Mons Klint

Our guidebooks described the island of Mons as charming and unspoiled, with beautiful chalk cliffs, and since we have always had an interesting time visiting out-of-the-way islands, we gave it a go. This church is one of three very similar village churches we passed on our drive across the island.





This is the cafeteria (and behind it, the hotel) where we planned to eat and spend the night. It was a great spot... at the end of a dirt road, surrounded by forest, with the cliffs and ocean nearby...but as you can probably guess from the picture, the place was completely abandoned, and looked like it'd been so for a while. That's our rental car, and I look like I am literally tapping my foot with impatience. Oh Lonely Planet, how you failed us!





We decided that since we'd driven all that way, we may as well see the cliffs (which were accessed via a trail behind the hotel) and ran down the 500,000 steps to the lookout so we could get there before the sun went completely down. Thank goodness you can't see how much I am huffing in the picture.




After climbing back up the 500,000 steps to our car, we had a decision to make. We could drive the hour or more back to the highway and then drive until we found a city and a hotel, or we could backtrack to that cute little town we passed through a half hour ago and see if that tiny hotel there was open, (which we were pretty sure it wasn't) or we could check out that slightly strange looking golf hotel we passed by 20 minutes ago. Since it was after 8pm at this point the strange looking golf hotel won, despite a rather shocking room rate and trailer-like building style. This was our first inkling that there is a specific tourist season in that part of the world, and it had ended a few weeks before we got there. I usually prefer traveling in the shoulder or off season, but when it means stuff is closed, well, it just becomes a little more of a challenge. At least dinner was pretty good...though you might not think so from the picture. The plate in front of me is monkfish stuffed with shrimp over veggies and the other is grilled zucchini gratin with dill dressing. Vegetable gratin seemed to be the standard (often the only) vegetarian dish on the menu in the Scandanavian countries.

The ugly American

That might look like a big slab of grilled chicken, but its really a delicious sandwich. In the background is a plum tart, and the drink is ApfelSchorle, a sort of 50/50 mix of apple juice and sparkling water. I got to flex my German here, which worked quite well for ordering and paying. The trouble came afterward, when the woman behind the counter let loose a long stream of words, and the only one I understood was "Fork!" Or perhaps it was "Forks!" Hmmm. I believe I may have mumbled the equivalent of "huh?" when a bilingual customer came to my aid, calling me "English" to the woman behind the counter and explaining that I was to help myself to the silverware, then wait at my table outside and the sandwich would be brought to me when it was ready. Ah! Interestingly, we were often mistaken for "English" or British... almost no one thought we were American. In the Scandinavian countries some thought we were Germans who spoke English really well. This seems like a Good Thing, because who wants to be pegged as an American traveler in today's climate, and have to answer uncomfortable questions about our current leadership? On the other hand, I read recently in a BBC article that the British, not the Americans, are now considered the worlds worst (rudest and most "linquistically incompetant") tourists... so... well...hmm.




A last look at Lubeck.






Views of the ferry from Puttgarden, Germany, to Rodby, Denmark. I really like ferries, especially calm, easygoing ones like this one. There were plenty of people on this ferry, though you can't tell from the deck photos. Everyone was inside, eating a quick dinner of fried things from the galley. In the photo of the two of us, Darrin has his anti-motion sickness drug of choice (fizzy soda) and I've got guide books, trying to figure out where in Denmark we might stay that night.