Dear All

Firstly, thanks to all of you who sent me birthday emails – particularly the fact that you didn’t send “cards” on line.  Spent the day in Odense, the town in which Hans Christian Andersen was born (and boy they don’t let you forget it!).  The fact that he left the town ASAP as an adult is totally immaterial to the burgers of Odense.  But I get ahead of myself.

We left Ribe in blazing head –2.5^oC and the bluest of skies.  Went north to a place called Esbjerg where four big white men sit watching the coastline for invaders.  When I say big, I mean big.  Made of stone, they stand (or should I say sit, because they are seated) about 3 stories high and the “work”, (as it is supposed to be artistic), is called “Man by the Sea”.  Why?  There are four of them!  Didn’t find out though because Esbjerg was not all that friendly for motorhomes and we decided to continue on up the coast.

Lego Land – did you know that Lego comes from Denmark originally?  We didn’t go but the signposts showed that almost all roads lead there.  It wouldn’t pay to be a parent with kids wanting to go to Lego Land – entry price is ridiculous.

Further up the coast is an inland sea that occurred naturally when conditions closed over the mouth of what was once a port of some size.  It is a strange area and the road on which we travelled was literally a strip of bituminised sand between the raging North Sea (and it was doing a good job of raging with the ever constant westerly wind) and the relatively calm and protected inland sea (known as Ringkobing Fjord).  We stayed in a place called Hvide Sande (White Sands) and the caravan park was set in amongst the sand dunes.  None of this regulated space stuff with neat little numbered allotments in a row.  This place was a series of tussocked sand dunes where you parked your van in the lowest part of the dunes so as to avoid the wind.  It was fascinating to watch where people parked and how various people positioned their vehicles to avoid the winds.  What did we do?  We parked on an elevated bit of land so we could people watch.  Walked up over the sand dunes and onto the equivalent of 90 mile beach – white sands, crashing seas, hardly a soul on the beach and so cold we didn’t stay long.  Went back later properly clad with jumpers and coats only to find that we must have been wrong.  There were several people waking on the beach in summer gear!  We have noticed that quite a bit actually – not sure who is wrong them or us!  Watched the sun set over the North Sea but were not luck enough to get the really wonderful sunset colours of some of the postcards.  (Stayed at Camping Nr Lyngvig – 2 star DK Campping – interesting but basic.  Worth staying one night for the beach walking etc.)  

Left White Sands and headed to a place called Silkeborg.  There is no real reason to go to this town except that in a little local museum is the 2,400 year old “Bog Man” (Tollund Man).  He is the world’s best preserved bog man and we spent quite some time (alone) with him.  The story is not clear but in 1950 tow guys were digging up some peat (once used for heating – now illegal because of the tench and pollution) in the peat bogs and they found a body.  Turns out that this guy was about 40 years old when he was hanged (perhaps as a human sacrifice) and his body, together with the noose, thrown into the bog.  He sunk into the bog where it totally preserved him.  Autopsy showed that he had eaten a grainy porridge about 12 hours before he was hanged.  That is how well the bog preserved him, skin, bones and internal organs.

His body had absorbed the darkness of the bog and superficially he looked like a bronzed statue of a person in the fetal position.  Closer inspection showed that, although some of his body had caved in on itself, the face, including the stubble on his chin, was perfectly intact.  He looked peaceful and merely asleep (which is strange as he had definitely been hanged).  There was a fascination about him and an aura that you could feel. We were the only ones in the museum and it was great to just sit and ponder on his face.  He really has a lovely face. 

Continued heading east to the Island of Funen on the way to Odense.  (Still on Jutland Island – Gudenacamping Braedstrup – clean, great facilities, pool, river with canoes, small and would be crowded high season.  In Odense – DCU Camping Odense, Odenseve – great, excellent facilities, good public transport into city 4km away).  Odense is where Hans Christian Andersen was born (as previously mentioned) but, although a pleasant town, didn’t have a lot going for it so, as it was my birthday, we had a long lunch (still in the warm sunshine) outside at a café and then came back to the van and sat outside lapping up the sun.

You may have noticed references to campsites.  There will be the occasional mention of good campsites, or those to avoid, in our future epistles because useful information like this is beneficial – so non-European campers just skip over these bits.

To cut a long story short, we crossed the very expensive bridge (and we didn’t get charged for full tote of AUD$70 as we expected in the van  - only AUD$52) but what a bridge.  It is 18 km long and an engineering feat of incredible proportions.

Arrived in Copenhagen yesterday and found our caravan park.  Only trouble was that the said “good public transport” was lousy (avoid Camping FDM Tangloppen) and we decided to go into one a bit closer (on the ring route) to the city.  Some ring route!  Went straight through the middle of town which was a bit hairy but between driving skill and navigational genius (I’ll leave you to guess who did what) we managed to get to our site (Charlottenlund) 5km north of the city.  And guess what – we slept in a moat.  The site was quite fascinating in that it is an old fortress very close to the ocean with guns still in place and the underground tunnels used as facilities.  Went out to catch the bus – on strike!  Foiled again.  Decided to walk along the beach etc and see Copenhagen Sunday – foiled again!  Pouring with rain.  Tomorrow, come hail or shine (and already the sun is peeping through the clouds), Copenhagen, here we come.  From what we saw as we drove through and what we have read about it looks like a fun place to visit.

Sorry this letter is not as interesting as some but our summary of Denmark so far is that it is fascinating in various pockets of the country but is generally flat and agricultural and an interesting way to get to the ferry to go to Sweden and on to Norway.  Our aim is to drive up through the lower part of Sweden and get into Norway and head north.  We will seriously visit Sweden after we have been up to North Cape (top of Norway).

Tired to send a picture but it would not “compute”.  Will try again next time.