The Ambassadors trip to the top  !

The Day started back in Skagen, after an evening that included a wonderful meal at the Skagens Fiskrestaurant, one of the great restaurants in Denmark, and a hearty breakfast at Hotel Petit.

This week's ride is extra special because our 15 year old daughter Laura is joining me on the Tour, the first time a family member has been able to join me. We biked the short distance from the beautiful summer home of Niels and Inger Nejsig where we are staying to the Skagen Museum. The museum, where Helen and I have had the pleasure of visiting on two prior occasions, is this year celebrating the Centennial Anniversary of the Golden Age Skagen painters. Museum Director Lisette Vind Ebbesen guided us on

the remarkable exhibit that includes all 500+ paintings that the museum has in its collections; including amazing Krøyer's, Ancher's, Locher's, Drachmann's and Johansen's

that have not been on public display for years. The exhibition included the large and whimsical grand Willumsen painting "Bathing Kids at Southern Beach" which was so large that a hole had to be knocked in the wall of the museum when they brought it in for the exhibition. This was Laura's favorite.  My personal favorite remains P.S. Kroyer's "Summer Evening at Skagen Southern Beach" where Krøyer has captured the twilight amble down  the beach of his wife Marie and Anna Ancher in glorious blue hues for the

ages. Upstairs at the Museum a timeline has been painted on the wall showing the development of Skagen art from 1840 to 1940, along with a very creative timeline of other notable world events that were occurring at the same time, including many that occurred in America (the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Elvis, etc.)  (I hope they keep the timeline up after the Exhibition) I had the pleasure of joining a group of 25 high school students on a tour for a photo opportunity. Treating us to delicious cakes and

coconut macaroons in the garden after our tour, Lysette predicted that the Museum would receive over 200,000 visitors for the special exhibition this year. I will certainly do my best to promote this special exhibition to all of my Danish and American friends, and I hope to return before the exhibition closes on December 31. Leaving the Museum, biking down the lovely walking streets of Skagen, I could not resist the urge to stop in the flagship store of Skagen Watches, our favorite watches, to see what the new summer 2008 line looked like, and I was not disappointed. They are very exciting.

Leaving town, we took the scenic route through Gamle Skagen so that Laura could see the sites in this beautiful area including Ruth's Hotel and the beautiful beach. Our ride this morning included two guest riders, our friend Eric who had joined us last week in Aalborg, and Michael Forer, Managing Director at Bioscience Managers Ltd., who lives "part-time" in Skagen. He was invited by Skagen Tourist Authority as a guest of honor to join me on the Tour. It was great conversation to have these two interesting friends along for the day.

On the scenic route we rode through the beautiful sand dunes, stopped by the buried "Sandy Church", and headed out to Råbjerg Mile, the large "living sand dune", that is moving at the rate of 15 meters per year, and will soon (200 years?) migrate all the way to the other side of the peninsula, burying all vegetation in its wake. While at the Dune we met a delightful group of 45 young people who were on a tour of Denmark. It appears to be a  group of recent graduates who worked for the same company, in sort of a team building exercise. They were all excited to see us at the top of the Dune, and were pleased to let me take a picture with them. Because I had lingered, sightseen and shopped a

little too long in Skagen, we had to make up some time, so we rode the 50 km to Hirtshals at a brisk pace averaging around 34 km/h. In Hirtshals we were met by the Deputy Mayor Jens Broen, who was all alone, but gave us a tour of the Town Hall (which was proudly flying the American flag I might add), and talked with us about the challenges in a municipality that is rapidly loosing its young people. The political leaders are working hard to give the young people a reason to stay in the area, but the aging of their population is putting pressure on their social system. (the local government is responsible for health care, education up to gymnasium level, infrastructure, and utilities,

among others. I was interested to learn that in Denmark, the 62.1% income tax, which kicks in at about $50,000, is divided between the state and local governments with the local receiving 26%. The 25% VAT goes entirely to the state, with local governments charging a property tax. In this municipality the tax is 1.2% of the ground value, with no tax on improvements.) I was also intrigued to learn that this area of 66,000 people gets almost 2 million visitors per year from Norway who arrive on ferry boats after a 3 hour ride, shopping for meat, vegetables and beer.  No wonder the merchants here all look so prosperous! Jens, by the way, has not visited America but he is a great enthusiast for vintage

American cars. I invited him to North Carolina to do a little shopping. With the weak dollar, he could get a 40% discount right now!

Our next stop was a little ways out of town to the Bunker Museum in Hirtshals. The Museum is Denmark's "only excavated, complete German defense installation from WWII open to the public." It contains 54 different bunkers and gun emplacements within a 20 acre site. Stig Christensen, the Museum curator, gave us a fascinating tour in which we witnessed the daily life of the 300 soliders who manned these batteries from 1940 to 1945. 50,000 Danish workers were employed building the 9 different types of bunkers designed by the Germans, designed to control the sea-lanes between Denmark and Norway, a distance of 150 km. The Germans were concerned about Russian ships getting out of the Baltic, and had designed a gun capable of firing a shell 55 km. With guns on both the Danish and Norwegian side, and mines in the middle, the Germans were able to prevent any Russian ships from getting out into the Atlantic during the entire duration of the war.

Leaving the Bunker Museum we rode the six km to the picturesque home and pottery studio of Alyne Delaney and Greg Miller in the town Horne. Alyne and Greg are both American. Alyne is an anthropologist at Innovative Fisheries Management, originally doing work funded by the EU on fisheries management, but now funded in collaboration with the University of Aalborg.

Greg is a world-recognized potter, and is currently in Japan at an exhibition. We were joined by Adam Mowen, also an American who lives in the neighborhood, who is a glass blower. Adam showed us some of his beautiful work (drinking glasses complete with American and Danish flags in the bottom) while Greg's pottery partner Janne Hieck showed us the four kilns and the beautiful pottery, including works they are currently doing for Læsø Salt. There is a colony of Artists in this part of Jutland, including a number of Americans. We discussed hosting an exhibition of "American artists in Denmark" at the Residence. (With the several that we have met it could be great exhibition.)

The highlight of this particular stop, though was meeting Alyne and Greg's three sons Hamilton (10), Aidan (6) and Kieran (3). The delightful boys, who have lived most of their lives outside of America, presented me with beautiful beaded American and Danish flags they had made for me, and charmed me with descriptions of their daily lives growing up in rural northern Jutland. (they live in a beautiful restored old home that was once a train station, and they do not own a car; bike and train are their means of transport.) The

visit was topped off with mouth watering chocolate chip cookies and moist brownies!! I don't know how Alyne did it. She replicated what my mother used to make, and they were fabulous.

Our final stop of the day was to travel by ‘SandWorm" to be northernmost point of Jutland ‘Grenen", which is where the North Sea and the Baltic meet. This remarkable geologic

‘feature' shifts 7-10 meters per year to the north as the mighty seas crash into each other at this exact point. Over the past few hundred years, residents of Skagen have had to build four different lighthouses in order to keep the light near the shifting sand. It was a thrill for Laura and me to take our shoes and socks off and stand one-foot in the Baltic and one-foot in the North Sea. Our host Rene Zeeberg from the Skagen Tourist Authority was a great host, as was Tony, the owner of the Sandworm who stayed a bit late

to drive us to Grenen.

The evening was capped off with a cool drink, surprise entertainment and dinner at Ruth's Hotel. Ruth's has an amazing restaurant that is all but impossible to get in to during the summer months. (Yes, I know I said we would stop by "Mr. T's Famous American BBQ" that we spotted last night beside the grocery store in Skagen, but I just couldn't resist another visit to the kitchen of Ruths.) Our long time friend Morton took great care of us at the restaurant, with the able assistance of Lise, and the food was terrific. The surprise entertainment was a fashion show hosted by Pier One Skagen, a local high-end retail shop, featuring almost-exclusively American summer sporty fashion (Ralph Lauren, Polo, Sebago, J. Crew, Marco Polo, American Eagle) choreographed to great American music. It was a great way to feel at home here in northern Jutland. At 9:00, just as our entourage, including our friend Michael who has a beautiful home down the street from Ruths, were preparing to sit down for dinner, we joined the crowds to walk out to the beachfront to watch the setting sun, and the rising moon, in one of the most beautiful pastel panoramas that surely any man has ever had the pleasure of witnessing on this

earth. It is no wonder that the great artists of the late 19th century flocked here to capture the beauty, and to found a wonderful culture that has withstood the tendencies and temptations of time. As a post script, the long ride from Skagen to Hirtshals, with little headwind, gave me a little time to reflect on just how remarkable this Tour has been. It is giving me a great opportunity to better understand the history, values and shared culture that brings our two countries together, and the tensions and differences that pull us

apart. More importantly, it gives me an unparalleled opportunity, both through the media and through direct personal contact, to accentuate the former, and try to ameliorate the latter.  I am very glad we made the decision to launch this Tour, regardless of the pain!

James P. Cain - US Ambassador in Denmark