Tag Archives: waterfront

Pancake Hut at the Marina

Up to now if we wanted a pancake we drove to Genner Hoel to the pancake house there. However, now we have one just down the road from our house, in a wooden hut at the Lystbadehavn marina (opposite the Sonderborg Yacht Club).

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The pancake hut was opened on Friday by Emil Thusing. It offers, as is to be expected, pancakes, with toppings including honey, chocolate/strawberry/caramel sauce, sugar and cinnamon. Coffee, tea and juice are also on offer. At a cost of 25 DKK per pancake and 10 DKK for the drinks the prices are very reasonable.

The hut has no set opening hours, but Emil expects to open daily during summer (Except Mondays) from 15:00-21:00. We checked it out today for dessert during our after dinner walk. It did take a while to get a pancake, potentially as the pancake iron was cold, but once it arrived it was pretty good. I am sure once Emil gets more practice he will get quicker as well.

So if during the hot days coming up your are looking for something sweet on your walk along the water don’t forget to check out the pancakes!

Check the Pankagehytten on Facebook for updates. You can pay in cash or with MobilePay.

Ambitious Waterfront Hotel in Sønderborg

The plans for the harbour front in Sønderborg does not lack ambition. One of the pieces of the “Gehry’s Masterplan” that has gotten a bit more concrete lately is the hotel and waterpark.

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If built the hotel will be 85 meters tall with 18 floors. That means that from the top floor you will be able to see all the way to Aabenraa and Flensburg! Furthermore the current plan is that the top floor should be open to the public (crossing our fingers for this to happen). To get an idea of what the view will be like Zoom Film made this visualisation:

The hotel will have 210 rooms, conference facilities and – look at this – a water park both with space for fun and games as well as wellness and saunas for the well-off tourists.

Waterpark in Sønderborg

The building is design by Henning Larsen, one of Denmark’s architectural icons within the last couple of decades (or his company, Mr. Larsen passed away June 22nd this year). Henning Larsen Architects have previously made The Opera House and ITU in Copenhagen and The Wave in Vejle.

Read more about the project from:

Henning Larsen Architects
Press release from 2010
August newsletter

Go kayaking on Alssund

Sonderborg is surrounded by a lot of water and it is one of the best places in Denmark to kayak as it is almost always possible to find calm waters to sail in.

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Before moving to Sonderborg I had researched what watersports there are in the area and had fallen for the idea of joining Sønderborg Kajak Klub the local kayak club.

In order to be a member you have to complete a “beginners course” which is done in the spring. There are limited places available for the beginners course so it is a good idea to sign up before April 1st.

The first test before you get in a kayak is a swimming test. You have to be able to swim 600 meters. After that the course starts on the water. The course is either done over 8 evenings or throughout a weekend + one evening. In the course of the programme you have to kayak at least 50 km and be able to perform different tasks in the kayak.

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Parts of the requirements are that you fall in the water a couple of times. And as our course was the first of the year we got our first dip in 7 degrees water in May. BRRRRR – that sure makes your heart beat!

Once you have completed the course and the tests you are allowed to take the clubs kayaks out on your own.

We did the course last spring and this year we have recently started to go out on our own. And it is a great experience to get out on the water.

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Sønderborg Kajak Klub

The club was started in 1938 and today it has about 250 members and 40 boats which means there is always a boat available when you want to go out.

The club house is right on the water close to the new bridge. This means that you just carry your boat out of the boathouse and into the water – very convenient.

Membership is 850 DKK per year, however the first year it is 1000 DKK including the beginners course.

Take the Flensburg-Glucksburg ferry

Sonderborg lies in a region of islands and fjords. Water is a dominant feature of the area, making travelling by boat a realistic and practical, not to mention pleasurable, proposition.

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A pleasant ferry ride in the region that is less about the transport and more about the pleasure goes from Flensburg to Glucksburg. The ferry M/S Viking, leaves from the Flensburg pier and arrives in Glucksburg, close to the Strandhotel. From there you can decide to either laze on the beach or walk up to the castle, around 20-30 minutes away.

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On the way from Flensburg to Glucksburg the ferry takes you around the ‘Okse’ islands, close to the Danish side of the fjord while the way back is along the German side of the fjord. I have only done the Glucksburg-Flensburg part of the trip, following a visit to Glucksburg castle, but look forward to doing the Danish side of the trip!

The ferry ride costs 6€ one way/9€ for a return trip. You can also take your bike along to explore the area around the fjord for 3€. Tickets are simply bought on the boat so don’t worry about finding a ticket booth before hand.

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Flounder In Hand – Günter Grass Sculpture

If you have been for a stroll along the waterfront in Sonderborg you have probably come by the statue “Butt Im Griff” by Günter Grass – here’s a story of the sculpture and the man who created it.

Günter Grass: "Butt im Griff", Sønderborg

Günter Grass is a German-Kashubian Nobel Prize winner in literature and is widely regarded as Germany’s most famous living writer. Apart from being a novelist he is also a poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist and, as we can experience in Sonderborg, a sculptor.

His background and life story is remarkable to say the least. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (Gdansk) in ’27 and as a 17 year old Nazi sympathizer served in Waffen SS during the last years of WW2 where he got wounded and ended up in an American prisoner of war camp. His native Danzig was captured by the Soviet Army and later annexed by Poland, which expelled its German population. So Grass could not return home and found refuge in West Germany.

During the revolution when the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain came down around 1989 Grass opposed the unification of East and West Germany arguing that a unified Germany would become militant and threaten world peace.

In April of this year the 84-year old Grass can still cause controversy. He released a poem about Germany selling a submarine to Israel that enraged the Israelis so much that they have declared him a Persona Non Grata.

Grass works his way through a topic, story or theme by using different artforms over a number of years. He usually starts out working with a theme in graphic design, then moves on to sculptures and, finally, writing the story. That was also the case with the flounder where he first created engravings, then the sculpture was created and later he turned it into the novel The Flounder.

Grass explained the sculpture like this: “The talking fish is like a book. As a book the flounder keeps and tells the story. It gives information, advises and predicts the future. It creates discussions and is pugnacious itself.”

The fishhand on Sonderborg Harbour

The sculpture was bought by the municipality of Sonderborg to go on the newly built promenade at the waterfront in 2004 and to reveal it the whole Danish royal family was in town. If you read Danish there is an entertaining article about the day with the crown prince hugging a grillbar owner and the royal ship not being able to pass Christian X bridge because too many people standing on it.

First picture is by Arne List. For more pictures see this flickr gallery.