Grennen
Grennen is where the Skagen peninsular separates the North Sea and the Baltic. There was a shop, an art gallery and large car park at the end of the dunes. We now had a phone number for a taxi to get us back to Skagen.
In order to get the beach where the two seas met climbed into a Sandorman. This was a trailer pulled by a very large tractor. The Sandorman followed a track through the dunes until we emerged onto the beach.
Away to our left was the North Sea covered in fog and to our right the Baltic with blue sky. As we left the trailer the driver told everyone to be careful around the seals. We could see a large crowd on the Baltic side of the beach and we guessed this is where the seals were.
Looking down the beach on the Baltic side we could see Skagen and other tourists walking up the beach towards us. In contrast out on the North Sea side we could hear ship’s fog horns. The fog bank stretched across the horizon until at the point to our right where the Baltic was clear of fog.
The crowds around the two seals were way to close to the wild animals.
It was very uncomfortable to see children up close to the seals. This was in complete contrast to the safety instructions that we’d had in the Antarctic about keeping a minimum 12 meters away from seals. When dogs were brought close the seals rolled and became very defensive.
We joined the much smaller crowd where the seas met at the tip of the beach. We all stood as close as we could get to where the seas met and keep our feet dry.
The ride back to the car park was in a very full trailer as the seals had gone and the crowds all dispersed.
The Atlantic Wall
At the visitor centre we met friends off Aurora who were on a cycling excursion and caught glimpses of some of the wildlife.
Along the dunes are the remains of the German Atlantic Wall from World War 2. The fortifications here were to protect the port of Fredrickshaven where the Germans imported iron ore shipped from occupied Norway. We followed a path away from the centre towards the beach and as we climbed up over the dune the concrete blockhouses all came into view,
Behind us we could see further up the beach past the sand dunes to Skagen itself.
We walked back to the visitor centre and after we had phoned for a taxi we only had a few minutes to wait as a taxi was already there delivering more tourists to Grennen.