Coastline, culture, religion and the island of Als.
It was with heavy hearts that we left the Danish Lake District, but the torrential rain just made the decision that little bit easier. Next stop on the Hymertrails tour was Kolding, a beautiful mix of old and new (according to our Lonely Planet) nestled at the top of the Kolding fjord.
We meandered south through the rain stopping briefly at a Hundeskov near Gammel Rye for a houndy jaunt and some lunch. Onwards as ever until we reach the outskirts of Kolding and park up to find a wild camp spot for the evening, our luck is in we find a great quiet fjord side spot.
It was only a small car park full of local fishermen, students in cars from the local university and of course Hank. We had driven past some seriously amazing houses to get to our little park up. I’m guessing there’s a bit of money in this part of Kolding when you leave the ’cheap car’, a very fancy looking Porsche on the drive and put the decent car in the glass garage, overlooking your own personal pontoon on the fjord.
After a fairly uneventful and damp evening, it was a lovely bright morning so walkies on the fjord beach was needed. Tilly and Belle really love their morning walk, they are always, without fail, eager to get out of Hank and explore their surroundings. Lucky hounds today with a perfect slice of Danish coastline.
Once again our trusty Lonely Planet pointed out that there is a fabulous modern art and design museum, Trapholt, in Kolding so we set off on a short drive to the opposite side of the fjord to find it and experience a bit of culture.
It was a fabulous place with some brilliant exhibitions, chairs, ceramics and an amazing modular house from the 70’s.
Time to get going and the road takes us further south down the eastern coast of Jutland. This is a far gentler coast compared to the wild North Sea coast on the West. We are also now looking out on the Baltic Sea for the first time. Yippee!!
As with most days on this Danish road trip we find ourselves searching out an overnight stop by late afternoon. We consult the amazing Park4night app and check the route ahead. Bingo, tonight we are staying in a UNESCO village called Christianfeld, a Morovian religious village that on first impression seems a little unusual.
Christianfeld was founded in 1773 in South Jutland, and is is an example of a planned settlement of the Moravian Church, a Lutheran free congregation centred in Herrnhut, Saxony. The town was planned to represent the Protestant urban ideal, constructed around a central Church square. The architecture is homogenous and unadorned, with one and two-storey buildings in yellow brick with red tile roofs. Apparently!!!
It was a fascinating place to visit if a little Handmaids Tale!
The following morning we headed further south and crossed over onto the island of Als.
We were headed to a campsite at Sonderby, the farthest point south on Als. We’ve had a busy few days and will have some big driving days coming up as we push back down through Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium into France for our last few days. A campsite is sometimes good to chill, do a few chores, catch up with reading and other relaxing stuff. Sonderby Strand turned out to be a Baltic gem, a really pretty village and a sunset spot extraordinaire!
Reality starts to kick in and we know that we have to go back at some point so we bid farewell to the island of Als and head further south the following day. Meandering along the coast heading to the German border we make one last beachside stop and bid farewell to Denmark with a tearful goodbye!
Crossing back to Germany we hit a major motorway and have a bit of a rude awakening, traffic, we haven’t seen much since getting to Denmark over 2 weeks ago. We’re heading for Hamburg which has a dire reputation for traffic congestion so we take a deep breath and cross fingers and paws…
Catch us next time as we travel even further south to France before the final leg home to Wales.
The Hymertrails gang.
