3rd - 14th August 2011
Denmark is made up of three main parts. Copenhagen, the capital city, is on
the island of Zealand to the east of the country. The large island in the middle is called Funen, and the strip of land to the west that juts up from the German border, well that's called Jutland!
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| Roskilde Cathedral |
Leaving Copenhagen, we headed first to Roskilde to see the amazing
cathedral which houses the impressive tombs of 21 kings and 18 queens. Roskilde was once the country's capital which explains why so many of the country's royals have been buried here since the 15th century.
Charlie had been a bit quiet since we left Copenhagen but
when she started to turn her nose up at food we knew something was seriously
wrong. We took her to the vets in Odense where she was diagnosed with a stomach
infection, given some antibiotics and told to rest. Thinking ‘that was that’ we set out to explore the town.
Odense is the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson and there's a terrific museum in the house where the writer was born that tells the story of his life. Shows are put on in the grounds during the summer which feature elements from his fairy tales.
The town does a good job of cashing in on HCA, quite amusing then that he left at the first opportunity and was only really recognised by the town long after his death!
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| Odense townhall and Skt Knud's Domkirke |
A couple of days later and we were in Vejle where we visited the excellent Okolariet, an interactive museum which focusses on man's impact on the environment. We particularly enjoyed the quite bizarre ride entitled ‘what it feels like to
be flushed down the toilet’!
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| Eye-catching apartment blocks on the waterfront at Vejle |
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| Vejle town square |
Charlie appeared to have been getting better but the following day in Aarhus she nose-dived, and by the lunchtime we were seriously concerned
about her. She was clearly in agony, could barely walk, and was drinking a lot of water.
Finding a vet in Denmark on a Sunday afternoon when you don't speak the language presents a bit of a challenge! We spent a couple of hours making phone calls and driving around town, so we were overwhelmingly relieved when we finally managed to get hold of one.
Charlie spent four days there. She was seriously dehydrated, had lost
20% of her bodyweight, and 90% of her kidney function had shut down. She was eventually diagnosed with Addison’s disease. Addison's is a rare disease that affects the adrenal gland, which is chiefly responsible for releasing hormones in response to stress, and affects kidney function. With the adrenal gland near destroyed, Charlie's kidneys were close to shutting down completely and the vet told us that when he first saw her she was just hours from death.
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| The patient with a pink bandage on! |
Those four days in Aarhus were very worrying. Having been on the road for a year and a half, and with just a few weeks of our travels left, we now had doubts that Charlie would make it home with us. We seriously considered driving straight to Calais and hopping on the first available ferry, but friends were due to meet us in Berlin in a couple of weeks time and flights and an apartment had already been booked.
We will forever be grateful to the team in Aarhus who helped us. Johan, our amazing vet, was very reassuring and honest about what was happening, and his English was superb. We probably would have headed for home if it hadn’t been for him. We hope they got our postcard from Berlin!
It took several months for Charlie to fully recover from her ordeal. She has a tablet twice a day which replaces the hormones in her body that the adrenal gland can't produce for her, and she has to be weighed and tested every now and again to see how things are going.
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| Our home for four days on the outskirts of Aarhus |
While Charlie was fighting for her life there really wasn't much we could do apart from see the town's sights! Of those, the one which really caught our eye was the colourful rooftop installation at ARoS, the town’s art museum.
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| People enjoying a colourful view from ARoS |
Aarhus is Denmark's second city but it was once a small Viking settlement, and a number of finds are displayed in the Viking Museum close to the city's cathedral.
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| Aarhus cathedral |
We have always enjoyed having our bikes with us, but the cycle paths and bike parking in Denmark and the Netherlands have to be the best in the world.
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| Multi storey bike park in Aarhus |
We also enjoyed a couple of these during our stay in Aarhus!...
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| A proper Danish pastry |
With Charlie seeming a lot better and having done some research on the disease and explained it to her (!!), we headed off to do a quick
tour of the rest of Jutland.
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| Giving the patient the bad news!! |
We headed first to Grenen at the northern-most tip of
Jutland. The waters of the North and Baltic seas meet here causing the waters to clash in a strange way just off the coast. We took a trip on the tractor bus
out to the point on the beach where the seas meet, took a trip to the top of
the local lighthouse to take in the views, and stayed in the car park with around 50 other vans.
After a quick walk out to the Buried Church, most of which has disappeared under the shifting sand dunes, we started our journey south.
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| The tower of the Buried Church |
Over the next two days we made our way down to the south
west corner of Jutland. We had a quick dash around Aalborg where we visited the rather
wobbly Aalborg Tower. We were going to have a meal up there but the ‘wobble’ made
just looking at the menu a little nauseating!
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| The Aalborg Tower |
Next up was the pretty little town of Viborg, situated at the meeting of two lakes - the Norreso and Sonderso. We spent an afternoon wandering around and tasting quite a few of the free samples dished out by the visiting European food market in the town square!
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| Viborg cathedral |
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| Inside Viborg cathedral, which dates back to 1130 |
Being the mature adults we are, we didn’t find the Danish
language at all amusing! We were puzzled by signs warning of 'fart control' but later discovered that fart means speed in Danish and the signs were warning of speed cameras. We were not at all amused by signs advertising special offers...
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| We are NOT amused! |
We stopped for a couple of hours at the beautifully preserved and charming little town
of Ribe, where we climbed the cathedral tower behind two rather doddery old gentlemen to take in the views of the surrounding countryside.
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| View from the top of Ribe cathedral |
We spent our last night in Denmark on the west coast at the end of the causeway which leads out to the island of Mando. The following day we went to the beach on the island of Romo but it wasn't exactly a factor 30 day!
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| David enjoying the summer weather on Romo |
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| Baywatch Danish-style |
Overall, we enjoyed Denmark and would certainly pay a return visit. It's a small country which is largely quiet and rural but the larger towns and Copenhagen, the only really large city, have plenty to liven things up! If anyone can explain why we saw so many Italian vans in Denmark though, do let us know as it really puzzled us!
As our travels continue we visit Autostadt, the home of VW, and have a wunderbar week in Berlin!
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