2008 Rediscovery Tour
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Ambassador Cain, Laura Cain and North Jutland resident American Alyne Delaney with her sons Hamilton, Aidan and Keiran
23 April 2008, Day 17, Skagen - Hirtshals - 71km - (1137 km)
The Day started back in Skagen, after an evening
that included a wonderful meal at the Skagens
Fiskrestaurant, one of the great restaurants in
Denmark, and a hearty breakfast at Hotel Petit.
This week’s ride is extra special because our
15 year old daughter Laura is joining me on the
Tour, the first time a family member has been
able to join me. We biked the short distance from
the beautiful summer home of Niels and Inger
Nejsig where we are staying to the Skagen Museum.
The museum, where Helen and I have had the
pleasure of visiting on two prior occasions, is
this year celebrating the Centennial Anniversary
of the Golden Age Skagen painters.
Museum Director Lisette Vind Ebbesen guided us on
the remarkable exhibit that includes all 500+
paintings that the museum has in its collections;
including amazing Krøyer’s, Ancher’s,
Locher’s, Drachmann’s and Jørgenssen’s
that have not been on public display for years.
The exhibition included the large and whimsical
grand Willumsen painting “Bathing Kids at
Southern Beach” which was so large that a hole
had to be knocked in the wall of the museum when
they brought it in for the exhibition. This was
Laura’s favorite. My personal favorite remains
P.S. Kroyer’s “Summer Evening at Skagen
Southern Beach” where Krøyer has captured the
twilight amble down the beach of his wife Marie
and Anna Ancher in glorious blue hues for the
ages. Upstairs at the Museum a timeline has been
painted on the wall showing the development of
Skagen art from 1840 to 1940, along with a very
creative timeline of other notable world events
that were occurring at the same time, including
many that occurred in America (the Wright
Brothers, Thomas Edison, Elvis, etc.) (I hope
they keep the timeline up after the Exhibition)
I had the pleasure of joining a group of 25 high
school students on a tour for a photo
opportunity. Treating us to delicious cakes and
coconut macaroons in the garden after our tour,
Lysette predicted that the Museum would receive
over 200,000 visitors for the special exhibition
this year. I will certainly do my best to promote
this special exhibition to all of my Danish and
American friends, and I hope to return before the
exhibition closes on December 31.
Leaving the Museum, biking down the lovely
walking streets of Skagen, I could not resist the
urge to stop in the flagship store of Skagen
Watches, our favorite watches, to see what the
new summer 2008 line looked like, and I was not
disappointed. They are very exciting.
Leaving town, we took the scenic route through
Gamle Skagen so that Laura could see the sites in
this beautiful area including Ruth’s Hotel and
the beautiful beach. Our ride this morning
included two guest riders, our friend Eric who
had joined us last week in Aalborg, and Michael,
a Canadian investor who lives in Skagen and who
had heard about the Tour. It was great
conversation to have these two interesting
friends along for the day.
On the scenic route we rode through the beautiful
sand dunes, stopped by the buried “Sandy
Church”, and headed out to Råbjerg Mile, the
large “living sand dune”, that is moving at
the rate of 15 meters per year, and will soon
(200 years?) migrate all the way to the other
side of the peninsula, burying all vegetation in
its wake. While at the Dune we met a delightful
group of 45 young people who were on a tour of
Denmark. It appears to be a group of recent
graduates who worked for the same company, in
sort of a team building exercise. They were all
excited to see us at the top of the Dune, and
were pleased to let me take a picture with them.
Because I had lingered, sightseen and shopped a
little too long in Skagen, we had to make up some
time, so we rode the 50 km to Hirtshals at a brisk
pace averaging around 34 km/h. In Hirtshals we
were met by the Deputy Mayor Jens Broen, who was
all alone, but gave us a tour of the Town Hall
(which was proudly flying the American flag I
might add), and talked with us about the
challenges in a municipality that is rapidly
loosing its young people. The political leaders
are working hard to give the young people a
reason to stay in the area, but the aging of
their population is putting pressure on their
social system. (the local government is
responsible for health care, education up to
gymnasium level, infrastructure, and utilities,
among others. I was interested to learn that in
Denmark, the 62.1% income tax, which kicks in at
about $50,000, is divided between the state and
local governments with the local receiving 26%.
The 25% VAT goes entirely to the state, with
local governments charging a property tax. In
this municipality the tax is 1.2% of the ground
value, with no tax on improvements.) I was also
intrigued to learn that this area of 66,000
people gets almost 2 million visitors per year
from Norway who arrive on ferry boats after a 3
hour ride, shopping for meat, vegetables and
beer. No wonder the merchants here all look so
prosperous! Jens, by the way, has not visited
America but he is a great enthusiast for vintage
American cars. I invited him to North Carolina to
do a little shopping. With the weak dollar, he
could get a 40% discount right now!
Our next stop was a little ways out of town to
the Bunker Museum in Hirtshals. The Museum is
Denmark’s “only excavated, complete German
defense installation from WWII open to the
public.” It contains 54 different bunkers and
gun emplacements within a 20 acre site. Stig
Christensen, the Museum curator, gave us a
fascinating tour in which we witnessed the daily
life of the 300 soliders who manned these
batteries from 1940 to 1945. 50,000 Danish
workers were employed building the 9 different
types of bunkers designed by the Germans,
designed to control the sea-lanes between Denmark
and Norway, a distance of 150 km. The Germans were
concerned about Russian ships getting out of the
Baltic, and had designed a gun capable of firing
a shell 55 km. With guns on both the Danish and
Norwegian side, and mines in the middle, the
Germans were able to prevent any Russian ships
from getting out into the Atlantic during the
entire duration of the war.
Leaving the Bunker Museum we rode the six km to
the picturesque home and pottery studio of Alyne
Delaney and Greg Miller in the town Horne. Alyne
and Greg are both American. Alyne is an
anthropologist at Innovative Fisheries
Management, originally doing work funded by the
EU on fisheries management, but now funded in
collaboration with the University of Aalborg.
Greg is a world-recognized potter, and is
currently in Japan at an exhibition. We were
joined by Adam Mowen, also an American who lives
in the neighborhood, who is a glass blower. Adam
showed us some of his beautiful work (drinking
glasses complete with American and Danish flags
in the bottom) while Greg’s pottery partner
Janne Hieck showed us the four kilns and the
beautiful pottery, including works they are
currently doing for Læsø Salt. There is a
colony of Artists in this part of Jutland,
including a number of Americans. We discussed
hosting an exhibition of “American artists in
Denmark” at the Residence. (With the several
that we have met it could be great exhibition.)
The highlight of this particular stop, though was
meeting Alyne and Greg’s three sons Hamilton
(10), Aidan (6) and Kieran (3). The delightful
boys, who have lived most of their lives outside
of America, presented me with beautiful beaded
American and Danish flags they had made for me,
and charmed me with descriptions of their daily
lives growing up in rural northern Jutland. (they
live in a beautiful restored old home that was
once a train station, and they do not own a car;
bike and train are their means of transport.) The
visit was topped off with mouth watering chocolate
chip cookies and moist brownies!! I don’t know
how Alyne did it. She replicated what my mother
used to make, and they were fabulous.
Our final stop of the day was to travel by
‘SandWorm” to be northernmost point of
Jutland ‘Grenen”, which is where the North
Sea and the Baltic meet. This remarkable geologic
‘feature’ shifts 7-10 meters per year to the
north as the mighty seas crash into each other at
this exact point. Over the past few hundred years,
residents of Skagen have had to build four
different lighthouses in order to keep the light
near the shifting sand. It was a thrill for Laura
and me to take our shoes and socks off and stand
one-foot in the Baltic and one-foot in the North
Sea. Our host Rene Zeeberg from the Skagen
Tourist Authority was a great host, as was Tony,
the owner of the Sandworm who stayed a bit late
to drive us to Grenen.
The evening was capped off with a cool drink,
surprise entertainment and dinner at Ruth’s
Hotel. Ruth’s has an amazing restaurant that is
all but impossible to get in to during the summer
months. (Yes, I know I said we would stop by
“Mr. T’s Famous American BBQ” that we
spotted last night beside the grocery store in
Skagen, but I just couldn’t resist another
visit to the kitchen of Ruths.) Our long time
friend Morton took great care of us at the
restaurant, with the able assistance of Lise, and
the food was terrific. The surprise entertainment
was a fashion show hosted by Pier One Skagen, a
local high-end retail shop, featuring
almost-exclusively American summer sporty fashion
(Ralph Lauren, Polo, Sebago, J. Crew, Marco Polo,
American Eagle) choreographed to great American
music. It was a great way to feel at home here in
northern Jutland. At 9:00, just as our entourage,
including our friend Michael who has a beautiful
home down the street from Ruths, were preparing
to sit down for dinner, we joined the crowds to
walk out to the beachfront to watch the setting
sun, and the rising moon, in one of the most
beautiful pastel panoramas that surely any man
has ever had the pleasure of witnessing on this
earth. It is no wonder that the great artists of
the late 19th century flocked here to capture the
beauty, and to found a wonderful culture that has
withstood the tendencies and temptations of time.
As a post script, the long ride from Skagen to
Hirtshals, with little headwind, gave me a little
time to reflect on just how remarkable this Tour
has been. It is giving me a great opportunity to
better understand the history, values and shared
culture that brings our two countries together,
and the tensions and differences that pull us
apart. More importantly, it gives me an
unparalleled opportunity, both through the media
and through direct personal contact, to
accentuate the former, and try to ameliorate the
latter. I am very glad we made the decision to
launch this Tour, regardless of the pain!