Friday 7 September 2018

Our Scandinavian Tour - Day 123 - 126

Tuesday 4th  to Thursday 6th September 2018 - Mostly 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Mileage 34 on Tuesday from Darum Camping to Romo Camping on the tiny island of Romo
🚴🚴 27 on Wednesday and 10 on Thursday.
Parking Co-ordinates 55.16231, 8.54571

Well, it must be said, that while we've been here I've been a bit lazy about writing this blog!!  My excuse it that the weather has just been too hot and lovely to be inside, and we've also had a bit of celebrating to do!!

πŸΎπŸŽ‰πŸΎOn the 5th of September it was 3 whole years since we started living full time in our motorhome - and hopefully we've got at least 3 more to come!!πŸΎπŸŽ‰πŸΎ



So while we've been here what have we been up to?  The answer to that would be nothing much on Tuesday.  We just drove the 30 odd miles from Darum to the tiny island of Romo which only has an area of about 128 square km, and to get there we crossed over the 9.2 km Romodaemningen causeway which attaches the island to the Danish mainland.


The whole island lies within the UNESCO listed Wadden Sea National Park and is made up of vast swaths of heaths and dunes,  along with mega wide sandy beaches that can extend the width of the island by over a kilometre at low tide - apparently they are considered Northern Europe's widest beaches.


Once we'd settled in on Tuesday we just put our feet up and enjoyed the lovely sunshine, so by Wednesday we were well rested and ready to start our explorations.  So with that in mind  our bikes took us on a complete circumnavigation of  the whole island but with lots of stops at points of interest on the way.

The first of these was Denmark's oldest and smallest school at Toftum.  It was attended by no more than 40 students in the 18th century, and now it provides a small work area that children can still visit - but at the mo it's undergoing renovation.  Then a little further down the road at Juvre we came across a fence that was made from a whale's lower jaw - I'm sure it's rather decrepit state was due to it's ancient age - it dated back to the 18th century when the population of the island lacked other materials with which to build.



Next came the huge expanse of Norreland Beach where the Danish Royal Air Force practice with their very noisy jets✈️ ✈️✈️!  The beach is closed to the public but there's a viewing platform that overlooks it, and on most days the jets shoot laser guided weaponry in the area.  We had a look from the platform but couldn't see much so we moved a little further up the coast and climbed up onto the dyke for a second viewing  - and that was when one of the noisy buggers flew over firing his weapon - the sound was deafening and it vibrated  the air and shook the ground which resulted in me jumping so far out of my skin that I had to walk half a mile to fetch it back!!  I tried to take a pic but all I got was a lot of blue sky - I really can't imagine how I missed it!





After that our ride continued mostly on off road track through pine forests, dunes and sometimes on the sandy beaches themselves, so all along our way there were plenty of  places for breaks and rests, however our last stop was at Romo Slagteren, and although we were there a while it wasn't for a break!

The Slagteren is a delicatessen and butchers shop that specialises is selling produce from the island and as we were celebrating our 3rd motor-homing anniversary we wanted something special for tea - and we got it.


The huge herds of sheep on Romo graze on grass from the salt meadows that are flooded daily by the Wadden Sea and this gives the meat a special taste - and apparently it also stops the sheep from getting worm infestations!! We selected a couple of fillets of salt grazed lamb that had been marinaded in garlic and rosemary, so with a posh salad and peppered potatoes, (and of course a drop of 🍷vino🍷)  our celebration went very well.


Then on Thursday we went along to Lakolk Stand to see the kites.  Here cars, motorhomes and pretty much any other vehicle can drive down onto the beach and several hundred had done to fly their kites.


But these weren't ordinary toys - they were bright colourful creative creations that were multi stringed and often kept their owners busy keeping them aloft, but it was a fantastic sight that filled the sky and stretched as far as the eye could see!





There was even a flying camper van!!
And if we thought it was busy today the weekend looks like being more so  because that is the date of the Romo Kite Festival, but sadly the weather looks as if it's likely to spoil their day with strong winds and lots of rain, so although we considered staying we've decided to move on as previously planned!

Friday 7th September 2018  πŸŒ§️🌧️🌧️⛅⛅☂🌧️🌧️🌧️
Mileage 27 from Romo Camping to a camper stop in Tonder
Parking Co-ordinates 54.93513, 8.87708

Well, what a night that was!!  The rain pounded down and sounded like nails hitting our roof, the wind howled and John snored πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚, so as you might imagine, I was very glad when morning came and some of the racket ceased!!  And my lack of sleep didn't really matter anyway because although this was our penultimate day in Denmark we hadn't really got much planned because rain was promised for most of the day.

Therefore, we dawdled over breakfast and once we eventually got going we only mosied a few short miles to the town of Tonder which is very near the German border.  Once there we parked in the town's Camper Stop and then dilly dallied about a bit longer so that we could have lunch before setting off for a short exploration of the town - and although it was quite a pretty one there was certainly no hussle or bussel about it.


We wandered through the old cobbled streets and as we went we learnt that this town is the oldest market town in Denmark having been granted that privilege back in 1243!
In 1532 it was hit by severe floods with water levels reaching 1.8 metres in the church despite the fact that the building sat 5.3 metres above sea level.
In  1550 Tonder lost it's direct access to the sea because dykes were built to the west of the town to prevent future flooding.
And the production of Lace is also deeply embedded in the town's history and this was evident in several shop windows.

After we'd toddled around the town we also ventured into a sculpture park where different types of material such as granite and bronze had been used to produce the works of 'art' -  but my only interpretation for the one on the left was of a very rude gesture, and the one on the right said it was a torso but I thought it looked more like a🐸!

After that our excursion was brought to an abrupt end because the huge black clouds that were swirling above us started to drop their contents on our heads so this resulted in a quick scurry back to T4rdis2 where we spent the rest of our afternoon chilling!!

So that's it - the end of our Scandinavian adventure - but not quite the end of this tour yet!  Our ferry home is booked for in a couple of weeks so we've still got a bit of time to tarry in both Germany and the Netherlands, but for now I'll sign off and we'll let you know when we get there πŸ˜—

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