I was awoken by a housekeeper at around 10:00am, and told I needed to check out of my room, no time for a shower. I wandered along the Skagen harborfront for a while, but it was quite chilly, and most of the vacationers were long gone. I stopped at a waterside seafood spot for a sandwich of tiny little shrimp- a local specialty- topped with caviar, and then promptly headed south. While I liked having the car, save for visiting the castle, the rest of Denmark had been kind of underwhelming. I decide to head to Sweden. But first, one last stop in Jutland, in the town of Silkeborg, to visit the Tollund man. In the 1950s, a great deal of work was done in the Bogs around Jutland, mainly mining the peat. The peat cutters were amazed to finds hundreds of human bodies, which had been shockingly well preserved by the unique chemical composition of the peat. The bodies were sent to scientists, and found to date from the Iron Ages- around 300BC. The bodies were remarkable for a number of reasons, not just the state of preservation they were in. Cremation was common then, so the fact that these bodies were buried was odd. Furthermore, many had clearly died gruesome deaths. Many bodies had gaping stab wounds, and the Tollum man still had the woven leather noose around his neck from which he was hung. Others seemed to be in a ritualistic sacrifice- a 14 year old girl was found in a ceremonial robe with her hair closely cropped. It is suggested that perhaps these bodies were offered to the supernatural spirits thought to inhabit the bogs. The Tollund man is the best preserved of all of these bodies, and absolutely haunting. He appears to be made of leather, and the detail in his skin- the wrinkles of his fingers, his nails, the stubble on his chin, is amazing. He is displayed as he was found, in a fetal position. From Silkeborg its off to Arhus, where I take a typically expensive ferry over to Zealand. The ferry lasts an hour, and I find the coasts of Zealand to be much more picturesque than Jutland, though the roads are quite twisty, so the 911 attempts to get away from me on a number of occasions. From here I drive across to the Swedish city of Malmo, my destination for the evening. After hundreds of years of discussion, a bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden was finally built in 2000, and it is awesome. Imagine the way the Golden Gate Bridge would look if it was built today, and by the top Scandinavian designers. The bridge is not very crowded, probably due to the heft toll, and I am able to reach ungodly speeds while crossing it. Malmo turns out to be an absolute delight. I find a great hotel filled with antiques right off the main square, and at a very reasonable rate. I grab dinner in a lively square, and find that the people of Sweden are absolutely beautiful. Though it is nearly eleven by the time I finish dinner, I walk the streets of Malmo for hours, stopping in a number of bars and clubs. Everyone is very friendly, and I find Swedes to be very proud of their country, and happy to give suggestions. Most people are surprised to find I am American, apparently I am neither obese nor obnoxious. One of my favorite insights on foreign relations came from a guy that I met in a bar that would be Malmos version of the Lower East Side. “The Americans” he started, clearly hesitant not to offend, “You really need the syrup on your pancakes, you know?” Indeed. At about 4:00am, I head back to my room.
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