Trip to Jutland, Denmark Oct 9-10

In early October my class with the endless name, no joke (Thematic Course: Ecology and management of forests and nature resources), embarked on our last study tour of the semester. From now on now more tromping around the forests. This may be a good thing since winter is quickly approaching here in Denmark.

The trip entailed a lot of driving which was fortunately made much more lively by funny people and a wonderfully different law (than the US) of allowing passengers to drink (whatever they may choose ;-) in the vehicle. On the first day we stopped on the island between where Copenhagen is and Jutland (Western Denmark), on the island of Fyn (pronounced Fuun). This picture is taken from one of the higher elevation areas of Denmark, I think around 300 meters above sea-level.
















I believe the highest area in Denmark is less than 400m above sea-level. So although its cold and snowy here in the winter, there won't be any downhill skiing for me ;-) Here is another pic that I liked also from Day 1.





















While the day started out chilly we stayed warm as we traversed through this new nature area. A lunch the park staff who were our teachers that day treated us to a variety of sodas and beers at lunch, only in Denmark would profs be fine with people drinking beer at lunch, so we did. The day was still chilly though by the time we finished around 3pm. Nonetheless these crazy Danes still had a craving for ice cream, brrr.
















That night we stayed at a youth hostel with cabins. It was a fun night and the free time gave me more of a chance to hang out and chat with the Danish students. We were starving after a day in the forest and eagerly consumed wood-oven pizzas after a long journey (with many detours and pitstops) to the hostel. Despite a late night we were all up bright and early for a full day of learning about a restoration project (the most expensive in Denmark apparently) near and around the Skjern River (pronounced Skyane). This is a pic from a cute church overlooking the restored wetland.

















Here is a pic of the wetland area.
















We also stopped to check out another heath land area (they love their heath lands in this part of Europe). This one was quite special though since it had been preserved and allowed to grow and evolve without any human influence (such as management) for over 100 years. As such the area is like a learning laboratory for students and many researchers about natural succession processes in heath lands.

It was another good, exhausting, and interesting trip. I'll leave you with a funny Danish language note. The word for speed in Danish is fart, I am NOT kidding. So you can imagine how amusing it is to see signs on the highway that say "Fart Control".