Monthly Archives: June 2012

Love you, Love you Not – Sonderborg

What's love got to do with it?

We have lived in Sonderborg for around 6 months now, and of course there are things I really love, and things I really miss. So before going home to Malta for a short holiday I thought I would think about my thoughts on living here.

Things I Love

  1. Living close to the sea
  2. My new bike (particularly that it has a Back pedal brake)
  3. Our apartment
  4. The greenness of my trip to work
  5. Basmati rice from our local ethnic store
  6. The big windows in our living room
  7. Being able to see the stars at night
  8. The friendly people we have met
  9. The friendly guy on the bus who smiles every morning
  10. My job

Things I miss

  1. Farmers’ markets on a Sunday (or any other day for that matter)
  2. Mediterranean style of interaction
  3. Being spoilt for choice with high quality shows
  4. Regular pillows! (i.e. rectangular, and offer some support)
  5. People having the vocabulary to say what they mean
  6. Ginger beer (and Kinnie)
  7. Being presented with the right utensils for the right dish
  8. Village feasts
  9. Large luscious parks to lounge about on a good day
  10. Shorter summer days, longer winter ones.

A Day in Copenhagen

There is enough going on in Sonderborg that you can easily be satisfied by the events in the area. However, every so often you need that change of scene. A good way to get that is to get yourself to one of the bigger cities around.

City Hall Square in Copenhagen

Copenhagen is an excellent place to spend the day exploring, without losing out on the comfort of your own bed in Sonderborg. This is my favourite way of spending a day in Copenhagen.

Get the train at 5:53 from Sonderborg station. If I still have some sleep to catch up on I can easily get it on the train, especially since this train is rarely too busy (especially up to Odense).

Arrive in Copenhagen at 9:50. This is perfect timing as it is right around the time when things start happening.

Drop in to the National Museum. The best thing about this museum is that it is free, so you don’t feel the need to do it all at one go. I typically pick one of the exhibit, from the olden times to the year 2000, and check it out. There are often special exhibits, so there is always something new to see.

Drinking horn at the National Museum

Time for some relaxation. Walk down Stroget, the long shopping street through Copenhagen’s centre, to Nyhavn. There pick up a pølse from one of the sausage stands, some beer, and get your tickets for a boat trip to sight-see from the water. A good way to relax for 1h while still seeing the town.

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At this point there is a couple of options:

If you are up for more museums, check out the Danish resistance museum. If you have a head for heights, back track a bit to Stroget and climb to the top of the Round Tower just off this road.

Rundetårn

By now you are probably quite hungry. Go down to Strædet (Kompagnistræde and Læderstræde running parallel to Strøget to the south) and pick one of the numerous restaurants for a relaxed dinner.

Sun over Copenhagen

Finish off your day at Tivoli. You can also opt for dinner there, or go there directly after the boat ride for an afternoon of fun, games and entertainment.

Catch one of the last trains from Copenhagen back to Sonderborg. By now you are probably quite dead. Enjoy your slumber for the 4hrs or so it takes to get to Sonderborg.

Fisheries and Shipping Museum, Esbjerg

Fishing and Shipping Museum – Esbjerg

The area around Esbjerg has been an important fishing and shipping region for a long time. Therefore, it is only apt to visit a fishing and shipping museum showing all this history when you are in the area.

The museum is divided into a number of indoor and outdoor areas. A good place to start is possibly the shipping area indoors. The displays do a very good job of showing how the shipping industry, particularly in the area, changed over time. The fishing area of the museum also does something similar, showing how the fishing industry changed and grew with different industrial and technological advances.

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If you have kids with you (or consider yourself a big kid like we do!) you might be more excited about the other areas where there is less to read and understand and more to experience. I loved the open air displays which depict different aspects of life on the coast, from a harbour and a fish drying rack, to a German bunker from WWII. On the day we visited there was also a ropemaker working in one of the buildings who was more than happy to chat to us. Apparently you can ask him to make items for you (from nets to hammocks, at a price).

Old fisherman telling tales

The highlight of the museum is probably the saltwater aquarium and the sealarium. In the aquarium you can see a variety of species that live in the sea around Denmark. There is also a shallow petting pool where it is actually permitted to touch the animals (with care, of course!). I thought the aquarium compared well in quality with other top aquaria/oceanaria I have visited (though, of course, not in size).

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In the sealarium there are 5 seals; 4 spotted seals and one grey seal – in an open-air pool. It would be good to schedule your visit to the seals with the daily feedings (that happen at 11:00 & 14:30). During feeding you really get to see them move and get a commentary from the feeder about the different seals and what they are doing.

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A very interesting place with something for all the family. It is not the largest of museums, which makes it manageable and not overwhelming as you can easily move between sections. You can easily spend 2 hrs in the museum, especially if you take your time to soak it all in. And once you’re done, don’t forget to stop by the Men at Sea statues opposite!

Cheapest train from Sønderborg

DSB has a cheap ticket type called Orange Sviptur for day trips within a region. A ticket is valid for an afternoon from 4pm to 4am and lets you travel out and back on the same ticket. However on Saturdays tickets are valid all days.

A ticket, costing 139DKK, is valid within one of four regions in Denmark; Sydjylland + Fyn, Sjælland, Nordjylland and MidtjyllandYou can even bring two kids under 12 for free on each ticket.

This makes the ticket great for a Saturday exploring our region – or combining it with other regions and see other parts of Denmark. The tickets does not cover the Storebælt bridge but you could get off the train and buy a single ticket for this part. That way you can go for a day trip to Copenhagen and back for just 278dkk (plus the ticket to cross the bridge).

Tickets can be bought on the day either in the ticket machines or by SMS. To buy a ticket through SMS you need to have a mobile subscription that lets you buy services through the phone. E.g. send a SMS to 1412 with the content ‘orange syd voksen’ for the South region.

Tips for a Tourist in Sonderborg

In the beginning of May Ann’s sister, Cecilia, and a friend came to visit us in Sonderborg for 5 days. We asked her to write a guest post about her experience. Cecilia is currently studying at DCU in Dublin.

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I am just back from 5 days spent in the Sonderborg area visiting Ann and Michael. I had been to Denmark before visiting Copenhagen and south Jutland, but this was my first visit to Als and its environs. We were blessed with some good weather, with the sun shining on most days, which was a welcome change to the Irish weather.

My main tip to anyone visiting the area is to get a good pair of comfy shoes since walking is undoubtedly the best way to see the town. The pier next to Sonderborg Slot was a favourite walking place of ours during our stay with really beautiful views and a relaxing atmosphere. But perhaps coming from a small island and now living in a big city, makes me slightly biased to the wonders of the sea (and a blue sky).

Sønderborg Slot i solen

The people in Denmark seemed to be extremely friendly, and I did not have much problems in communicating. Surprisingly enough, it was only at the tourist information in Sonderborg that I was asked whether I could speak German once I started speaking in English. Luckily I studied German for 6 years during secondary school so I managed to get the required information. However, people on the street we stopped to ask for directions, and people in shops were overall quite helpful, and even where the level of English was not that high, communication was not an issue.

If you are staying for more than 2 days, however, I would suggest you rent a car. This is because, once you spend a day visiting Sonderborg town (Sonderborg slot, perhaps the Dybbol site, and soaking in the atmosphere on the first day and Danfoss Universe on the second day), it would make sense to venture further afield. Nevertheless, keeping Sonderborg as a base is a good idea, since it is truly a lovely town and you can never get tired of walking along the pier in the evening and stopping for a coffee or ice cream at the café there.

We rented a car from Europcar in Sonderborg for the middle three days of our trip, having spent the first day walking around Sonderborg and the last day at Danfoss Universe. I was quite excited about this because I got to drive on the right hand side of the road (which is the wrong side where I am coming from i.e. Malta and more recently Ireland). But for those who have never done this before, do not despair. I did not find it to be that hard, and got into it quite quickly, although for the first day I had to keep telling myself: keep to the right…keep to the right.

Having a car, we got to go further afield. Froslev Prison Camp, I think, was one of my favourite places, being well laid out, having English versions for most (probably all) exhibits and really interesting. However, the highpoint of having a car was undoubtedly our visits to Germany, which is a short hop away from Sonderborg. Having lived on 2 different islands, this has not yet been possible to date. However, you must keep in mind that you then need Euros to use in Germany in addition to the Danish Kroner in Denmark (though with credit cards, this is a minor issue nowadays).

Us in front of Egeskov Slot

A further tip for a trip to the area is to remember to get your inner child out, especially when visiting places like Danfoss Universe and Egeskov castle. It is only by doing this that you can get maximum enjoyment out of the visit.

Tak Ann, Michael and all the people I met in Sonderborg and on this visit. I will hopefully be back :).