Denmark – welcome to Tolne
Monday 1st June
So today is our first day at work in Tolne, Denmark. We’re at a ceramic workshop/ B&B/ cafe – www.tolnegjaestgivergaard.dk. We arrived last night having got the ferry from Gothenburg to Frederikshavn (3.5 hours) and then the train to Tolne (15 mins).
So it’s certainly a bit different here. Our workday starts with a morning briefing at 0930hrs – well really it’s just a chat about what was achieved yesterday and what needs to be done today. The place belongs to Greg (an American from Wisconsin) and his wife, Janne (German). They also have 3 children, 2 cats and a very shy dog, Lucy.
The ceramic studio is for Janne and Greg to work together and collaborate with other artists from around the world, making ceramics by hand, using local materials, and firing techniques involving wood, salt, and soda. There are also 2 other volunteers here Momoko (Japanese) and Alejandro (Argentina).
So back to the programme – there’s a chat about work that needs to be done and meals for the next few days and who’s taking time off and when. Greg likes to make sure volunteers get time off and make the most of it by getting away – apparently it makes for a happier/well balanced volunteer. The work ongoing at the moment is fixing up the bathrooms and fixing up some of the guest rooms. So Momoko and Alejandro are going to continue grouting the bathrooms and Daz and I are going to hang lining paper in one of the rooms. Daz ( the dark horse) has had wall papering experience – but I haven’t. So Daz takes charge and we paper the room.
It takes all day with lunch and tea breaks but we get it finished and Greg and Janne are pleased with the result. Once finished we take Lucy for a walk through the Beech woods that surround this area – and it really is beautiful and fun especially when Lucy decides she needs to chase the Lily leaves on the lake and jumps in for a swim.
Dinner is a collaborative affair – we’re all in the kitchen making meatballs and cooking them on the stove. Of course it is a huge kitchen and there’s plenty of room for everyone to muck in and we’re cooking for 9 – and not a vegetarian in sight!
So Day 1 done and it’s been great and best of all there’s hot water all the time. Of course now Daz can have a hot shower daily (like he craved at the farm) he’s bound to revert to his old form of one a week to match his undies change!
Tuesday 2nd June
This morning Greg has gone out on his bike so in his absence we do some puddling and/or wedging. Greg and Janne are building pizza ovens for their friends and the clay needed for a traditional woodfired clay pizza oven is a clay sand mix. To mix the 2 we first throw down a layer of sand then cover this with blocks of clay, then another layer of sand and so on until we have a tower. Then we tread it together in a circular fashion in our bare feet until the 2 are thoroughly mixed, adding more clay and sand until there’s sufficient material for the oven. So Daz and I have mixed enough for one oven.
We’ve just finished and we’re having a coffee break when Greg gets back. They have 6 Norwegian cyclists arriving today and there’s 2 Polish contractors staying so we need to prepare for their arrival. So we spend the remainder of the day cleaning and tidying and fixing up the bathrooms. Then the Norwegians arrive soaked to the skin and it’s all hands to the pump to greet them, make them comfortable, hide all the workgear upstairs and then make dinner for them – a double cheese and tomato lasagne. After dinner there’s a considerable clean up operation in the kitchen and dining room.
Wednesday 3rd June
The plan today is a quick blitz in the kitchen, finish the bathrooms, paint the bedroom we prepared on Monday and make more clay for the pizza ovens because at the moment there’s only enough for one. However the plan doesn’t survive first contact with Greg. It takes all of us all morning to sort out the kitchen and then the guest house assessor cancels her 2pm appointment. Having found paint for the bedroom it transpires that there aren’t any rollers etc so that job is postponed until Janne buys us some. The bathrooms are also stalled when the universal hoses etc are found to be not that universal and are unfit for purpose. The fall back position – Ali is left to clean the bathroom tiles with vinegar and Daz and I are sent to the studio for more wedging. We need to add more sand to the mix we have from Tuesday and wedge it. So we add 7 buckets of sand but the sand is so wet that the clay becomes mud like and will never hold the form required for the pizza oven. So then we add powdered clay to dry out the mix. We add nearly half a sack of powdered clay which is like adding icing sugar to a mix – the dust goes everywhere but with clay it’s not so pleasant to inhale. Finally we have a pile of clay of reasonable consistency that will need to be put out in the sun tomorrow to dry further.
We finish at 4 but then we take Lucy for a walk and then there’s dinner preparation, laying the table and then cleaning up afterwards.
Thursday 4th June
Greg is out today so it’s just Janne running the show. We paint the bedroom we lined on Monday. It seems awfully patchy so it’ll probably need another coat.
Then we move a sink and shelf to make more room in the kitchen and then do some weeding in the vegetable garden.
We finish at 4 and take advantage of the gorgeous weather and take Lucy for a walk to the stone circle just outside the village.
At about half 6 it’s dinner preparation and then clean up.
Friday 5th June
Busy day today. First thing there’s a cleanup after the Norwegians, breakfast and then doing their rooms and cleaning and hoovering throughout the house. Then at 10.30 with the car loaded with material we’re off to Tversted to build pizza ovens. We manage to build 2 but it takes 5 of us most of the day to do it. First Greg prepares the door arch, then behind that we make a sand mound – this will be the oven space. Over that Greg moulds on clay blocks. This is covered with a layer of insulation made of blown clay, mixed with clay powder and water. Finally we put on a layer of chalk mortar. Each stage is given time to ‘go off’ so we alternate between each oven. Finally we empty out the sand that formed the original mould.
Finally we’re done and Nils takes us to the beach and treats us all to ice cream from the famous “Blue Hut”, which are fab! After a quick paddle in the cold sea it’s home for dinner.
Saturday 6th June
Today is our day off and since Greg has arranged to have an end of course dayout with his Japanese students at Faarupsommerland, an amusement park, we go along for the ride. Momoko comes along too to add authentic Japanese flavour. Once we’re there we leave Greg and Momoko to the students and we go off to enjoy the rides. Fortunately the day has started wet so the park isn’t too crowded and we don’t have to queue too much so we go on the good rides over and over. The day soon clears into a gorgeous sunny day and we mess around on the trampolines, the rifle alley and a buried bouncy balloon and on the teacups which Daz has got spinning so fast I can’t focus on anything and struggle to hold my head up. What a great day!
Sunday 7th June
Today we paint the ceiling of the guestroom and put a second coat on the walls. That’s all done soon after lunch so hopefully if it’s up to standard we’ll be able to clean up, lay the carpet and use the room for guests.
Then we start on the wood pile that’s at the top of the garden. It needs to be cut down to useable lengths either for the wood burning stove or for the kiln.
Once we’re done for the day we take Lucy for a walk and Iben decides to come along so we take her to the swings.
Monday 8th June
Today we finish off the guest bedroom. Greg says it needs a third coat of paint on the walls and a second on the ceiling but instead of doing that we take off the masking tape we used, clean the skirting board, windows and door and then get the room ready for guests on Wednesday night.
There’s a large group coming Wednesday night – they are environmental people from all the communes of Hjorring and they are meeting about the future of nature and the best way to utilise it for the betterment of the area, things like community projects or natural tourism attractions. They will arrive around 3pm Wednesday and will have a meeting / presentation and then dinner. Fourteen will stay the night so that’s every guest room occupied. On Thursday after breakfast there will be another meeting and then lunch with guests of about 23. Because every guest room is occupied we need to move out of the room we’re in at the moment so we can get it ready for guests. We temporarily move into another guest room but we will move into the dungeon for Wednesday with Alejandro.
We lay the carpet and then search for some beds – well actually there are plenty of beds but either the slats don’t fit or none of the mattresses fit. Finally we find some beds and make more slats from planks on the wood pile.
Then we take mattresses from the bunk beds in room 7 and make up the beds. Once that’s done we help Ali weed in the garden and then plant some dahlias, clematis, and other shrubs.

Once we’re done for the day we go and get changed and get the train to Frederikshavn. We have a look around the shops looking for hairdressers because I’d like to get a haircut before Iceland but everything shuts at half 5 so I was hoping for late opening one evening so I could get it done.
After looking around the shops we stop at a pub called Peder Wessel, it’s small and very “local!” There are some patrons tasting the local beer and Daz soon gets chatting to John, a ship’s engineer who’s pretty much sailed the world a couple of times over. He works 6 weeks on and 6 weeks off. John and his mate play a game with scratch cards where all numbers of a dice are available but if you pick the 6 you have to buy a round. They’re drinking beer with chasers – one is a salted liquorice liquor which we try. We end up playing the game and buying quite a few rounds. Finally we manage to tear ourselves away and go in search of food before returning to Tolne.
Tuesday 9th June
Today is another glorious day but disaster has struck again – we took our Kindles with us last night and something must have fallen on Daz’s Kindle and it’s broken. So we need another Kindle. So that’s 2 broken Kindles and a broken notepad in 5 months. We take advantage of the good weather by working on the woodpile in the sun. By the end of the day we have 4 stacks of wood ready for the kiln.
Wednesday 10th June
Today we have another day off so we get the train to Skagen which is a big tourist attraction. It’s the most northern point of Denmark and from there everyone visits Grenen where the North Sea meets the Baltic. We have a look round Skagen then hire bikes and cycle to Grenen and then walk along the beach to the point the 2 seas meet.
It’s a beautiful day and the walk along the beach is lovely. I’ve got my amazing shades on (which incidentally cost a fortune) but it’s like having x-ray vision and I can see so clearly into the sea, which is fantastic when there are loads of jelly fish to spot.
Apparently it’s POLARISATION that does it – ain’t technology brill!!
After our walk to the End Of Denmark we cycle back to town and find a lovely restaurant for lunch looking out over the Marina. 
When we get back dinner is just finishing for the 13 guests so we help clear away and tidy up. We’re sleeping in the dungeon tonight so that should be an experience!
Thursday 11th June
Today we’re all up early to help with the guests. The night in the dungeon was indeed interesting. Daz’s bed made so much noise every time he turned over that I couldn’t sleep.
Once the guests are done with breakfast we prepare a room for them so they can hold their meeting and we all work together to prepare lunch for them. This is a collection of open sandwiches – a Danish dish apparently. Smørrebrød (Danish pronunciation: [ˈsmɶɐ̯ɐˌb̥ʁœðˀ] ha ha good luck with that!!! I nearly choked… originally smør og brød, “butter and bread”) usually consists of a piece of buttered rye bread (rugbrød), a dense, dark brown bread. Pålæg (literally “on-lay”), the topping, then among others can refer to commercial or homemade cold cuts, pieces of meat or fish, cheese or spreads. This daily practice is the base on which the art of the famous Danish open sandwich, smørrebrød is created: A slice or two of pålæg is placed on the buttered bread, and then pyntet (decorated) with the right accompaniments, to create a tasty and visually appealing food item. It takes 5 of us working from 10am to 12 (10 man hours) to make approximately 180 smørrebrød, 30 of each of the following: fried fish, potato mayo and chive, pork and crackling with orange, cheese and hot sauce, Danish potato and meat salami and finally egg prawn and mayo with caviar. Each on different breads, all buttered and with garnish, but they look good when we finish.
We then serve this up and it is a little disappointing after all our hard work that only about half are eaten… Maybe Greg’s quantities were out!!! But then his appetite is bigger than most others we have seen!! But the guests have a great meeting and food was appreciated, now for the clean up!!!! After all our hard work we’re allowed to finish at 2pm but we all end up going for a nap. In the early evening we take Lucy for a walk to another stone circle because it’s the site of a geocache.
Lucy has a great time chasing rabbits and deer or perhaps just the scent of them but she must be covering at least 5 times the distance we do and at least 10 times our pace. She’s like a steeplechaser where nothing is big enough to slow her down. We spend 45 minutes searching for the cache and fortunately manage to avoid disaster by spotting all the club cyclists out before Lucy does – we’re really not sure if she’d give chase! Back at the ranch Greg has taken Kieron and Hamilton out to the cinema to see Jurassic World so we have a relaxing evening with Janne, Iben and Masterchef.
Daz has also managed to get us flights with Wow Airlines to Iceland – the only wow element of this airway is ‘Wow what a fxxking shit website’ – it’s taken hours trying to book a seat only to have each booking rejected and phoning results in sitting in a queue for ages. Nightmare but it’s finally done!
Friday 12th June
Today we wake to a quiet house and soon spot Janne’s message that they’ve gone out. We get on with walking Lucy, cleaning the kitchen, stripping all the beds and remaking them, hoovering, dusting and putting all the furniture back that we moved for yesterday’s meeting.
We’ve just started on the woodpile when Greg returns and of course everything is wrong. The wood we’ve just cut is the wrong length even though this is what Greg showed Daz the other day and the woodpiles which were OK Tuesday afternoon are today in the wrong place. It’s an interesting problem – in Sweden we were given a task and often worked on it for days even weeks with no intervention and often no comment. Here the task requirement seems to change by the day!! In the evening we go to the pub next door (it only opens at the weekend) and we sit in the sun whilst Ali plays his guitar and chat to Tonny, Frederick, Trina and Pieter, and others. We have a lovely time and then return home for pizza night and Greg’s pizzas are absolutely fantastic!!
Saturday 13th June
Another day off and we’re off to Lønstrup, a beautiful ancient fishing village. First we get a train to Hjørring and look at some sights. There’s Nørregarde the oldest Street in Hjørring and streets with some fabulous sculptures.
From Hjørring we get the bus to Lønstrup and once we’ve walked around the village which has retained its old world charm, we take a walk south along the beach path to see Rubjerg Knude Fyr – a migrating dune that has almost buried Rubjerg Lighthouse and ancillary buildings within a period of just 10 years. This dramatic fate could not have been predicted when the lighthouse was built in 1900 on the highest point, approximately 60 metres above sea level.
On the way to the lighthouse there’s Mårup church ruin, which is perched precariously on the cliff edge and likely to fall into the sea in years to come. When the church was built in the 13th century, there was about 2 kilometres to the coast. Since that time erosion has eaten away at the cliff, and now there’s just 6m between the church and its doom. The outer part of the cemetery has already disappeared and part of the church has been taken down. It is said that the graveyard contains a mass grave with 226 sailors that were lost when the English frigate “The Crescent” went down off the coast in 1808.
Having enjoyed the sites and witnessed the precarious cliff edge, we return to the village on ‘city bikes’ – they’re like Tesco trolleys – you insert the coin and release the bike and get the coin back when you return the bike to a recognised bike park.
I think Daz would’ve felt safer in a Tesco’s trolley than he did on his bike. Back in the village we catch the bus and train, returning home to Tolne for a quiet night in with Masterchef.
Sunday 14th June
Alejandro has a day off today so Daz and I get on with clearing kitchen and dining room. Then Greg wants to clear the area at the side of the house and Janne and I go off for a tip run. Once that’s done it’s back to the wood pile and a laundry frenzy to wash the mountain of laundry left after all the guests we had Thursday night.
 
