The northern most tip of Denmark - Skagen

---

We watched our ship reverse in and parallel park in a small inner harbour on the Baltic Sea side of the northern tip of Denmark, then receded down to brekkie. After that we were off on our Voergård Castle and pastry tour. Along with 2 other coaches. Voergaard Castle was originally built by a bishop, to give him somewhere to meet up with his lady friend when he was visiting this part of the country. It was confiscated from the church by the crown after reformation, and changed hands many times over the next 200 years - at one stage it was one of the largest estates in Denmark. In 1955 it was bought by a Danish man who’d been living in France since 1906 and had married a countess. Her title didn’t not transfer to him upon marriage, so he wrote to the pope and asked to become a count of the Vatican. They agreed and so he became a count. Soon after, the Vatican was able to build a hospital they had been wanting. This count sold his palaces and other chateaux in France and put all of his beautiful French renaissance furnishings and artworks (Goya, Rubens, Raphael, el Greco) onto a privately hired train with 12 carriages to transport them all to this palace. After the death of his wife and himself in 1963, the Castle was left to Denmark as they had no children. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside, but we were given an extensive tour of the castle and priceless objects (e.g. Ming vases, original tapestries given by the pope that the Vatican would like to have back). The furnishings were very beautiful. There was a private chapel, and a haunted tower room.

After the castle we were taken through the picturesque countryside to an old mill and given some freshly brewed coffee and a lovely warm apple Danish (in Denmark!!). They had a water race outside with a picturesque white bridge with a troll standing guard!

Then we were back on the coach and driven through the countryside to a church which has been covered by a creeping sand dune. The church of St Lawrence, patron saint of fishermen and paupers, was much larger and now has just the tower standing above the sand. St Lawrence used church money to feed the paupers and of course got in to trouble for his good deeds. They roasted him over a fire on an iron grill!

We returned to the ship via a couple of fishing villages which are now tourist meccas during the summer.

---