Saturday, August 29, 2009

Northern Jutland Trip

One of the coolest trips BY FAR I have taken was with my friend Anne. She is from a town about an hour and a half north of Aarhus called Aars. We went home to her parents house for the weekend. We had traditional Danish food every day, and would borrow their car for the day and travel around Northern Denmark (Jutland, the main piece of land).

Anne did a FANTASTIC job of planning the trip. Everything she chose to show me, I thought was the coolest thing ever, and would never have suspected to find these things in Denmark. We went to Aars and drove around. I saw her hometown and where she grew up, where she went to school, played tennis, etc. We drove up the Northwestern border of Jutland. We went to Blokhus, Løkken, Aalborg, Frederikshavn, Skagen and more!

Another interesting aspect of the trip was the car. Anne's parents have an Audi SUV, which you do NOT see in Denmark that often. It is a very nice car - the camping edition (think Ford Explorer Sport). The car is probably about $60-70k in the US. Because of the taxes and fees on cars in Denmark, the car was worth the equivalent of $100k USD!!! I could not believe that there were that many taxes! Yikes, no wonder why they all ride bikes!


Lincoln left me in the morning, and went and slept with Anne...traitor!

Jerry's is an American grill in Frederikshavn. It is owned by her cousin and her cousin's husband (who is an American). It was pretty cool to have dinner there


Den Tilsandede Kirk used to be the largest Danish church in medieval times but it had to be closed in 1795 because the dunes had reached the entrance-gates of that church and blocked it. The sand drift started around 1600 and reached the church at the end of the 18th century. The congregation had to dig their way into the church when they wanted to attend the services. The struggle against the sand continued until 1795 when the church was closed by royal decree. Today, only the tower is visible. The direct translation of this building is 'The Sanded Up Church.' It is a church near Skagen from the 14th century that over time, has been covered by sand, so now all that is visible is essentially the tower part of the church


WWII bunkers in Skagen - again, cool to actually see evidence of the war


Another bunker



Anne and I in Skagen

Skagen is the northernmost tip of Denmark. It is where the two seas meet (you can see the waves crashing against each other). The current is so strong here. This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life.

Where the seas meet


Beach up to the northernmost tip (look to the right)

A bunker in the water



The palm beach in Frederikshavn

You could see the island in the horizon




The windmills - still, a very weird sight to me



This was in Løkken and was again, one of the craziest things I have seen in Denmark!


The view on top of the sand dune

A lighthouse in the midst of the sand dune



Love this pic



Cool how the sand just stops and drops off to greenery

It was sooo windy!









Little houses on the beach in Blokhus

In the car driving on the sand






In Aalborg, the 3rd largest city in Denmark

There is a main street of bars, and AT LEAST every other bar had something to do with America!


Anne's neighbor had a dog like Lincoln

The view in Aars



The walk of fame in Aars - this person is related to Anne





Lincoln on her first train ride


Where the seas met in Skagen