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It had become the last week of our project “Everyday Adventures in North Jutland”, where we drove to all the municipalities in North Jutland one by one, exploring the small everyday adventures and this week the trip had come to Hjørring Municipality.
We crossed the municipal border a late night after it had darkened, so the first thing we did was to find a place we could stay overnight. We found this at Poulstrup Fishing Lake. It was a little bit funny that we ended up here, since the very first place we visited in the first week we were traveling in North Jutland was also Poulstrup Lake – just in the municipality of Aalborg.
We parked next to the fishing lake and got a good night’s sleep and breakfast before we drove further out into the municipality.
Flying kite in windy weather
Now that we were in a municipality next to the North Sea, I wanted to drive to the sea and take a walk in the wind. So we drove northwest and ended upa in Tornby Plantation – a really beautiful place with a view over the dunes and the North Sea.
The week before I’d bought a kite for Morten during our visit at Mors and now it was time to test it, so with the under his arm, we walked the few hundred meters through the dunes down to the beach.
The wind seemed great and you would think, that it would be easy for us to fly with the dragon. But we prepared the kite and tried in every possible way to get it up in the air, but it refused to do what we wanted.
After a while we got it up in the air several times, but very briefly before it clapped and crashed to the ground again. After many more or less failed attempts, we went back to Turtle. Although it wasn’t a definite success, we still enjoyed ourselves and had some good laughs while trying to get the dragon in the air down on the beach.
Instead we decided to make a more sedentary activity in the afternoon sun. We roasted a few buns and brewed a couple of mugs of hot cocoa, whipped cream and marshmallows and then sat down on a blanket in an incline in the grass while we read aloud to each other from the book we were reading at that time, namely one of the good old travel books by Troels Kløvedal.
Role play in the forest
During the evening we decided to cycle a tour. We’d found out that Yxengaard, as we’d been tipped about, was only a few miles away. So we cycled up the gravel road and 10 minutes later we came to the sign that showed way to Yxengaard, the small reconstructed Viking village in the middle of the forest, which among other things forms the framework for cultural and nature communication through role-playing.
When we arrived, a bunch of young people together with Claus, the chairman of the Yxengaard project, were in the middle of the evening’s training in the forest with shields and swords and we were allowed to watch them from the sidelines, while they in total flock went to attack each other and trained different combat techniques.
Subsequently, we went for a walk around the village and saw some of the beautiful craft they have built up around the city.
When it began to darken in the woods, we jumped on the bikes again and cycled down to Turtle which was still parked by the dunes. There was the most amazing sunset over the ocean, which we enjoyed before we got into the car and started making dinner.
Next morning we started the day with a fresh dip in the sea. We were well into October, so it started to approach the time when you might call it winter bathing. Particularly for Morten some courage had to be gathered to get out and be dipped, but when we finally came in it was great for both of us – and even more when we came up again and felt how the blood began to whiz around the body and produce heat.
Discovering what to see and do in the municipality
We packed Turtle and drove off to Ingstrup, where we had a couple of appointments. It’s a little south of Hjørring Municipality, but we had said yes to the two agreements this week anyway, now that we were nearby. On the way down there, we enjoyed all the things that we passed on our way.
First we passed an old mill, and as you’ve certainly discovered, if you’ve read our previous blog posts, we have a weakness for old mills and of course also stopped at this mill to look a little closer at it. It’s called Vennebjerg Mill and in the mill house is currently a ceramic café, namely a café where you can’t only buy coffee and sweet things, but also ceramics and other kinds of handcrafts.
There’s a really cozy atmosphere in the café and if it wasn’tbecause we already had a coffee appointment in Ingstrup, I’m pretty sure, we’d sat down and enjoyed some hours here in the cafe. But that must be another time.
From Vennebjerg Mill you can see Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse and the huge sandbanks that form the frame of the lighthouse in the horizon. It looks quite surreal as the sandbanks rise above the rest of the horizon. We decided to take a trip to the lighthouse before continuing south. And OMG, I’m so happy about that decision!
It’s a great place out there! It’s hard for me to completely describe if you haven’t been there yourself, but I still want to do my best. First there’s a one kilometer walk through the dune landscape filled with sea buckthorn bushes. At a distance you can see the huge sandbanks and this is one of the most impressive things in the whole visit out there. It’s so crazy to think about how many tons of sand may be in the banks and how much they actually move from year to year. Even from a distance you can also see the lighthouse, but only when you get close, you also see all the rubble that surrounds the tower. In this way one can see the remains of the old houses that previously surrounded the tower, but which have now had to let life, because the sand has gradually absorbed them.
AND … not only that – when you come out on the other side of the lighthouse you see the amazing formations, the sandbanks form right up from the tower and directly down to the sea – most of all it reminds me about huge rock formations from a place in South / Eastern Europe and is almost hard to understand that it’s actually right here, in North Jutland, we are standing looking at it.
I’m so glad I got that experience!
On a beach trip – with and without car
We continued our trip south and both to and from Ingstrup we took advantage of the opportunity to drive on the beach. I’ve always been used to it as a child, as in the summer we always bathed at Ejstrup Beach, where you have to drive down, but otherwise I guess it’s quite unique that you can actually drive your car down on the beach, so of course we did it .
The next day, after two visits to friends in Ingstrup, we drove back to Løkken, once again on the beach. There were 27 degrees this first Saturday in the fall holiday and people flocked in the streets of the city. We also strolled ourselves through the streets of Løkken, saw people making sweets at Bolcheriet and sat down and enjoyed the afternoon sun on a quiet spot with an ice cream from the ice cream company and a newspaper.
After a quiet moment here, we continued our walk down to the sea, where we first entertained ourselves looking at people trying to surf and then enjoying the beautiful sunset through the Turtle windshield.
It was now dark and we drove out to find a suitable place to stay overnight. We ended up in the town of Nørre Lyngby, north of Løkken, next to the bar ‘Fisherman’s Rest’.
We parked close to the slope and right here it’s clear to see how the slopes bite for bite fall into the sea and eventually also end up taking some of the houses with them in the fall. The old church and cemetery are gone, but just a few remains of the old masonry and the bar ‘Fishermans Rest’ is one of the buildings that are currently at the furthest edge of the hill – right on the edge of the abyss.
The following day we went for a walk down to the water and enjoyed the sight of some of the big bunkers that still lie there, now half fallen by a slope and almost turned completely on the side.
On our way back to Turtle we went to Fisherman’s Rest and got today’s cake and a cup of coffee while we heard the band “Hit’s Up” play. Morten had been in here the night before and heard them play, and therefore knew that they would play an hour again here on Sunday afternoon.
Unpredictable end to our ‘Everyday Adventures in North Jutland’
We agreed to continue and now headed for Hjørring. We stayed at Hjørring Mountains and camped here for the night. We agreed that the word ‘mountains’ may be slightly exaggerated, but that the place is very fine.
When we got out on the walk we figured out that there were actually some of the places inside the forest where it was quite steep and where we were just about to slip when we went downhill, so we agreed that it justified the name a little more than when we stood looking out over the landscape from the lookout tower.
The following day in Hjørring, our last day in the area, we spent walking through both the old and the new district in Hjørring.
Afterwards we went up to Turtle, which was parked in the city center and prepared to drive to Aalborg. Our everyday adventures were over for this time.
But oh … when we started Turtle, it smelled burnt and there was smoke coming out of the engine when we lifted the bonnet. Turtle was not ready to continue.
We called for road assistance and got them to come and get Turtle and while we walked down the street and considered the situation, we happened to come across the only person Morten knows in Hjørring, namely Tove, one of his parents’ friends.
She invited us home to her for coffee and cake, so of course we thanked her and in that way we got a pretty unpredictable ending to our everyday adventures: with a car that struck and an old acquaintance who invited us home to her.
But it fits in very well with the way our whole journey on the search for “Everyday Adventures in Northern Jutland” has been – and generally with the way we travel.
That we travel more or less without plans and that unpredictable things then can come in from the side – both the fun and the less fun experiences – which then will characterize our journey.
So why not end this way too – totally unpredictable – that is how we like it.
Thank you so much for following us! It has been a pleasure to go on everyday adventures in our own region, North Jutland, and to share it with you out there.
Good travels for all of you who’ve been inspired to visit North Jutland on your own – it’s quite an amazing place!
Tips for upcoming everyday adventures in Hjørring Municipality:
We were given the following tips that we didn’t have the time to visit, but which we’ll hopefully return to visit some other time – or which some of you might want to explore?
- The Blue Ice House in Tversted
- Vendsyssel Historical Museum
- Bathhouses at Løkken Beach
- Kettrup Mountains
- St. Peter’s Square in Bjergby
- Uggerby Å
- Kærsgård beach and Liver Ås outlet
- No – Yes, art studio in Sindal
- Hjørring Graphic Workshop
- Tornby Old. Grocery Store
- Villerup Mainfarm
- The old powercompany and the fishing stairs in Bindslev
- Gregory Hamilton, ceramist in Tolne
- Tolne Gjæstgivergård
- Children’s soil in Vrå
- Zen’s Loenstrup
- Bathing with the winter bath club “The cold girls and boys” on Husmoderstranden in Hirtshals.
- Brunch at ‘Havs’ in Løkken
- SUP paddling + sauna in Løkken
- Common eating at Vrå Højskole
- Walk on the North Sea walking trail from Nr. Lyngby to Rubjerg
- Træstuen in Sønderlev
- The lighthouse and the bunker museum in Hirtshals
- Grandma’s Summer Café
- North Sea Oceanarium
- Walking at the Tverstedsøerne
- Restaurant Abstract in Hirtshals
- The manor Odden, Denmark’s northernmost manor
- The small clock museum ‘Ulriks Ure’ in Hirtshals
- Grønfeldt Workshop Gallery
- Tversted vippefyr
- Mrs. Valeur and Vastardis
- Slotved Forest Deerpark
- Waterhouse Park Vendia in Hjørring
- St. Catharinæ Church in Hjørring
- The Agricultural Museum in Mosbjerg
