Visiting M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark

It's easy to forget that your own country might hold interesting museums to visit, or at least it is for me as I've never had a natural interest in running around and looking through dusty display glass to view something that didn't interest me.


That being said, I've gained a much bigger appreciation for museums over the last few years, partly because I've finally grasped just how every event marks our history and how we act afterwards and partly because museums have become a lot more interactive and "fun" lately.

With my brother, mother and I all on summer holiday, we embarked on a brief journey to Helsingør. My mother had been taught bow shooting around the area of Kronborg shortly before and consequently wanted to properly visit the nearby Maritime Museum, which was quite ingeniously placed in the old dry dock where they used to build navy ships.

The first thing we observed was something Mum had been very keen on showing us. It was the statue of "Han", which just translate to "Him"; a silvery figure inspired by our little mermaid statue, though he's not a merman, he's human. Apparently, he's capable of blinking if you look at him long enough, eyelids are visible on the statute, but we had no such luck while when we saw him.

He's not quite Den Lille Havfrue but he looked pretty cool. So did the scenery over all to be honest. The docks, the houses, Kronborg. Everything had a nice feel about it, even just driving through the city to get to the museum. Fun fact I learned while here, it was actually a city my parents spent a lot of time in when they first met as young 18 and 19 year olds because they attended a school nearby. I never really asked exactly where the school was located to be honest.

We had lunch in the cafeteria first, which was basically just attached to the old shipyard as it's protected property. It was nice, quite busy with tourists even at noon on a Tuesday and the food was good.

Walking down a slope steadily descending in the actual huge dry dock was an experience in itself. We got in, my brother for free because he's under eighteen and I got a student discount. In total, we paid 200 DKK. Before we had even walked entirely thought the gift shop a nice older man asked if we'd been here before. He then proceeded to talk us through all the different nine areas of the museum.

It was fun to get glimpse of how it had been to be a Danish sailor and learn about our country's naval history. I was slightly more interested to the activities though. In one of the area  there was three "tattoo chairs" where you could tattoo yourself or your friends. You could pick an image on a screen and have it projected on your arm and then draw it. Of course, it was only with a coloured pen but it was quite fun though none of us were very good at it. I did the best of the three of us. My attempt at a shallow can be seen below.

While the models of the ships and shipyards as shown above were really cool, I got even more excited when we stumbled upon another activity. Placing a special book on different slots in a small area, you were sailing around the world making deals and trades. Underway, you'd have to buy and sell goods and face casualties while in port or sailing across. We only played for about ten minutes and then went back to finish but there we could have bought a second ship and thus have space for a more cargo. So I'm not sure how long exactly you can play. We did get third place of the day though.

I was gernerally taken aback by the beauty of the whole museum. I've already gushed about my fancy for the activities and the models but also the quotes scattered across the walls or the many interactive screens just made it so intriguing. Below is my final collection of snaps I took throughout the museum.

When being so close to Kronborg, we couldn't not take a closer look. Besides, we had found somewhere to park for free for three hours thanks to Mum and our time wasn't quite up yet. Is it embarrassing to say I've never seen Kronborg in person before?

We also noticed posters for a performance of Hamlet, which we might go back for at some point. It would be quite cool to see the tragic story of a Danish prince performed in an actual Danish castle. On our way back to the car, we also walked through the old shipyards, though we did it rather sneakily and I'm not sure you're actually supposed to walk though the whole thing. The shipyard closed in 1983 and was subject to decay for some time following that. It's so nice to see it have new life now.

One final thing, Mum wanted to show us wasn't related to the shipyard directly. A thing that Helsingør apparently is quite famous for is the display of images on the side of buildings. As I said it's not directly related to the shipyard but the two images we saw were ship-related.

It was a very fun day out with my family and I'm so happy Mum decided we needed to do that. It's rare for us to go out and do something like that. Or at least it's rare for me coming along. My mother and brother are both quite the "museum geeks" and both loves learning about history. Maybe, it's good I've slowly taken a liking, or at the very least an appreciation for it lately.