Skagen

The ferry from Gothenburg only took 3 hours, but it was a sunny day with blue skies. It was definitely an older crowd. I guess that's us now. The mostly Swedes were on a short trip or a booze run. It's another tax free ferry once they get a few miles out, and many people brought their dollys to buy cases of booze at cheap prices. Sweden's sin taxes are notoriously high. For Wisconsinites, the sale prices were about what you'd pay at a big box store like Costco.

After we landed in Frederikshavn, we had to quickly walk to the train station about 10 minutes away. We practically raced a Swedish family trying to catch a train that left a few minutes after us, so they let us pass them at a stop walk. We made the train with minutes to spare and enjoyed the slow ride up to Skagen. It's pronounced like Skain and rhymes with Dane. You'd think I'd remember that but I kept saying Skoggin or Skahn all the time. I even did it in a video I recorded when we were at Grenen. That's the sand spit that is the northernmost point of Denmark and where the Baltic Sea meets the North Sea. The Danes add a few more seas in between them: The Kattegat and the Skaggerak.

That was fun and the water was warm. Everyone goes out and walks where the two seas meet, but apparently don't mix. It was strange to see all the starfish there. Most were dead and formed a long path on the North Sea side. Was it warming waters that killed them? We walked past WW2 bunkers built by the Germans and biked back in town. We had rented 2 basic bikes that are the standard here. They're slow and clunky compared to what we're used to, but everyone uses them. The pace is slower here, and that's nice. The bike paths are amazing and you have to pay to park a car almost anywhere in town, so it was a wise choice, especially given the great weather. We passed quaint houses, lighthouses, sand dunes, and large sea vessels. We packed a picnic lunch and ate it out on the sandy beach and finished a half bottle of wine we'd been carrying for two days.

Deanne mentioned a day or two ago that her watch was losing time and was scratched. I looked at it and noticed it said "Skagen, Denmark" on it. I had bought it for her on her birthday many years ago and didn't notice the brand name before. Today is her 62nd birthday, ironically, so I thought it fitting to buy her a new Skagen, Denmark watch. We had to look up the company online. It's an American company founded by 2 Danes but all their watches are made in China! But, we found a perfect watch for her that had tiny dragonflies on them. Before her friend Joyce died of cancer a few years ago she said she'd come back to Deanne as a dragonfly. So that sealed the deal. And then, when purchasing the watch the saleswoman said this model is called "Dancing." Even though the brand was different, it was sitll a Skagen, Denmark watch, and it was fate, indeed.

In the morning, we took our bikes out for a ride to an abandoned church that was partially buried in sand. The parishoners got tired of digging it out because of drifting and it was officially closed in the 18th century and only the top of the tower was left.

Other photos and videos are here. https://photos.app.goo.gl/2pmTetoLUyHT9KtE8Read more