Day 17 – The Bruun de Neergaard Estate

Skjoldenæsholm to Ringsted, 17km

The hotel at Skjoldenæsholm was an experience. It was a 16th century royal estate which was eventually acquired by the Bruun de Neergaard family in 1794. The estate prospered, the peasants were educated and more land was purchased. Yesterday, when I arrived dripping wet, Dorothea Bruun de Neergaard, part of the 9th generation of the family, welcomed me at the front door. I thought I’d got the wrong address. The ground floor of this enormous mansion comprised room after room tastefully furnished with original 18th century tapestries, paintings and furniture. Family photographs and albums were everywhere. I said it looks like a National Trust house where all the furniture is taped off and “Do not touch” notices proliferate. Dorothea Bruun de Neergaard laughed and told me that they keep everything as it always has been and to make myself at home.

After my shower I changed into my other pair of walking trousers and came downstairs. Her ladyship brought me a pot of tea and some Danish apple pie. I thought I’d better admire the tapestries. She said they were seized by the state as payment following the 1920 Land Reforms but Queen Ingrid returned them in person in 1982. Today she and her husband run the hotel with their four children.

I was naturally sad to leave, this morning. There was no rain but everything was wet. On offer today was forest, barley, poppies, lots of grass and marsh. I arrived at the miserable Scandic hotel in Ringsted (which cost a lot more than last night) at 12:30 and was bluntly told that check in started at 4pm unless I was prepared to slip them 200DKK for an early check in. I can’t wait for the inevitable email with the survey. So I had three and a half hours to explore the church and a nearby bar.

It’s worth mentioning that I’m approximately in the middle of Zealand, Denmark’s largest and most populous island with 2.4m people. That includes Copenhagen, Roskilde and Næstved so there’s not many people left for anywhere else. No one knows why it’s called Zealand but it’s nothing to do with the Dutch Zeeland nor the New Zealand.

After Zealand, I will cross two more islands before I leave Denmark. Is anyone clever enough to name them? (clue: neither of them is Greenland). In fact, I’ll accept any two Danish islands.