Picturesque German harbors, with medieval churches, ancient cobblestone streets, surrounded by luscious farmlands and mature forests, this is what you will find here in the great North nestled between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.
But just underneath the surface of mainstream tourist attractions and an overbearing presence of the state-supported Christian church, you will find something far older.
This area of Germany was actually a part of Denmark up until the 1860s and evidence of Scandinavian culture is still very present here today. There are danish speaking schools, radio stations, and signs written in Danish. But, there are also many signs of the old gods of Europe.
The pagan gods have managed to survive in the shadows for the past 1,000 years, but with the advent of technology, Europeans are now, once again, uncovering their true roots. They are beginning to remember who they were. A great people, strong, proud, and not subordinate to middle eastern laws of Abrahamic religions.
In the ancient Viking city of Schleswig, Germany, new monuments to old gods are being constructed, maybe as a natural European response to yet another invading religion, complacent after centuries of the Christian influence.
The introduction of another outside religion, Islam, seems to be awakening the true gods of the Europeans. Perhaps seeing the middle eastern religion of Islam in the raw, straight from the source, has many questioning their own religion's roots and what it has to do with them.
For me, after spending a year in the Middle East, I knew that the religions of the Abrahamic gods had no place in my life. I knew it was time to return to my ancestors' traditions.
Here is a beautiful example of a new totem built near the state capital building.