travels with janne

I have been sleeping at a manor and feeling a breath of history.

A couple of friends of mine and I have spent a weekend at Sandbjerg Manor in the “deep south” of Denmark learning the history of the manor and the Reventlow family who owned Sandbjerg and made indelible marks on Danish history.

I must be up front and admit that I am not a history buff as such, but I think it’s important to get a feeling for what shaped the country I have been living in for the past 30+ years. The history of Denmark in general has been one of wars, romances, battles, loves and fortunes won and lost, despotic kings and enlightened kings, and inevitably, political intrigues. South Denmark is an area where the border has shifted north and south between Denmark and Germany and nationalistic feelings can still rise high particularly in this area.

The original Sandbjerg was built in 1572 on the banks of Als Sund by Duke Hans the Younger. About 100 years later the Reventlow family took over, making it their count’s estate, and Conrad Reventlow moved in. The pretty yellow building was built in 1788 for Count Conrad George Reventlow.

For centuries the Reventlow family was very close to the monarchy During the weekend at the manor we learn about some of the more colourful and famous figures of the Reventlow family.

The lovely Anna Sophie Reventlow was undoubtedly the family member who came closest to the monarchy in that she became the lover of King Frederik IV. At the tender age of 17 years she married the king in a morganistic marriage to the chagrin of his official wife, Queen Louise, who ended up living more or less in exile. Only days after Queen Louise died Frederik and Anna Sophie were married royally much to the disgust of Louise’s children, heirs to the throne. These events took place in the early 1700s.

Three kings later another Reventlow was embroiled in the workings of the monarchy. The king this time was Christian VII who lived from 1766-1808. This king was mentally fragile and somewhat mad. His chamberlain Reventlow believed in harsh and corporal discipline and was definitely not the right man for the job of forming such an mentally unstable king.

Christian VII married Caroline Matilda, the 15-year-old daughter of the Prince of Wales. This unhappy marriage ended in one of the juicier scandals of Danish history with the king’s German doctor Struensee grabbing not only the young and lovestruck Caroline Matilda but also the de facto power over Denmark, Norway and Holstein from the increasingly apathetic and distracted king. The end result for Struensee was a sentence to a gruesome death. (I recommend the recent movie about this, aptly called “A Royal Affair”.)

One a more peaceful note, Count Christian Ditlev Frederik Reventlow was another powerful family member. In the late 1700s he was influential in reforming agricultural and school laws that gave more freedom and knowledge to the farmers, paving the way for democracy in Denmark in the 19th century.

The Reventlow family still exists and the men still carry some combination of the names Christian, Frederik, Ditlev and Conrad. In fact, we find that a Ditlev Reventlow is among the weekend history course participants and that my friend went to school with his sister. Denmark is a small world!

Bornholm has a little brother – the island of Christiansø which has an even smaller brother called Frederiksø. These two tiny, even rockier islands, that are connected to each other by a small bridge, can be reached by ferry from Bornholm. I spend a whole wonderful day exploring the windswept isles that many seabirds use for nesting grounds and hanging out.

The islands are owned by the Ministry of Defence and the 100 people living here rent the houses from the ministry. Everything on the islands – including the flowers – is protected. Among the many flowers are quite a few species of orchid.

Around 1684 the Danish king chose to build a bastion on these islands because of their strategic location in relation to keeping an eye on the movements of the Swedish navy. Things were generally peaceful except for a skirmish with eight ships from the English navy. They had the upper hand for a while because the Danish cannons could not reach the British ships. Luckily for the Danes, the wind blew the ships closer to harbour and the cannons of Christiansø took revenge and the English finally turned tail. That’ll teach ‘em!

My visit is during the nesting time of various kinds of seagulls and eider ducks and I see lots of them sitting on their nests. I also see common guillemot and what looked to me like a little auk – round and stocky like a puffin but without the characteristic colourful beak.

Christiansø also houses an interesting frog genetics phenomenon that would be rather complicated to explain here. It involves pool frogs and marsh frogs, diploids (with two matching sets of chromosomes) and triploids (with an extra set of chromosomes). The bottom line is that female marsh frogs mate with male pool frogs and produce more or less exclusively female marsh frogs and male pool frogs, i.e. no male marsh frogs and no female pool frogs. Neat, eh? At any rate, both types of frogs are really cute.

I cannot resist going back to the large forest Almindingen situated in the middle of the island for another two-hour hike. This time I head for “Ekkodalen” (Echo Valley), a large rock face that creates great echoes. I feel a bit silly standing there alone, eyed by cud-chewing Scottish Highland cattle while I bleat a meagre “echo”. I try again, with more power in my voice, and yell “echo” and “hello” a couple of times. I find to my delight that it works; the rock wall talks back to me. Great fun!

The path I follow leads me unexpectedly steeply upwards and I play at being a mountaineer for a few slippery, rocky minutes, hoping that the route will soon level out. The climb leads me to a shelf of boulders that afford long-reaching views of the woods and the distant rapeseed-yellow farmland.

Later in the day, I go for a walk in another forest. Here the woods are fragrant with the delicious smell of thousands of edible wild garlic. I spot a deer that is so absorbed in grazing that I can sneak up to it very closely before it is alarmed and bounds off. I reach my goal – a pretty little waterfall called Døndal. This may not sound impressive for folks outside of Denmark, but it is for Danes because just about the only place you can find a natural waterfall in Denmark is on the island of Bornholm.

The abundance of stone on Bornholm lends itself to constructing solid buildings. One of the oldest stony edifices is Hammerhus, a fort built around 1250. It was active and important for centuries but since fell into disrepair. It is one of the largest fortress ruins in northern Europe and is now preserved. As I clamber uphill to enjoy the view over the land and the water I hear a choir practicing on the fortress grounds. The acoustics and atmosphere are perfect.

Stone has also been used to build Bornholm’s churches, some of which are round. This is a type of architecture not otherwise seen in Denmark. The most beautiful of them all, I think, is the blindingly and pristinely white Østerlars church from 1150. That’s old!

The windmills on Bornholm are old, too, and, I think, eminently more decorative than their modern, streamlined cousins. They no longer grind grain but house museums or cafes.

The rocky coast with its large rounded boulders reminds me of the Canadian Nova Scotia coastline. This, along with the large, wild woods makes me feel very at home on Bornholm.

Exploring the coast of Bornholm, I start at the beach at Dueodde on the southernmost tip of the island with its fine, white sand.

I then turn my tour northwards, visiting quaint little fishing villages along the way. Bornholm used to be big on fishing, particularly herring, and many picturesque fishing villages dot the coast. Characteristic of them are traditional houses with visible beams, houses built of stone, smokehouse chimneys and scrumptious smoked herring and other smoked fish served in the restaurants.

Since Bornholm is a small island, the distance to the water is never great. The abundance of light reflected from the water makes the island attractive to artists. The fishing villages have now become trendy, artsy towns that attract camera-toting tourists like me. Now, the fishing industry has come almost to a standstill and much of the herring are bought from Polish fishermen before being smoked on Bornholm.

In one of Denmark’s most delightful months, the month of May, I take a weekend trip to the Danish island of Bornholm. If you were to draw a map of Denmark on which Bornholm were placed correctly, you would have to use extra paper and include the southern part of Sweden. However, on most, more compact maps of Denmark, Bornholm is stuck in as an inset somewhere in the top right-hand corner of the paper, so it looks like it is floating around in the waters north of Zealand.

Bornholm is somewhat removed from mainland Denmark in more ways than one. It has more hours of sunshine than the rest of Denmark and Danes therefore call it the “sunshine island”. The island’s scenery is somewhat different from the rest of Denmark, too, much of it being shaped in stone.

Where the land is rocky, there is a paucity of farming. The upside of this is that the area is rich in untamed forests, beaches and cliffs. On my first day, I head for the hills – the Paradise Hills (Paradisbakkerne) and hike for a couple of hours in the woods. In the middle of the forest sits the natural tourist attraction “Rokkestenen”. It is a huge boulder, left behind by a glacier, and is propped in such a way that it can be moved slightly when you push it. During the day I see a snake, a tiny goldcrest and lots of hares. I hear the warble of a nightingale and the gurgle of a babbling brook. I absorb the stillness of the towering forest.

A delicate pas de deux on a flowery stage, a silent tango in a meadow, a joining of colourful featherweight bodies. It is mating time in the world of butterflies. Two Scarce Coppers sit back to back and share a quiet moment on a daisy while creating the next generation.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine, who is also a butterfly expert, and I enjoy another kind of quiet moment. We quietly observe all the life that flits and flies around us. We have found our way to a place called Addit Hede, supposedly one of the prime butterfly sites in Denmark, on one of the few Saturdays in July 2011 with no rain. Addit Hede is in Central Jutland, between the towns of Silkeborg and Horsens, somewhat well-hidden and not particularly mentioned anywhere where you would search for places to hike or camp.

The wild and peaceful meadows, heaths and forests in this location have given rise to a pleasant biodiversity so we see a nice variety of butterflies, birds, and flowers plus a frog that hops onto my shoe while I am busy photographing a butterfly.

Although it is butterfly mating time, the butterflies are not just focused on sex. They also eat. One of their favourite hangouts seems to be the blue Field Scabious, on which we often spot several butterflies at once, all elbowing for nectar. One of my photos shows several Narrow-Bordered Five Spot Burnets on one flower while another photo has a Ringlet (bottom) sharing space with a Meadow Brown (top) and an unidentified orange butterfly.

The top side of the Scarce Copper is a lovely bright orange that complements every flower it chooses while the White-letter Hairstreak (don’t you just love those names?) with its delicate white W is a kind of alphabet creature.

Kings and queens, castles and forts, intrigues, scandals and wars. The history of Denmark is long and filled with royalty, riches, plots, politics, sex and love. Nowhere is this more evident than in North Zealand, which is also known as “The Kings’ Zealand”.

In the past, large tracts of forest land were set aside for royal hunting and shipbuilding. These woods still dominate much of the landscape. Castles and manors dot the area, reminding us of past power and riches.

I have visited the hugely impressive renaissance period Frederiksborg Castle built in the reign of King Christian IV (1588-1648). The castle is surrounded by a moat. Leading down to the moat and castle is a magnificently orderly baroque garden.

The castle houses Denmark’s most important portrait collection and shows the chronological history of Denmark from the 1500s until the present. All these men and women in their fancy clothes! Silk, velvet, ermine, lace and jewels; they once clothed real people who laughed, cried, talked, walked, dined, gossiped, fell in and out of love (there was seemingly rather a lot of philandering in some cases), and got married according to political plans and designs.

Frederiksborg Castle is proof of the power and wealth of the Danish monarchy at the time. Much as we prefer democracy to absolute monarchy, our present day democracy does not have the same ability to foster such artistic and cultural pearls, such impressive grandeur. The kings had great power and wealth in which to luxuriate; the present system must take more heed of wishes and tastes that pull in different directions.