Hitchhiking to Thy (Everyday Adventures in North Jutland, week 9)

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We quickly got our first lift to Randers.

Our everyday adventures in Thisted Municipality was somewhat different than we could’ve imagined.
As in all the previous municipalities in North Jutland we had visited, it was of course the idea that we should drive around and stay in our car and our home, Turtle.

But no, that’s not how it went.
During the weekend before our trip to Thy, Turtle broke down and we kept him at my little brothers (Turtle’s chief mechanic) home in Djursland. And how do you get to Thy then?

We considered various options, but ended up with a solution that allowed us to leave immediately and which made it all just so unpredictable that it could be categorized as a true adventure.
We packed a bag, went out to the road and hitchhiked. And after only a very short while we were picked up and got a lift into Randers – then we were on our way.

An agreement in Aars I would be sure not to miss, was the reason why we got on the bus for the next part of the route, but from Aars to Thy we were back hithhiking again.
6 lifts and 2 ferries later we were in Hurup in Thy. Here we’d found a shelter in the middle of town on our shelter app and thought it was the perfect place to camp. But there was just no shelter.

For the first time in the time we’ve used the shelter app, we recorded a mistake – and right now, where we had traveled all the way from Aars and just needed to rest.
But there was nothing else to do, but to walk the 2 kilometers to Ashøje Forest, where the closest shelter was before we could take off our backpacks and lay down on the sleeping pads with our legs up.

To accept a gift
The next morning we went back to Hurup, since we had to make a 30 min. public presentation about our lifestyle on 4 wheels in connection with the library’s morning event. There were just under 50 attendees to the event and many of them curiously asked for our presentation and provided tips on who and what to visit in the local area, now that we were here. Some of them even came with invitations to us, including Inge-Marie and Ulla.

Ulla and her husband are in charge of Sydthy Swimming Pool and Sydthy Spa and Ulla came after the presentation and invited us in both places.
This meant that our afternoon was spend in the swimming pool.

It was really magnanimous of Ulla and initially it seemed a bit overwhelming and was hard to say yes to. But as you will discover in this and other blog posts, it’s far from unique that there’s someone who offers us something like that without expecting to get something back – and of course it’s something that Morten and I have talked about .

As I said, it has sometimes been difficult to say yes, because “I don’t want to bother anyone” or “I can’t give you something back” or what I’m thinking at the moment.
But gradually it has come to my mind that there are probably two primary reasons why people offer us things / their help.
I think some of those we meet have the experience that Morten and I have actually given them something by sharing our stories. They feel enriched and now they want to give something back.

And then there’s the other motivational factor that I think most people can recognize: being happy even by making others happy.
And I think that’s also one of the primary reasons why people give us things and / or offer us help without asking for anything in return.
They can see that they can contribute something and make us happy by giving us something and / or helping us because it’s clear we don’t have that much. And that makes them happy to make us happy.

So (most of the time) I don’t feel greedy / like a bad person, when I accept peoples gifts. I’m getting better at smiling, say ‘THANK YOU!’ and just accept the gift, people are giving me – cause the gift /help makes me happy and I’m pretty sure, the person who is giving it, also feels happy to give. Everyone is happy and then it’s a win win situation.

In fact, we experienced it many times on our trip to Thy and Mors, where we traveled without a car – much more often than when we drive around in Turtle and are more self-reliant.
Even when we, after the swimming pool, was in Fakta to by groceries, a woman came to us and said “hi, I was attending your presentation today, it was super good! Do you want a lift to Ashøj?”
Guess what we replied to that offer. 🙂

Spa and a dip in the fjord
The next morning we reached the Ashøje tower before the sun rose and saw the sun rise over the treetops and shed all possible shades of blue, orange and pink across the sky. It was so beautiful – a wonderful way to start the day.
But the day had only just begun and there was much more to be expected.

The sunrise seen from the Ashøje tower was outstanding!

The reason we were up so early – which is quite atypical for us – was that we were invited to Krik, where we were going to winter bath in the fjord at 8am with Krik Bath Association. Inge-Marie, who had also heard our presentation, came and picked us up and was up even earlier to bake freshly baked buns that she could bring today when they got new guests at the club.

We came down to the fjord a little to 8, to a completely empty spot by the fjord, but the second after, people arrived from all sides and suddenly they had pulled a tarpaulin up the 6-8 posts that were knocked down into the ground and then a shelter was created. Then we dropped our clothes and put on our swimwear, if it wasn’t already on, and at 8 sharp we went down in the water.
A shorter or longer dip, depending on peoples strength, followed by a cozy talk and breakfast around the table in the shelter with both shots, coffee and freshly baked buns. It was SO cozy!

We enjoyed the sun’s hot rays while we read aloud to each other.

Back in Ashøje again we laid a sleeping pad on the ground and enjoyed the sun’s rays warming us while we read aloud to each other. That was pure Turtle Time!

Suddenly, a big gray truck came and I just got to think that it might be my friend’s father who lives just behind Ashøje. And I was right, the car stopped and Carsten jumped out.
He had been past several times to look for us, since he knew we were there, but we hadn’t been there. He invited us home, where we also greeted his wife, but it was a short visit because they were about to leave for their weekend trip.
Nevertheless, in the short period of time we were at home in their house, Carsten said several times that we should just borrow their summer cottage while they were away at the weekend and informed us where we could find the key. Once again it was a little overwhelming with the kindness, but finally we said yes and thanked him for his really kind offer. It would make us happy and it would make Carsten happy.

We went back to Ashøje, packed our things and went to Hurup, where we visited the old mill Refsbøl Mill and enjoyed the afternoon sun in the grass under one of the old mill wings.
Then we went down to Hotel Thinggaard and ordered a piece of cake and a cup of coffee – the only place in whole Hurup where this was possible.

At 19 o’clock we went over to the spa, where Ulla had invited us to the spa evening with buffet and wellness for body and soul.
First we jumped in an indoor hot water pool and sat and enjoyed warming up in the body.
After half an hour, the buffet was served, so we put on the bathrobes and went into the dinnerroom and ate the delicious food from the buffet. We sat there and talked with two girls who had a cozy girls night out.
The rest of the evening we were completely down in pace and just walked around and enjoyed the various offers around the spa, among other things the outdoor wilderness bath and the home-built sweat cabin.

At the end of the evening, Ulla offered us to drive us to Carsten’s cottage 5 km away, when she didn’t like the thought that we should hitchhike out there in the dark.
We once again accepted her offer, hurried up from the water and went to the bath so we could drive with them and finally thanked her and her husband many times (and gave them a couple of special beers) when they dropped us off at the cottage.

And in that way, we suddenly had our own cottage for a weekend while we were in Thy. And it was so nice with a warm, soft bed, a hot shower and fire in the stove. It’s absolutely basic things you appreciate when you’ve just been away from it for a while.

Relaxing at the couch in the cottage
We rwent on a single stroll down to Doverodde Købmandsgård – the only place in Denmark, where the National Gallery of Denmark plans to make a department outside Copenhagen – but otherwise we spent almost the whole weekend lying on the couch and either reading a newspaper or watching TV. It was obviously what we had wanted the most, now that we had a cottage at our disposal, and of course we allowed ourselves to do so.

We went on a single stroll down to Doverodde Købmandsgård while we stayed in a cottage.

Sunday afternoon it was about time to give back the cottage again, so after baking a pear pie as a thanks for loaning us the cottage, we started to go towards Hurup. Every time a car came by, we put our thumb out and we also managed to get a lift into the station from where we took a bus to Thisted.

Thisted in mini format
Here we went up to a shelter not far from the station, where we stayed overnight until Monday. It was gradually getting cold to sleep in the shelter and our equipment was not to good so it wasn’t a pleasure for us to sleep out any longer and we were glad it was our last night like that.

Our Monday in Thisted was spend visiting the Library, which has recently been renovated and has the walls decorated with paintings by Jens Søndergaard, go for a walk through the city park Christiansgave and down to Thisted Littletown, where a large bunch of volunteer enthusiasts for many years have built models of Thisted Village houses in 1950 in miniature edition. It’s a huge job they’re doing and it was really exciting to get a guided tour in both the workshop and the Little Town and hear how they build the houses and get the stories of the people who lived in the city at that time.

It was exciting to hear all the stories about the inhabitants of Thisted in 1950.

At the end of the day we drove with the bus to Mors – our everyday adventures in Thy was over for this time.

Thanks for a great week Thy!

Tips for upcoming everyday adventures in Thisted Municipality:
We were given the following tips that we didn’t have time to visit, but which we’ll probably visit next time, were in Thy – or which some of you might want to explore?

  • The iceberg at Nors Sø.
  • Bøgsted Rende.
  • Skyum Mountains.
  • The pizza bar in Vorupør.
  • Hanstholm Madbar
  • ‘Shooting star’ at ‘The Old Smokehouse’ in Hanstholm.
  • Gyrupgaard whiskey and beer brewery.
  • Lars’ coffee shop in Klitmøller.
  • Kirsten Kjærs Museum.
  • Windmill Visitor Center.
  • Agger tange.
  • Agger Darling.
  • Vandet lake.
  • The Frøstrup Camp.
  • The Bunker Museum in Hanstholm.
  • The inn gallery in Vesløs.
  • Fund from year 150 in excavation for the new kindergarten ‘Rolighed’
  • FC Thy (Thisted women’s team in the 3F league)
  • Stenbjerg landing site.
  • Gravenhøj Fruit Plantation.
  • Kristine Frøkjær, artist in Hurup.
  • Lodbjerg Lighthouse. Lyngby. And the 7 km between the rescue route.
  • Dover Forest + Old Age Hill.
  • Lunaria Art Collection, Danas garden.

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