Day 460: Stevns Klint & Jelling

Long day of driving westwards across Denmark today. Stop number one was at Stevns Klint, a popular spot for locals to have beach trips. Not for us though - the "beach" was large smooth pebbles, and the World Heritage site here was an inch-thick black line running along a 20 metre cliff. This is where some people studying the cliff realised that black line coincided with 65 million years ago, and was rich in cosmic material - they realised a meteorite wiped out the dinosaurs. Interesting piece of scientific history, but not the most exciting place to visit.

Back in the car where we crossed the long 20km bridge to the mainland of Europe, and then northwards to the town of Jelling. Here there's a couple of burial mounds that were intended for Harald Bluetooth's parents, but only one mound was used (and was eventually found to be empty anyway).

There were also some runic stones, one from Harald's father Gorm dedicated to his wife, and the other from Harald himself bragging about unifying Denmark and Norway, and about converting the Danes to Christianity. It was an interesting spot this one, since it showed the line between pagan vikings and the Christian Danes. Also the first time "Denmark" had been used to describe the area, at least in writing!

Another couple of hours driving where we arrived at the city of Esbjerg in the evening. Staying in a small spare room in the apartment of a lesbian couple; they're nice enough but there's a lot of shut doors. Oh well. Supermarket food for dinner!Read more