Germany commences border controls

Germany is today introducing border controls with all of its neighbouring countries, including Denmark. The controls, announced earlier this month, will be in place for an initial six months.

South Jutland Police have advised drivers to allow additional time for their journeys and have their passports ready.

The Danish Road Directorate (Vejdirektoratet) said  it expects extended journey times and traffic congestion near the border today, especially during rush hours in the morning and afternoon.

“We expect the most affected border crossing to be the Danish-German border

at the Frøslev crossing at the end of the E45,” the agency’s Kenneth Andersen told broadcaster DR.

READ ALSO: Checks on Danish border by Germany ‘in line’ with EU rules

Tivoli Friheden ordered to close zipline after accident

Aarhus amusement park Tivoli Friheden has received an immediate order to close its zipline after a woman was injured at the amusement park on Saturday, local media TV 2 Østjylland reported.

The woman reportedly lost her grip on the zipline and then hit a tree, back first.

She was taken to hospital for examination but received no fractures or other serious injuries, according to an update yesterday.

“She has a few bruises, no doubt about that, and it was likely a very traumatic experience,” East Jutland Police officer Rene Ludvig told TV 2 Østjylland.

The ride will remain closed until a number of issues have been resolved, police told the regional media. The specific safety issues with the zipline are currently unclear.

Vocabulary: svævebane – zipline

Rare coin collection brings in over 14 million euros at auction

A Danish coin collection decreed to be kept off the market for a century brought in 14.8 million euros as it finally went under the hammer in Copenhagen on Saturday, the auction house told Danish media.

After an eight-hour auction in the Danish capital the 286 coins on sale had brought in 14,820,900 euros (about $16.4 million), news agency Ritzau reported.

Michael Fornitz, director of the Danish branch of auction house Stack’s Bowers, told the news agency the final sum exceeded estimates by around 25 percent.

The auction represented the first batch of coins sold from the some 20,000 coins contained in the Bruun collection — which has been kept off the market for a century.

In 1922, Lars Emil Bruun, a Danish entrepreneur and coin expert, bought the collection from the aristocratic Bille-Brahe family.

He died the following year, adding in his will a condition to the sale of the collection.

“The story goes that Bruun, after having seen the devastation of the First World War, was very afraid that something would happen to the (museum’s) national collection,” Helle Horsnaes, head of Denmark’s National Museum’s coin and medallion collection, told AFP in May.

“And therefore he made a will, saying that his collection should be kept as a reserve for the national collection for 100 years after his death,” she added.

Denmark’s National Museum, which had been given first dibs in an agreement between Bruun and the Bille-Brahe family, paid one million euros for seven of the collection’s coins earlier this year.

World Champion triumphs in Copenhagen Half Marathon

The defending world champion, Sebastian Sawe from Kenya, won yesterday’s Copenhagen Half Marathon on Sunday with a time of 58 minutes and 5 seconds.

Sawe overtook world record holder Jacob Kiplimo from Uganda in a sprint on the home stretch.

Margaret Kipkembo won the women’s race in 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 11 seconds, narrowly missing the women’s race record in Copenhagen, which is three seconds faster.

Norwegian middle distance runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen, one of the world’s highest-profile athletes in his regular disciplines, made his debut in the half marathon and finished around 5 minutes behind the winners after keeping pace for the first half of the race.

Tens of thousands of amateur runners joined the elite professionals for the running event in Copenhagen, which enjoys enthusiastic public support and a burgeoning international reputation.