Mons Klint

On Saturday October 11 we headed towards the island of Mons in southeastern Denmark. On the very eastern end of the island (and the eastern side of Denmark excluding Bornholm) is a huge, 150+m high lump of chalk which is cut abruptly on one side by the ocean to form a huge white cliff.

MonsKlint

The chalk was initially formed in a large challow sea during the cretaceous period (the time of the dinosaurs). It is possible to find many different types of fossils in it, from shells to the teeth of large predatory marine species (like this). We found a few belamnites and a bunch of shells while we were there.

But there is much more to the area than the cliff and its chalk. Our first stop was Liselund, an old manor estate whose grounds are now a park. We had hoped to spend the night in the castle (sadly it was not to be) so we decided to stop by. What we found was a very nice park. A park so nice we thought we were in a fairy tale. Poking around the grounds we eventually found a path through the forest to the beach, which we hit at the start of twilight. Wow, beautiful.

After Liselund, we still had to find a place to stay, and did so finally finding a pension bed and breakfast that had two rooms for us. We thought it would be nice and empty, but it was the opposite. Without going into detail, the place was dominated by a large multifamily group celebrating a birthday and pretty much taking over the place. Yuck.

Did that spoil our fun? Not a bit. For dinner we visited a dead seasonal town called Klintholms Havn and ate at a sadly bad Italian restaurant. Ugh. It only got better the next day, when we had time to really explore the cliffs and the newly opened GeoCenter. Wow what a place. There are ~750 steps down to the beach. The beach is cobbled, and the smaller cobbles are all silaceous rock chunks (chert) or fossils. The steps down traverse a lovely forest with waterfalls, etc., and to top it off we hit the place early and had it to ourselves. Great day!