Grenen, where Denmark ends

The ingredients for the perfect trip were all set up: 3 girls, 3 nations, 6 stops, 37 hours on Scandinavian trains and a huge number of photos and unforgettable memories. After 10 days traveling around Scandinavia with my new friends Annamaria and Raquel, after having met people from all over the world and having shared with them travel tales and tips, the trip was about to end.
At 6:30 am the ship docked in Frederikshavn, Denmark. The Danish town was silent and desolate at that time in the morning. At the train station only the swish of the wind was hearable. Maybe it was because of the biting wind, or maybe because we didn’t want this amazing trip to finish, but we caught the first train that stopped in front of us. It wasn’t going south, to our home city, it was going north, to the northerners town in Denmark: Skagen.
Skagen’s architecture has a strong predominance of yellow that immediately catches your attention. However, we weren’t much interested in the village itself, we wanted to see the bubbling meeting of the North and the Baltic Seas. We deposited our luggage at the station and we asked for directions to the beach. We didn’t know yet that Skagen is just the last village in Denmark and a long walk was between us and the unusual meeting. So we ended up marching on the sand in the icy sea breeze of an early winter day until we finally reached Grenen, where Denmark ends.
Reaching such a place on foot after a long walk has a powerful symbolic meaning. There, tiredness melts together with the calm and serenity that characterize this country. The land, placidly, with a narrow strip of sand, stretches into the ocean and disappears while water wildly writhes upon it.
The view was so breathtaking and the sound of the backwash so relaxing that we almost forgot that we had to walk back to the train station. Providentially, 2 guys noticed our weary pace and they approached us. They were French, they were in Denmark for business and they came to Grenen by car. Even if we knew that we shouldn’t accept rides from strangers, we accepted. In the car Annamaria tried to hold a conversation, but Raquel immediately fell asleep and I could barely stay awake. Luckily, the guys were friendly and they offered to drive us directly to Frederikshavn from where we could have taken the train to our destination without transfers. Once there we thanked them and said goodbye, but as soon as they left we caught the train back to Skagen. Our luggage was still there…