Mini-tour over

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Geo: 53.7902, 9.96962

We left Malmö yesterday morning and took a drive around Copenhagen to refresh our memories of the city. Then a long drive across Denmark to a stop at Hotel Ballumhus near the North Sea coast at Bredebro, and a visit to a Viking Museum.

Today we had a look at some local ruins in Trojborg, visited the floodgates at the mouth of the Eider River and stopped at Brunsbuttel at the North Sea end of the Kiel Canal.

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Photos

Ribe Viking Museum
Based on the findings of an archaeological dig of an 8th© Viking town - supposedly the oldest village in Denmark. Worth a look around but only some of the descriptions were in English.

Romo Island
Romo is in the far south of Denmark's North Sea coast, just above the German holiday island of Sylt. Romo is linked to the mainland by a 9km causeway. When we got to Romo we ended up at these extensive sand flats that are used for wind surfing and kite surfing, and sand sailing further south.
Sylt is accessed by a car-train journey from the mainland, or by a ferry from Romo.

Trojborg ruins
This was an impressive 16th© manor house that was demolished in the mid 19th©. Apparently the State did not accept the cost for upkeep and so decided to knock it down.

Eider Barrage Lock
After the damaging North Sea Flood of 1962, work started on the Eider Barrage in 1967. It was completed in 1973. At the time it was hailed as the "structure of the century"!
The Barrage consists of about 5km of dykes, the lock for ship passages, and then a double line of five floodgates.

Eider Barrage tunnel
Two-way vehicle passage through this tunnel. On each side of this tunnel is a row of five, 40m long floodgates that are a maximum of 8.5m high.

Seaward side of the gates
These gates are now lowered into the water but still allow the incoming tide to flow under the tunnel and the raised gates on the other side, into the Eider River. On the outgoing tide, the gates on the landward side of the tunnel are lowered to the shut position until the water backs up to a certain height. Then the gates on both sides are opened and the rush of water flushes the silt and debris from the base of the floodgates. Good engineering!

Landward side
The landward gates are raised and waters of the incoming tide are flowing into the river.