The world is full of wonder.. and full of persons with a special hobby. And so, when I stayed for a few days in Denmark, I’ve known a place with one very special building. That is – I found out – not the only one in the world. There are others like that. But my first I have ever seen stands in Thyborøn, a fishing village in Jutland.
My friends and me wanted to go so see some beaches, taking photographs of shells, sea weed and interesting stones and have a look at the beautiful Danish landscape. So we headed off from Viborg after lunch to the sea side and finished in a place called Thyborøn. It’s a small village somewhere at the North Sea and has this special Snail Shell House.
One man, fisherman Alfred Pederson, had a really nice hobby: collecting shells and snails from all over the world. Something I can understand very well because as a child I did the very same and I remember well I had so many that one day my mother asked me to throw them. But children always collect something and as my mother used to travel with me to beach places at least twice a year I had a wonderful collection (long gone).
The house has everywhere snails and shells. Wonderful pictures and sculptures, on the walls around the windows, on chairs and tables and wardrobes. In glass vitrines and in the yard. It looks really amazing. Inside there is a kind of museum with curious and nice things the fishermen found in there nets. It has the greatest exhibition of shells, snails and ships in the bottle in Denmark. The last ones are from between 1935 and 1965 and made by village fishermen during the wintertime as a hobby. Of course there is also a shop where tourists can buy shells, snails, ships in bottles, books and a lot more.
We didn’t enter the house unfortunately because there was a long line outside and it was a little bit expensive to be honest. Instead, we had a look on the beach, to old bunkers from the second world war and of course we made a lot of photos of shells, snails and stones on the beach.
Viborg – Thyborøn/Denmark:
For further information:
Sneglehuset website (in Danish and German)
