electricity cheap due to the many waterfalls.
Myrdal station
It was the only day with lots of rain, so the photos tended to turn out a bit darker and melencholic.
Tvinde Waterfall
A stop during the bus part of the tour: Tvinde Waterfall. It is one of the prettiest falls due to its many strands and cascades. The waterfall ist 110 metres high (other sources say 152 metres). It is one of the falls that sometimes runs dry in summer, so we were lucky that it was displaying quite nicely.
Tvinde Waterfall, the lower part
Legends say that the waterfall can give you back youth and well ... potency. Obviously, people believe in that since there are some filling up bottles with water from the fall, we were told.
View from Stahlheim to the Nærøy Valley
There has been a way from the eastern provinces around Oslo and Telemarken to the Vestlandet around the fjords since the Middle Ages. It led from Voss to Stahlheim and down to Gudvangen at the end of the Nærøyfjord, and from there to the Sognefjord and the open sea by boat. In 1647, it was elevated to Royal Postway between Oslo and Bergen; Stahlheim farm became a postal station and inn.
Zoom in of the valley in the rain
Since 1865, Gudvangen could be reached by steam ships, and horse carriages would bring people up to Stahlheim. It was the beginning of the tourism in the area. The German emperor Wilhlem II regularly spent some time there; he was a great Norway fan.
View to the Stahlheimselva
Stahlheim is situated 330 metres above sea leve, the Nærøy Valley about 100 metres. The Stahlheim brook passes the hotel and thunders down as 126 metres fall below (you can see the brook and the edge, and the river below, but not the fall itself).
View from Stahlheim in another direction
I had loaned an umbrella to protect my camera, and went a bit wild about photographing those dramatic clouds, lol, while most of the others had a coffee at the hotel.
Flåm in the rain
Flåm is a documented settlement since 1340, but the village became popular only with the builing of the Flåm railway which soon attracted tourists who got there by steamships. Nowadays, the number of cruise ships allowed in the harbour is limited per day, bringing the overall number down to 170 per annum (it was more than 300 at the peak).
Ålesund seen from Mount Aksla
St. Peter seems to have felt bad about that rainy day and brought the sun out for most of the rest of the voyage. So we got Ålesund in the sunshine and warm weather, and most of the Geiranger tour the next day as well.
At the Fjord Center near Geiranger
The tour to the Dalsnibba Mountain and up the Eagle Road with its spectacular views was a hightlight of the cruise. Those winding roads are bad enough with a car, but the bus driver got us around safely albeit it looked dangerous at some points.
On the way up the Dalsnibba: Blåbreen Glacier with Djupvatnet Lake
That is one of the few photos I took from the bus that turned out ok. Serpentine roads, a swaying bus, and reflections on the windows don’t make it easy. But we got several stops, so it was no problem to catch a lot of breathtaking views – life and on camera.
On the Dalsnibba Mountain
The road up to the Dalsnibba is called Nibbevegen. It starts at Djupvatnet (1035 metres above sea level) and leads to the summit of Dalsnibba at 1476 metres above sea level. This is the highest road in Norway; 5 km long, with a gradient of 10%.
View from Dalsnibba to the Geirangerfjord
The Dalsnibba offers a spectacular view to the Geirangerfjord which is 7 km away (though the distance by road is about 20 km). Due to its height the mountain is often covered by snow far into summer, and frequently wreathed in clouds. We were lucky since the clouds were only on one side, leaving the view to the fjord clear if somewhat hazy.
View to the Blåbreen Glacier
A skywalk with an iron grid floor and a glass guardrail has been built on the mountain some years ago, offering an even better view to the Blåbreen (also called Blåfjell) glacier and the Geiranger valley. A descent of 500 metres under my feet was not my favourite spot, but I did enter.
View from Dalsnibba
Just some picture spam.
View from Flydal’s Gorge to the fjord
This is the typical postcard motive, the view to the Geiranger Fjord from the parking lot at Flydalsjuvet. Everyone stops there for a photo and so did we.
The zigzag band at the lower right corner is the Eagle Bend road which leads to another famous viewpoint. I was on the smaller of the two ships.
View into the Flydalsjuvet
The gorge itself looks quite spectacular as well, though I could not find any information about it; everything Google offers is about the viewpoint. But there is a – rather tricky – way down the cliff of the gorge to Geiranger.
Geirangerfjord seen from the Eagle Bend
Next was up the serpentine road called Eagle Bend to a viewpoint on the other side of the fjord. Another winding road with a gradient of 10% (bus driver in Norway looks like a fun job). The viewing platform is 620 metres above sea level. A bit crowded at times, but really worth it – and it wasn’t so bad when we got there.
Geirangerfjord seem from the ship
The Geirangefjord, together with the Nærøyfjord – though the latter follows a different was to the sea via the Sognefjord – are part of the UNESCO world heritage. The Geirangerfjord is only 15 km long, but those 15 km are really spectacular since the fjord is so narrow, with steep mountain slopes on both sides.
Another view of the fjord
And more picture spam.
The Seven Sisters Waterfall
The Seven Sisters is the most popular waterfall along the fjord, though at the time we got there some of the sisters were on holiday. At its heighday in spring, seven falls thunder down into the fjord close to each other.
Stavanger, the old town
The last day of the cruise the ship anchored in Stavanger with its charming old town. Walking those lanes, you won’t imagine that the city is the centre of the Norwegian oil industry, but when the ship approaches the city, you can see the modern harbour, oil platforms and such.
Well, I brought home some 1,500 photos of fjords and mountains, so there will be more pictures in the future.
¶ September 28, 2025 2 comments
Another journey, or rather, voyage this year was to Norway via Bremerhaven in Germany. I had traveled along the coast of Norway on the Hurtigruten Tour in 2011, but most of the fjords aren’t part of the tour (and Geiranger is not called at due to ice and avalanches). This voyage – on a smaller ship, not one of those 6,000 passenger monsters – concentrated on the fjords of south-western Norway. Bus tours to some of the most scenic sites were offered while the ship was at anchor. In for some spectacular Norwegian landscape? *grin*
We start with one of the many waterfalls. This was on a tour from Bergen to Øystese at the Hardangerfjord, across the Eikedalen/Kvamskogen area popular for its skiing resorts. It’s not always possible to take photos out of the moving bus, but besides the longer official stops, the driver added a few what he called 'Japanese stops' ("five minutes for photos and don’t dither").
The waterfall is also called Eikedalsfoss or Brudesløret (bridal veil, since it looks like one, but there’s another fall with that name in Norway). The Eikedalselva river falls 79 metres into the valley; measured by laser. You can get closer to the fall, of course, but for a quick stop the roadside parking lot is sufficient. We got some time at several more waterfalls during the tours.
I liked how this photo came out, with the sun shining into the ravine between the mountains.
And here is one of the valley.
That’s one of the falls we got time to explore: the Steinsdalsfossen ('fossen' meaning waterfall) near Norheimsund. It is part of the river Fosselva which springs from the Myklavatn Lake 814 metres above sea level, and empties into the Steindalselva (you may have guessed that 'elva' means river). The waterfall developed when the Fosselva changed its course in 1699; its height is 50 metres.
What makes this fall a tourist destination is the fact that you can walk behind the fall without getting wet. So here’s a photo from that angle.
The Hardangerfjord which is located east of Bergen, is 180 km long – making it the second largest fjord after the Sognefjord (more than 200 km). The shores alternate between mountains and more gently sloping districts where orchards thrive; the apples of Hardanger are famous in Norway.
The weather was a mixed affair that day, clouds and sunshine, a few raindrops, and an overall rather hazy atomsphere that veiled the more distant mountains, turning them into fairy tale shadows.
Next stop was Flåm in the Aurlandsfjord which is a branch of the Sognefjord. The tour included taking the Flåm Line to Myrdal and another train further to Voss, then changing into a bus that would take us up to Stahlheim and then along the Nærøyfjord (another branch of the Sognefjord) back to Flåm, going through several long tunnels on that last part.
The Flåmsbana is a 20 km long railway between Flåm at the fjord and Myrdal which is at 866 metres above sea level, so no wonder the gradient can be as steep as 5.5 percent. The railway connects the district of Sogn to the train line from Oslo to Bergen that stops at Myrdal. Construction started in 1924, but it took until 1940 for the railway to be operational. Not an easy terrain to build 20 tunnels and a bridge.
Even the Flåm line got a 'Japanese stop', at the Kjosfossen. Its fall is 225 metres, so it’s one of the more spectacular ones. The fall continues under the railway bridge to the other side and powers a small power station for the railway. Norway gets its electricity cheap due to the many waterfalls.
It was the only day with lots of rain, so the photos tended to turn out a bit darker and melencholic.
A stop during the bus part of the tour: Tvinde Waterfall. It is one of the prettiest falls due to its many strands and cascades. The waterfall ist 110 metres high (other sources say 152 metres). It is one of the falls that sometimes runs dry in summer, so we were lucky that it was displaying quite nicely.
Legends say that the waterfall can give you back youth and well ... potency. Obviously, people believe in that since there are some filling up bottles with water from the fall, we were told.
There has been a way from the eastern provinces around Oslo and Telemarken to the Vestlandet around the fjords since the Middle Ages. It led from Voss to Stahlheim and down to Gudvangen at the end of the Nærøyfjord, and from there to the Sognefjord and the open sea by boat. In 1647, it was elevated to Royal Postway between Oslo and Bergen; Stahlheim farm became a postal station and inn.
Since 1865, Gudvangen could be reached by steam ships, and horse carriages would bring people up to Stahlheim. It was the beginning of the tourism in the area. The German emperor Wilhlem II regularly spent some time there; he was a great Norway fan.
Stahlheim is situated 330 metres above sea leve, the Nærøy Valley about 100 metres. The Stahlheim brook passes the hotel and thunders down as 126 metres fall below (you can see the brook and the edge, and the river below, but not the fall itself).
I had loaned an umbrella to protect my camera, and went a bit wild about photographing those dramatic clouds, lol, while most of the others had a coffee at the hotel.
Flåm is a documented settlement since 1340, but the village became popular only with the builing of the Flåm railway which soon attracted tourists who got there by steamships. Nowadays, the number of cruise ships allowed in the harbour is limited per day, bringing the overall number down to 170 per annum (it was more than 300 at the peak).
St. Peter seems to have felt bad about that rainy day and brought the sun out for most of the rest of the voyage. So we got Ålesund in the sunshine and warm weather, and most of the Geiranger tour the next day as well.
The tour to the Dalsnibba Mountain and up the Eagle Road with its spectacular views was a hightlight of the cruise. Those winding roads are bad enough with a car, but the bus driver got us around safely albeit it looked dangerous at some points.
That is one of the few photos I took from the bus that turned out ok. Serpentine roads, a swaying bus, and reflections on the windows don’t make it easy. But we got several stops, so it was no problem to catch a lot of breathtaking views – life and on camera.
The road up to the Dalsnibba is called Nibbevegen. It starts at Djupvatnet (1035 metres above sea level) and leads to the summit of Dalsnibba at 1476 metres above sea level. This is the highest road in Norway; 5 km long, with a gradient of 10%.
The Dalsnibba offers a spectacular view to the Geirangerfjord which is 7 km away (though the distance by road is about 20 km). Due to its height the mountain is often covered by snow far into summer, and frequently wreathed in clouds. We were lucky since the clouds were only on one side, leaving the view to the fjord clear if somewhat hazy.
A skywalk with an iron grid floor and a glass guardrail has been built on the mountain some years ago, offering an even better view to the Blåbreen (also called Blåfjell) glacier and the Geiranger valley. A descent of 500 metres under my feet was not my favourite spot, but I did enter.
Just some picture spam.
This is the typical postcard motive, the view to the Geiranger Fjord from the parking lot at Flydalsjuvet. Everyone stops there for a photo and so did we.
The zigzag band at the lower right corner is the Eagle Bend road which leads to another famous viewpoint. I was on the smaller of the two ships.
The gorge itself looks quite spectacular as well, though I could not find any information about it; everything Google offers is about the viewpoint. But there is a – rather tricky – way down the cliff of the gorge to Geiranger.
Next was up the serpentine road called Eagle Bend to a viewpoint on the other side of the fjord. Another winding road with a gradient of 10% (bus driver in Norway looks like a fun job). The viewing platform is 620 metres above sea level. A bit crowded at times, but really worth it – and it wasn’t so bad when we got there.
The Geirangefjord, together with the Nærøyfjord – though the latter follows a different was to the sea via the Sognefjord – are part of the UNESCO world heritage. The Geirangerfjord is only 15 km long, but those 15 km are really spectacular since the fjord is so narrow, with steep mountain slopes on both sides.
And more picture spam.
The Seven Sisters is the most popular waterfall along the fjord, though at the time we got there some of the sisters were on holiday. At its heighday in spring, seven falls thunder down into the fjord close to each other.
The last day of the cruise the ship anchored in Stavanger with its charming old town. Walking those lanes, you won’t imagine that the city is the centre of the Norwegian oil industry, but when the ship approaches the city, you can see the modern harbour, oil platforms and such.
Well, I brought home some 1,500 photos of fjords and mountains, so there will be more pictures in the future.
¶ September 28, 2025 2 comments
10 Aug 2025
Spring Greens and Tulips – The Egeskov Castle Gardens
An overcast spring day in early May may not be the perfect time to visit a garden in cold and windy Denmark, but I nevertheless got a good amount of photos of fresh spring greens and lovely flowers, mostly tulips and rhododendron, when I visited Egeskov Castle and the large park. A lot of flowers like roses, dahlias, fuchsias and others, will only bloom later in summer. But there’s one advantage to visiting rather early in the year – less tourists who cluster around the flowerbeds
Spring highlight: The Tulip garden
I wrote a short version of the history of Egeskov Castle included in this blog post Egeskov Castle as we – mostly – can see today, was built in 1554 by the Danish nobleman Frands Mikkelsen Brockenhuus (1518-1569), military leader, diplomat, and member of the Royal Council, though an older building on the grounds is mentioned in 1405. Brockenhuus bought adjacent land and added the first park around the castle.
View from the English Garden to the castle
In 1656, Privy Councillor Otte Krag purchased Egeskov; his grandson Niels Krag the Younger (1699-1740) expandend on the formal gardens with their terraces, alleys, and geometrically shaped hedges. He also built the old labyrinth (which is now closed to the public because the roots of the old beech hedges have become too sensitive for a bunch of people trodding on the ground every day – only the gardening staff has access to the place now). Niels Krag also built the dam connecting the castle to the land (replacing the old drawbridge).
Formal hedges in the old park
Niels Krag died rather young, leaving behind a widow, Sophie, with no surviving children (unfortunately, I could not find any information about her). She sold the estate to the Bille-Brahe family in 1784. Their descendant Jessie married Julius Ahlefeldt-Laurvid (1875); the counts Ahlefeldt Laurvid-Bille still own the castle and park.
The Renaissance Garden
Jessie and Julius, together with the Danish landscape gardener H. A. Flindt, created the English Garden with its meadows, tree-and-hedges arrangements, and free standing trees, among them yews, plane trees, cypresses and others. The lawns are a popular picnic spot in summer. They also modernised many rooms in the castle.
The English Garden
The next couple to have an incfluence on the gardens were their grandson Gregers and his wife Nonni. They opened the gardens to the public in 1960 after major renovations. It was foremost Countess Nonni who felt responsible for the gardens, starting a tradition that is continued by the current countess (see below). Nonni brought in a French garden architect and – among others – re-designed the Renaissance garden at the castle.
Solitary tree in the English Garden
Their son Claus opened the castle itself to visitors. He decided to transform the part of the estate that was still used for agriculture into more gardens and tourist attractions – like the veteran and vintage car museums located in former barns – because the size of the estate no longer made farming with modern machines worthwile, but he wanted to keep the farm workers in employment.
View from the castle to the old farmhouse
Once, the treasure of a farmer had been the manure pile, usually located in the yard between the wings of the farm buildings (closer to the stables than the main house, but I suspect it still was the wrong sort of ‘fragrant’). The manure pile had vanished long ago – the house is used as estate office – but the Fragrance Garden was established only in 2002. Its layout with the woven wicker fences retains the traditional look of farm gardens (which were ususally located outside the farm yard, behind the main house), but the plants have been chosen primarily for their scents.
Fragrance Garden in the yard of the old farmhouse
The old farm buildings look much like the ones I’ve seen in the Funen Museum (photos in the link above).
Some of the flowerbeds hold scented geraniums, but also herbs for use in the kitchens (there is a restaurant on the grounds). Egeskov Gardens have 180-200 different herbs – though I suppose that includes the ones in the Herb Garden we will later visit on our virtual tour – besides the ones in this place. There is also blackthorn and bog myrte that are used as ingredients in a local schnapps.
One of the alleys in the park
The present owners of Egeskov Castle are Count Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille and his wife, Princess Alexandra zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (no, I didn’t make those names up; some noble families just keep collecting them). Count Michael and Princess Alexandra take a keen interest in the gardens, and especially Alexandra contributed to a number of new or enhanced features during the last years.
The lake
Head gardener in Egeskov since 1995 is Peter Bonde Poulsen. He and his team received the European Garden Award in 2012. Poulsen inherited his green thumbs from his father, who had been head gardener in Fredensborg Castle – he said he basically grew up in a large park.
Some of the hedges
The hedges are one of Egeskov’s signature features. They frame many of the various gardens in the park, overall stretching over 7 km, and are up to 8 metres high. Some are really old, dating to 1730, the time of the first labyrinth (the one that is now closed). They are mostly beech, privet, yew and other plants that grow into hedges.
Rhododendrons near the park entrance
After learning a bit about the history of the Egeskov Gardens, let’s have a closer look at more of their features not yet visited during the history lesson. Join me on a little virtual tour.
Rhododrendrons can be found in several spots in the park – including a special Rhododendron Garden (see below) – and many of those are in bloom in early May. Like this lovely riot of flowers near the entrance.
The Garden of Life
Some of the newer gardens follow philosophical concepts in the choice of plants, their colours, fragrances, times of the year when they are in flower etc. The Garden of Life, developed in 2015, is one of those. It stands for the passage of life and the rhythm of the seasons. I could detect some spring flowers like pale blue hyacinths, gold columbine and peonies, but else, it was mostly shades of green and reddish perennials that form a base for the flowers to come in summer.
Garden of Life, detail
The structure of the garden is formal, an outer circle, a middle circle divided into 8 'cake pieces' with wells in the centre of each of the sections, and an inner circle with a sun dial in its centre. The plants in that inner circle follow the sunlight during the day, from bright yellow to darker reds.
The Garden of Life replaces a yew labyrith developed by Piet Hein (the head gardener at the time of Count Claus in the 1970ies) which had to be taken down due to a yew disease.
The Rose garden
I next went to the castle – the main reason I visited Egeskov – and the gardens on the islet. One of those is the Rose Garden, established in 2004, which must look stunning in summer, with more than 100 different types of roses blooming. Most of those are English and local Danish rose variants. The design is based on a Maltese cross, the flower beds bordered by boxwood hedges. In early May, those hedges were the most visible part of the design.
Arched walkway in the Herb Garden
Back on the mainland, the next stop was the Herb Garden. It not only provides the castle with herbs, vegetables, and flowers for decoration; it is also designed as a beautiful place to spend recreational time in, with raised flowerbeds, arched walkways, pavillions, and a pond with goldfish. The design – albeit set up in the 1970ies – follows the old 17th century Renaissances kitchen gardens.
The plants for the herb garden are grown in Egeskov’s own greenhouses (many of the plants had not been put outside yet), and grown organically, without the use of pesticides.
The Dahlia Garden with its spring tulip planting
Framed by high hedges, the Dahlia Garden lies hidden and sheltered. But when I entered through the opening in the hedge, I was surprised to find an amazing array of tulips in every colour, and all in full bloom for a change. The dahlias were still snug in the warm greenhouses.
Violet tulips
There are 70 different variants of tulips, 10,000 plants overall. Since the fruit trees in this garden department are also in bloom, it is the prettiest spot in the Egeskov gardens in spring. Here’s some of the photos I took.
Orange-violet tulips
The garden was originally a fruit garden, protected by the high hedges which create a specific microclimate. The temperature is always a bit warmer – +2-3°C – than the more open park, thus dahlias thrive there. There are 140 variants, including giant dahlias with flowers of 30cm in diametre; they’re often called 'dinnerplate dahlias'. The dahlia tubers are dug up every autumn and stored in the greenhouse, then replanted at the end of May. The tulip bulbs are then taken out and given to owners of an annual card if they're interested in acquiring some pretty tulips.
Flamingo coloured tulips
Another summer garden, adjacent to the Dahlia Garden, is the Fuchsia Garden (minus the spring tulips, so there are no photos of that one). Egeskov has one of Europe’s largest collection of fuchsia with 800 different variants. Some of the plants are 50 or even 75 years old. Since fuchsia don’t tolerate frost, they – like the dahlias – have to be dug out in autumn, moved to the controlled conditions in the greenhouse, and replanted when there is no more danger of night frosts.
A pretty pink one
There are more gardens in the estate not pretty enough in early May to warrant photos. One of those is the Hop Garden. Hop gardens already were part of medieval herb and vegetable gardens, since beer was often safer to drink than water, and was locally brewed in monasteries (which always had a herb garden), on estates of the nobility, in towns and villages. Thus a hop garden has a long tradition in Egeskov.
White and violet tulips
The White Garden follows an old Renaissance pattern with symmetrical, boxwood framed flowerbeds, albeit dating to 2020. It is designed a midsummer garden with white and cream coloured flowers – another garden waiting for summer.
A hazel arch decorating a way in the park
A garden I admit to have missed since I didn’t follow the official route, but just went around in search for pretty motives, is the Perennial Garden hiding in a corner. The first perennial garden dates to the time of Countess Nonni (1967), but was dismantled in the 1980ies. Count Michael and Peter Bonde Poulsen restored the garden to the original plans in 1996.
Rhododendron Garden
On my way back to the entrance, I went through the Rhododendron Garden. It is one of the newest additions to Egeskov, designed by Princess Alexandra. The ground had been a woodland with shrubs and trees, some of which remain. It is a quiet and mostly shady corner with bright, colourful variants of rhododendron and azaleas blooming between the trees.
A red variant of azalea
The rhododendron and azaleas are interspersed with grasses, like this bright green Japanese mountain grass, presented in a rondell of local fieldstone.
Fieldstone wall rondell with Japanese grasses
Another quiet and shady place was the Water Garden. I liked the reflections of trees and water; they made for some nice photo motives. The water flows from the moat around the castle over a little waterfall and a canal to the river Hågerup Å. The Water Garden, also planted with rhododendrons and azaleas that prefer acidic soil, is another design by Princess Alexandra.
The Water Garden
In summer, dragonflies can be found in the water garden. Midges, too, I suspect, but the website doesn't mention those. *grin* But there are eels living in the water.
The red bridge across the pond was inspired by Monet's famous paintings of the bridge of Giverny.
Water Garden, the red bridge
So, that’s the photographic result of spending several hours in the Egeskov Gardens on a spring afternoon. Too bad it is a bit far from my hometown, or there would be a good reason to return in summer, tourists nonewithstanding. The roses, dahlias and fuchsias, among others, must look spectacular.
Water Garden, reflections
The information about the history of the castle and the various gardens was mostly obtained from the website of Egeskov Castle: Garden Guide.
Golden tulips
And because I got so many photos of those, here's another pretty tulip variant.
¶ August 10, 2025 4 comments
An overcast spring day in early May may not be the perfect time to visit a garden in cold and windy Denmark, but I nevertheless got a good amount of photos of fresh spring greens and lovely flowers, mostly tulips and rhododendron, when I visited Egeskov Castle and the large park. A lot of flowers like roses, dahlias, fuchsias and others, will only bloom later in summer. But there’s one advantage to visiting rather early in the year – less tourists who cluster around the flowerbeds
I wrote a short version of the history of Egeskov Castle included in this blog post Egeskov Castle as we – mostly – can see today, was built in 1554 by the Danish nobleman Frands Mikkelsen Brockenhuus (1518-1569), military leader, diplomat, and member of the Royal Council, though an older building on the grounds is mentioned in 1405. Brockenhuus bought adjacent land and added the first park around the castle.
In 1656, Privy Councillor Otte Krag purchased Egeskov; his grandson Niels Krag the Younger (1699-1740) expandend on the formal gardens with their terraces, alleys, and geometrically shaped hedges. He also built the old labyrinth (which is now closed to the public because the roots of the old beech hedges have become too sensitive for a bunch of people trodding on the ground every day – only the gardening staff has access to the place now). Niels Krag also built the dam connecting the castle to the land (replacing the old drawbridge).
Niels Krag died rather young, leaving behind a widow, Sophie, with no surviving children (unfortunately, I could not find any information about her). She sold the estate to the Bille-Brahe family in 1784. Their descendant Jessie married Julius Ahlefeldt-Laurvid (1875); the counts Ahlefeldt Laurvid-Bille still own the castle and park.
Jessie and Julius, together with the Danish landscape gardener H. A. Flindt, created the English Garden with its meadows, tree-and-hedges arrangements, and free standing trees, among them yews, plane trees, cypresses and others. The lawns are a popular picnic spot in summer. They also modernised many rooms in the castle.
The next couple to have an incfluence on the gardens were their grandson Gregers and his wife Nonni. They opened the gardens to the public in 1960 after major renovations. It was foremost Countess Nonni who felt responsible for the gardens, starting a tradition that is continued by the current countess (see below). Nonni brought in a French garden architect and – among others – re-designed the Renaissance garden at the castle.
Their son Claus opened the castle itself to visitors. He decided to transform the part of the estate that was still used for agriculture into more gardens and tourist attractions – like the veteran and vintage car museums located in former barns – because the size of the estate no longer made farming with modern machines worthwile, but he wanted to keep the farm workers in employment.
Once, the treasure of a farmer had been the manure pile, usually located in the yard between the wings of the farm buildings (closer to the stables than the main house, but I suspect it still was the wrong sort of ‘fragrant’). The manure pile had vanished long ago – the house is used as estate office – but the Fragrance Garden was established only in 2002. Its layout with the woven wicker fences retains the traditional look of farm gardens (which were ususally located outside the farm yard, behind the main house), but the plants have been chosen primarily for their scents.
The old farm buildings look much like the ones I’ve seen in the Funen Museum (photos in the link above).
Some of the flowerbeds hold scented geraniums, but also herbs for use in the kitchens (there is a restaurant on the grounds). Egeskov Gardens have 180-200 different herbs – though I suppose that includes the ones in the Herb Garden we will later visit on our virtual tour – besides the ones in this place. There is also blackthorn and bog myrte that are used as ingredients in a local schnapps.
The present owners of Egeskov Castle are Count Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille and his wife, Princess Alexandra zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (no, I didn’t make those names up; some noble families just keep collecting them). Count Michael and Princess Alexandra take a keen interest in the gardens, and especially Alexandra contributed to a number of new or enhanced features during the last years.
Head gardener in Egeskov since 1995 is Peter Bonde Poulsen. He and his team received the European Garden Award in 2012. Poulsen inherited his green thumbs from his father, who had been head gardener in Fredensborg Castle – he said he basically grew up in a large park.
The hedges are one of Egeskov’s signature features. They frame many of the various gardens in the park, overall stretching over 7 km, and are up to 8 metres high. Some are really old, dating to 1730, the time of the first labyrinth (the one that is now closed). They are mostly beech, privet, yew and other plants that grow into hedges.
After learning a bit about the history of the Egeskov Gardens, let’s have a closer look at more of their features not yet visited during the history lesson. Join me on a little virtual tour.
Rhododrendrons can be found in several spots in the park – including a special Rhododendron Garden (see below) – and many of those are in bloom in early May. Like this lovely riot of flowers near the entrance.
Some of the newer gardens follow philosophical concepts in the choice of plants, their colours, fragrances, times of the year when they are in flower etc. The Garden of Life, developed in 2015, is one of those. It stands for the passage of life and the rhythm of the seasons. I could detect some spring flowers like pale blue hyacinths, gold columbine and peonies, but else, it was mostly shades of green and reddish perennials that form a base for the flowers to come in summer.
The structure of the garden is formal, an outer circle, a middle circle divided into 8 'cake pieces' with wells in the centre of each of the sections, and an inner circle with a sun dial in its centre. The plants in that inner circle follow the sunlight during the day, from bright yellow to darker reds.
The Garden of Life replaces a yew labyrith developed by Piet Hein (the head gardener at the time of Count Claus in the 1970ies) which had to be taken down due to a yew disease.
I next went to the castle – the main reason I visited Egeskov – and the gardens on the islet. One of those is the Rose Garden, established in 2004, which must look stunning in summer, with more than 100 different types of roses blooming. Most of those are English and local Danish rose variants. The design is based on a Maltese cross, the flower beds bordered by boxwood hedges. In early May, those hedges were the most visible part of the design.
Back on the mainland, the next stop was the Herb Garden. It not only provides the castle with herbs, vegetables, and flowers for decoration; it is also designed as a beautiful place to spend recreational time in, with raised flowerbeds, arched walkways, pavillions, and a pond with goldfish. The design – albeit set up in the 1970ies – follows the old 17th century Renaissances kitchen gardens.
The plants for the herb garden are grown in Egeskov’s own greenhouses (many of the plants had not been put outside yet), and grown organically, without the use of pesticides.
Framed by high hedges, the Dahlia Garden lies hidden and sheltered. But when I entered through the opening in the hedge, I was surprised to find an amazing array of tulips in every colour, and all in full bloom for a change. The dahlias were still snug in the warm greenhouses.
There are 70 different variants of tulips, 10,000 plants overall. Since the fruit trees in this garden department are also in bloom, it is the prettiest spot in the Egeskov gardens in spring. Here’s some of the photos I took.
The garden was originally a fruit garden, protected by the high hedges which create a specific microclimate. The temperature is always a bit warmer – +2-3°C – than the more open park, thus dahlias thrive there. There are 140 variants, including giant dahlias with flowers of 30cm in diametre; they’re often called 'dinnerplate dahlias'. The dahlia tubers are dug up every autumn and stored in the greenhouse, then replanted at the end of May. The tulip bulbs are then taken out and given to owners of an annual card if they're interested in acquiring some pretty tulips.
Another summer garden, adjacent to the Dahlia Garden, is the Fuchsia Garden (minus the spring tulips, so there are no photos of that one). Egeskov has one of Europe’s largest collection of fuchsia with 800 different variants. Some of the plants are 50 or even 75 years old. Since fuchsia don’t tolerate frost, they – like the dahlias – have to be dug out in autumn, moved to the controlled conditions in the greenhouse, and replanted when there is no more danger of night frosts.
There are more gardens in the estate not pretty enough in early May to warrant photos. One of those is the Hop Garden. Hop gardens already were part of medieval herb and vegetable gardens, since beer was often safer to drink than water, and was locally brewed in monasteries (which always had a herb garden), on estates of the nobility, in towns and villages. Thus a hop garden has a long tradition in Egeskov.
The White Garden follows an old Renaissance pattern with symmetrical, boxwood framed flowerbeds, albeit dating to 2020. It is designed a midsummer garden with white and cream coloured flowers – another garden waiting for summer.
A garden I admit to have missed since I didn’t follow the official route, but just went around in search for pretty motives, is the Perennial Garden hiding in a corner. The first perennial garden dates to the time of Countess Nonni (1967), but was dismantled in the 1980ies. Count Michael and Peter Bonde Poulsen restored the garden to the original plans in 1996.
On my way back to the entrance, I went through the Rhododendron Garden. It is one of the newest additions to Egeskov, designed by Princess Alexandra. The ground had been a woodland with shrubs and trees, some of which remain. It is a quiet and mostly shady corner with bright, colourful variants of rhododendron and azaleas blooming between the trees.
The rhododendron and azaleas are interspersed with grasses, like this bright green Japanese mountain grass, presented in a rondell of local fieldstone.
Another quiet and shady place was the Water Garden. I liked the reflections of trees and water; they made for some nice photo motives. The water flows from the moat around the castle over a little waterfall and a canal to the river Hågerup Å. The Water Garden, also planted with rhododendrons and azaleas that prefer acidic soil, is another design by Princess Alexandra.
In summer, dragonflies can be found in the water garden. Midges, too, I suspect, but the website doesn't mention those. *grin* But there are eels living in the water.
The red bridge across the pond was inspired by Monet's famous paintings of the bridge of Giverny.
So, that’s the photographic result of spending several hours in the Egeskov Gardens on a spring afternoon. Too bad it is a bit far from my hometown, or there would be a good reason to return in summer, tourists nonewithstanding. The roses, dahlias and fuchsias, among others, must look spectacular.
The information about the history of the castle and the various gardens was mostly obtained from the website of Egeskov Castle: Garden Guide.
And because I got so many photos of those, here's another pretty tulip variant.
¶ August 10, 2025 4 comments
