Sunday, November 27, 2016

Skagen - Where Two Seas Collide

July 11, 2016. Denmark

The plan was uncertain, though I really wanted to go there. It's been my wish since our failure to visit the place three years ago when we attended our first convention in Denmark. This time, the idea became a vague "Let's see what comes up", its realization depending on our travel companions. We had tentatively agreed to go there together, but the other family changed course, and so the three of us in our car made a spur-of-the-moment decision to head up to the northernmost tip of Denmark, a small city/town called Skagen.





The weather was unfavorable, the sky almost leaden and showery in some places we passed by. We kept driving resolutely though, and the clouds started to break out as we approached our destination, and then we reached the campsite that hubby had in mind. We hired whatever cottage was available, which had two bunk beds, a kitchen and a dining set, only for one night.








Having deposited our luggage in the cottage, we started off to find the famed Grenen Beach at the tip of Skagen where two seas meet. We got to a beach that we thought was it but didn't in any way look like those in the pictures, and no other visitors walked about there at all.  We realized we were lost,  but then, it was a fascinating place to get lost anyway, so we might as well savor a few moments in that wild eerie atmosphere that was nevertheless quiet and pleasantly dismal. The chilly wind didn't thwart my fervor to take a lot of photos in every angle, and my camera went clicking away.



























Finally, hubby announced that he knew where Grenen was after checking his google map. And so we pulled out of this beach and headed to Grenen.

Approaching the area, we could see hundreds of parked cars and tourists walking about the beach. The weather was better that time, but we spent just a few minutes admiring this wonder of nature, which is the "two-seas" phenomenon, and gathering photo memories.






 a thumb-up rating from hubby













The "two-seas" phenomenon refers to the collision of the Skagerrak, which flows into the North Sea, and the Kattegat,  which flows into the Baltic Sea, thus creating a never-ending wave clash between two different saline content and water density.


the waves clash beyond that grassy bar at the far end









That evening, I set about my solitary wandering along the beach, which was just several meters walk from our cottage. I immersed myself in the quintessential serenity and allure of the grassy shoreline with the waves constantly caressing the white sand.  When my soul attained  the measure of dose that it needed before retiring that night, I made my way back to our cottage, carrying fragments of memories that had seeped in my mind, some of them stored in my camera.



























The following morning, we set forth on our journey back home. Although Sweden is just across the sea from Denmark, our home city lies in the north, which takes many hours to travel by car. That means that we still had one stop-over before finally getting back home, which I will blog about in a new sequel.





One more wish granted, with a special touch that was forever etched in my heart and sent my spirits spiraling up from that moment on. ☺





Joining



Saturday, November 19, 2016

Autumn Delights


"Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
fluttering from the autumn tree."
- Emily Bronte

Those colorful days are gone -

the blue skies of early October,





when the clinging leaves patched the sapphire sky with their tangerine hues,












when the maples wore their splendid attire,















and the towering larch tree was crowned in gold,





when the birds luxuriated in the symphony of sunshine and crisp air,








when the berries and crab-apples enticed the senses of sight and taste











and the late summer bloomers exhibited their last trace of beauty,











when even the tattered red foliage beautifully mingled with the contrasting motley of nature,








when the autumnal colors lent beauty and cheerful ambiance to man-made structures,









when the leaves finally fell one by one, settling and floating on a little stream, piling onto the others and thickening.







They have become memories, stored in my mental treasure chest and preserved by my camera. Although they have long withered, the bliss that they whispered to my ears has reached my heart where it lives on, and on, and on.....






"He has made everything beautiful in its time. 
He has even put eternity in their hearts."
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)