Northern Denmark 🇩🇰

My morning was spent working on paperwork, counting days for visa periods 🙄, booking travel etc.

Afternoon - 20km mountain bike ride through the forests of Tornby.  The forest seemed extra green after the morning rain. The route has some difficult sections and so I was off pushing my bike up the steep trail with exposed tree roots etc and then sections of beautiful flowing riding.

Tonight Timo and I went for a ridiculously hilarious night of Bingo (Banko) - completely in Danish!  He is quite fluent but I was out of my depth and trying not to burst out laughing multiple times.  It's the 'thing to do' in Hirtshals on a Thursday night and 120 people arrive 1hr early, bring food to share with their table of friends and then the games kicked off at 7.  The next 2.5hrs were a blur.  I was paired with Charlotte who is a very skilled bingo fanatic (probably late 30's with a bingo tattoo!) And was managing her own 12 games of bingo and helping me with my 3 😂. In Danish the numbers are said backwards - 26 is said as 6 and 20.  Just when I would feel like I was remembering some numbers, I would be off  I've not really played bingo before and so it was quite the evening 😂

It's a nice easy downhill cycle to town but a strong headwind for the uphill back again.

We finished the night with chess at home.  A slightly random but fun day.

Aalborg 🇩🇰

I caught a couple of trains to visit Aalborg which is a large regional city an hour away.  The trains are reliable, clean and modern and well used.

Aalborg is a city on the Limfjord river with Viking heritage and earliest settlements from 700AD.  The pretty white castle dates back to 1550.  There is a large old town with cobbled winding streets with colourful or half timbered houses that were wealthy merchant’s residences. 

With a huge river running through it, it has a lot of industry including being a global supplier of wind turbines, cement and grain.

The Utzon Centre is a striking museum of architecture on the banks of the river, and the final structure designed and built by Jorn Utzon who won the world wide competition to design the Sydney Opera House - one of his most famous works.  He was raised in Aalborg and his father a ship builder which influenced the sails design of the Opera House.  

I spent a few hours looking at the visiting  exhibits by award winning Danish designers and architects and then participated in a school holiday program (I asked if big kids could have a go and he said of course 😊), the Lego design centre with virtual reality headsets and guidance was outstanding.  A group of vacation care students, probably 10-12 years were building complex and creative structures from Lego! 

And then the Opera House exhibition where you can see his 15 iterations of design that he submitted, wooden models, virtual reality headset and a documentary of footage of the building process.  Interesting to see our progress on building site safety!  I chatted with an Aussie lady who heard my accent when I purchased my ticket.  We chatted for ages.

I then walked around the castle and church and found some of the 50 street art murals..  It's a bustling city and visually interesting with a mix of old and new architecture.  A very enjoyable day out.

Horne - Skagen - Grenen 🇩🇰

A 10/10 day!  I cycled 65kms to the northern most town in Denmark and then hiked 1.5kms each way along the beach to the very tip of Denmark 🇩🇰 where the North Sea meets the Baltic sea!

My ride had it all!  

Sunrise over farmers fields,

lush pine forests,

thick mossy undergrowth,

beaches,

sand dunes,

fabulous cycle paths, mostly had the ride all to myself, WWII Bunkers

, churches

, lighthouses

, walk on the beach, shells, a seal!,

quaint historical fishing village of Skagen,

amazing hot chocolate and huge delicious cinnamon pastry,

ships in port and then a few train connections back to my local station.

I made Mexican for dinner and now chilling in front of the fire 😊🔥🚲