Short Study Tour- Sønderborg and Esbjerg

In the DIS program, every student takes one 'core' course for their major.  In the medical practice and policy program, my core course is Human Health and Disease.  With this class, there is both a short tour to Western Denmark and long study tour to Vienna and Budapest (first week in October, can't wait!).  This past weekend, we went to Sønderborg and Esbjerg, two small towns located on the mainland of Denmark called Jutland.

Nineteen of us and our two tour leaders boarded the bus (a VIP party bus!) at 7:30 on Thursday morning and began the four hour bus and ferry trip to our first destination, Sønderborg.  On the way, we stopped at Grasten Castle, the summer residence of the Danish Royal Family.  We took a tour around the gardens and saw the oak tree that Hans Christian Anderson, a poet noted for his children's stories, sat under while writing his first book.  After walking through the gardens, the class went into the castle to see the beautiful church with ornate decorations and beautiful paintings.  It is actually still used every Sunday for services today. 

We left the church and departed for our first academic visit to King Christian X's Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases.  The function of this institution was to allow people with rheumatoid arthritis to live a normal, functioning life through a variety of therapies and care.  After this visit, we went to Dybbol Banke, which wasn't actually a bank, but the location of a battle that took place in 1864.  It was here that the Danes suffered a defeat and lost an entire region to the Germans.  Here are some pictures from the battlefield, felt like I was in Gettysburg!

After an long, exhausting day we finally checked in at the hostel in Sønderborg and took a quick nap before another lecture on the Danish healthcare system.  Thankfully, this was done by one of our tour leaders and took place at the hostel so we didn't have to go far.  After this, we had a group dinner downtown at a restaurant called Brønggeriet and ate pork wrapped in bacon, vegetables, and potatoes.  Also, crème brûlée for dessert, it was delicious!  Afterwards, we went out for a night on the town.  And even though we were pretty much the only people out that night, we had a really fun time together, and got a little lost on the walk back to the hostel...

The next day was full of academic visits to Sonderberg Health Center and Hans Werner Muehle, a General Practitioners office.  Both were very educational and we learned a lot about the Danish health care system, which is entirely FREE by the way, America should catch onto this.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Royals BBQ and Restaurant (see picture below) and while we were eating, a small parade went by outside, guess we were in the right place at the right time!  It was a fun afternoon.

After another long bus ride, we arrived in Esbjerg and visited the "Man meets the Sea" Sculpture.  It was pretty eerie looking but very cool.  It was raised on the occasion of Esbjerg celebrating its 100th annniversary as an independent municipality in 1994.  It represents the meeting between the 'pure' man and nature.  It was a really cool place to see!

The last day of our tour was for the 'adventure' portion of the trip.  Our class went blokarting on the beach of Rindy.  A blokart is a car with three wheels driven by a sail and steered with a handlebar.  It was definitely something we had never seen or done before but apparently was popular in Denmark.  The beach was full of them!  It was definitely a fun way to end the trip, but by the end of the day we were all ready to head home.  After blokarting, we enjoyed a local lunch at Sonderho Kro, founded in 1722 and one of the oldest inns in Denmark.  This village of Sonderho has a population of only 328 and is filled with beaches, dunes, shops, art galleries, cafes and restaurants.

The Restaruant- Sonderho Kro, 1722

And that was the end of the trip!  Can't wait for the long study tour to Vienna and Budapest!