Friends in fun places

It's nice to have friends visiting from Houston. The weather has cooperated, being sunny and rather warm for April but just now cooling off. They have traveled around on their own during the weekdays. In the evenings we've enjoyed dinners in the apartment, hearing about their days and catching up on news from Texas. This weekend we enjoyed spending time with them, going off to Trelleborg and then touring Rosenborg Castle (the part not under renovation) and seeing the treasury and crown jewels.

Trelleborg is the best preserved ring fortress from the Viking age built by Harold Bluetooth, son of Gorm the Old. The fort was attacked by a rival army led by his son Swein Forkbeard who eventually prevailed and became the third in the line of Danish monarchs which continues to this day. I mostly tell this because of the cool names. Lately they've been in a rut with every king since 1513 being named either Christian or Frederick. A brief respite is provided by Margrethe, the current queen; but another 70+ years of Christian/Frederick can be expected given the current heirs to the throne...

Trelleborg is a an hour and 15 minute drive from our apartment. On the way through south Sjælland we saw fields of rapeseed blooming a brilliant yellow. At the fort we enjoyed watching the sheep and lambs in the adjacent field and also explored the reconstructions of Viking houses (picture #3). For dinner we went to a cafe on the church square in Slagelse (picture #4) a nice town in western Sjælland. It was cool in the shade, but the cafe provided blankets to help us keep warm while enjoying the fresh air.

Rosenborg Castle is one of my favorite places in Copenhagen because of the history and the beautiful grounds. Unfortunately it is currently under renovation so only three rooms are open for visitors. For now, a visit to the treasury with the crown jewels is included in the ticket price.

Now our friends are off to Oslo on the ferry before returning to Copenhagen and a short jaunt to southern Sweden and Jutland.

Gæster kommer!

After another trip to Ikea, we made some long overdue improvements in preparation for our coming guests. We added some mirrors in the dining room and living room along with some doors for our living room bookcases. Finally we hung some pictures. Yesterday was our usual Danish Saturday class followed by a nice dinner at a different cafe nearby.

Not much excitement last week. The beautiful weather gave way to some cold and a little rain, just in time for the arrival of our guests. It will pass and next week looks promising. Here are some pictures from our trip to Scotland. Note the second photo with the pair of Scots in kilts flanking the door. They weren't even related.

Breaking news - Denmark has a new princess. No name as yet. Read more (in Danish) here.

Accents and rhythms

Last weekend we were off to Scotland to attend a wedding. It was a wonderful visit. We had terrific hosts whom Alexa last saw when she visited in 1985. I will post some pictures when I get them back from the photo shop (we forgot the camera...). The only other hitch was that our departure flight from Copenhagen was canceled because of bad weather in Amsterdam where we had a connection. We were re-booked and arrived 4 hours late. Our three days in Scotland included the wedding, a warm, festive affair held in an old manor house; a visit to Robert Burns' birthplace (with a fabulous lunch at the Brig o'Doon hotel, and a visit to the People's Palace in Glasgow. We saw beautiful scenery during our drives through the countryside. The best part of Scotland, however, was the people. It was most enjoyable to talk with our hosts and the guests at the wedding. A side effect of all the talking was that we started picking up hints of the Scottish accent. I know if we stayed there any length of time it would take hold pretty quickly. That would just be icing on the cake for me, since I've been told I had a German accent (by a waiter in central Pennsylvania) and asked what part of England I was from (by a British ex-pat in Denmark).

Back in Denmark we're on cat-sitting duty again and we spent Saturday in an all-day choir rehearsal after going to the first hour of our Danish class. The rehearsal included some new songs and a clinician who taught us an arrangement of an African American spiritual (This Train is Bound for Glory). It wasn't easy, but by the end he had us in the spirit. A quick dinner (3hr 45min - short by Danish standards) followed the rehearsal. In all it was a Danish-filled day and very enjoyable. Today we will soak up more of the beautiful weather with a picnic in Kongens Have followed by Casablanca at the cinema.

Out and about

In the last week or so we took two excursions, one to Møns Klint and another up the coast on our bikes. In between I took a quick trip to Oslo for work.

Møns Klint is Denmark's version of the white cliffs of Dover. We drove about two hours south to the island of Møn and spent a couple of hours strolling along the top of the cliffs and looking out on the water. It was a blustery day, but no rain. We didn't go down to the beach at the base of the cliffs because the stairs were closed due to the risk of landslides common in winter and spring. We'd like to return in the summer to camp overnight and spend more time exploring. On this trip we filled the tank for the third time since arriving in Denmark. One amusing thing is the behavior of the new digital camera which has a palette that strongly favors purple. I recall this happening on the first "roll" from the old camera (same make) before going away, hopefully it won't last too long.

I next went to Oslo for a 2-day training course in the middle of the week. I had some time on a Tuesday afternoon to stroll around Oslo and enjoy the beautiful weather. I saw Vigelund Park and the Akerhus fortress on the waterfront. Before the start of the course I had a brief Danish conversation with the guy next to me who introduced himself in Danish, so I thought I'd reply in Danish. The teacher and several other participants were Norwegian, so it was interesting to hear the Danish/Norwegian conversations. Norwegian words are very similar to Danish but the pronunciation is closer to Swedish.

Last weekend we took the train north with our bikes and rode north from Klampenborg to just south of Vedbæk. There was an excellent cycle path that ran along the railroad right-of-way. The weather was perfect and we stopped for ice cream on the way back. It was about 25 km in all (I like kilometers, because it sounds like we went farther than we really did....).