THE ROSKILDE FESTIVAL Neither the hostel nor campsite are worth bothering with if you're going to the Roskilde Festival, which has grown from humble beginnings to attract around 50,0{X) people annually to its weekend of live rock. The festival takes place over the last weekend in June and there's a special free camping ground beside the festival site, to which shuttle buses run from the frain station every ten minutes. Tens ot thousands of tickets are sold in advance but the organisers claim never to turn anybody away who arrives without one. ROSKILDE AND A R 0 U N D I9Z gating isn't a problem in Roskilde, with plenty of mainstream restaurants . g skomagergade. Other options include Mulle & Ruoi, off Djalma Lunds Jird with good snacks and espresso coffee; and, next door to Hotel Prindsen r ddress above), Cafe Sachmo, which provides decent salads and sandwiches d backgammon tables. Iear Roskilde: the Lejre HistoricalArchaeological Centre Iron Age Denmark is alive and well and reenacted at the Lejre HistoficalArchaeologieal Centre, 12km west of Roskilde, by the volunteer niilies who spend the summer living in a reconstructed Iron Age settlement, inning and carrying out domestic chores using implements and wearing clothes copied from those of the period. Modernday visitors are welcome (MaySept daily 10am5pm; 40kr), and can try their hand at nding com, paddling a dugout canoe and cooking rough pancakes. The scientific purpose is to gain understanding of family life in Denmark 2500 years ago, but the centre can be a lot of fun to visit as a day trip. Local trains from Roskilde stop at the village of Lejre; from the station, bus #233 covers the 4km to the historical cenfre's enfrance. Around West Zealand Beyond Roskilde, west Zealand is flat and bland. You might, however, be journeying through to KALUNDBORG to pick up ferries to Arhus in Jutland or to the island of Samse; and you can also take ferries from KORS0R, the other main town of the western coast, to the island of Langeland or Nyborg, on Funen. Apart from these, the only real interest lies in the Homsherred Peninsula, which divides the Roskilde flord and Iseflord. There are long, quiet beaches along the peninsula's western coast, though the lack of a railway and a skeletal local bus service means it's a place best toured by bike. Make for the medieval frescoes in the eleventhcenfairy churches at SKIBBY or DRABY, or keep on northward for JGERSPRIS and its castle (MaySept daily lOamnoon & l5pm; 15kr). built during the fifteenth century as a royal hunting seat and last used by the eccentric Frederik VII, who lived here during the mid1800s with his third wife. She inherited the castie after the king's death and turned it into an institution for "poor and unfortunate girls". Southjrompenhagen: Kage and around so long ago, K0GE was best known for the pollution caused by the rubber beach' chemical works on its outskirts. Despite tiie town's fine sandy the ri ь bere to sample the waters of Kage Bay.