Frederiksborg Castle, a Dutch-Renaissance palace built in the early 1600s as a residence for Christian IV, is one of the most impressive buildings in Denmark with over 80 rooms full of paintings, tapestry, furniture and spectacular gilded decor. After a fire in 1859 destroyed much of the castle, Carlsberg brewery founder J. C. Jacobsen was…
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Anholt
The tiny island of Anholt is 7 miles (11 km) long and about 4 miles (6.4 km) wide and is 80% desert, making up the largest desert in Northern Europe. Just to the west is the 400-megawatt Anholt Offshore Wind Farm, the largest in Denmark and one of the largest wind farms in the world….
Laeso
Laeso, a Danish island in the Kattegat, is famous for its seaweed houses that are found nowhere else in the world. Seaweed is an excellent insulator and the islanders began using it for roofing since Laeso became deforested by the 1600s. The seaweed roofs can last up to 400 years, but many are in a…
Around Skagen
Denmark’s peninsula of Jutland is bordered on one side by the Skagerakk in the North Sea and on the other by the Kattegat in the Baltic Sea. At Grenen, a long spit off the northern tip of Jutland, you can walk out the end and stand with one foot in each body of water. Excellent…
Skagen Arrival
Skagen, at the northern tip of Denmark, is the largest fishing port in the country and lands one quarter of the total Danish catch by value. It is the home port for the Ceton, the pelagic trawler that we toured in Donso, and one of the reasons we wanted to visit was to see some…
Return to Smogen
On our final day in Sweden, we returned to Smogen, this time anchoring off the east shore. With the North Sea directly to our west, and after watching the waves crashing into the shore there during the big westerly winds a couple of weeks earlier, it felt a little crazy to be anchored there. But…
Kosterhavet Trails
The Koster Islands are known for their extensive and beautiful trail network. On our fourth day in Kosterhavet National Park, we took care of a few boat projects, then ran the tender to North Koster Island to walk the trails and stop for a drink on the patio of eclectic waterfront restaurant Strandkanten. Below are…
Ursholmen
The lighthouse station on Ursholmen, in Sweden’s Kosterhavet National Park, was opened in 1891. Twin towers were used to distinguish this station from others. The second light was disabled in the 1930s, when technology had advanced to produce characteristic flashing patterns with a single light, but the tower still remains. Ursholmen also is known for…
Koster Swimrun
We’d received many, many recommendations to visit Kosterhavet National Park, just south of the Swedish border with Norway. We finally arrived on a sunny September Saturday in time for the annual Koster Swimrun. The event, held annually in September, is a roughly 19-mile (30 km) race around the Koster Islands 3 miles (5 km) of…
Fjallbacka
The picturesque town of Fjallbacka is a popular and crowded summer destination. It is famous as being the summer home for Swedish film star Ingrid Bergman and also the setting for Swedish crime writer Camilla Lackberg’s “Fjallbackamorden” series of murder-mysteries. Strung along the water below steep cliffs, Fjallbacka is also known for its natural beauty,…
