A little quieter day today. Dave has a gig playing luncheon music with a pianist for a 75th birthday being held at a nearby historic manor house, Gammel Estrup. The main house, castle really, comes complete with moat, and gardens and out-buildings, all brick. The stables/mews alone stretch more than 100 meters. For centuries, it belonged to a family of gentry who owned seven other similar manor house operations. No longer owned privately, it was restored and furnished and opened as a museum. While Dave played, we explored the castle. It looked like a great place to live (if you were hoi poloi) on a day like today, but I wouldn’t want to be there on a cold wintery day. Portraits showed some strange looking faces in the family; sort of like dressed up Ozark inbred folks. Highlights were the Giraffe-neck piano, and the Alchemists hidden workshop in the basement of one of the towers .
We and AnnaLise had time to drive to the coast town of Ebeltoft to see the historic tall-ship Frigate Jusland, a huge ship now drydocked and used as a museum with interactive displays and mannequins throughout showing how the sailors lived.
When Dave was done, we drove into Randers for a little walking tour. All shops shut at noon on Saturdays. Dave says the Danes would rather have time off than work in stores. Not a bad idea, actually. Lots of cobblestones on the streets and some buildings built as early as 1630’s. The town has a nice central square where we took a photo of Dave and AnnaLise in front of the town hall where they were married. Walking is thirsty work, so of course, beer was next on the docket. Dave took us to one of his favourite musician haunts, and we have to recommend two beers: Danish Fynsk #16 and Belgian Leffe, which Mike thinks is one of the best on tap beers he’s tasted.
The best part of the meal tonight (at home) was the dessert! A Danish specialty usually reserved for Christmas…. A bed of melon slices topped with ice cream, covered in fire roasted figs with caramel sauce………mmmmm……...worth ruining any diet for! Next time in Randers, we bought a tin of these figs.
June 5
Skagen is our destination today. A map of Denmark resembles a funny little elf-man with a pointy cap and a bulbous nose (nasal drip are the islands just to the south). Skagen is at the northern tip of Denmark, about another 2 ½ hours from the unpronounceable Trolyskovvej (Trolls Forest Way). The North Sea and the ………..Sea (the water between Denmark and Sweden) meet here and have formed the world’s longest sand spit. We timed our walk out to see the sunset from the northern tip; there we watched terns catching their last fishies of the day. No green flash, but lots of great colour. Saw our first Eider ducks, as well as a beautiful little Yellowhammer singing his heart out: a little bit of bread and no cheeeese.
Our hostess tonight is the lovely and gracious Charlotte, a friend of Dave and AnnaLise. She rents a few tourist rooms in her home, and luckily they were empty and available for us. Every house in Skagen is brick or painted a warm orangey yellow, with brick-red tile roofs. The roofs are unique in that they add cement under the ridgeline tiles and the outside two rows of gable-edge tiles to resist the very strong winds. Then they paint this mortar bright white. The gardens are great…lilacs and roses are out right now. Oh, and on the road in we enjoyed vast tracts of lupins in the verges, as well as wild roses, like the Alberta roses but a deeper colour and bigger blossom. The lupins made us think of Merrie and Pierre’s Thunder Bay property.
The harbour docks are full of fishing boats that look like they could weather the foulest storms. The front decks are completely covered over so that waves will be deflected. The space under the rounded, solid shell cover has a stove & chimney, presumably to act as a de-icer.
We ate a typical Danish flat fish dish at a café on the docks, but peeked into an old historical building-turned-restaurant that was festooned with copies figureheads from the bows of famous ships, most of them wrecks.. Everything from prim-looking women to pirates and mermaids. Fantastic!
We like the Danish breakfasts. They’ve got a great rye bread… with NO caraway, that is thick and seedy and dark, sliced thin in small moist square pieces. For toppings, they lay out plates and packs of sausage, deli ham, cheeses, picked herring (curried mustard variety - our fave), tomatoes, cukes and a mayo with veggies spread. Oh, yes… also eggs, coffee, juice. I can go all day on this!
Skagen is Denmark’s favourite summer vacation destination. The dunes and beaches are good for lolling and swimming in high summer. The area has attracted numerous artists/painters over the years, and their works are beautifully displayed in the Skagen Museum.
The Skagen artists are kind of like our Group of Seven in that both group found a common love of remote natural areas.
When we got home to Trolyskovvej Hobbit house, AnnaLise made a farewell dinner of the Danish national dish,Frikadella and sausage with new potatoes and sausage.
Alittle late night packing and off to airport at Billund for a Ryan Air flight to London.
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