Monthly Archives: June 2013

Hustle and bustle during market days

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Sonderborg Handel is Sonderborg’s chamber of commerce, bringing together the shops and business in the area. One of its main tasks is to draw customers in to the city. And one of the ways this is done is by organising ‘market days’.

There are two main sets of ‘market days’ organised in town. These are the Market Days in June and the International Market Days in July. The Market Days have already happened this year, but you are still in time for the International Market Days!

So what happens?

Well, in the June set of market days the shops all put on offers and make an effort to showcase their products to the customers. However, there is even more than that. What really caught my eye was the ‘kunst telt’ where there were local producers showcasing their crafts. As always, I am particularly drawn at things made of wood. not sure why. Maybe as in Malta wood isn’t used that much except for furniture, considering we have no forests from where to get it!

This year, the Market days also coincided with the Danish-German Music day, where musicians from all over the Southern Denmark and Schleswig Holstein meet to play in a number of locations in one town. And this year, it was Sonderborg. Combine a market day with a music day, and you get a very busy and lively town. Oh, and don’t forget to add sunshine! It really makes me happy to be in Sonderborg on days like that.

So now all that is left is to cross our fingers for good weather in July for the International Market Days. Last year I remember cheese and sweets from around the world. What will there be this year?

Kieler Woche

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Kieler Woche, or Kiel week, is the largest sailing event in the world combined with one of the largest town festivals in Germany, attracting over 3 million people every year. Events are organised all along Kiel Fjord, with most of the cultural programme focussed on the inner parts of the Fjord and the sailing events focussed around the Olympic harbour (Schilksee).

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Every year Kieler Woche falls on the last week of June, with the events starting on Saturday 22nd June and ending with a fireworks display on Sunday 30th June this year (2013). We made it down there on the opening Saturday to get my first ever taste of Kiel.

Getting There

Driving from Sonderborg to Kiel takes around 1.5hrs. However, Kiel week is particularly crazy, with parking being a big issue. For a more relaxing arrival and departure, leave your car in Flensburg and take the train from Flensburg directly to Kiel. There are trains every hour during the day, and running into the night (extra trains are organised at night on this route during Kiel week). If you are 2-5 people in the group, a Schleswig Holstein group ticket is your cheapest offer.

Getting around

An issue with Kiel week is that the events are spread all over the Fjord. Good walking shoes are a must, but even those will not be enough to get you from the central harbour area to Schilksee for the races. There are two options here: buses (if you have a Schlewsig Holstein ticket you can take a bus from the train station to there for free) or the more scenic option, a ferry. Buses 501 and 502 run from the train station (bus stop A1) to Schilksee every half an hour (3 €) and takes around 45 minutes.  The ferry (4€) takes around 1.5 hrs but is a good way of resting your legs on the way back after a day of walking.

What to do

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Where do we start? There is plenty to do, and having been there only once we don’t dare to even think that we figured out half of what is going on. However, a good plan if this is your first time is to arrive at the train station and have a walk around the harbour area. This area is mainly full with food stalls. From there, walk along the water to the Kiellinie (harbour promenade), where there is more food, fair ground areas, but also other stalls e.g. by the University of Kiel.

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At the end of Kiellinie your main next destination is Schilksee to see some races. We took a bus back to the train station, where we grabbed some lunch and jumped on a bus to Schilksee. This is probably not the best option. We later discovered the ferry: so what you can do is either back track a bit to Reventlou bridge or walk a bit further to Bellevue bridge and take the ferry from there to Schilksee.

Schilksee is the area where most of the sailors are located. It is nowhere near as busy as the inner harbour area. There is also a beach right next to it if a swim is what you are looking for. Having enjoyed Schilksee you can then take the boat or bus back to town, where you can grab some dinner and enjoy the atmosphere.

To know what is going on in Kiel, you can also download the Kieler Woche app to be able to quickly look through events.

When to go

Kieler Woche, as the name implies, is on all week. However, the weekends are the busiest so if you’re going for the atmosphere that is your best bet. We also arrived in Kiel around 10:30 am (it should have rained later and wanted to get in as much as possible before it arrived). In the circumstances, the rain didn’t arrive, so 10:30 was a bit early. Arriving around 11-11:30 is probably a good idea, especially if you want to enjoy the night life of the place.

If you want more information, a good website we found for planning our trip was this one.

Scenic flight sightseeing over Sønderborg

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On a clear blue June day we took the short ride up to the local airport just outside Sonderborg. We were meeting up with pilot Gudny Jakobsen who was going to take us on a tour around Als – by plane.

Gudny Jakobsen - the pilot that took us on the scenic flight

Gudny is doing scenic flights from Sønderborg all summer this year in a small Cessna with room for three passengers.

We went out to the plane, got it warmed up and off we went. And what a trip! – we both really enjoyed the views you get from the air. It was pretty amazing. We made this 2 minute video of the trip:

I think our region will be a pretty sight for everyone from the air. If you have some local sense of place it’s really amazing to see the well known places from high up looking like small Lego scenes. I couldn’t stop having a big smile on my face the whole trip 🙂

I took more than a 100 photos on the trip but here are a few of my favorites of wellknown places and new discoveries.

Summerhouses outside Høruphav where each house has a circular plot.

Toy houses in circles by Høruphav

Sønderborg on both sides of the sound looking amazing from the air with the old “Christian X bridge” and the new “Alssundbro”. You can also spot the new big mall Borgen, 

Beautiful Sønderborg

The science theme park Universe and the vast complex of Danfoss on North Als.

Universe og Danfoss

The village of Guderup and the production company Linak’s headquaters.

Linak from the air

Kegnæs “The quiet place” as I call it is a peninsula at the south of Als with few cars and nice views.

Kegnæs/Kegnaes the quiet peninsula

The first of the new buildings on the harbour is done and looks like white blocks on top of each other.

Christian den X bro og Jomfrusti

The quiet waters of Augustenborg Fjord with a solitary sailboat edging along.

A boat in Augustenborg Fjord

The Cessna 172 plane Gudny flies is from 1968 and the plane is really something special. I thought flying a small plane like this would be more bumpy but that turned out not to be the case at all. Take off and landing were remarkably smooth. It felt like being in a flying VW Bettle with leather seats wooden beams and cute round windows.

Us sitting in the flying Bettle (Cessna)

Check our Flickr for more pictures and we also made a timelapse video of the flight.

The flights are done every day of the week and tours start at 395 DKK for the shortest trip. To try it out you can just walk up to the airport and see if one of the two pilots are available. Or you can call ahead and book a flight on phone number +45 23 42 62 12. Read more.

Disclaimer: Our trip on the scenic flight was sponsored.

Take the boat to Store Okseø

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The ‘Beef islands’, better known asOkseøerne, are two small islands lying in Flensburg Fjord close to the coast in Sønderhav. You see them every time you drive along the coast from Flensburg to Sønderborg and we have always intended to visit.

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Of the two islands, only the bigger one, Store Okseø, is regularly accessible to the public. The island is nowadays owned by the Environment Ministry. The island is quite small, at 0.08 sq km. However, besides a restaurant and some other buildings, there is not much else besides sheep, trees and coast line.

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Keeping this in mind, when Denmark got really nice weather for a weekend and we thought that a picnic on Store Okseø would be perfect. And in fact it was! The ferry taking people over is quite small, so the island doesn’t get overcrowded. This means that even on a nice day you can get a spot away from the others to enjoy the (great) views across the Fjord.

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There is also a 1km path going around the island that you can follow. If you are interested in this, don’t forget to take a map at the bridge before taking the ferry across.

The ferry runs in summer (end of June – start of September; Tue-Sun 11-18) and the shoulder seasons (end of May – end of June + start of September – end of September Sat-Sun 11-18). At a cost of 45 DKK it is well worth it to spend a few hours in the peace and quiet of the island. Oh, and if after your trip there you are looking for a bite to eat, you can either grab something at the restaurant on the island. Alternatively, you can check out another of our 99 things to do: Annie’s Kiosk just across the road from the ferry departure point.

Alsie Express Sønderborg – Copenhagen flights

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A new airline is starting to fly from the airport in Sønderborg to Copenhagen.

After the collapse of Cimber Airline a company called DAT has been flying – but only during weekdays. Now Danfoss and Air Alsie have teamed up to give DAT some competition on the route.

Their joint project was first slated to be named “Mojn Express” but I guess that didn’t fly. So instead they named it Alsie Express. The name might not be edgy but the colour scheme is sure to make people do a double take.

Alsie Express

This week we were on a boat as one of the new planes were doing take-offs and landings and the comment from the skipper was: “That is a military aircraft – no commercial company would paint their planes like that”. Well Alsie Express did – and I like it! It looks a bit like a secret stealth aircraft. I’m hoping they don’t keep it a secret and keep it flying.

The new airlines starts June 17th 2013. Ticket sales start today.

Schedule

SØNDERBORG-Copenhagen Copenhagen-SØNDERBORG
Monday to Friday Monday to Friday
07.15 – 08.00 08.30 – 09.15
10.00 – 10.45 11.20 – 12.00
13.30 – 14.20 15.15 – 16.00
16.30 – 17.15 17.45 – 18.30
20.00 – 20.45 21.45 – 22.30
Saturday Saturday
07.45 – 08.30 09.00 – 09.45
09.00 – 09.45 17.15 – 18.00
Sundays Sundays
09.30 – 10.15 19.45 – 11.30
16.00 – 16.45 19.30 – 20.15

Ticket prices

Tickets start at 495 one-way.

Alsie Express looking cool

Sonderborg Welcome Experience

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You arrived in Sonderborg. Excited about your new life. The sun is (hopefully) shining. The water is shimmering. A great start. You explore the place for the first few days. Questions arise. But where do you find the answers? What have you missed by exploring on your own?

These are questions that hit most newcomers to Sonderborg at some point or another. There is the kommune for regulatory questions (if you can speak Danish), the tourist office for tourist-related questions. But what about those other questions? And that is where the ‘Sonderborg Welcome Experience‘ comes in.

This event was the outcome of a university project by a group of non-Danish students at SDU in Sonderborg. The question they were trying to tackle in their project is how to make newcomers to the area feel more welcome. During a workshop to discuss this, it was clear from all present that a big problem people find is how and where to find the information they need.

Sønderborg Welcome Experience

And this is (part of) the solution: A tent set up in front of the town hall, with information about Sonderborg, Danish food, activities in the area, as well as a way of showing that you are not alone in struggling with the Danish language and culture. The first such event was held the past weekend. However, there are plans to repeat this at semi-regular intervals.

Another great thing is that the resources generated for this event are not restricted just to people attending. One of the possibly most useful resources is a map of sports clubs and cultural sites in the area. Although I am a member of 2 clubs, I had no idea there was actually so much variety! So if you’re into sports, and you haven’t found the relevant club, or are looking at starting something new, do check it out. And if anything has been missed, do leave a comment and we will make sure it gets added.

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Fish Market on Sundgade

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This past weekend, as we were driving over King Christian’s bridge we were surprised to see a lot of people on the fish harbour on the Dybbol side of Als sound. Not ones to miss out on a happening we decided to make a small detour down to Sundgade to check out what was going on.

Fish Market Sonderborg

The ‘happening’ was the yearly fish market. The market, as is to be expected, consists of a number of stalls selling fish, from herring, to flat fish, to shrimp and crabs. There was also a stall with people ready to clean the fish you have just bought!

Besides the fish stalls there was also a second hand market. According to one of the stall holders there, the market is held in order to show ‘the authorities(?)’ that there is still life on the harbour, and that it should be kept just as it is.

And life on the harbour there definitely was on this day! People really seemed to be enjoying themselves. The blaring sun, together with (more than) a couple of beers (for some) and a ‘schlager music’ style band seemed to combine into a happy crowd.

From looking at previous events it appears that the fish market is held every first Saturday of June. The stall holder did mention that there are 4 markets a year, but I suspect that is only true for the second hand stalls. But now you have been warned! If you see a loud, slightly drunk crowd on the Dybbol side of the sound, there’s no need to worry – it’s only the fish market.