Monthly Archives: July 2013

Guest blog: The 7 Prophets

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This post was written by Anette Linnea who went on holiday in Sønderborg with her son. Anette is a busy blogger and traveller. Go to her blog and read (in Danish) her blog posts from their visit:

She also wrote a great post about a sculpture named The 7 Prophets by Zeng Chenggang that she was kind to let us translate it for this blog.

Sønderborg 2013 – De syv profeter

The summer holiday also included a visit to Sønderborg. Here we are by a statue next to the university, Alsion.

The statue is placed with its back to the university and front towards Als Sound, where sailors have the nicest view of the statue. It will stay there only till September – too bad that it is moving away again – I think this is the perfect spot for it.

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Let’s take them in sequence – first we have Socrates.

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Confucius (I believe)

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Laozi (I believe)

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Buddha

The round stone in the background represents Muhammad – who we know can not be not be depicted – instead he is present without being shown. Clever.

I didn’t realise this when I took the picture, which is why two prophets got in the same shot 😉

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Jesus

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Karl Marx – I’m not sure he would be happy to be called a prophet 😉

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It was a good thing we could scan QR codes, otherwise we would have missed out on important information:

Infomation about the sculpture

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This is when we realised the low rock with a footprint that you can step into and become one of the great thinkers.

The role was done with great concentration by the youngest 😉

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“Bird pooping on prophet”

Even the birds appreciated the statue 😉

Just before we got on the train the last day we had to stop by the 7 prophets to give them a farewell.

Anette from the blog Linneas Univers blogs about creative works, geocaching, travels and a lot more.

Zulu Sommmerbio Sønderborg

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This year the touring outdoor cinema called Zulu Sommerbio is stopping by our island. In front of Sønderborg Castle there will be two films shown.

The Untouchable: Monday August 5th 9.30pm

A true story of two men who should never have met–a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.

The film will be shown in its original French language with Danish subtitles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7g_OjLKeZ4

Skyfall: Tuesday August 6th 9.30pm

Daniel Craig is back as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Remember to bring something to sit on (garden chair, cushion) and enough warm clothes (it will get chilly by the water).

Celebrating the Mills: Wind & Water power

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Nowadays, Denmark is well known for its wind turbines, with around 50% of the world’s turbines being produced here. It is planned that 50% of electricity in Denmark will be produced by wind power by 2020. However, wind power, combined with water power, has a long history of use in these lands, as evidenced by the numerous wind and water mills around the country.

Sonderborg has 4 mills open to the public: Havnbjerg, Elstrup. Vibaek & Dybbol. They are all regularly open all year round. However, once a year, on the 3rd Sunday in June, they are open, together with many others around Denmark to celebrate their history and their function, on what is ‘Danish Mill Day‘.

This year we took the opportunity to visit 2 of these mills: Elstrup windmill and Vibaek watermill.

Elstrup Windmill

This windmill was built out of wood in 1859. It was last used to mill flour in 1970. Over time it has developed into a ‘Mill museum’, having collected and displayed artefacts connected to windmills over the years.

The mill is in serious need of a good clean and much more attention. However, this needs volunteers, which is where this mill is probably lacking. For a suggested donation of 10 DKK you can have a look around every day of the week from 9:00 to 20:00.

Here is a map of the island Als and it’s mills and churches made in 1895 by the miller at Elstrup Mill.

Elstrup molle

Vibaek Watermill

A watermill was first built in Vibaek in 1756 as a grain mill, with a number of restoration efforts along the way. It stayed in operation until 1939. In 1999 the Vibaek turbine stotteforening was set up to provide financial and practical support to the mill. It is now the only water turbine left in the area, having been beautifully restored.

Vibaek Vindmølle

One of the main functions of this association is the organisation of ‘activity days‘ throughout the summer and a Christmas market. The first activity weekend fell during the ‘Mill day’ and this is what we got to see. There was a baker baking fresh bread, which you could then buy right out of the oven, another volunteer making pastries, another making butter. There were also volunteers showing how clothes used to be washed, musicians playing, a number of local crafts people with their products and – of course – a pølse stand.

Vibaek Vindmølle

It was great to see the way that the volunteers bring this mill to life on such days. We grabbed a quick lunch of ‘boller’ and hand-churned butter made on site, and took away a loaf of bread for our dinner. The next activity days will be on the 17 and 18 of July. If you are in the area do go check it out. At only 20 DKK it is definitely worth a visit, besides helping the association maintain the mill.

Ringridning – the Highlights

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July is here and, with that, the annual tilting at the rings festival in Sonderborg. The first day I ever visited Sonderborg, long before I had any plans to move here, we had stumbled across this festival. It was a great event and one which I was looking forward to repeat once we moved here.

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Tilting at the Rings, or Ringridning, is an extended-weekend celebration of tilting at the rings and all that goes with it. There is loads going on, and you probably can’t be everywhere all the time. So what should you make sure you don’s miss? These are my personal highlights:

  • Tilting competition at the ringridning grounds: Every day. Finals and crowning on Sunday (start around 16:45)
  • Concert at the town hall square. Highly entertaining! Be there early for a good spot. Saturday at 11:00.
  • Visit Ringridning Museum. A real gem.
  • Concert and start of the cavalcade from Sonderborg castle: Friday and Sunday morning at 10:50
  • Historic tilting at the rings, by Sonderborg Castle: Saturday at 13:00. Also every Tuesday throughout the summer.

There are also a number of events that have caught my eye that I haven’t as yet seen:

  • Combined tour of the city and tilting grounds. Friday and Sunday at 12:00
  • Fireworks competition: Friday at 23:00
  • Light tattoo and fireworks. Monday from 21:00.

Other than that, just enjoy the atmosphere in town and at the ringridning grounds. Enjoy!

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The Battle of Als/Kampen om Als

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1864 is a significant year in the history of the region, with an influence that is still trickling down to the present day. This is the year of the second Schleswig-Holstein war, when Denmark fought Prussia for control of the duchies in this region.

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One of the most well-known battles from this war is the Battle of Dybbol on the 18th of June. However, for Als the defining moment is the 29th of June, when the Prussian army crossed Als Sound in the early hours of the morning and managed to take over Als. Als remained part of the Prussian/Germany lands up to the referendum of 1920.

For a long time the wounds from this war cut quite deep to the people living in the region. However, over the years the wounds of this war have abated such that the region is finding it in itself to commemorate the happenings. One of the ways this is done is by the now yearly ‘Kampen Om Als/Battle of Als‘ reenactment.

Kampen om Als was first held last year in order to promote interest in this event that helped define the Danish lands. The reenactment consists of the setting up of a historical soldier camp on the last weekend of June, with a reenactment of the crossing of Als sound.

The Soldier Camp

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The soldier camp is set up on Kær peninsula on Als. This year there were plenty of activities going on in combination with the camp for people like us who were not actively participating in the reenactment. There was food to taste, gunpowder to smell, soldier tents to see and loud bangs from firing guns and cannons to be heard. This being the second year the size of the camp is not too big. Therefore, you can get the time to enjoy every aspect without feeling overwhelmed by it all.

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The Crossing of Als Sound

This was the highlight of the reenactment for us and, probably, most of the participants. We arrived on site around 2:30am, waiting for the crossing to occur at the historically accurate time of 3am. In preparation for the crossing pictures from the time were beamed onto a sheet, setting the atmosphere for the 300 or so observers. Soon after Bjørn Østergaard started a commentary about the events of the day, what we were going to participate in and what we were seeing that continued throughout the whole event.This was probably what made the reenactment for me as it helped me understand what I was seeing and why it was significant (even with my basic Danish!).

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At 3 am boats ‘Prussian troops’ started crossing over towards Als. It was still dark so they were very hard to spot. No wonder they managed to over run Als! Once they were spotted the shooting extravaganza started. There was shooting at the boats, a battle between the Danish and Prussian on land, and the arrival of the Danish navy boat Rolf Krake. The real army, who was responsible for letting off the explosions, together with sounds and flashes, sure seemed to have had a great time preparing for this!

What next?

Next year is the 150 anniversary of 1864. This means bigger (and better things). It is already expected that next year will see around 3 times more reenactors than this year. Do keep an eye out on the website to hear about plans for next year. We will also be writing more about the event as we get closer to the date. In the meantime, if you are interested in the 1864 war, do keep an eye out on the 1864live twitter account, which is publishing short snippets about the 1864 war as they happened – with a 150 year delay.