Destination: Spøttrup, Denmark
So the day after our trip to Bulbjerg we packed up the entire family...us (me, Peter, Emma and Emilie), Peter's parents, his brother and girlfriend, and Peter's sister and her family (husband Uffe and children Johannes and Linnea)...for a little road trip. Here's our mode of transporation:
Actually, it wasn't. I think I'd develop a really bad case of clautrophobia riding in something like that for more than 30 seconds. But then again, if I paid $9.00/ gallon of gas I'd probably look for the most eco-friendly car I could find.
But anywho...our purpose for this road trip was to visit Danmarks bedst bevarede middelalderborg.
What is that? you ask. Let me give you a little hint:
That not enough? How about this one?
Still not enough? How about a little more?
Oh all right, here's the very last hint I'll give you, courtesy of Peter's brother.
This is Spøttrup Borg, Denmarks best preserved medieval castle. Here is the aerial view, courtesy of Google Maps:
And just in case you are curious, here's the route we took:
Continuing on with our tour, Spøttrup Borg (castle) dates back 600 years, to the early 1400's. The first known owner of Spøttrup was Niels Bugge of Hald, one of the richest landowners in the country and a very powerful opponent to King Valdemar IV of Denmark. I'm not going to pretend to know all the history of this castle, so let me just give you a brief summary of what I've read online. In 1534 the castle resisted an attack by a peasant army led by Skipper Clement. But the king overtook the castle in 1536 and gave it away. For the next 350+ years it was passed down to several rich aristocrats, and then in 1937 the Danish State took over the entire property and restored it. It is now a museum.
In order to enter the castle you must pass through two moats:
Then you find yourself in the castle courtyard. Looking to your left....
...and looking to your right:
On this particular day they were holding a medieval festival, so these women were putting on a fire-breathing demonstration. I could make a very crude joke here, but I won't.
After watching the demonstration, we toured the castle. First stop was the dining room:
Then the dancing hall (I'm so glad Peter took pictures of all the signs):
I imagine some pretty cool parties took place in this room. You know, tons of food and drink. A DJ spinning the Top 40 of the 1400's. That sort of thing. Or perhaps it was more like this.
Anywho...this not-so-little cabinet is dated 1501. It was pretty cool to just be able to touch it and open the doors and drawers, thinking back to all the other people the past 500 years that did the same.
Next stop was the Watchmen's Gallery:
Next stop on the tour was the Master Bedroom and Bathroom:
Kinda makes you thankful for our modern indoor plumbing, doesn't it?
And here I am, looking through an original mirror.
And a very cool canopy bed. Right after Peter took this shot Emma started rubbing the boobs and laughing. When she does that I refer to her as Peter's daughter. No daughter of mine would do that.
Okay, so those were the most interesting rooms of the tour (the rest looked the same, minus the interesting furnishings) so now we will go outside. When Emma spotted the horses she made a beeline for them. She loves horses and not afraid of them at all. In fact, she always asks if she can ride one.
Then we all got hungry and went back to the cars for a picnic lunch of smørrebrød and pølser.
And just for the fun of it, I'll leave you with two pictures Peter's mom took of us.
1 comments:
hey I took a pic of a car just like this in Ringkøbing one day!!!
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