How many places can you go to that offers so much ?. Egeskov Slot offered us plenty of parking and even an overnight spot if we wanted it . A museum of man and mechanics , classic cars, motorbikes and aeroplanes and a grocers museum . Although we never found the grocers museum . It also offered a Rescue museum and an outdoor camping exhibition . And if that was not enough an old smithy , playgrounds for the kids, a maze , Titanias Palace , coffee to go , a dahlia garden a water garden and the list just went on and on.
The gardens of the castle were all just like small rooms that led one to the next one . They were formal to a certain extent but overall looked very English in design . A sort of Gertrude Jekyll meets Sarah Raven or Monty Don. It was impossible to get to the slot unless you weaved your way from room to room in the garden . Each area had a name which reflected the planting.
here all vying with other for attention and space . Apple trees grew in the middle of beds of Summer and Autumn bedding . Everything ran riot . From the perennual sweet peas that clung to everything to the bee loving plants . It was a gardeners dream walking amongst the plants , checking what they were to the water feature in the middle . In fact there was a water feature around every corner.
The neat gravel paths led us to the Dahlia garden which was full of the late flowering species. Reds, whites, yellows , small varieties and large blousy ones . The garden originally had been designed by Niels Krag theYounger between the years 1722 and 1740 and the layout took its shape and inspiration from gardens at Versailles. The high hedges were planted to protect it seems each small garden room . I must admit I am not a dahlia lover but they do look nice in a garden and make a very charming flower display once you get rid of the earwigs .
We had a Baroness garden but I cannot remember much about that as I stopped looking at names and just concentrated on the plantings . A spring garden, a summer border garden , the Autumn garden full of Autumn crocus . Huge patches of purple flowers covering every inch of the ground . I thought I must buy some bulbs to plant in our garden as they are so pretty at a time when other flowers have gone over .
Roses still were in full bloom and the scent stunning as it permeated the garden . Round each corner something different . The Winter Garden with its winter foliage just starting to appear. A Renaissance garden and an old maze or labyrinth . This was planted in 1730 but was closed to the public .
The gardens had won many awards and it was easy to see why. We walked next into the aptly named Rest garden and onto the area where Peter Heins Super Ellipse sculpture rose above the trees.
English garden . So far I had to say this was probably the best garden we had seen in Denmark as it rambled on around another corner to the Hop Garden and onto the Scent Garden .
As always there was a water garden and a moat full of water lilies around the stunning castle . Think about a Burgess castle in Wales perhaps Castell Coch or his fairytale castle within Cardiff Castle and you get the idea of what this stunning building looked like . Our final walk in the garden took us through the White Garden with its shades of Sissinghurst , the Garden of Life and the Sun garden .
With the sun out the garden was a delight to wander round . Each corner brought one surprise after the next . From the garden rooms full of colour to the restful subdued pinks and lemons of the petunias planted in the pretty planters on every possible space . They were probably one of my favourites . The rest of the castle visit was going to be just as interesting but in a different way and most unexpected .
