On April 13th, 2020, I was supposed to travel to Portugal for a 5 week, 800 km walk from Cabo de San Vincente at the south-western tip of Portugal to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, the destination of many pilgrimages. I had planned to follow the Historical way of Rota Vincentine, starting in Cabo de San Vincente (close to Sagres), walking north to Santiago do Cacém, south of Lisbon. After taking a bus, to the north of Lisbon, I had planned to walk the Camino Portugués via Fatima and Porto, before ending up Santiago de Compostela.
On March 11th, the Danish Prime Minister announced a partial close down of Denmark and closed the Danish borders. As the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and in the midst of a global pandemic, my plans were no exception.
The beautiful spring weather and enforced vacation led to a number of corona safe trips, both locally and on the outscirts of Copenhagen. By chance I hit upon the Danish Santiago Pilgrimage web site, www.santiagopilgrimme.dk and was intrigued to find a Danish pilgrim route, spanning north to south from Sweden to Germany across Sjælland, Lolland and Falster and Norway to Germany across Jylland, as well as east to west across Sjælland, Fyn and part of Jylland.
On July 18th, in bright sunshine, I started off from Helsingør, in northern Denmark, close to Sweden. During 3 months, and covering 25 days up until mid-October I walked the Danish pilgrims route.
- north to south from Helsingør to Rødby Havn, across Sjælland, Falster and Lolland
- east to west from Copenhagen to Vejen across Sjælland, Fyn and mid-Jylland
- north to south from Odense to Kruså across Fyn, Als and Southern Jylland
In 2021 I continued and walked Hærvejen (Ox Road) from Frederikshavn to Padborg and completed the pilgrimage in 2022 walking from Hirtshals to Aars.
In the following blogs, I will primarily share pictures taken enroute through an ever changing landscape and through many beautiful parts of Denmark.
I should also mention, that I walk for the exercise, fresh air and experiencing the countryside and the impact of the changing times of year. Just as I visited temples and shrines in Japan, I would have liked to visit some of the churches I passed by. Whilst I visited a number of graveyards, due to Corona restrictions, almost all churches were closed for visitors.