A couple of months ago, in a post about Forgotten Giants of Copenhagen, I mentioned that there would be ten new Giants popping up around Denmark in the Huge Troll Festival (den Kæmpestore Troldefolkefest).
So when we got a chance to go to Jutland, we decided to do a troll hunt in Silkeborg 🙂
Huge Troll Festival (den Kæmpestore Troldefolkefest) works differently than the previous troll hunt. It is a treasure hunt kind-of activity where you go from one spot to another, trying to find small copper plaques with GPS coordinates to the next point. Use the website to find your starting point and type in the GPS coordinates you find to see where you have to go to next.
The fantastic part about the hunt is that the trolls hide in an exciting area you most probably would not go to otherwise 🙂
Art Center
Initially, we had no idea what area we were in, but we started walking and noticed several sculptures. Apparently, we went into an arts center in a former health resort, with modern Danish and international art and a sculpture park. I am not a huge art fan, but I thought they were quite interesting, so we spend some time going around them 🙂
Bunker Museum
On our walk, an odd-looking car overtook us. We turned around and noticed four Nazis wearing uniforms sitting inside the vehicle, which looked like an old VW beetle.
We were getting quite curious about what was happening here. Was a movie being shot, or were the Germans invading again? Our troll hunt was becoming weirder and weirder by the second. Strange sculptures, Nazis in old cars – we were so baffled. We continued walking, and soon after, we found more people wielding guns and wearing uniforms. Suddenly, the mystery unraveled. We were apparently on the old Bunker Museum grounds, and the museum was celebrating its 25th anniversary. The live actors were reenacting the occupation times and offering guided tours!
When we discovered the next tour was in five minutes, we had to take it! Our guide walked around the grounds, telling us stories about the various sites, bunkers, and their significance.
We found out that Silkeborg was the German military headquarters in Denmark from 1943-1945. When the war progressed, Berlin feared an Allied invasion on Jutland’s west coast. They wanted the staff to be close; however, withdrawn from the potential combat zone. Therefore, they moved to Silkeborg.
There are 25 bunkers in the area, with one specially designed with a heat cooling system for the radio station. Don’t forget to take a torchlight, if you want to explore some of them yourself!
There are other guided tours you can take part in. Check out their website for more details.
Stærke Storm
Stærke Storm is hiding on top of the hill among the bunkers of Silkeborg.
We have done treasure hunt in reverse order as our unexpected tour took us right to the troll. We felt a little sad we “cheated” our way to it, so we wanted to check the route out either way. It was worth it; we found another bunker and walked through some charming parts of the forest.
Overall, an excellent spot for a fantastic day trip.
