My own country was founded on the desire to separate from monarchs and royalty at all costs. Yet the feeling of passing a smørrebrød restaurant to be not-too-gently surprised by Frederiksborg Castle rising in the distance is awe-inspiring.

It’s not quite an illogical leap for me to imagine how a Dane could feel incredibly proud of this architectural feat, overlooking its incredible cost. Doesn’t get much worse up close, either.

Just another vacation home for the King or Queen, about 40 minutes north of the main palace in Copenhagen. Now it serves as an extensive gallery of multiple centuries of art depicting Danish royalty. And look, Denmark’s most famous king, Christian IV, decided to make an appearance!

My goal is to be able to recognize a dozen or so Danish monarchs just from their image. Certainly won’t be forgetting that ghostly white visage any time soon.

Following up on last week’s post about Islam and Danish xenophobia, I came across some interesting photos in an art gallery this week. At first I thought it was some sort of ill-fated attempt at capturing the strangeness and brutality of war, but it was actually something quite a bit more bizarre. The pictures were taken at a Danish military training facility, which is a small town that is constantly reworked to look like whatever enemy the Danes may be fighting at the moment. It is the last step in military training before actual combat, and is supposed to provide an immersion-like experience. The photos showed ruins of buildings, livestock scattered around dirt roads, and Danish men and women wearing fake black beards. Pretty interesting, and I wonder what we do in the US to immerse our soldiers in a new environment.

Wacky. Here’s the sculpture o the week: