Petersontravels

Our last stop of this trip was a visit to the city of Svendborg, on the Danish island of Fyn.  On the drive there we passed this gorgeous field of flowers!

We had to stop and take some photos.  Kim wore the appropriate shirt today!

The city of Svendborg is gorgeous at night!

Even the dessert that night was gorgeous!  This was at Restaurant Resume, the cities best restaurant set in an old church.  Well worth it if you find yourself in Svendborg.

The next day we visited Langeland Island.  This is Dovns Klint at the southern end of the island.  The word klint  is Danish for cliff.

We had gorgeous weather yet again!  There are wild horses in this area from time to time, hence the fence in the foreground.

The beach was on the rocky side, but there were lots of skipping stones.  I can’t resist a good skipping stone!

We took a short hike around the area and found these horses, but they weren’t very wild.  As a matter of fact, they just stood there, staring towards the west.

A short drive north and we found the real wild horses.

The horses, considered wild, are fenced within a large enclosed area.  This is more to keep people out of the protected area.  We drove around the fenced off area to get closer to a group of them.

This stallion was not happy with our being there!

So we gave him and his harem some distance.

Further north on the island, Tranekaer Castle is pretty, but unfortunately wasn’t open to visit.  It seems that September is outside of the busy season.

On the way back to Svendborg, we crossed over a smaller island called Tasinge, and visited Bregninge Church.  Construction of this Romanesque church started in the year 1200.

The interior is somewhat spartan, which seems to be fairly typical in Denmark.

The church has the usual ship model ornamentation we’ve seen throughout the country.

You can climb up to the top of the tower, just don’t forget to hit the light switch upon entering the stairwell.  It’s rather dark otherwise!

There are beautiful views in every direction!  The church was built on the highest spot on the island.

We were the only ones here, so there was no jostling around to get a view.

That night we had a great dinner on the waterfront at Hotel Christiansminde.  This was our view from the restaurant.

The walk back to our hotel along the waterfront had excellent views as well.

On our last day in Svendborg we rented e-bikes from the hotel and rode out to yet another island, Thuro, and were treated to more awesome shoreside views.

Thuro is dotted with large tracts of public parkland.  This was a short hike from a parking lot where we were able to lock up our bikes.  The island was very quiet, making it clear this is shoulder season.

These were our hosts at Rosenhoj Bed and Breakfast, Trine and Patrick Johnson.  Great couple from London that were a lot of fun to get to know.  Patrick was a police officer and Trine (originally from Denmark) was a chef, so the breakfasts (and one dinner) were awesome, and Patrick is filled with interesting stories.

They even have their own chickens so you get fresh eggs every day!

Up next, we visit the beautiful Egeskov Castle (and extensive grounds) on our way to Copenhagen airport.

 

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit this part of Denmark is how impressed we were when we visited the Wadden Sea while we were in The Netherlands.  After looking into some information provided by our hotel, we ended up spending the entire day in the Wadden Sea National Park.

First up, we visited the Visitor Center, where they have this wall map that outlines the extent of the Wadden Sea.  You can see “Ribe” in the upper right.  We previously visited the island of Terschelling, taking a ferry from Harlingen which is in the lower left.  The region is quite large, spanning The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.

They have a touch aquarium in the visitor center with various fish, crabs and other marine life that live in the Wadden Sea.  This fish, that you can practically see through, is called a Plaice.

We couldn’t spend a lot of time in the visitor center as we had booked a tractor-bus tour to a local island.  Here is a shot of the tractor-bus.

The tour takes you to the island of Mando, which is only accessible by a road that is completely submerged at high tide.  The locals, of which there are currently 27, are therefore cut off from the mainland twice a day.  Here is a shot of the roadway as we start out towards the island.

These man-made structures are apparently in place to prevent erosion of the road and the island.

Here is an aerial view of the island at low tide.

We got to the small town on the island just in time for lunch.  This little Cafe was quite good, and they had decent local beer!

We walked over the embankment that protects the island and down towards the water.  This marker has plaques affixed which note the water level during specific storm surges over the years.

These protective structures make for some excellent photos!

We were once again lucky with perfect weather!

We saw this huge blue jellyfish on the beach, and I’m curious, can they survive until the next high tide?  This one apparently has a very nasty sting, so I wasn’t about to touch it!

The first church on this island was mentioned in 1340.  Storm surges washed away two churches in the 16th and 17th centuries, so the current church, built in 1639, was built on the highest spot on the island.

The interior is quite cozy.  As with nearly every church in Denmark, there are several ship models hanging from the ceiling.  This is the first one where we’ve seen a fishing boat, which is a nod to the islands fishing past.  I’m going to assume the interior purple colors are a more recent addition.

This well preserved windmill dates from 1832.  It’s apparently open for tours from time to time, but unfortunately not while we were there.

On the way back from Mando our tractor-bus left the roadway and started driving right across the mud flats.  It was a much slower ride than on the road, but we also cut off quite a bit of driving.  This is a pretty cool little trip, and while there wasn’t a whole lot to do on the island, it was worth it for the experience.

That evening we ventured into the old part of Ribe, and let’s say this little town is hard to find parking in!  Ribe is the oldest town in Denmark, so the streets are quite narrow and parking is pretty limited.  Fortunately we found a spot, and had dinner at an old Inn called Weis Stue, with an interior that dates back to the 1700’s.

The Inn is one of the oldest in Denmark, having been built in 1600.  Check out how the facade is leaning to the right, and the supporting beam for the second floor seems to have been through an earthquake or two!

The beautiful Ribe Cathedral is right outside the Inn.  Note the differing styles of the church.  Yes, it’s all one building.

One of the benefits of dining at Weis Stue is  this is the starting point for a free nightly tour of the old town by the Night Watchman.  These volunteers show up every night at 8:00 PM and dramatically walk you around for 45 minutes, telling stories laced with history.

The Night Watchmen were the police of their day, patrolling the city to keep the peace and to warn about storm surges.  This job was eliminated in 1902, but for tourism they started the tours in 1932.  It’s in Danish and English, but the English version was MUCH shorter than the Danish one, so I think we missed quite a bit.  Some Germans asked if he could do it in German, and he gave a stern “Nein!”

The next morning we had to check out of our hotel fairly early, so we drove back into the old part of Ribe to see a little more.  The Ribe River runs right through the middle of the town before dumping into the North Sea, and is the reason the town developed as a center of commerce in the early 8th century.

The Ribe Cathedral was open so we were able to check it out.  The cathedral dates to the Viking Age, and was the first Christian church in Denmark.  The artwork around the altar was quite unique.  This was done by Carl-Henning Pederson, between 1983-1987, so they are fairly recent.

The original church was built in 860, but the current church was built over 100 years between 1150 and 1250.

The entire town of Ribe was destroyed by a fire in 1176, but a portion of the church survived.  It was repaired with different building materials, so the church looks like a mish-mash of several projects and styles.

This interesting statue outside the church is Ansgar, who apparently only has one name like Cher or Madonna.  Ansgar started the first church at this site in 860.  He was known as the “Apostle of the North” for having brought Christianity to Saxony (now northern Germany and Denmark).

Up next, we make our way to Svendborg, Denmark, our last stop of the trip.