Skagen - The North of Denmark

15/02/17

Last week I had holidays for one week, so my host family arranged a little trip of 2 days to Skagen! It's an amazing little town in the north of Denmark, and it's known for being the most far away up you can go in Denmark! 

Since it's very narrow, there are beaches on both sides of Skagen, and on the tip, it becomes one beach and two seas meet front to front! It's where the Baltic Sea meets the North Sea. These seas come from both sides, creating waves and exploding in the middle! The incredible thing is, they meet but don't mix!

The tip of Skagen

See how the seas have different colours

The beaches are incredibly beautiful in the winter, but also in the summer time. That's why this a very big touristic attraction in Denmark. I visited it in the winter at the afternoon, since the trip took a while. There were also some bunkers from WW2 burried in the sand, located in both sides of Skagen, used by the Germans to defend the territory. 

Bunker in the beach

But Skagen is not only beach. It has very interested museums and monuments. I visited a very curious and old church, that is burried in sand, and you can only see the top. It's called "Saint Lawrence Church" but Danes now call it Den Tilsandede Kirke which means Sand-Covered Church.

The Sand-Covered Church

The church is one of the oldest buildings in Skagen. It was built in 1387 and it used to be 45 meters. The body of the church was built in red brick with a lead roof, and the tower raised in patterned yellow brick, but later it was painted white. During the last half of the 18th century the church was partially buried by sand from nearby dunes and the they had to dig out the entrance each time they had to use it. The struggle to keep the church free of sand lasted until 1795, when it was abandoned. It was demolished, leaving the tower as the only part of the original structure still standing. We couldn't go inside but it was very special to see it so close!

We also visited the city, where we ate some hotdogs and visited typical stores from the area, like shops that sell used clothes for really cheap. I also noticed the very typical Skagen houses, famous for their yellow colour and white strips in the red roof.

The typical houses in Skagen

After that we visited the Kystmuseet Skagen, a museum about the local history of Skagen and the danish adventures in the sea. It talked about the fishermen that came back in boats during huge storms and the saving teams that were there to protect them. Skagen has a big history with fishing and they used the method of drying the fish in the sun to make it last longer. There was a memorial for the dead fishermen in the storms.

The museum on the outside

Outside the museum there was a perfect replica of a normal poor house at the time. It was very small but interesting. I found funny that the doors were super low, because everyone was very little in the old days. Inside a little room with 2 small beds there used to sleep 2 parents, their 6 children and maybe some grandparents. People used to live off fishing and raising animals. There was also a windmill and a old "rich" house. 

Little ancient house

So this was my trip to Skagen. I really enjoyed it and I recommend to anyone who wants to visit. You get a really cool feeling of being transported to the past while walking through the city and seeing the old houses and the beauty of the monuments. I will like to go back in some years perhaps!