We are on a motorhome trip around northern and eastern Europe for 6 months, and after seeing some wonderful sights in northern Germany, we crossed over the border from Germany into Denmark. Then we picked up some tourist information and Danish Krone (1 Krone only buys 0.22 cents NZD), and drove to the quaint town of Tinglev to see its 12th century church.
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| The 12th century church at Tinglev, Denmark |
Tinglev is a small historic town of around 2000 people, and its crowning glory is its white church which dates back to 1157. We had a look around the church, and everything inside it is also painted white, including the wooden ceiling. We found it very picturesque.
Leaving the church, we headed west. As we were driving, we noticed how flat the landscape was and how green, with lots of cows and sheep. In fact, we hadn’t seen so many cows and sheep since leaving New Zealand (NZ).
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| The Sort Sol over the marshes of the Waddon Sea, Denmark |
As we reached the town of Tønder, we saw a most amazing sight. It looked like a black cloud that kept moving and constantly changing shape at a speed faster than you could blink! It turned out to be a huge number of starlings flying over the marshes of the Wadden Sea.
We learned later that it is called the ‘Sort Sol’ (Black Sun), and that they were working together, foraging for spiders and insects in the wet meadows and marshes.
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| Marg in the main street of Ribe, Denmark |
By this time, it was quite late in the day so we drove on to find a camping ground for the night. We arrived in the village of Ribe on Denmark’s west coast near the Wadden Sea, and soon found a campsite and settled in.
The next morning, we set out to explore Ribe. The town dates back to the 8th century and is the oldest in Denmark. We had a lovely wander around, and came across the imposing 12th century Ribe Cathedral. The Cathedral bells play a folk song about Danish Queen Dagmar, and we heard it at midday and found it beautiful.
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| Lunch riverside in Ribe, Denmark |
The Ribe River flows through town, and after a morning of sightseeing, we found a quaint restaurant right on the riverside for lunch. It overlooked fishing boats and old houses on the opposite shore. Our meal was traditional food for the area which included local seafood (including shrimp, which are called prawns here).
While there, we got chatting to two Danish sisters who used to live in Ribe. They were fascinated to hear that we came from Wellington NZ, as one of them had hosted an exchange student from Wellington and had heard all about our city.
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| Ribe, Denmark |
After lunch, we wandered around town again. Ribe is full of cobbled streets and beautifully restored ancient buildings. We visited the town square, the Town Hall, old fishermen’s houses, guildhalls, and merchants’ houses. We also visited St Catharine’s Church and Abbey founded in 1228.
We saw several interesting monuments as we walked around, including a 13th century statue of Queen Dagmar, and an historic waterwheel that was once used to grind grain, and is used today to generate electricity.
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| Leigh on a dyke of the Wadden Sea (UNESCO), Denmark |
The next day we drove to the nearby Wadden Sea Centre which has a fascinating collection of stories and artefacts about the Wadden Sea area. The Wadden marshes are a Danish National Park, one of the world’s 10 most important wetlands, the largest tidal flats system in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It is a very low-lying marshy area protected from the sea by dykes. We watched a film that showed some of the vast floods that have come from violent storms and unusually high tides on the Wadden. There is a huge amount of bird and sea life there, and we felt it was quite a special place.
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| Leigh and Marg in the old town of Odense, Denmark |
Leaving Ribe, we drove east to Funen Island, one of 406 islands in Denmark. On Funen, we headed to Odense, founded from a Viking fortress built by King Harald Bluetooth in the 980’s. Odense is now Denmark’s third largest city but it has a gorgeous old quarter with beautifully restored houses.
We noticed that the houses had their treasures, such as beautiful jugs, crystal ware, etc displayed in their street-side windows. We thought this was a lovely custom. The area also has lovely historic shops and pubs, and a really vibrant feel to it.
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| Leigh at Hans Christian Anderson’s house, Odense, Denmark |
Odense is the birthplace of fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Anderson so we visited his house, which was very small and quaint. We found many references to him about the town, as well as a huge number of monuments and statues that have been inspired by his fairy tale characters.
We found several bicycle paths throughout the city and learned that Odense is Denmark’s number 1 bicycle town, and you can cycle through greater Odense without meeting any cars. At the end of the day the weather was deteriorating, so we headed to the local Odense camping ground for the night.
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| Crossing Great Belt Bridge to Zealand Island, Denmark |
The next day we drove to Zealand, Denmark’s largest island. To get there, we had to cross the Great Belt Bridge. The Bridge was an amazing sight with the mist curling around the high pylons, and the road arching away ahead of us. The painful bit was paying a large toll, but we decided it was worth it.
Leaving the bridge, we drove to Slagelse, found a motorhome-sized parking place, and had a walk around and lunch. Our meal was a traditional open-faced sandwich which is the national dish of Denmark. It consisted of tasty meats, cheeses and other bits on top of lovely rye bread – very yummy!
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| Marg in Slagelse, Denmark |
Slagelse is one of Denmark's oldest towns, founded in the Viking Age as a Pagan site. These days, it’s a modern ‘royal borough’ with shopping centres, squares, lovely streets and cafés. We walked around admiring its many red-brick Gothic-style buildings and its lovely town square.
Moving on, we stopped at the small 12th century town called Sorø, where we saw quite a few lovely buildings, mostly red brick and very solid looking. Then we drove on to Køge. Founded in the 13th century, Køge is quaint with cobble-stone streets and attractive and colourful buildings.
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| Marg on the Baltic Sea beach in Køge, Denmark |
After visiting the Køge township, we drove to its beach which is on the Baltic Sea. We have now driven quite a way around the Baltic Sea, from its eastern shores in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and also in Poland.
Now, we’ve reached its western shores, which were every bit as lovely as what we’d seen on the eastern side. Our main destination on this side of the Baltic was Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark and its largest city.
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| Post Office building, Copenhagen, Denmark |
We arrived in Copenhagen early in the afternoon and decided to do a drive-through to get a feel for the place, before finding a campsite. The city is full of grand Gothic, Romanesque, and Baroque buildings, with plenty of gardens, and a nice vibrancy. We were looking forward to seeing it on foot.
We found a campsite in the western suburbs of the city and settled in for a week. Leigh has had a chest infection for some time and was still unwell, so we rested for a few days. Then we braved the wet weather and caught a very efficient metro into Copenhagen city.
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| Marg at the Circus Building, Copenhagen |
Getting off the metro, put us in the centre of the city. The weather fined up and so we walked everywhere, and for ages. One of our first stops was the round and interesting-looking Circus Building. It dates back to 1886 and is the oldest of its kind in Europe. It last held a circus in 1990.
We then found City Hall Square, surrounded by impressive red-brick buildings, including the huge City Hall. Our next stop was the Grand Theatre, one of the oldest cinemas in the city, then the huge 15th century university, followed by the cathedral which has a striking interior.
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| View from the Rundetaarn tower, Copenhagen, Denmark |
Nearby we found the Round Tower (Rundetaarn). We walked to the top via its spiral walkway for great views of the city. After that, we walked to the lovely King’s Gardens and the Renaissance Rosenborg Castle which houses the crown jewels.
Next, we cut across town to the Marble Church which has an impressive dome and is a small version of St Peters Church in Rome. Then we viewed the nearby Amelieborg Palace from the outside. This is the home of the Queen Margrethe II and the Royal Family of Denmark, and it has guards marching around it.
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| Marg at Nyhavn Canal, Copenhagen, Denmark |
Toward the end of the day, we found ourselves walking along Nyhavn Canal, which is packed with cafes, restaurants, and bars, and beautifully coloured and maintained old houses. It was fabulously vibrant and absolutely full of people having a good time. We were lucky enough to be there to see the old draw bridge open for a yacht to pass through.
More walking took us to Gammel Strand with its colourful waterside townhouses, and more amazing architecture. After that, and feeling quite tired, we headed back to the metro and back to camp. Leigh managed to survive the day despite still recovering from her chest infection.
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| Marg with the Little Mermaid Statue, Copenhagen |
The next day after the weather fined up, we headed to the far end of the city to view the Little Mermaid, a bronze statue depicting a mermaid becoming human that is based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the same name. We have a similar statue in NZ called Pania on the Reef.
We also visited the nearby Copenhagen Citadel built in 1626. After that, we popped into the Design Museum which has some wonderful displays, then admired the stunning architecture of the 17th century Børsen Stock Exchange. Next, we went to the Christiansborg Palace, then wandered along Strøget, the main shopping street.
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| Leigh at the famous Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark |
We saw a lot more, but our final stop was at Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest theme parks in the world dating back to 1843. It has a wooden roller coaster ride called the Rutschebanen that was built in 1911 and is still operating - but we didn’t go on it!
Very tired by now, and with the weather beginning to deteriorate again, we caught the metro back to camp. We’d seen a huge range of sights, and felt that it was time to move on. Our next stop is in Sweden, and you can read about that in the next blog.
This blog describes part of our 6-month motorhome trip around north-eastern Europe, which began in Prague.