1st stop in Denmark was the Bangsbo Bunkermuseum. There is a museum here, but it was closed - however the area is open to visitors, as are many of the bunkers.The Bangsbo bunkers were an extensive set of bunkers originally built by the Germans in WW2 to protect the port of Frederikshavn, and then subsequently expanded by the Danes during the Cold War as part of their coastal defences. There are more than 80 bunkers here, of which about 10 are still occupied and used by the Danish Navy.I didn't have time to explore all the remaining bunkers, but my reason for stopping here was just to see the Niels Juel gun - the guns of the coastal battleship Niels Juel were removed and placed in bunkers here during the war - and sure enough here it is.According to the onsite signage, and various websites I had checked out before visiting, there is just the one of these guns left here, and so I didn't look any further - however when I subsequently drove past (the main highway north to Frederikshavn and Skaagen runs just in front of the fortress), it appeared that there were other bunkers with guns sticking out of them, so maybe I missed something.There are various other guns mounted near the museum building - but (apart from one AA gun) they all look like recent additions to the museum, rather than being part of the original fort). But the real surprise was discovering this:Now I have a database which is supposed to have every museum ship in the world in it, but I knew nothing about this. I was further confused as I didn't recognise the ship, and the signage (which was only in Danish) didn't really enlighten me either. Subsequent google searches revealed that this was the shore training facility LAPPEDYKKEREN, which was made up in 1959 using components from the patrol vessel Kreiger, along with parts from various decommissioned Soloven class minesweepers. When the base it was part of closed in 2008, the hulk was donated to the Bangsbo Bunkermuseum, and trucked up here in parts and reassembled. It appears that since then, nothing has been done to maintain the hulk, and it is rotting away in situ. The corrosion is bad, and the decks were rusted right through in places. It was particularly cognizant that I was probably the heaviest person to have walked those decks in some time, and moved around pretty gingerly out of concern that I could fall through.If you are interested in coastal defence bunker designs, this is the place for you, but for me it was worth visiting just for the Niels Juel gun.
