Seaweed Safari in Nykøbing

Learning about seaweed

   This morning  Ilse and Lars shared a delightful breakfast with us at their home.  At 10:00 am  Ann and I met Craig, Nick, Michael and his daughter Martha at the Danish Seaweed company in Nykøbing to do a “Tang Safari”.  One of the owners of the company gave as and a few other people an explanation (mostly in Danish) about the company and the different types of seaweed and some information about the agricultural process concerning planting and growing seaweed.  

Different types of seaweed

Later, we were all supplied with our own hip wader boots and led out for a 15 minute walk out to the fjord where we went into the water where different types of seaweed were present.  Our guide showed them to us and we tasted them right out of the water.  He then gave us 20 minutes to harvest as much as we wanted ourselves.  

Kevin, Michael and Martha

Seaweed attaches itself to small rocks on the ocean floor.  I made myself a seaweed necklace

Eating certain kinds of seaweed right out of the water

Around 1:00 pm we all went to Ilse and Lars’ place for a wonderful lunch out on their outside deck.  

A very relaxed man at Lars and Ilse’s beautifully comfortable home

Later that afternoon, Ilse took us to the old Psychiatric hospital and showed us the room where they removed the brains of dead patients for research.  Right next to this small building is a cemetery where they buried all those brainless people.  It’s rather creepy but interesting as well. 

Walking to the chapel

(The cemetery next to the Chapel at Annebergparken-  The cemetery is situated just next to the chapel where the forest - Grannehaveskoven - surrounds the site. There is a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere with the sound of the wind in the trees, the smell of grass and ferns and the gravestones are simple and grey. Hundreds of people have found their last resting place here and the gravestones state their names and the name of their original hometowns. The chapel looks like a Greek temple with a little bell tower - very pretty.

But this fairy tale atmosphere is only part of it. The history of the place is a different story and feeling. The place was part of the former mental hospital of Nykebing Sj and when it was most busy it had up to 1,000 mental patients and approximately 700 employees.

When a patient died, the funeral service was held in the little chapel and if no relatives were involved, the deceased patient would be buried in the little cemetery next to the chapel. Some patients were buried in the cemetery of Nykebing Sj town or - if relatives were involved - the person could be buried in a cemetery near the family.

It was widely unknown that patients who died in the hospital between 1945 and 1982 had their brains removed in the small back room of the chapel. This was justified by scientific studies. The brains were sent to the mental hospital at Risskov near Aarhus to be used in research. After removing the brain of a deceased patient, newspapers were used to fill the space where the brain had been. Thereafter, the funeral took place in the front room of the chapel - a beautiful room with pretty red, blue and white walls.

Over the years 9,455 brains were taken out from all mental hospitals in Denmark, and approximately 2,000 of these were taken out in Nykebing Sj. and sent by train to Risskov and when Risskov closed in 2018 the brains were moved to Odense University Hospital.

Today the chapel and the cemetery are listed and protected by law because of their unique story.

Apart from approximately 700 deceased patients the first professor and leader of the hospital, Frode Krarup and his wife, are buried here in front of the small bronze age mound. Also a few employees chose to be buried here.)-Copied from a sign on the property

 In the old hospital, Ilse took us to see the museum that she had a big part in curating.  After this, Craig and Nick went back to Copenhagen with Michael and Martha.  We went for a little rest ( a grandfather) as the Danes call it before going out to Cafe Nokken for a fantastic supper with Ilse and Lars.

In this video, a wise man ( Lars) explains why this is his favourite beer.
  

We had some wonderful conversation with our hosts and then later at their house we were shown a big box of old letters that Ilse’s Father and Mother had written to each other during the war. 

Very precious and personal family items that we had the privilege of seeing.