Jinxed In Jutland

I'm not sure if I'll be able to continue the alliteration theme with all future posts, but I'll give it a shot...

Ribe from the top of the cathedral

A rather prettily decorated Ribe Cathedral

In keeping with the theme of missing public transport, the Famous Four from Bornholm embarked on another holiday (using our free DSB ticket we received as a result of our problems getting to Bornholm) to Sydjylland - the section of Denmark near the German border on the European mainland. Despite being super organsied and having the itinerary written down in multiple places, somehow, when noting our time of departure for return to Copenhagen, I noted down the time of the train from a town called Bramming (after which my street in Copenhagen is named by the way) instead of the time the train-bus (this is the lovely name given to buses in Denmark which are running 'instead of' trains when the trains can't run for whatever reason) from Ribe. So naturally, we arrived back in town ready for our train-bus, only to discover we had missed it by 10 minutes. DKK 360 later and a little bit of frustration, we got to Bramming in time for our onwards train...

Ribe's version of the Flatiron building

Unfortunately, the weather for our 2 day trip wasn't exactly up to standard (not my standards at least). It was grey and wet for much of it. Thankfully though, we were able to have a great little trip anyway. I can't say that Southern Jutland is the most exciting place in the world, but for a weekend escape from the big smoke, to see some cute little villages, it was perfect. Add to that the great travelling company and one really can't ask for more.

My co-travellers the photographers - intrigued by the local 'pirate boat'

Or maybe we could... This trip took place a week after we had initially planned. Despite having communicated this to our B&B and the rental car place (and having received confirmation), both of them were very surprised to have us show up that weekend rather than the previous one. Thankfully, despite our B&B hosts being in Portugal, we had a place to stay the night, and we still had a car to hire. How there could have been so much confusion though, I'm really not sure...



We spent our first day and night in Ribe - Denmark's oldest town. Quite a pretty town, but there really isn't a heck of a lot there. I imagine with nicer weather, it would be a nice weekend getaway if you want a place where you can relax, eat, sit around in the town square and have a beer, and not much else. What was fun though was our evening walking tour in the city with a nightwatchman. Many centruries ago, nightwatchmen patrolled the streets of Ribe (and many other Danish towns) as a service to its citizens. They took care of the drunkards and criminals, and provided a warning service in case of an approaching fire or serious storm. They stopped their work around a century ago, but the tourist board now ensures tourists are able to get an impression of what the town was like 'back in the day'. Our nightwatchman played the part with his period costume, sense of humour, and great command of language. He provided an interesting historical insight to 500 year old houses and the developments in the town over the centuries.

On our second day we hired a beautiful pink Skoda (you can't be cheap AND picky...) which took us to Møgeltønder, Tønder, Frøslevlejren and Christianfeld. Møgeltønder is described by Lonely Planet as an 'impossibly cute' town. Not sure I would use the same phrase, but it definitely was a picturesque town. The main street was picture perfect, beautifully lined with trees, thatch rooved houses, and the standard church with spectacular looking cemetary. The town is located right next to the house (palace?) occupied by Joachim, the brother in law of my good friend, Mary.

Despite having 2 beautiful women on my arms, I still can't seem to
pull a smile in front of the camera!

Tønder was a rather dead town, as are many locations in Denmark on Sunday. Still, we had a nice stroll through the town and a lunch stop.

Bullet ridden photo of Hitler - probably done
during liberation

For me, the more interesting stop for the day was Frøslevlejren. This is a WWII internment camp just on the Danish side of the border with Germany. After Germany's invasion of Denmark, the Danes managed to convince the Germans to allow them to build a war camp in Denmark to prevent Danes being sent overseas, and potentially to forced labour and extermination camps. The camp was built within a few months and quickly started housing mainly political prisoners. 12,000 in all (it was only built towards the end of the war). Only 1,600 of them were ever deported, the rest were just threatened with deportation but not much else.

Following the war, the roles were switched and the Danes used the camp to hold some Germans. People who were part of the prisoner leadership group became the ones who ran the camp! Some of the Danes from the camp later became influential personalities in the Danish political system.

Typical bedroom of a prison group leader

For many years aftwards, the camp was used as civil guard base by the Danes and nowadays it looks like it could be a camp-site for youthgroups. The barracks look freshly painted and the lawn is freshly mowed. To be honest, even the inside of the barracks, partly museum and partly reconstruction, looks remarkably nice. Both the 'standard' cell and the 'leader' cell are two of the nicest looking prison cells or POW rooms I have ever seen - way above the standard I expected knowing of the horrors the Nazi's were capable of.