The Seaside Painters

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Skagen, Denmark, is another small resort town that is just as scenic and interesting as Visby, Sweden. (The “g” is silent, so it is pronounced halfway between “Skay-en” and “Skayn.”

Skagen is the northernmost town in Denmark, on the tip of the Jutland Peninsula. The population is about 7,250, though the population was twice that in 1980. Skagen is the setting for the PBS series, “The Seaside Hotel,” yet the name of the town doesn’t come up in the series (or if it did, I missed it because I didn’t know how to pronounce it when I saw the series). The building portrayed as the hotel in the series does not actually exist, according to our guide. The series, set in the period from 1928 to1947, is about some upper middle class families who come to Skagen from Copenhagen every summer, and some of the Skagen locals who are associated with the hotel. 

Our tour today was called “Skagen on Foot” and our guide, Ann, was wonderful. But Skagen was the star of the show. I hesitate to say “charming” once again but Skagen really shines when it comes to “charming” and “interesting.” This small town, first settled in the 12th century, has many noteworthy features. It is an important commercial fishing port (herring). The surrounding waters, where the North and Baltic Seas meet, have become the site of an extraordinary number of shipwrecks. Skagen is home to a migrating sand dune. It is also a temporary home to large numbers of migrating birds, and birders are drawn to the lovely coastline here for excellent birdwatching. The king and queen of Denmark loved Skagen so much in the 1910’s that they built a summer residence there. (Today the royal villa is a retreat for scholars.) And Skagen has such extraordinary light that it became the home of a group of impressionist artists known as the Skagen Painters. 

These buildings by the water are used by fisherman to store their gear

Dozens of huge tankers and other vessels anchor offshore here while they await their next job

The Royal Villa

Wild roses are invasive here, but they help to anchor the sand dunes so they are welcome along certain parts of the beach

Black Houses

The oldest houses in Skagen are black. That is because they were made from driftwood and salvaged wood and then covered with tar so they wouldn't deteriorate. Nowadays, I think they just paint them black, but the tradition of the black exterior is maintained.

Sones with holes in them, nown as hag stones or witch stones, can be found on the beach around Skagen. Some people coolect them.

This thatched-roof house is part of the Kystmuseet, or Museum of Local History. It would have been the house of a prosperous fisherman.

This is an example of the house of a poor fisherman

Black houses in a neighborhood

Yellow Houses

The yellow houses signify a more prosperous period in Skagen’s history, when people could afford paint. Our guide said the only store in town only sold yellow paint, because that is what the shopkeeper ordered. (I don’t know if that’s true.) Today, that color is known as “Skagen yellow.” Most of these houses have white trim and red tile roofs, which go very nicely with the yellow.

The crossed flags indicate a lifeboatman lives here (or stores things here)

Red Houses

The newest houses are red and made of brick. The townspeople started using bricks when ships started using bricks (which they could sell) as ballast. There are also some buildings with red paint, but I don’t know if there is a story that goes with them.

Not brick, and not a house, but a warehouse. I thought I would put it with the red houses.

Did you notice how small these red houses are, and how similar they look?

Village Life in the Old Days

In the Museum of Local History we saw what everyday life was like for the families of the fishermen and lifeboatmen.

The wives of the fishermen used to come to this windmill to gossip

Inside the house of a prosperous fisherman

The Lifeboatmen

This is one of the lifeboats they used to use to rescue people from shipwrecks. It took eight men to row it.

A portion of map showing shipwrecks off the coast near Skagen between 1858 and 1882. The black circles represent wrecks; the white circles represent ships which ran aground.

In 1852, the North Jutland Rescue Service was established to rescue people from stranded or sinking ships close to shore. There were 19 rescue stations along the coast. Each station had a permanent team, usually local fishermen. The work was dangerous and difficult, but was considered an honor. The men received extensive training. Some rescue missions lasted for days. When conditions did not permit a boat to row out to a ship in trouble, the lifeboatmen would use rockets to shoot a rope or cable out to the ship, and after the line was secured, a bosun’s chair would be used to carry people off the ship, one at a time. To find out more about the rescue service, click here.

Some times an old boat would be turned upside down and used as a roof for a storage hut.

The Skagen Painters

We saw the houses where some of the Skagen Painters lived, and one of the hotels where they used to eat, drink, and display some of their paintings. I have included a few of their paintings below. The paintings are all in the public domain and can be found on the internet.

The Lifeboat Is Taken through the Dunes, by Michael Ancher, 1883

Launching the Boat, by Oscar Björck, 1885

Sunlight in the Blue Room, by Anna Ancher, 1891

Summer Evening on Skagen’s Southern Beach, by Peder Severin Krøyer, 1893

The narrow streets are lined with enchanting yellow cottages with red tiled roofs. Everything is neat and tidy. The beaches are clean and empty. A delightful place, indeed!

Today’s fabric is a sampler. A sampler is a piece of fabric used to practice embroidery or to show off different stitches. This antique sampler is from the Kystmuseet in Skagen. If you look closely, you can spot two of the three extra letters (æ, ø, and å) in the Danish alphabet as they must have looked in 1849.

The Tiger City

Sunday, August 16, 2026

Today was a day at sea. We sailed down around the tip of Sweden, through the narrow passage between Denmark and Sweden, and then up the coast of Norway and into the very long Oslofjord. Here is what we saw along the way:

Sailing under the bridge between Denmark and Sweden

Monday, August 17, 2026

Strong winds prevented us from leaving Visby on time, so we arrived at Oslo almost an hour late. We docked at Revierkaia, which is the less convenient of the two cruise terminals in Oslo, but the center of old Oslo was still within walking distance, and we were grateful that it was not necessary to take a train or shuttle bus.

Our plan for the day was to follow Rick Steves’ Self-Guided Walk for Oslo, have lunch, then go to Bygdøy by ferry to visit a museum. However, our time frame was impacted by the late arrival, getting a manicure in Oslo, and a difficult geocache. By the time we finished lunch we were pooped and we didn’t want to wander too far from the ship, so we never made it to Bygdøy.

Oslo is a vibrant modern city with deep roots. Its metropolitan area population is about 1.5 million. Oslo is nicknamed the Tiger City because of a poem from 1870 which compared Oslo to a dangerous tiger and the rural countryside to a safe horse. (In 2000, to mark the 1000th anniversary of Oslo’s founding, a bronze statue of a tiger was installed at the Central Train Station.)

I get it. I had the feeling that, compared to the other Scandinavian and Baltic capitals, Oslo was a bit more “wild west” and a bit less refined and civilized. Whereas in Copenhagen, packs of cyclists stayed in the bike lanes, in Oslo, cyclists rode in bike lanes, in the streets, and on pedestrian paths, with no bell-ringing or audible warnings. In Oslo, they have elevated swimming in the harbor into a major social event. There are little houseboats that are essentially big saunas, and groups can rent them. (The water in the harbor must be quite clean. We even saw swans there.)

I decided that Copenhagen is like the Japan of the Baltic. It is quirky and interesting and eclectic, but safe, and people there tend to follow the rules. Oslo is more like the Alaska of the Baltic  — a little edgier, definitely more rule-bending going on, but such an exciting place.

On our walk we hit most of Rick’s highlights.

Ostbanehallen, the original train station, now a food court

We walked along Karl Johans Gate, which is a grand boulevard, rather than a gate. Here we saw the iconic Freia sign, reminding us of Norway’s best chocolate.

Oslo Cathedral

A modern new train station sits at the top of the steps behind the Ruter Tower. In the background, a shopping mall and the 37-story Radisson Blu Plaza.

One of the most important buildings in Oslo is the City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in this building.

Statues of workers belonging to different trades line the front of City Hall

Because of the two towers, City Hall is called “the goat cheese building.” That’s not the first thing that pops into my mind, but I don’t eat that much goat cheese.

In the area of the harbor, there was a lot to see. Facing the water, on the left you can see the looming Akershus Fortress and the Norwegian Resistance Museum. We spent a lot of tme in the Fortress, climbing up and down to different levels and finding dead ends, to complete a complicated, tricky geocache. 

On the right side of the harbor, you will see the Nobel Peace Center and the National Museum. Beyond that is Aker Brygge, a recently developed district of restaurants, shops and nightclubs. Our lunch destination, a waterfront restaurant called Jarmann Gastropub, was located there.

Another building that was once an old train station is now the Nobel Peace Center. The Peace Bench in front reminds us of the value of dialogue and diplomacy.

The National Museum

Jarmann Gastropub

On the other side of the peninsula where Akerhus Fortress is located, a number of magnificent buildings dominate the waterfront facing another branch of Oslofjord. These include, the Opera House, the Munch Museum, and the public library.

Munch Museum

Opera House, front on right
Public library, slightly behind on left

Here are some random photos of things I liked in Oslo:

Houses along Oslofjord

Remember the Vikings!

Harbor art

Although Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in the world, 

Norway has a very high standard of living.  Norwegians receive cradle-to-grave social benefits: university education, healthcare, one year of parental leave, five weeks of vacation, and pensions from the government. Norway has excellent infrastructure: roads, bridges, tunnels, ferries, public transportation, and so on. This is paid for by high taxes and revenue from oil and gas which goes into a fund that is similar to Alaska’s Permanent Fund, but is managed better and worth over a trillion dollars.

Oslo has successfully revitalized and modernized itself by adopting a long-range master plan called the Fjord City (Fjordbyen) Project, based on five overarching strategies:

• Removing and burying traffic infrastructure (tunnels, port relocation)
• Implementing a “Car-Free Livability” program (parking elimination, nudging drivers)
• Anchoring the waterfront with cultural beacons, such as the Opera House
• High-Density Architectural Innovation, to preserve forests and limit urban sprawl (a good example is known as “The Barcode Project”)
• A continuous Harbor Promenade (walkway) 9 km long providing continuous public access to the waterfront zone

There’s more, look it up. I am really impressed with how well Oslo has pulled it off.

Today’s fabric is Norway on Blue by brynnbader for Spoonflower.