Braedstrup and Lake District - Ry and Himmelbjeret - and Legoland & then up the west coast to Hirtshals 28, 29 & 30 June

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Braedstrup and Lake District - Ry and Himmelbjeret - and Legoland & then up the west coast to Hirtshals 28, 29 & 30 June

Tea a lovely friend of our daughter Kerrie (both their little girls are in Year one together), has given us names and addresses of her friends who live in Denmark and who would love to meet us. Today was the day to meet one lot of her friends, Jette and Knud in Traeden in Braedstrup a beautiful country area in central Denmark on Jutland. We phoned them and so we headed their way. Our trusty GPS got is very easily to their house.

We clicked straight away with them. They were so interesting to talk with and we learned so much about Denmark from them - culture, economy, community systems and social life. We were with them for 24 hours and in that time they were so generous. Jette cooked us a traditional meal for dinner (a special roast pork with crackling and with lovely vegetables. For desert we ate their home-grown strawberries dipped in the honey from Knud's beehives. I don't usually like honey, but this was very light. We also met their neighbour who joined us for dinner. After doing 2 loads of washing and having a very chatty night, we slept well.

The next morning, after a beautiful breakfast, Jette and Knud took us to the highest point in Denmark (Yding Skovjoj) for a magnificent view of the countryside. We then visited another high point near Ry. Next we visited Himmelbjerget which is a beautifully set up picnic area with a restaurant and tourist office and several other buildings, including a tower that we climbed to get an excellent view of Denmark's Lakes District. We saw its network of linked lakes and saw where Jette and Knud launched their boat and motored down the lakes. The picnic area was full of families enjoying the sunshine and the activities.

We climbed up the tower and looked towards Silkeborg and Ry in the Lake District. It was another magnificent view. We then headed back to their place for a lovely lunch.

After saying our thank you and then goodbyes (they were very, very generous towards us...it was special) we headed for Legoland in Billund which is south of Braedstrup.

This theme park had a massive car park which was almost filled. We entered the park through gates made of lego. As you could expect, EVERYTHING was made of lego. The sprawling theme park had everything from giant lego models of famous cities, landmarks and wild beasts to re-created scenes from the Star Wars film series, and an African area. All of these were built in Miniland. There were plenty of rides for adrenaline junkies, through to little children. We visited Ghost Town, Polar Land (where we went on the rollercoaster - great fun!), Treasure Island, The Temple, Pirate Wave Pool, and through the show-games area. We watched a 30 minute lego movie in 3D and later watched a performance at the castle where a princess was being pursued by 2 princes. The actors frequently ended up in the mote around the castle, splashing the people in the first couple of rows of seats. The crowd loved it, as did we.

It was heading onto 7.00pm so it was time to find a camping site and have dinner. We were going to head to Horsens on the east coast but changed our mind and decided to head west were we drove up towards Holstebro. We wanted to see Struer and drive past the Mors island which Jette had told us about. This is an island that speaks Danish but a very distinctive dialect as they have 'isolated' themselves a little from changing with the rest of the country. The area was a beautiful drive, again through rolling hills, fjords (not with mountains), lakes and rivers. It was certainly the lowlands of Denmark but very beautiful. When we come back from Iceland, we will drive down the east coast and try to catch up with some more of Tea's friends.

We found a spot to park in a side street at Skjern which was near a fjord. We had dinner and crashed into bed, very satisfied at what we had done today.

The next day we drove about 26okms to Hirtshals where we were catching the ferry to Iceland on 1 July at 11.30am. The road was good and other than when driving through the many little villages at 50 kph were at times permitted to travel at 90 kph. We stopped at Struer (Holstebro had a ring-route around it so we didn't stop) and saw how the area was surrounded by water. This was the Nissum Bredning fjord and Veno Bugt (don't ask me how to pronounce them). We then travelled along a very long narrow strip of land to Odby.

Travelling further north, we reached Thisted (you can ask me to pronounce this!)we stopped for a walk around and saw that in the town square was a market. Tom spotted some wooden bird nesting boxes which were of interesting design so we took some photos - perhaps a project for the Men's Shed!! We had a coffee here and a bit more of a walk around and then continued our drive north.

We then reached the beach region of northern Denmark, Lokken where we had lunch. The sun was out but the breeze was pretty cool. Locals were out in their shorts and T-shirts and we were in our long pants and long-sleeved tops. As we walked along the beach we saw several 100 little white huts which could be hired. There was one opened so I peaked in and saw 2 bench lounges which perhaps could be used for beds, and a little table with 2 chairs. Not many were occupied.

At about 3.00pm, we arrived at Hirtshals. That night we stayed at a camping spot next to the Transport Centre which was near the ferry terminal. The deal was you pay 10 Euro for electricity but you provide your own toilet and shower facilities (even though there was a big shop and service station there, which had a toilet). The shop was called Last Stop Shop, where bulk meat, wine and chocolates (mainly) were sold as Denmark is cheaper than Norway, so people stock up before going to Norway.

Before we settled for the night, we drove back into town after visiting the Smyril Lines office, making sure all was well with our booking and next-day's departure. There is not much to the town of Hirtshals and it was a quiet. On the beach there were several hotels for holidayers. We sat in the sun, for a drink at the pub before driving back to our parking site for the night.

The next morning, we joined the very, very, very long line of trucks, motor homes including 4x4 versions, caravans, vans, cars and motorbikes who were all going on the Smyril Line to Iceland.



We saw a lot of 4X4 drive vehicles as there are many rough roads in Iceland. The whole process of boarding us all onto the ferry, was a well oiled machine. From the time the first car started to load, to departure time took about an hour. We were pretty excited to see Iceland, the Fire & Ice island.

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