Reading time: Approx. 8 min.
Turtle’s front was once again directed to the north. Last it had been directed to the north wad when we drove from Tuscany, Italy, through Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany and finally crossed the Danish border and ended up in North Jutland.
It was now 2 weeks ago, we’d come to North Jutland and we were already in week 2 of our summer and autumn project “Everyday Adventures in North Jutland”, where we visit all the 11 municipalities in North Jutland and experiences small everyday adventures. Last week we had visited the municipality of Aalborg, this week it was Frederikshavn municipality. We had a deal with Morten’s cousin, who lives in Frederikshavn, Tuesday evening and we were giving a presentation at Frederikshavn Library on Wednesday evening, but in addition we had no idea what the week would bring.
We like to travel without plans. Then there’s room for improvisation and just taking things as they come. If we drive past a sign with an exciting attraction, we may stop and investigate what it may be or if we encounter a small, paved landway into a forest, we’d like to drive down the landway to see what it offers. Sometimes such a road ends blindly and we have to turn around and drive back, sometimes it ends by a shelter where we can have everything to ourselves or in a small parkinglot down to the sea with the most beautiful view.
And that’s one of the times we feel the joy of driving the way we do: when we suddenly, unexpectedly, have discovered the most beautiful little oasis in the middle of nowhere and we feel as the luckiest beings in the world.
So when we drove to Frederikshavn Municipality, it was once again without the big plans for the week. On the other hand, we had got a LOT of tips on what we could go out and experience in the municipality. We were in ‘Radio Nordjyske’ Monday morning where listeners had the opportunity to tell us their tips for everydayadventures in the municipality and in addition we had shared a video where we drove across the border to the municipality, various places on facebook and many people had shared it and came with suggestions to what we could visit.
Everydayadventures everywhere
We almost just crossed the municipal border before we made our first stop in Voerså Harbor. Typical us! We can’t drive long before one of us breaks out: “Look! Why don’t we stop here? “
And as said, we did.
Voerså Harbor was one of the places we had been tipped about in advance, indicating that it’s the longest mole in the municipality. So now that we were here, of course we had to walk all the way to the end of the mole – although we almost blew away on our trip out there. It was a really windy day, well, almost stormy, but all the funnier to go out of a long, bare mole and to stand completely at the tip and get well blown through. Right there we really felt the forces of nature!
In addition to having the longest mole of the municipality and the usual facilities in a marina, such as motorhome parking and public toilet and bath (which we especially notice when drive around in ‘Turtle’) there are also shelters, a lookout tower and 15-20 idyllic red fishing houses in a row. It is a really nice and cozy place, so we stayed here and ate our lunch and spent the afternoon here before we continued our trip in the municipality.
Yet again we didn’t drive that far before we made the next stop. Just 5km up the road we reached the sign in Lyngså, which pointed to the city’s playground. Because it was also one of the places we had been tipped about, we knew that here we could find another few shelters and we’d really like to sleep out that night.
So we parked Turtle at the playground, packed a picnic basket with all kinds of goodies for an evening, night and morning in a shelter. There were both ‘koldskål’, ‘kammerjunker’ and strawberries, a game of Uno and a reading book, LED candles and much more in the basket when we finished packing it.
We brought sleeping bags, pillows and the picnic basket and went down to one of the two shelters located next to the playground.
Sleeping in shelter is one of the very best examples of everydayadventure: it’s free, easy to access and really cozy – and then it’s out in nature, which’s just a big plus!
In the morning, after eating breakfast and lying on the grass in the sun and reading out loud for each other, we both took a couple of trips on the cable car before we packed the car and drove on. What a fabulous way to start the day!
Next stop was, not surprisingly, only 2km away! Namely Lyngså Beach. Here Morten took a dip in the blue sea while I was talking on the phone with some clients (I’ve still clients in my company www.mettefuglsang.dk, while on the roads, now it’s just by phone instead of face to face as earlier).
Next stop: Frederikshavn
In the afternoon it was about time to drive to Frederikshavn, where we had a deal with Morten’s cousin in the evening. It became one of the longest stretches we drove in a row this week: 30 kilometers without stops! 🙂
We had a really nice evening with Morten’s cousin and her two boys! After starting the visit by showing the boys (and their mother) Turtle, showing them the ‘top-floor’ in Turtle, where the boys could climb up and after letting them sit on the front seat and ‘drive to whereever they wanted’ with Morten (and to which the 4 year old boy exclaimed “to YOGA!” – apparently the most exotic place he could think of going to) we had already scored some cheap points with the boys.
After the visit, we asked Christina, Morten’s cousin, where she would recommend us to go. She said Knivholt Hovedgård and it became our goal.
When we arrived, we just went to sleep, so it wasn’t until the next day we discovered the place – and ended up spending the whole day until late in the afternoon there.
In fact, we just sat by the lake and ate our oatmeal, but already on the way down (it was 20m from the car) we were first entertained by Nanna, who was holding a hen. We talked with her and it turned out that Nanna, who was handicapped, was working at Knivholt. She would rather enjoy life by the lake with her beloved hen (and rooster, which we later discovered, she also had) than to do everything what the teachers told her to do.
Therefore, she soon came down to sit next to us with her rooster and her hen, while we were eating breakfast.
After breakfast, we walked around the farm and quickly realized that it contained all sorts of activities. There was a woodworking workshop, a beer collection of 15,000 different beer bottles, a Renaissance garden, where you can grow your own organic vegetables, a nature kindergarten, an organic farm shop, shelters, lookout tower and SO much more that I can’t even remember it all now that I’m writing it. It was a surprise to us that there was so much out there – and then on a normal Wednesday in June.
Fortunately, we had a good time – and we used that time..
We never got north of Frederikshavn
When this is the way we like to travel where we only drive a few kilometers before we find something new that excites us – and we spend most of a day there – I guess noone will be surpriced when I tell you, that we never got further north than Frederikshavn for the rest of the week. Although Frederikshavn is just over halfway up in the municipality and there is also LOTS OF THINGS to experience north of Frederikshavn, up towards Ålbæk, Skagen etc., we stayed in Frederikshavn for the rest of the week.
Primarily because there were so many things there that caught our attention while we were there – and why drive further north when there were a lot of everyday adventures to experience right there where we were?
The following days therefore consisted of an overnight stay at Pikkerbakken overlooking the city as well as a trip past Frederikshavn’s landmark, ‘the Powder Tower’, followed by an afternoon on the Palm Beach. At the end of the week we went to Bangsbo Botanic Garden and then in Bangsbo Deerpark, where we both took the time to swing on the swings and take a tour at the cable car – and then afterwards we went to see the animals.
There were SO many more things we could have experienced in Frederikshavn municipality (including a small selection of the tips we received, which we didn’t reach), but one week is passing by quicly and we didn’t have time for more this time.
We turned the car and drove south again and enjoyed the trip across ‘Jyske Ås’ towards Aalborg, only interrupted by two small breaks – one of them at the resting place in the hills between Frederikshavn and Understed, where there was the most beautiful view over the landscape and all the way to Læsø .
Mette.
Tips for coming everyday adventures in Frederikshavn Municipality
We received the following tips that we didn’t have time to visit, but will have to save to another trip – maybe you want to explore some of them too?
- The lake at Gårdbækvej in Ålbæk + Ålbæk Harbor
- Tolne forest pavilion
- Old Skagen and Skagen (Grenen), Råbjerg Mile, the buried church (buried in sand) and the flaghill
- Cloos-tower
- PixlArt
- The professor’s plantations in Sæby
- Karup and Understed churches – for the great view.
- The forestlake in Gybels Plantation, Sæby
- Sæby minicity
- Nellemans garden
- The fishing cluster, the fisherman path and the stream in Sæby
- The museum ‘Sognefogedgården’ in Frederikshavn
- Jernkilden and Skovlyst (Sæbygård Forest)
- Sæbygård, Sæbygård Forest and a hike to Gedebjerg
- The leftovers of the bunkers in Sæby (at the beach by Sulbæk, north of Svalereden Camping)
- The lakepark in Dybvad
- Clasens Garden
- Frederikshavns MTB-trail
- Vendsyssel footballgolf
- Farm Fun by Ålbæk
