Cape Codders to visit Danish wind farm

You can join them on this journey of discovery in Denmark

By Walter Brooks

Cape Codders will have the opportunity to enjoy five days of travel to Europe for $280 a day including all transfers, air, train and bus fares, breakfasts and hotel if they move quickly to jump in with the group heading to Denmark in late May to see what a wind farm looks like from six miles offshore. Plus they'll be the first on their block to see what the Kennedys will see from The Compound in three more years.

You may be in the movie... Join our reporter Jack Coleman on the trip to Denmark... Move quickly because space is limited

That's the deal the grassroots organization Clean Power Now is offering to Cape Codders who might like to travel with kindred spirits while they catch a glimpse of the future of America's renewable energy revolution.

It's not often that private citizens have the opportunity to travel on an important fact-finding trip like this one. It's such an important visit that you'll be accompanied by State Senators and Reps, and journalists covering this story for major daily newspapers.

Your 15 minutes of fame may be upon you too

CPN's members are inviting you to join them on this second journey of discovery. You may even be in a movie! Orleans Videographer Liz Argo will be filming the trip, and you can be an "extra" or even have a "speaking role" if you wish. Space is limited, and at last reports only a few rooms were left at one of the hotels in Denmark.

When you take this opportunity to investigate for your fellow Cape Codders an issue as important as the decision to create the Cape Cod National Seashore Park two generations ago, you will be living John Petit-Senn's admonition, "True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher."

"True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher."

The organization will handle everything for the five day trip for $1,250 per person/double occupancy or $1,400 for single occupancy. This includes all transfers, hotels, air, train and bus fares, and sumptuous Danish breakfasts.

The flight on Icelandair departs Boston Tuesday evening May 24th. and arrives in Copenhagen Denmark on Wednesday at mid-day. The group then continues by train to Nysted, about 2 hours south of Copenhagen.

At the hotel in Nysted, it is an easy walk to the beach, from where the 70-turbine wind park at Rødsand is visible on the horizon.

Join our reporter Jack Coleman and bring back the scoop

Cape Cod Today is sending reporter Jack Coleman to cover the trip, and he'll be filing daily dispatches from Denmark. His reporting for cct will also be carried in the Patriot Ledger, Providence Journal, Vineyard Gazette and Nantucket Independent. The Boston Globe has also assigned an editorial writer to make the trip.

On Thursday, you and your fellow Cape Cod adventurers will travel by chartered boat from Nysted Harbor, to see the wind park at Rødsand close up. Hold onto your hats because you will sail between and around some of the wind turbines. On board the boat, the guide will tell you about the construction of the wind park and about its role in the Nysted community where it has become the major tourist attraction luring visitors even in the winter.

This is the sight as you approach the wind farm aboard the boat from Nysted

On Friday around ten you will leave Nysted and travel by train to Esbjerg, about 4 hours west of Copenhagen, arriving in mid-afternoon. On Saturday the cape group will travel by chartered bus to see the wind parks at Tjæborg and Velling, and Horns Rev, the 80-turbine offshore wind park at Blåvand.

The Clean Power Now folks are trying to put together of a tour of the Vestas wind turbine factory in Ringkøbing on Sunday morning. After that you will return on an early morning train arriving in Copenhagen in time to catch the mid-afternoon Icelandair connection to Boston, where, because of the time change, you will arrive in the early evening of the same day.

If you tell CPN ahead of time it is possible to make stopovers in either Copenhagen or Reykjavik, Iceland, or both.

If you want to see the future of renewable energy, contact: windfarm@cleanpowernow.org - or - Telephone: 1-508-775-7796

Here's the itinerary at this time;

• Tues. May 24 - 4:30 p.m. Hyannis, 4:40 West Barnstable, 5:00 Sagamore. Plymouth & Brockton Bus to Logan Airport leaving at 9pm on Icelandair Flight 632
• Wed. May 25 - stop-over in Keflavik, Iceland, then Icelandair Flight 204 tp Copenhagen, then the Danish State Railway to Nykøbing Falster, Transfer by chartered bus from Nykøbing F. to Nysted (11 miles; 30 minutes)
  
  The hotel in Nysted is called "The Cottage" and is a charming, half-timbered country inn famous for it's hospitality and food
• Nysted: Hotel â??The Cottageâ?� (double rooms with bath) This is a traditional half-timbered country inn. The location is a 10-minute walk from the center of town and the harbor. In another direction, a two-minute walk takes you to a beach from which the wind park is visible both day and night.
• Thurs. May 26 - 09:00 Briefing on the wind park offered by the Town of Nysted. 10:00 First boat tour, with guide, to the wind park at Rødsand (The boat is limited to 15 passengers per trip.) 2:15 Second boat tour to the wind park (if we are more than 15 in total group)
• Fri. May 27 - Transfer by chartered bus from Nysted to Nykøbing F.
  (An alternative, if the group is larger, would be to charter the bus from Nysted to Ringsted.) Arriving at Esbjerg: Palads Hotel Cab-Inn
• Sat. May 28 - Tour by chartered bus to see wind farm installations a at Tjæborg, Velling and BlÃ¥vand. Possibility of a tour of the Vestas wind turbine factory.
• Sun. May 29 - 07:48 Leave Esbjerg on Danish State Railway to Kastrup Airport, Icelandair Flight 205. Stop over at Keflavik, Iceland, Icelandair Flight 633, arrive in Boston around 6:30 p.m. Leave on Plymouth & Brockton Bus to Sagamore at 10:20, West Barnstable 10:35, and Hyannis ten minutes later.
• Trip cost is $1,250 per person/double occupancy. This includes round trip airfare Boston - Copenhagen - Boston, four nights in hotels, four breakfasts, and train, bus and boat travel in Denmark. Lunch and dinner are not included. Single occupancy is $1,400.