Louisiana and Helsingør

As Saturday looked like being dry for most of the day, we decided to head north out of Copenhagen to the Louisiana museum of modern art, which meant going one stop on the S-tog to Hellerup and then taking the regional train along the Øresund, also known as the Danish Riviera. After some dithering at the ticket machine, we decided the best value would be three 24-hour tickets at 130kr each (around £14).

Travel here is not as cheap as Germany, where a slightly shorter journey such as Peenemünde to Lübeck costs less than €4 return. But then, Denmark is generally more expensive for most things - eating out, eating in, travel and of course drinking.

Louisiana was originally a 19th-century seaside villa, with wonderful gardens going downhill to the beach, and now extended with stunning modern galleries. Much of the sculpture is outside, backed by fantastic views across the Øresund to Sweden. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and big fluffy clouds, and the ever-changing light was so gorgeous we spent the first couple of hours outside, exploring the grounds and enjoying delicious Danish coffee and rolls outside the cafe with views of three works by Alexander Calder.

The interior was also fascinating, although Camilla is less keen on Giacometti than Sam is, and the summer exhibitions included some striking architectural concept stuff and a wonderful collection of the works David Hockney has been creating on iPhone and iPad.

In the end there was so much to see that we all felt a bit overwhelmed, and in Camilla's case convinced that she'd missed out on Important Stuff. Ben managed to lose our locker key, possibly while rolling down a hill :-) but we resolved that quite easily despite his worries, and no-one stole our backpacks. And we participated fully in the retail experience by buying a collapsible Swedish designer fly swat for Camilla's office.

We thought we'd make the most of our 24-hour tickets with a quick trip to Helsingør, or Elsinore as Hamlet called it. It turned out Helsingør was being shut down for the round-Denmark cycle race, but we managed to get some ice-creams with home-made cornets, a view of the castle, a walk around the town and a shared plate of chips in a nice pizzeria before getting the train back.

Our berth is still marked as green and the promised evening rain hasn't developed beyond a few minutes of warm drizzle, so we are able to enjoy the distant sounds of live jazz from the harbour cafe, and relax. Tomorrow we plan a morning on board and more museums in the afternoon, with a farewell (for Ben) meal out in the evening.