Hiking in Denmark

A Bridge, The Roman Iron Age and a Bog

Posted on by Hanna

Map of a walk in an ancient bog

I find old bogs fascinating.
Four days ago we went through this bog on a road network consisting of planks and footpaths which ensures the traveller a dry shod travel.

People lived in this area for millennia.
When people dug peat in the bog in 1943 they found an old road system.

Large stones cover the road, and dates back to the Roman Iron Age.
They also found a plank laid road, 150 meter long, possibly a bridge, with 400 wooden poles that can be dated back to 2,800 BC.
Archaeologists believe the poles were meant to support a planar road across the wetlands.

Click to access Ellemosestien.pdf

Lying in the grass

Posted on by Hanna


Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply wasn’t room for any other thought.
Sophie Scholl

And ‘t is my faith, that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
William Wordsworth



…One sweet hour with the fragrance of the red clover
Herman Hesse

Gathering Sea Sandwort

Posted on by Hanna

It is popular to gather food in the wild in Denmark.
Yesterday we picked Sea Sandwort. It tastes like cucumber.

The Stag

Posted on by Hanna

If I hurry I can make it before the rain starts.
That was my last thought before I rode the bike through the deer park and down to the sea.
Beautiful cumulus clouds were building up on the horizon, and the weather forecast predicted violent thunderstorms mixed with hail in exquisite places .
The sea was wonderful. Boats were mirroring their white sails in the dark shadows from towering clouds while two kayakers were sliding past me only leaving a faint murmur behind.
On my way back through the forest the clouds became darker and suddenly I hear the familiar sound of thunder while the rain starts pouring down.
While I wait out of the rain, I suddenly see a big stag on the other side of the trail.
A few minutes we look each other in the eyes, then he disappears worthy among the trees, leaving a rush in my stomach.
Maybe it was the same stag I met on a lovely autumn day: A golden moment

After The Rain

Posted on by Hanna

The rain has continued persistently for two days. This afternoon it stopped. That gave me the opportunity to visit the ducks and the new bridge by the lake.

Midsummer, Invisibility and Freja

Posted on by Hanna

The Nordic Countries celebrates Midsummer tonight. We gather magic herbs and beautiful flowers, eat a lot of good food and drink a lot of mead.
If you can get hold of a Chicory, wear the root in your right pocket, then you are invisible and can open locked doors and treasure chests.
PS Freja lives in the Elder Tree

Happy Midsummer Everyone

Thunder and Cows

Posted on by Hanna

This was a great afternoon walk on Femsølyng a part of Rude Skov.
We didn’t catch the car before the thunder broke loose. Afterwards there was torrential rain.
What about the cows? Do they seek shelter under the trees and expose themselves to lightning?
Well, there wasn’t enough space in the car!

I always think of Johan Thomas Lundbye’s paintings of cows and landscape. This is a Study sheet from 1844 by Lundbye.

Johan Thomas Lundbye (1818-1848), Studieblad fra Vognserup. Studier af koeer og af to faarehoveder samt af staaende malkepige og en roegter, 1844-09-02


Buttercups and Fairy Miners

Posted on by Hanna

Everything is lush and green as far as the eye can see, but after a while there is something that interferes with the green.
Golden glimpse between tall pines. Buttercups. Billions of buttercups.
As if that weren’t enough, the beautiful Icelandic horses adorn the meadow and immortalise this vibrant summer day
That’s what walking is all about:
Beautiful discoveries ❤

There must be fairy miners
Just underneath the mould,
Such wondrous quaint designers
Who live in caves of gold.

They take the shining metals,
And beat them into shreds,
And mould them into petals
To make the flowers’ heads.

Sometimes they melt the flowers
To tiny seeds like pearls,
And store them up in bowers
For little boys and girls.

And still a tiny fan turns
Above a forge of gold,
To keep, with fairy lanterns,
The world from growing old.
By Wilfrid Thorley

A Poem is a walk

Posted on by Hanna

These grazing meadows are in the middle of a large wooded area.
It is an inexhaustible source of different walks.
The landscape has repeatedly been exposed to different influences of ice age, leaving a highly hilly landscape according to Danish standards. Hurray for diversity ❤

With the first step, the number of shapes the walk might take is infinite, but then the walk begins to define itself as it goes along, though freedom remains total with each step: any tempting side road can be turned into an impulse, or any wild patch of woods can be explored. The pattern of the walk is to come true, is to be recognized, discovered.
A.R. Ammons

Naturvandring.blog

The Wind and the Lake

Posted on by Hanna

Windy weather is lovely. It freshens up the air, it’s excellent when you surf, a kite loves the wind and it’s brilliant when to dry your clothes.
I wanted to see the big lake, Furesøen in the fresh weather, and I was not disappointed, but my hairdresser might have been 🙂

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Christina Rossetti