USA
Copyright© 2016 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 4
Middelgrundsfortet is an unrestored island military fort just west of the more or less restored Flakfortet, another island fort in the western half of the Øresund, the strait that separates Denmark and Sweden.
When we left the harbor in Copenhagen I steered the boat around both fortets; completely circling both. Flakfortet presents a welcoming appearance; there's a harbor with several boats visiting, a restaurant, trails and a museum.
Middelgrundsfortet is far less welcoming. The harbor was empty, a Post Forbudt! Bliv Væk! (Entry Forbidden! Keep Away!) was posted at both the entrance and the wharf.
Middelgrundsfortet still had the muzzles of cannon easily seen from the water and some of those cannon looked REALLY big. There was the red and white cross flag of Denmark flying ... just one ... while Flakfortet had much smaller Danish flags everywhere.
There was a man, probably Artillery Corps, watching us with binoculars while we were watching him with ours; he followed us all the way around the island. Interesting.
Whatever.
We didn't stop at either fortet.
With Helsingør to our port and Heslingborg to the starboard, we sailed through the narrows and out into the Kattegatt, the big bay between Denmark and Sweden.
Then out past Skagen at the tip of the Jutland Peninsula and into the Skagerrak. The Skagerrak is the body of water that fronts three countries; Norway to the north, Sweden to the east and Denmark to the south. The North Sea is to the west. The North Sea can be boisterous.
We could have saved a great deal of time and money if we had taken the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal ... that's the real name of the Kiel Canal.
But we would have missed Malmö and the Ball. The island fortets would have slipped from our memories. The kids would have missed the Copenhagen museums, the Palaces and the tests. We would have had to motor the entire way and we DID buy a Sailboat.
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