Southwest Jutland is known for, among other things, a phenomenon called “sort sol” (directly translated as “black sun”). Vagn and I were for the past couple of years talking about going there to see it.
We didn’t make any special plans, just went to Tønder, a small city close to the German border, and thought we’d go to the nearest marshland and try our luck there.
It was a nice afternoon, with scattered clouds on our way.
We flew in FL45, and there wasn’t much to see from there, but the clouds were beautiful.
The city of Aabenraa at the head of the Aabenraa Fjord:
Bjolderup church on our way:
The Bjolderup church was built around 1150. It is believed that the first church on the site was built of wood, but around 1150 a granite housing was made. The 38 meters tower was built in 1589. According to the records from that time, a carpenter fell down from the tower that year. The church had a devastating fire in 1627, and was restored during 1629-1631. The church has a number of paintings from 1778 by the Aabenraa artist Jess Jessen, but the greatest treasure is the “Bjolderup stone”, a tombstone from the grave of Ketil Urne (the oldest known member of the Urne family from the Southern Jutland) dated from year 1200 that now lies in as a part of the church floor.
The city of Tønder:
We soon welcomed ourselves to the Tønder flying club. I never heard the story behind this prop in their garden:
Behind the club house (or in front of it – depends on whether you arrive by air or not) there is this gorgeous aircraft. Vagn thought it was Gripen, I thought it was Draken… Whatever it was, the aircraft was impressive.
After quickly taking a number of photos by its side, we hurried up to the nearest marsh for the “sort sol”, a bird-watching phenomenon. I’ve never seen Vagn running so fast – it has been his dream to experience it. “Sort sol” can be seen during spring and autumn when starlings gather in the marshland in huge flocks, sometimes up to 1 million birds. The starlings come from all the countries around the Baltic Sea and Norway. Before going to sleep, the big flocks draw fascinating patterns in the sky, hence the name “sort sol” or “black sun”.
We came to the pumping station in Lægan from 1929 where the marsh trail begins.
I was freezing and refused to go any farther, but I’d wait for Vagn – so he went looking for birds.
Whilst waiting, I used time for experiencing the local life. There was only one, but very charming house from 1847:
And a nice harbour with some boats:
Neither Vagn nor me saw the “sort sol” that evening. It was quite late, and there were no birds. The sun went down, and Vagn returned to the harbour where I waited for him in the dark.
The moon was lighting up the skies, and when we got back to the Tønder airfield, a beautiful view awaited us. Never before was this Draken (or Gripen?) photographed in such a romantic way:
We went to our hotel, left the bags, and went exploring Tønder by night. It was clean and quiet, with many bars and restaurants open. I’ve read somewhere that in the old days Tønder had a pub for every 49 residents. Today it is different, of course. We had dinner at Victoria, a nice restaurant on the pedestrian street, decorated in the last century style. They had very good steaks that could be prepared with fresh garlic – quite unusual option in Denmark – which we chose.
Our first day in Tønder was going to an end. Though we didn’t experience the “sort sol”, both Vagn and I were happy.
