Finsatsea: Skagen, Denmark

I apologize for being so far behind. We’ve been home for several days and I need to finish posting about our last port of call. There have been so many things to catch up on, but now it’s time to write about Skagen.

July 7 –

Skagen, Denmark –

This little fishing town lies at the northernmost tip of Denmark and the Jutland peninsula. There are lots of very big fishing vessels in the bustling harbor. This is the center of the herring fishing industry. From these ships come much of the herring that gets pickled and sent to the rest of Europe.

Some large herring fishing boats

Our tour started with a drive through some of the old town which is quite picturesque. The houses are primarily bright yellow with red tile roofs. From town we drove out to the very point of Jutland to a place called Grenen. This is the place where the North Sea and the Baltic meet. The terrain is absolutely flat with only scrubby growth because the ground is only sand. We learned some interesting things about this place. Because of the action of the sea and wind, the spit of land is growing at the rate of about 3 meters (nearly 10 feet!) each year. Sand piles up from the North Sea side and the land grows. As a result a new lighthouse has been built about every 100 years. The peninsula also has lots of old German bunkers which were part of the Atlantic wall meant to prevent invasion. When we got to the end of the paved road we boarded a tractor bus that drove us to the very end. There you can stand with one foot in the North Sea and the other in the Baltic. There were lots of tourists doing just that.a

The end of Denmark - on the left is the North Sea and on the right the Baltic

The lighthouse and our ship in the far distance. In the not too distant future a new lighthouse must be built because the land is building up so fast.

From Grenen we drove back into Skagen and visited the Skagen Art Museum. This place was a very popular artists’ colony at the turn of the last century. Several prominent Danish artists made their home here and others visited often. They were attracted by the scenery, the fishermen and the play of light on the water. The museum was truly a surprise. The collection includes hundreds of beautiful paintings, many of which reminded us of works by great French impressionists. We had a short tour by a museum employee who pointed out some of the more important works. The visit was too short but it was time to get back to the ship and pack up for disembarkation tomorrow. If anyone's interested in seeing some of the beautiful paintings, you can see them at this place http://skagenskunstmuseer.dk/en/works/