Day 3… Continued

After the lag to procure another rental car, we were all off to the island of Møn. Møn is about an hour and 45 minutes from Copenhagen. It is supposedly a popular tourist destination, but it didn’t feel like it. The island is known for its white cliffs, colorful church frescos, and Stone and Bronze Age burial chambers. We thought we’d sample a bit of all of these starting with Fanefjord Church.

On the edge of Møn, atop a lonely knoll overlooking the Baltic Sea, the island of Falster, and grazing cattle sits a petite whitewashed structure, Fanefjord Kirke. While the charming surroundings of this edifice may attract some visitors, the main pull is the bright and eccentric works of art inside the building.

Fanefjord was built in 1250. It contains a handful of frescoes dating back to around 1350. However, its most famous ones were created by the Elmelunde Master about 1500. The identity of the mysterious Elmelunde Master has been lost to history, but it likely was more than one person.

Fanefjord’s Medieval frescoes are bizarre by modern standards. Some panels highlight important points in Jesus’ life, his circumcision for example. Others portray big no-nos sure to merit hellfire and damnation like Careless Words During Service, which depicts the devil Tutivilius recording the names of women not paying attention during church. Much of the art was meant to provide a pictorial sermon for an audience that may have been largely illiterate. Other imagery was designed to imbue magical properties to keep evil from entering the church through the apertures in the vaults.

Intriguingly, the church’s frescoes were painted over during the Reformation in the 1500s and not rediscovered until 1929 when water damage at one end of the building hinted to a colorful layer under the whitewash.

After appreciating and wondering at ceilings, we went underground to Denmark’s oldest man-made stone structures. Møn was a happening place in the Stone Age. Starting around 6,000 years ago, the island was intensely farmed. Evidence for this comes from its 120 mound, passageway, and barrow burial grounds, which represent a cult of ancestry. These tombs were constructed at a rate of one per year but were made so well that little work was needed to restore most of them even after thousands of years.

We crawled inside Klekkendehøj, which dates to the Neolithic period about 4,500 years ago. Inching along its twin passageways wasn’t comfortable but curiosity won, as it usually does. King Asgers Høj, the largest gallery grave in Denmark with a passageway 32 feet long, was our next stop. This 4,000-year-old mound is located close to Sprovedyssen (Sprove Dolmen), a barrow tomb with a Stonehenge feel. These Stone Age spectacles rise randomly out of fields, surroundings probably not too unlike when they were assembled.

Stepping further back in time, we took the Graaryg Fald Trail to Møns Klint (cliff). Møn’s cliffs are the tallest in Denmark at 420 feet. Their bleached appearance comes from their high chalk content, the leavings of the prolific marine life in a shallow sea 70 million years ago. These marine deposits were crushed and folded by the glaciers of the last ice age. Eventually, when those glaciers receded, the cliffs of Møn were revealed.

We hiked about three miles through a beech forest filled with trees more than 400 years old down to the beach at the base of the cliffs. When 500 stairsteps are required each way to reach a beach, it better be glorious, right? Don’t worry, it was. The shore was pebbled with dark flint that contrasted with the lofty ashen walls. We didn’t make it too far along the coastline as it was getting dark, and the remnants of landslides made some areas more difficult to pass with the current higher tide. Instead, we returned via the same half a thousand steps we had descended. Incidentally, signs indicated landslides are a common phenomenon along these cliffs due to heavy rain and frost erosion.

Day 4

Although there was much more to see in Møn, a picturesque castle awaited us, so the next morning we didn’t linger. Our destination was Hindsgavl Slot in Middelfart, which is on the far side of the island of Funen. Our route passed through Odense, where Hans Christian Andersen was born and spent his youth. We paid homage to this imaginative and prolific writer by visiting his childhood home (HC Andersens Barndomshjem) and birthplace (HC Andersens Hus). Odense and Hans Christian Andersen carry special meaning for my family since we are direct descendants of ancestors who lived around the corner from Hans while he resided in Odense.

Hindsgavl Castle, which we reached late that afternoon, was a favorite of our entire trip. Hindsgavl stands on a peninsula of the same name. It is separated from Jutland, the peninsula that connects Denmark to the rest of Europe, by the Little Belt, a twisting straight of extraordinary beauty and concentrated mist. The current castle was built in 1784 to replace another palace, which had stood since the 1200s and was the site of a peace accord between a Norwegian and a Danish monarch before it was destroyed during the Swedish War in the 1600s.

Hindsgavl would fit perfectly in a Jane Austen novel with magnificent libraries and imposing entrance halls. As if the enchanting buildings and vast grounds weren’t enough to inspire dreams of Mr. Darcy, our dinner that night was right on brand. With berries and apples from the castle’s garden and local smoked cheese, chicken, and cured ham, our meal was as elegant as the surroundings. And yes, the boiled potatoes were excellent.

Day 5

The castle’s extensive estate features a deer park, vegetable garden, and many trails that finger out in all directions and crisscross frequently. Jason and I wanted to experience some of these, so we woke up at 6:30 to go on a walk before breakfast and our checkout. It was magical. We started on a randomly selected trail and at each intersection we took the route that seemed most likely to lead to the Little Belt. Through this method, we ended up walking along the coast as walls of fog climbed up the land like vaporous fingers intent on squeezing the tree branches. We came to a hill that looked unnaturally constructed yet seemed too large to be a burial mound. At the top we found a sign and discovered it was the remains of the medieval Hindsgavl Castle. Its once moat had narrowed to more of a ditch after almost four centuries.

After a delightful breakfast, there was more to explore. We visited the Little Belt again and found many bright starfish and pink jellyfish near the shore. When asked if she needed to go back to her room to take a shower, our niece responded, “Who needs hygiene when there are starfish.” We wandered the castle gardens and may have helped ourselves to a berry or two. Then, we climbed lookouts in the deer park. Although we were reluctant to leave Hindsgavl, we were beckoned on by a schedule and more awaiting marvels.

These marvels came in the form of Lindholm Høje and the Vikingemuseet Lindolm Høje at Aalborg. Lindholm Høje was used as a burial ground between 400 AD and 1000 AD. During those 600 years, 700 people were cremated and 41 buried there making it Denmark’s largest Iron Age and Viking burial site.

How would anyone know how many people were cremated at a site since there would be no remains remaining? Cremation pyres of that period were often surrounded by large boulders. The shape of these encirclements was dictated by the gender of the deceased. Men’s were typically triangular or ship-shaped while women’s were oval or circular.

The hefty stones strewn on this hillside aren’t the most remarkable piece of its history. About 1000 AD, a shifting sand dune covered the area so quickly that the type of plough used in an adjacent field was decipherable upon excavation. That sand kept the stones from being removed for farming over time. The burial grounds were rediscovered in 1889, but the site wasn’t excavated until 1952 to 1958. Nearby Vikingemuseet Lindolm Høje displays artifacts found at the site and summarizes what has been learned about Viking village life from those artifacts.

Later that evening, we arrived at the wild and craggy town of Skagen (pronounced skain), which will be the subject of my next segment.

We all know of the benefits of exercise, from decreasing waistlines to decreasing depression. However, exercise can negatively impact sleep… when you are running all night on a 46-square-mile pan of salt instead of snuggling in your 33-square-foot bed. If that sleepless/saline combo seems about as likely as hotdog fingers, you might be on to everything.

The Dusk to Dawn Relay + Ultra is a destination race that circles over the justifiably famous Bonneville Salt Flats from sunset to sunrise. With two-mile loops, teammates can rally in one place and lounge while awaiting their turn to make tracks. Jason and I have participated in this unique event consistently since its inaugural year back in 2019.

For 2022’s race, we had so many interested contestants we decided to form two teams. This decision was also promoted by the desire of some to separate into “competitive” and “casual” groupings. That is how the Na Squad and Na Squad Too came into being. Jason and I joined the “competitive” faction. Jason is speedy, and I was part of his combo deal.

While having a large company amplified the fun, it also amplified the stress. We had to replace two teammates in the weeks and days before the event thanks to a move and a bone fracture. Ever tried to find a friend who is willing to run all night in the middle of the desert with no time to train? Yup, it isn’t something people usually say yes to. Fortunately, we know a couple of people precisely that brand of cracked.

Although this race takes place at night in part to avoid the exposed heat of the West Desert, the area can be blazing even near dusk in September. It was 102 degrees when we arrived on the flats at 6:00 PM. With heat reflecting off the white salt like a stovetop mirror, it felt even worse. Hence, my throat remained parched for hours no matter how much spare liquid I consumed.

2022’s Dusk to Dawn Relay + Ultra included 94 participants, 14 teams and 14 ultra runners. Our competitive consortium completed 62 miles over the night, which resulted in us placing 5^th in six-person teams and 6^th overall. The casual team finished 46 miles. They came in 9^th in six-person teams and 10^th overall.

I contributed 12 miles to our team’s total and so did Jason. He managed to keep his pace between 7.0 and 7.5 minutes per mile for the entire night. One of his calves started hurting on his first lap thanks to a poorly planned intense run just days earlier. Luckily, since I am always prepared, I was prepped with Advil in case of just such an ill-timed boo-boo.

As for me, thanks to an injury, which later was determined to be a fractured talus and associated bone lesion, I had been forced to reduce my training for this event. My speed was sufficient considering my current situation but a disappointment after my performance the year before. I managed to stay close to a 10-minute mile on all but my last loop. That last lap, my knees were hurting something fierce; it was only with immense willpower that I even pulled a 12-minute mile.

While keeping a runner out on the course at all times was a primary goal, it wasn’t our only focus. The astronomy club from a local university set up enormous telescopes and participants got to view the Orion Nebula, Dumbbell Nebula, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and the moon at different points during the night. That was in addition to the omnipresent glistening balls of plasma peppering the heavens with their thermonuclear fusion.

As you might assume, I was stiff after this event concluded, particularly my knees and ankle. (Remember, my ankle was fractured. I just didn’t know it.) I loosened that leg tension with a mile walk hours after the relay, which made my grumbly parts much better. (I’d highly recommend that tactic for reducing post-race discomfort.) The next day, I felt fine, but Jason was still hurting.

While it may seem like only the nocturnally masochistic would find substituting sleep with running appealing, this race truly is a remarkable occasion even for the most self-preserving. Aerobic ambitions sprinkled with salt, dark skies sprinkled with stars, scratchy cots sprinkled with family member… Yup, this universe has got some crazy sh#t too.