We're still here . . .

A recent visit was to the Frederiksborg Slot (www.frederiksborgmuseet.dk). This is a beautiful castle built on three islands in a lake outside Hillerød, a 30 minute train ride north of Copenhagen. Most of the building took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the chapel a man pointed out the window where bored royals carved names and dates into the glass with their diamond jewelry. There's also the only original Compenius organ which we heard played during our tour. Outside the castle are beautiful gardens which we saved for another visit due to the overcast weather.

An invitation - if you would like us to share anything specific about our experiences here, I'm happy to comply. Just drop me an email or leave a comment. Until then, you'll have to put up with the current pattern of "stream-of-consciousness" and "when-I-get-around-to-it" reporting.

We've had two Danish lessons so far with our tutor. We've been trying to learn on our own, but the befuddled looks of those we tried to communicate with told us we weren't getting it quite right. Danish could be the hardest language to pronounce. I had heard Dutch was hard, but Danish may take the prize. We had hoped the Swedish lessons we took in Houston would help and they have for vocabulary and grammar; but somehow pronunciation took a crazy turn on the way across the Øresund separating southern Sweden from Denmark. Danish has many of the same features as English whereby you can't always trust the letters on the page to help you pronounce the word you're reading. Danish does this to an extreme, not just dropping vowels, but also many consonants. Perfectly normal consonants like 'd' and 't' are often turned them into a soft (almost) 'th' sound or, about as often, dropped entirely. That rant aside, after more than a month, we're starting to pick words and phrases that we've learned out of the jumble. It's a long road ahead.