2008 ReDiscovery Tour
Day 15 - April 15 - Ålborg - Frederikshavn - 87 km (947 km total)
The day started in Ålborg with a visit a Royal Arctic. Then Ambassador Cain then rode through Ålborg stopping at the university and a few selected sites. The Ålborg visit ended with an informal barbeque gathering at Lindholm Høje arranged by Aalborg municipality, Weber grills, and the museum at Lindholm Høje. From there Ambassador Cain rode up to Frederikshavn.
Please return soon for photos from the day.
Ambassador Cain's remarks
The Day started with a delightful breakfast with
the Rosenkilde family where I was sad to say
goodbye, but happy to see the beautiful Danish
sunshine. (As you will see, the day was bracketed
with the best of Danish weather, and the worst of
Danish weather.)
The first stop took us to Grønlandshavnen just
east of Alborg with a visit to Royal Arctic Line,
the company that handles all the shipping for
Greenland. We have a close relationship with this
company because they also handle all of the
transport of goods and equipment that comes from
Denmark for our Air Base in Thule, Greenland, 600
miles north of the Arctic Circle. The company has
a rich history, dating back to 1774, and is owned
100% by the Greenland Home Rule Government. Their
business is good, but they are concerned about
diminishing fish supplies, since a large amount
of their business is based on transporting
“Greenland Gold”, the small shrimp caught
offshore Greenland. They are hopeful that the
mining and minerals sector, and ultimately the
oil and gas sector, will be a big business for
them. Obviously they are counting on American
companies to be in the forefront of these
projects. Our friends at Alcoa have already
announced a $2 billion aluminum smelter project
in Greenland. We also toured the giant container
ship the “Mary Arctica”, named after the
Crown Princess who christened her a few years
ago. This great ship can hold 588 cargo
containers and is incredibly strong to withstand
the icy waters of the Arctic.
We then headed down the road to Aalborg
University. This is the third or fourth time I
have visited this great campus, and I am
constantly impressed by their embrace of the
“culture of innovation.” Vice Rector Hanne
Krogstrup and city council member Thomas
Kastrup-Larsen briefed me on the growth of the
campus, which has seen an enrollment increase in
recent years of an incredible 30%. They espouse a
unique “problem based approach” to learning,
which entails a very close cooperation with the
private sector. They are also very focused on
international education. 22% of their PhD
students are from outside of Scandinavia, and 25%
of their professors are English speaking.
They are working closely with the city to try to
stem the departure of their “best and
brightest” for Copenhagen. (Interestingly,
Thomas and Hanne told me that 40% of their
students leave the community after graduation, as
compared to 20% at Aarhus University, and 10% at
Copenhagen University. They would like to
increase their collaboration with American
universities, which I am more than happy to work
with them on. I know that the morning was at
least a success on one front, because as we were
talking about the collaboration between the
university and the private sector, Niels
Clemensen from Royal Arctic, who was riding with
us, spoke up and indicated that he could use an
intern from the University! So at least we helped
place one young member of the student body. I was
impressed by Hanne’s summation of the mission
of the University: ‘We want to be a global
university with responsibility for the Northern
Jutland Region”.
Thomas, Hanne and Erik then escorted me through
the lovely town of Aalborg toward the Town hall.
We made one unscheduled stop for shopping when I
spotted a great looking antique store. Inside I
found one of the cute salt and pepper shaker
figurines from the 1930s that Helen collects.
At the Town Hall we were met out front by the
august members of the “Christian IV Society”,
in their red robes and regalia. The Society is one
of the old brotherhoods in Denmark that dates to
the War, and plays a large role in the annual
Rebild festival. They gave me a wonderful toast,
insisting that I join them in the glass of Red
Aalborg Snaps (aquavit), which was certainly
going to make the remainder of the bike ride more
fun, if not a little more dangerous! We also sang
a great “C4 Society Drinking song”:
I like the snaps
and the snaps likes me
thrilling as only a snaps can be
I want to drink the real elite
Aalborger aquavit.
Over the mountains over the sea
thousands of snapses are waiting for me.
Please go to Hell with juice and tea.
Snaps is the drink for me.
As we left the Town Hall we were joined by many
new riders from the Danish American Club of
Aalborg. They rode with us to the beautiful and
ancient burial ground of the pagans and Vikings
called “Lindholm Høje”. As Director Lars
Nørbach explained to us, here between the years
400 AD and 1000 AD the pagans and then later the
Vikings buried their dead in a ritualistic
fashion. The large stones from the tombs are
still present, preserved by virtue of a freak of
nature that deposited 4 meters of wind-blown sand
on top of the site, protecting the stones from
decay and looting for centuries. The site was
discovered in the mid 1800s, and excavated and
preserved in the mid 1900’s. A number of grave
sites are in the shape of Viking ships. It was
almost eerie standing at the bow of a ship-shaped
burial site over 1200 years old. The new Lindholm
Høje museum expansion will open in September.
Following my tour of the historic site, I was
escorted to the site of what will forever be one
of the great events of my ReDiscovery Tour.
Gathered behind the museum building, in an
outdoor alcove that had been furnished in the
style of a Viking home, 40 friends of America
from the Danish American Club of Aalborg, joined
by Henning Jensen, Mayor of Aalborg, treated me
to a real, authentic old fashioned American
barbecue, complete with chicken and beef cooked
on a real American Weber Grill! But the highlight
of the day, if not of the trip so far, was the
shocking music that greeted me as I joined the
crowd. Here, in the middle of Northern Jutland, I
was treated to real, authentic Southern American
Blue Grass music! Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Rocky
Top, Dueling Banjoes, and my all time favorite
“You Are My Sunshine” were played with expert
precision, and sung with a good old Southern
twang, by The Muleskinners, All String Band. The
last song “You Are My Sunshine” is a personal
favorite because my Dad used to play that on his
guitar and try to teach my two brothers and our
cousin and me how to sing along in harmony. Then
later, when our girls were young, their
grandfather would play and sing that song while
his five granddaughters ran around the living
room table dancing to the tune. It was such a
special moment that I felt compelled to call my
Dad and Mom back home in North Carolina and let
them listen as the band played the tune once
more. (Even though it was 6:30 am in the morning
back home, I think they really enjoyed the early
morning intrusion!) The barbecue, and the music,
was extra special because four of my friends from
North Carolina, Wendell and Linda Murphy and Ken
and Thomasine Kennedy, managed to join us while
on their tour of Denmark. I’ll bet not many
travelling Americans have been treated to Blue
Grass Music in Denmark before!
I really did not want to leave the barbecue. I
was having great fun, the food was terrific, I
was really enjoying the company, and besides, I
was not looking forward to the 65 km ride to
Frederikshavn. But eventually it was time to bid
my good friends goodbye. After passing out a few
coins, and taking a few photos with my friends
from North Carolina (and with MICK who was
trading his van for a bike for the first time on
our Tour), our group left Aalborg for the long
ride to Frederikshavn.
The ride was very scenic, but a little tougher
than I expected because we had a cross wind much
of the way. Jacob, Mick, our new rider Erik (who
lives in Atlanta, and heard about the Tour on the
media and just decided to join up) and I made good
time on the way to Frederikshavn. We travelled
some very scenic and blessfully flat roads
heading up the northern coast of eastern Jutland.
About 15 km out of Frederikshavn we stopped at a
“Transportation Center” (what we might call a
“Truckstop” in the US, but a very nice one)
and upon walking inside, the young lady at the
counter looked at me, then looked at the front
page of the local paper that was sitting beside
the counter and said “hey, that’s you!” (It
is fun to be recognized.) But no matter how hard
Bo and Claus tried, she would not ride with us
the rest of the way , so we dragged ourselves up
and headed the final 15 km in to Frederikshavn.
Now I mentioned earlier that it was a beautiful
morning. The sun stayed out much of the day,
mixed in with a few clouds. At one point about 30
km out of Frederikshavn I removed my windbreaker
because it was so warm. So I was totally caught
by surprise, and totally unprepared, when, about
5 km outside of town, it started to SLEET! Sleet
in late April! Right after warm sunshine! A cold
front had suddenly come in, so as I say, the day
was bracketed with the best and worst of Danish
weather.
So when I arrived at the SAS Radisson
Frederikshavn I was totally soaked and freezing.
The hot bath felt really great. And as I was
waiting for the dinner which was hosted by
Frederikshavn Kommune, I had a delightful
conversation with a young lady who is opening a
business near the hotel. She had spent a year in
Denver as an Au Pair, and loved America. She had
very strong opinions about the differences
between Denmark and America. And when I asked her
what was most different she replied
“Religion”. I realized that the topic of
Religion had seldom come up in conversations on
my bike tour. She said she had loved going to
Church in the States with her host family, but
that “if you go to Church every week here,
people think you are really strange.” She felt
that most Danes do believe in God and Jesus as
the Son of God, but that they really don’t like
to talk about it, and they don’t go to Church
because “Church services here are not very
joyful”. She said there was a remarkable
contrast between Churches she attended in the US,
where the songs were happy and the sermons full of
encouraging, inspiring messages, and the services
and songs in many Danish churches. She said that
even though Danes were religious, there weren’t
many symbols of Christ during Christmas because
Christmas had “gotten too commercial in
Denmark.” (It certainly has in America as
well.) She said that she was worried that
religion would become “even less popular, and
that people will want to talk about it even less
because of the Cartoon Crisis and the issue with
the Muslims”. (I told her that I had discussed
this topic with many of my Danish Muslim friends
and I found that they actually felt more “at
home” among a community of “religious
believers” even if those believers had a
religious faith different than their own). I
found this discussion of religion to be very
interesting, and my new friend to be one of the
few Danes who had ever brought the subject up to
me in conversation.
We travelled to the picturesque harbor town of
Sæby for a fabulous dinner at Frank’s.
Frank’s overlooks the marina of Sæby, where
each summer evening a trumpeter hails the setting
of the sun to hundreds of onlookers. Our hosts
were members and staff of the Kommune town
Council. They treated us to a smorgasbord of
locally-caught or grown fish and produce. The
“fiskefrikadeller” with remoulade was the
best I have had in Denmark. Of the dozen or so
fish and seafood-based items I had, all were
absolutely wonderful. I look forward to bringing
the family back here for a trip this summer. And
I look forward to a bright summer day tomorrow as
we head up to Skagen.