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Land of theVikings
LOOKING for a family holiday destination with a difference? How about Denmark? It's the smallest and southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, its mainland bordering Germany to the south, with coasts facing on to the North and Baltic seas.
For the past two years Denmark, with a population just under 5.5m, has been ranked "the happiest place in the world", based on standards of health, welfare and education. Its capital, Copenhagen, was rated the third best city to live in.
The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland, and a number of bigger islands (including Zealand and Funen) as well as hundreds of smaller islands, often referred to as the Danish Archipelago. (There are 443 named islands, 76 inhabited, with 1,419 islands above 100 square metres.)
We headed for West Jutland, famous for its fantastic beaches, in late August, a good time to go as our children were on holiday and their Danish counterparts had returned to school.
Sadly, Denmark was experiencing a summer as disappointing as ours. Although we enjoyed long walks on the vast expanses of windswept sand, and marvelled at the dramatic skyscape, there was no scope for sunbathing.
Never mind - we did lots of cycling instead. This is a country that's mainly flat, and the huge dunes afford protection from the North Sea breeze as you pedal through forests, nature reserves and along the banks of Ringkobing Fjord, the biggest enclosed area of water in Denmark (around 300 square kilometres), a haven for watersports enthusiasts and birdwatchers.
You can also take a trolley-cycle ride along disused rail tracks, or travel aboard an old English open-top double-decker bus through the lush green countryside around Tarm and Skjern.
The young ones had hours of fun whooshing down the waterslides at our base at SeaWest, just over an hour's drive from the airport at Billund (or 45 minutes from the ferry port of Esbjerg.)
Legoland, the original (opened in 1968, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year) and still the best, is also just outside Billund, and fully merits a whole day out.
The Bork Vikingehavn Museum was another highlight, with authentic buildings and costumes based on the Viking era, between the eighth and 11th centuries, when explorers would set out from here to conquer parts of Britain and France, and set up trade routes from Greenland to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul). We saw how jewellery would have been made, had a shot on the longbow, drank warm wine by the fire in the longhouse and listened on board the longship as a big fierce-looking bloke in Viking garb proved appearances can be deceptive by charming the children with fascinating tales of pillage and plunder.
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| Fisherman's hut near Nymindegab |
A short drive away was Ribe, Denmark's oldest town, which used to be the starting point for the earliest Viking expeditions. Today it's still very much a market town, relatively bustling by Danish standards, with a population of 10,000.
The cathedral is interesting, with a mix of architectural styles, mainly Romanesque but also Gothic.
Not surprisingly, given its heritage, Ribe also has a Viking museum, as well as art galleries, restaurants and bars and good shopping.
It's also a good stopping-off point on the way to the Wadden Sea, one of the world's top 10 tidal flats.
At low tide this becomes an enormous feeding area for migrating birds (every year between 10 and 12 million water birds nest here), and it's also home to Denmark's largest population of common seal.
It's often possible to see the seals in the wild, although if you're out of luck with the timing of your visit, as we were, you can still see the creatures in the recently opened saltwater aquarium at Esbjerg Fisheries and Maritime Museum.
Instead we took a tractor-bus across to Mando, a tranquil world away from the bustle back home, making sure not to be late, as the tiny island is well and truly cut off at high tide.
factfile
Sterling Airways, Scandinavia's first low-cost airline, has daily flights from Gatwick to Billund and Aalborg in Jutland and to Copenhagen. Prices start from £25 per person each way. Visit sterling.dk or call 0870787 8038 for more details.
Europcar offers car hire rates from £150 per week. To book visit europcar.co.uk or call 01123 422 233.
Denmark's newest holiday centre, SeaWest, is in an area of natural beauty and close to magnificent beaches that stretch more than 60km from Blavandshuk to Hvide Sande with extraordinarily tall sand dunes. Accommodation is in a choice of well-appointed one- and two-storey houses. One week costs from £350 for a family of up to four adults and two children sharing a Fiskerhus. Visit stranhotellerne.d
Cycle hire, from Brittom, at Houstrup, near SeaWest - visit brittom.dk or call +45 752 88 453.
Legoland, Billund - call +45 75 33 1 333 or visit LEGOLAND.dk
For information on the West Jutland region, log on to visitnordjylland.dk or visitvestjylland.com and for more information on Denmark go to visitdenmark.com
7:30am Saturday 8th March 2008
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