This was home for a couple of days and nights while we were in Frederikshavn - the birthplace of my Grandmother Steed. That is Olga Margrethe Frederiksen Steed or Nana as we called her. Her family joined the LDS church in 1887 the year of Nana's birth. They moved to Brigham City, Utah in the spring of 1888.
We had a cozy room at The Herman Bang B&B.
We even had a view of sorts.
We found the local branch of the church in Frederikshavn and attended their Sacrament Meeting. I think I could pick out the theme of the talks but as for understanding Danish - zilch. We found the family history specialist, who helped us with some ideas of where to look and who the Frederiksens were, based on census reports.
Our people were farmers. They were virtual slaves in the Danish system of land ownership according to our new Danish friend. They worked the land for the owner, who collected rent in the form of a share of the crop. In exchange the farmers lived in a cottage owned by the land owner and also got some of the crop plus gardening rights.
Like Norway, Denmark has an official religion, so the four lines of our Danish ancestors were baptized, married and buried in and around these parish churches on the Jutland penninsula. All of the church buildings have their beginings and part of their foundations from the 1100's. Even some of the baptismal fonts go way back. Most of the artwork is from the middle ages. The most current remodelling is posted on the outer wall - mid 1800's or so.
Many of the churches are of a Romanesk style with no belfry. The bell is housed a little way from the building in its own little tower.
Good idea for the bell-ringer.
The practice here is to surround the grave site with a little hedge and really decorate the grave with a little garden. There were hedge clipping gardners at work in a couple of the churchs we visited.
They must recycle the graves since there is only so much room around these little churches. At any rate, there were no really old graves to be found.
Each little villiage has these cute little border markers. Skærum is one of our family villiages.
The church in Tårslev is also one of our family villiage churches.
Notice the different dates on the additions. The belfry was the was the last part added.
So, some of my ancestors walked down this isle to be married.
Or were baptized at this font
The altar dates from the early Protestant era.
Lendum is another of our towns.
Looking to the west the Jutland Penninsula reminded me of Iowa's rolling hills but with an ocean.
All of the land is planted with various grains, corn (maize), hay, as well as orchards and berries. The buildings are as neat, clean and tidy as Indiana farms.
Yes, there it is in the distance - the ocean.
Another one of our villiages.
Church and Bell
This is a combination key and door knob.
The other vocation that the people of Jutland had was to go to sea. Many of the churches display boats of the bygone era overhead in the middle of the isle.
Understed even had two childrens' places.
Some of these church priests baptized or married or buried some of my folks.
Sorry for the focus problem, low light, but the hand hewn timbers are original.
The old man and his cat at the back door was a bonus.
Denmark is vacationland in the summer. It was downright hot most of the time. We drove to the very northern point of Jutland - the little town of Skagen.
The beaches were lovely with fine sand.
That is it, the very northern tip of Denmark.
This is the popularly known as the point at which the North Sea meets the Baltic but that may be a pitch to get more tourists to take the tram out to the tip.
The old brick lighthouse dominates the landscape.
Skagen town is mostly motels, hotels, rooms for rent, restaurants, and curio shops. Almost all of the buildings are yellow with white trim and terra cotta roofs.
We almost outsmarted ourselves on the way home. We arrived at the Hirtshals ferry terminal almost two hours early for a Monday ferry back to Larvik, Norway. After a long wait in one of many lines we found that we had to buy our ticket at the terminal building (unlike every ferry we have ever taken). At the Terminal building we found out that the ferry was very crowded so they were raising the price from 545 kroner to "around 1500 kroner." If I wanted to go she would punch in my info, the real price would be determined, and we would be put on the "waiting list." I asked if it was likely that we would get to board? She said, "Oh yes, that is no problem. You will just be the last to board." I really had no other choice so she pushed the button. Bing, zip, click 1350 Norwegian Kroner. We were the very last car in line to board. The ferry had room for another dozen cars. This is us at the end of the line.
Leaving Hirtshals, Denmark we took our place on deck for the 3 hour and 45 minute crossing of Skagerak.
This ferry was a traffic jam waiting to happen. The ferry had multiple decks filled with every type of vehicle. The unloading went smoothly but the two lane road leading to the motorway was so small that we were stuck in a line for almost one hour.
Once we were underway we were treated to the slower but more dramatic Norwegian style of roadways. We wound our way over the mountians through the woods and by the rivers.
Here is a new one: "Slow down - be careful of the sheep sleeping in the tunnel"
We finally reached the top of the grade that reconnected us with the highway into Bergen. You can tell by the photo that we are in the heart of western Norway. We we home and snuggled in our beds by 2:00 AM. The journey was unforgetable and our appreciation for both Denmark and Norway increased greatly.
