Let's go find some fossils!!!

Michele and I were super excited to go to Denmark for two reasons: 1) a new country! and 2) fossils!!!  We were headed to Møns Klint - chalk cliffs on the island of Møn where you can find fossils on the beach.   When we were researching for this trip we both looked through a travel book on Denmark and picked out our favorite destination.  And we both picked Møns Klint (go figure, we're both geologists).   The tricky part was getting there.  We were still staying with my relatives and they have been so kind and generous to us that we didn't want to inconvenience them.  We suggested Møn and they were both excited to go someplace new and were willing to drive us all there.

We started out early because it took about an hour just to get to the ferry to Denmark.  The ferry was like a cruise ship except you park your cars below.  Upstairs they had restaurants and a duty-free shop.  The ride was only about 45 minutes but it felt shorter.  The water was a deep blue and we passed a couple of other ferries.  We actually were on 4 different islands on this adventure. 

Møns Klint was amazing.  They have an incredible museum called the Geocenter with interactive displays in three languages (see my review).  While we were there, they offered a guided tour down to the beach, so we jumped on it.  They asked who speaks which languages and it turns out the common language was English.

  We had Dutch, Danish, German, Italian and English speakers (and guess who the English only speakers were).  The tour went down a bunch of wooden steps and past some gnarled beech trees.  The beeches grew crooked because they were confused as to where the sunlight was coming from.  At times the sun is reflected brightly off the water and others its off the white chalk cliffs, and of course there's the sun itself.  They are also growing on the nutrient poor chalky soil.  Very interesting!

On the beach, our guide showed us the different types of fossils we could find.  The most common was a belemnite - a cylindrical orange fossil smaller than a finger.  These were once parts of ancient squids.  The orange color helps to find them among the black flint rocks and white chalk.

  We all had a great time looking for fossils, even though it was really cold - around freezing!  I kept looking along the water line because that's where the newest fossils would be from the choppy water.  Once I got too close and a wave spashed up on my leg.  Brrr!  So with wet, frozen fingers and toes, we eventually had enough fossil hunting and decided to head back.  You can walk about a mile in either direction along the beach to another set of stairs, but the water was a little rough, making the beach pretty narrow.  I started walking a little ways north, but got scared because chalk was falling off the cliff above and tumbling down almost hitting me.  We all climbed back up the 500 some stairs weighted down with fossils and rocks.   What fun!

We went back to the Geocenter for a picnic lunch of bologna salad (yum!!!) and rolls and hot tea.  We finished the museum and came out much smarter.  They even had a kids area where you can use all your senses.  One of the displays was a sniffing one where you smell a flower and try to identify the smell.  My favorite smell turned out to be a fox.  What does a fox even smell like? 

While we were in the museum it started snowing.  Hard.  It was very pretty, but it was causing white out conditions on the drive home.  It was hard to see the road!  We stopped briefly at Liselund, which is a summer cottage that was a gift from some guy to his wife (I forget the story).   We made it back and took the ferry where we could watch the sunset.  And after an extremely long day, we made it home and crashed.  This was by far one of our favorite stops on the whole trip!  I'm so glad Wolfgang and Ute are so generous and drove us there.