Denmark

Møllestien

Since we would be leaving on the ferry from Hirtshl way up north in Denmark, I wanted to make sure to be within the general area, so the goal was today was to get to Skagen. Not sure if it’s the jet lag or not, but every time we get on the road, Dana would end up falling asleep and take a nap for at least an hour. I poked fun at her a bit on Instagram, but it did break up the monotony of the drive a bit for me.

For lunch we decided to stop by Aarhus. Aarhus is the 2nd largest city in Denmark that was founded in the 8th century as a trading town with its harbor situated near the sea and river. One thing to note about Aarhus is that it is a Low Emission Zone, but in Denmark, from what I could understand it only applies to diesel vehicles and petrol/gas vehicles are ok. For parking, I decided to park a little outside of the city in the Park and Ride lot of the lite rail. I did this because parking in the city is expensive and the free spot that I did found had multiple reviews of car break ins. With all of our luggage, I didn’t want to risk it.

The lite rail cost about 7 bucks one way for two people. Like all public transportation in Europe, it was on time and only took about twenty minutes to get to our stop, Aarhus Station. We walked over to Restaurant Kalas, where I had the Danish National Dish which was a fried pork belly while Dana got a pork dish in a creamy sauce. We also had a cocktail with our food. The pork belly reminded me of chicharrones and was good, but a little too salty even with the sauce provided. The course also came with 2 versions of potatoes, and some cucumbers and beets. Dana’s dish was also good but a little on the rich side. It was nice to sit and eat while watching the locals walk by going on with their daily lives.

After all that food, we had to walk it off so we headed to Møllestien. This cobblestone street has been here since the 1300s with most of the building built in the 1800s. It is a very short street, but takes you back immediately to the old days and is a great representation of how an old neighborhood feels like.

Of course, a trip into a town would not be complete with some sort of sweets, so we made our way to a pastry store. We got two pastries, a cinnamon roll and some sort of brown sugar pastry. The cinnamon roll was very good and less sweet than a typical American cinnamon roll. We also ate it cold, but I could see it be even better warm. Dana still haven’t had a Danish here, so we then made our way to another pastry store near the Latin Quarter. Once she was satisfied her sweet tooth, we continued to just walk around, exploring the shopping strip, the rest of the Latin Quarter, and some of the areas near the port. Since we had another two hour drive, we made our way back to the car.

Typical Yellow home in Skagen

We finally made it into Skagen around 1900 and checked in to our Airbnb for the night. Skagen is the northern most town of Denmark and has a huge fishing industry with its harbor. It actually serves as its main fishing port for Denmark and now is a huge tourist attraction with over 2 million tourist a year. Named after the peninsula it sits on, Skagen was also very popular with artists. Walking around, you will notice a lot of yellow houses, which is what Skagen is somewhat known for architecturally. From what I could find, the reasoning is because of the harsh weather environment, the yellow is easier to maintain.

It was about a mile from the city center, so we decided to walk since we have been cooped up in the car all day. It was a pretty late by the time we got dinner, but there were still plenty of places to get dinner. We found a pizza place where I got the Spicy Salami Pizza while Dana got a ham and arugula Napoleon style pizza. Both were great, but for me the star of the night was the Strawberry Daiquiri. It was one of the best strawberry daiquiris I have ever had. Since it was late, most places were closed so we just headed back after dinner.

The next morning after letting Dana sleep in, we took the bikes that the Airbnb host provided and headed out for the day. First stop was to get  Dana some caffeine. We weren’t hungry yet, so we took her coffee and just walked around, looking at all the stores that were open. Skagen in the day is completely different and very vibrant. Shops are open, people are out on the streets browsing everything. Skagen is a small town so walking through it did not take too long.

For lunch, we went to a seafood place that from what we heard was popular with fisherman, and I could see why. The portions were HUGE. Dana got a very traditional dish which we found out later is served in multiple places. It was a fried plaice (same family as a flounder) with shrimp, cucumbers and some sauce. I stuck with the standard fish and chips that came with two interesting sauces. Surprisingly, we were able to finish it all. One thing we did notice is that a lot of places do not have English menus. Google Translate really came in clutch and did a good enough job translating that we were able to figure out what we were ordering.

Vippefyret

Once we got back on our bike, we began the journey to Grenen, the most northern tip of Denmark. Biking is the way to go in Skagen as it makes everything a breeze. Not only that but when you get to Grenen, unless you pay for the tractor ride, it’s about a 1.5-2 mile walk to the tip and back. Along the way to Grenen, we stopped by the lighthouse and Vippefyret. This is a replica of the first of its kind navigational lighting mechanism that was built in 1627. It was used until a lighthouse was eventually built in the 1700s.

Once at Grenen, we parked our bikes along with the many other bikes and started the hike. There are other hikes as well in the area, but we were only interested in this one. The hike is very easy and mostly on the beach. You pass by some old German bunker relics as well as the grave of a Danish poet, Holger Drachmann. He is one of Denmark’s most popular poets of modern time and fell in love with Skagen.

Eventually we finally reached Grenen. Over a million people a year come to see this point where the two seas, the Skagaret and Kattegat meet. When the tide is low enough, you can walk further out into the sandbar. We got decently far and it was definitely a unique experience of being in two seas at once.  We even saw a seal pup looking for a place to land. If we had brought our swimsuits, we probably would have layed out because the water was a nice temperature and the weather was perfect. But, since we didn’t plan ahead, we decided to head back.

Once we got back into town, we of course had to get some sorbet. We stopped by a placed called Nana’s, and the strawberry sorbet was a nice refreshing treat after a bike ride. After a short rest at home, we went to eat a dinner at Jakob’s Cafe, where they serve seafood from a fisherman they contract with right in Skagen. This is where I learned that Denmark just has great strawberries, because the strawberry daiquiri  here was just as good as the day before. We ended the night at a soft-serve ice cream shop, and the soft serve here was more like a sweet whip cream. It wasn’t really my cup of tea, but Dana really enjoyed it.

The day has finally come where we got to my part of the vacation: heading to the Faroe Island and Iceland. After this point on, the only hotel we had left is right before Dana leaves to go back home. Since boarding didn’t start until 11:30am, I of course had to make a quick stop to the Nordsøen Oceanarium in Hirtshl. The main tank is actually the largest in Northern Europe holding 1,200,000 US gal and it is one of the few places that has an Ocean Sunfish. Dana was super excited to see this fish since it is so unique looking.

The Oceanarium may be big for Northern Europe, but it is honestly not that big. However, the exhibits are really well done, and the main Oceanarium tank is for sure one of the bigger tanks I’ve seen. The place also is extremely kid friendly. This aquarium had more interactive kid displays/activities than any other aquarium I’ve seen. One thing I really like about the aquarium is that they pretty much just display what is around the area. There was no real coral reef display that most aquariums seem to have. Some unique things we saw were a blue lobster, the actual whole skeleton of a mink whale, and of course the sunfish. They actually have 2 sunfish and Dana was enamored with them. We spent a good hour and half here and also ended up eating lunch since it was convenient. After that, it was time to get ready for the ferry.