Deer Park and Fastelavn

After spending time hiking in one of Denmark's nature preserves, I understand why many people from Scandinavia ended up in Minnesota - the scenery was quite familiar. This Sunday I went hiking in Dyrehaven, the king's old hunting grounds. The deer still live there, but today it's a park rather than a hunting preserve. In some parts we almost slipped because of mud and in other parts ice hindered our path, but it was still a great time. We did see a herd of deer go thundering across the path, and there we also saw several groups grazing in the woods. Here's one picture I took, and several more can be found here: http://www.copenhagenpictures.dk/dyrehaven-deer-park-klampenborg-denmark.html

Like many other European countries, Denmark still celebrates its pre-Lent carnival traditions. Unlike other countries, their traditions previously included putting a cat in a barrel and hitting the barrel for good luck. Now there's only a picture of a cat on the barrel, and instead it's filled with candy. Children dress up and collect candy, and sometimes adults dress up too. It's still considered a holiday primarily for children, though that didn't stop me from getting my face painted. Happy Fastelavn!

Short Study Tour

 

Studying with DIS includes the opportunity to participate in various study tours. This weekend my core course traveled to parts of Western Denmark and Germany. 

 The first place we stopped was the battlefield of Dybbøl. Denmark used to posses a great deal more territory than it does now, including Sweden, Norway, and much of Northern Germany. Many consider the loss of Southern Jutland in 1864 the end of Danish power in Europe. There wasn't too much to see on the battlefield itself -- just an iconic windmill in the background.

After that we visited a site that under German (Nazi) administration was called Frøslev. Towards the end of the war as anti-Nazi sentiment was building in Denmark, Germany built a camp to house various groups, including the majority of the Danish police force. While there were no summary executions or instances of starvation in Frøslev, it certainly was not summer camp. After the end of WWII, the Danes re-purposed the camp as a holding facility for German Prisoners of War and was renamed Fårhus. Currently the museum on the camp grounds only commemorates victims of Danish descent, but next year the director plans to open an exhibit detailing the events after the war as well. 
 

From there we traveled to Hamburg, the second-biggest city in Germany. One of the most interesting places we visited was the church of St. Nikolai, a memorial to the victims of the firebombing of Hamburg. Only the church tower and a few of the walls remain, and they clearly exhibit damage done during the war. However the memorial's overall attitude towards war intrigued me the most. At the end of the  plaque commemorating the destruction of Hamburg was a sentence that essentially apologized for the destruction that Germany brought to the rest of Western Europe during WWII. 

 

On the way back from Hamburg, we took the international ferry. I wish we could have spent the last 2 hours of the bus ride on the ferry instead -- there were duty-free shops on board, as well as cozy lounge decks. But the bus was fine too.