Today’s a very special day. The other days are just special.
We have reached one of our special milestones namely ”Det Grå Fyr” (the grey lighthouse) and the most Northern top of Denmark, called Grenen. The placewhere the two seas meet.
In the morning, it was still a rather Belgium-Germany setup, and the midges were not completely gone.
The photo got us chatting with other shelter folks, so we didn’t leave till 10 instead of my hoped-for 9 or 9:30, since we’ve got almost 70 kilometers to bike and it’s our third bike day in a row, which has proven to be a bit tough for us.
But here we go.
We still had about 20 kilometers to Grenen, and Route 1 gave us a bunch of different views and even a chance to pump up our tires.
Finally, Skagen. We tried to find the street we walked 23 years ago, but wow, what a crowd! We’d already noticed some mega cruise ships in the harbor, and all these people were basically doing the same thing we were.
It was also striking that all the houses were freshly painted yellow. There was a lot more variation when we passed here for the first time. So, mass tourism does something to a small city.
We pushed further and met Det Hvide Fyr.
The White Lighthouse was our first stop. It was operational between 1747 and 1858 and is one of the oldest lighthouses in Denmark. At the risk of repeating ourselves, we noticed again how many people were swarming around the tower.
Alright, so now it’s the last few kilometers. I put a little speaker in my steering bag and played the music from our 2003 vacation movie here.
I was overwhelmed by emotions, and when a ’reporter’ asked how I felt, I could not even react.
If you want to hear the music in its full glory, please click below.
But there it was with all his silent beauty: Det Grå Fyr.
The Skagen Grey Lighthouse was finished in 1858. It’s 44 meters tall, and its light can be seen up to 37 kilometers away.
There’s a spot to eat near the lighthouse, and Leen planned for us to go there, but we wanted to hit the most northern peak first.
We decided not to do the 30 minute walk to the farthest point, as it is a fight to stand on that one place where the two seas meet. We also still had almost 50 kilometers to bike to Frederikshaven.
But I can share a picture from 2003 and 2018.
It wasn’t easy to find a safe parking spot near the diner at the lighthouse, so we decided to go back to Skagen and eat some pølser.
We started biking again at 2, and still had 50 kilometers to go.
To keep our spirits up, I played some music along the way, going from Funiculi Funicula over the Radetzki march to the Hungarian dance. And I played loud. It helped to push the saddle pain to the back (no pun intended) and press the lasts drops of energy out of our muscles.
We still had a few nasty climbs to do (100m in total!) before we got to our Airbnb.
When we arrived, some frozen lasagna was warmed up and we took a quick shower. Ah, that heavenly water rinsed away a lot of sweat and a piece of our fatigue.
Susanne, our host, gave us some welcome strawberries and bread rolls, and even stopped by to say hi and get to know us.
But then, lights out time for sleep.
Tomorrow’s a rest day. And the days ahead still need some planning. But we’ll be crossing to Sweden anyway.
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