Day 26, Fancy a Hygge?

We drove onto the ferry, and dropped our bags off in our cell block. We had brought our ferry forward from next Friday, so the only room available to us was a disabled room on the 4th floor; low enough to hear the engine noise, and with two narrow single beds.

Lyn had booked us a buffet dinner on the ferry, but we were pretty anxious about this after reading the awful reviews. Our sitting was 7.30-9pm, just as the ship sailed, so we quickly made our way to the 8th floor to the restaurant, where we joined a chaotic queue, full of hungry Germans with their elbows out to stop anyone getting past them. Lyn left me in the queue and tried to find out what the procedure was. He came back with a slip of paper saying we were table 101. He had paid extra for a window table, and we were so glad he had, as we had a fabulous view out of the huge windows at the front of the boat as we sailed out of the Oslofjord. We went through the narrowest part of the fjord as Lyn plotted our journey on his phone.

The food was pretty much as I’d expected; canteen food and hungry hordes fighting for it. I didn’t each much, butt Lyn did okay out of it. We went back to our cell and tried to sleep until our 6.30am call, ready to embark at 7.30am.

Nether of us slept well, and we were exhausted as we drove off. Luckily we were near the front, so amongst the first. The people in the car next to us had not returned to their vehicle as we drove off; so I bet the huge line behind them were happy!

This was the first time for both of us to Denmark, so we celebrated the best way we knew how; by visiting a Danish supermarket! I was pleased to see a huge pick n mix selection, although on closer inspection the selection was not to my standard. They did, however, have plastic gloves to scoop the sweets, rather than the usual plastic shovel. They also had the world’s largest marzipan bar, although I managed to resist that, mainly due to price! Lyn stocked up on beer, and we got bread, milk, and a cheeky little Danish pastry each for breakfast.

Our first stop was right at the end of Denmark, in a town called Skagen. Now, I own two Skagen watches, and love them for their classic Scandinavian simple designs. I was horrified, however, to find out I have been pronouncing the name wrong all these years. It’s not Skah-gen, it’s Skayne! Who knew!

We drove right to the northernmost point of Jutland and Denmark, a place called Grenen. Before we could do anything we both needed a nana nap. This lasted about 2 hours! We had to pay for parking, which was a first this holiday, using an incredibly complicated machine that kept debiting money from Lyn’s bank card every hour!

When we woke, the heaven’s opened, so we sat it out, waiting for a break in the weather to go for a walk. This area is quite a tourist draw, as it’s where 2 seas visibly collide. Grenen is a spit formation made up of deposited sand and gravel carried along by the strong currents caused by the 2 seas. The spit is 30km long; one of the largest in the world, and is constantly moving.

There were loads of people walking along the spit to see the waves at the famous point, and the sun came out. There were also WW2 German bunkers to see, and a cute little baby seal, although it was upsetting to see people ignoring the signs to keep 50m back.The baby seal went from sleeping to looking quite stressed.

We drove back into Skagen town and parked up on the harbour. More car parking fees, but we will stay here the night. Lyn was in his element watching the boats come and go. There are some huge ones here. One did a 3 point turn better than I can in my car!

We walked the few minutes into town; just one or two streets really, but all very chilled and very nice in the sunshine. We had an ice cream and headed back to the harbour to eat in one of the little fish restaurants there. Lyn has been desperate to have fish soup, so that is what he enjoyed, whereas my fish and chips was not exactly what I was hoping for. Looked more like Captain Bird’s Eye than the locally caught big bubbly battered cod that I was hoping for! One beer, the soup and the fish n chips set us back 39 pounds. They even charged us 3.50 fo the extra small bread roll Lyn had with his soup!

We came back to the van and chilled out watching the harbour life. We both need a few quiet days; it’s been a hectic holiday!