Denmark

We had to spend one last night in our tent because it is such a long ride back home that we couldn't do it in one run. We decided to have a quick look around Denmark. We had both been to Copenhagen before but haven’t seen anything else in the country. After a quick stop in Jelling with Denmark's oldest church we decided to go to Silkeborg. There is an interesting museum that has a mummified body of a man from about 300 BC. A museum curator was there at the time and he told us the story of the Tollund Man as the body is called.

It was a well preserved body that was discovered around 1950 and it was first assumed that it was the body of a current murder victim since it still had a rope around its neck from which it was probably hanged. So the discoverers of the body called the police and fortunately the police officer was also an amateur archeologist who immediately realized that the body was ancient. So they packed the body and sent it off to the University research center. But the people at the University thought it was probably a prank and didn’t bother to open the case for at least two weeks during which time the body started decomposing. When they finally examined it they realized what a significant find it was. They were able to examine the contents of the stomach so it is known what the victim ate prior to his death: porridge from various grains and seeds. The people of Silkeborg celebrate the find each year with a festival where they serve this porridge. They feel very proud that such an important find came from their town. And no, I didn’t take any photos of the Tollund Man, it was too creepy.


And that more or less completes the story of this year's vacation. We drove a total of just over 7.000 kilometers in just over two weeks. If I were to do this trip over again, I would definitely go with a campervan. Which I might rent in Scandinavia and fly there to avoid having to drive across the hundreds of kilometers of never ending Germany and some Austria and Denmark in between. I wouldn’t take sunscreen and a swimsuit with me because I wouldn’t need it. Or I might have gone in July which is supposed to be the summer month in Scandinavia. I did enjoy the beautiful countryside, the people were extremely friendly and we didn't go bankrupt despite the fact that Oslo is supposed to be the world’s second most expensive city (second only to Tokyo) and Stavanger the world’s fourth most expensive (with Nagoya in between). A good thing we only went for coffee in Stavanger. And we absolutely splurged in Oslo where we had a hamburger and bad Norwegian beer.

Next year, we go somewhere warm!