Eat at Joe's

My posts have been less frequent lately with the arrival of our guests, but keep checking in on us! Our latest guests, J&P (AKA, Mom & Dad) are off to Norway on the ferry to Oslo. Weather has been a mix of beautiful and not-so-good, but weighted toward the better days so far. Since their arrival on Thursday, we've taken in Rosenborg Slot and the crown jewels, the Botanical Gardens, Amalienborg Palace, the changing of the guard, the waterfront, a bus tour and a boat tour. On Saturday we had dinner and a nice visit with Alexa's cousin from Sweden and her boyfriend. Friday's dinner was at Joe's Restaurant and Cafe in Valby. At the changing of the guard I learned that there are three sizes of guard details. It depends on whether the queen is home or not. When she's home, there's a full detail with band and everything including mounted police for crowd control. The group we saw on Sunday was the smallest detail where they were just guarding the building. Apparently the band also plays on Wednesday up until the middle of June whether the queen is home or not. I've posted an old picture of the full detail.

Joe's Restaurant was just like it sounds - a local place with good food and nice unpretentious atmosphere. When we arrived at 6:30, we were only the second group. By 8:00 the place was packed and we left satisfied at 9:00 while it was still bustling. Unlike the U.S., people spend the whole evening at a restaurant, there's no thought of "turnover" to get multiple customers at a table through the course of the evening. At one Copenhagen buffet restaurant, someone observed that the meal was so quick that the restaurant might serve 2 or even 3 groups in a single night. That's a new concept here, but I still find it awkward to flag down the waiter to get the bill after a couple of hours.

Catching up on something I forgot to mention in the previous post, when G&L were visiting we went for a walk after dinner and decided to go to Kastellet. This was on Thursday May 3 which is the day before Store Bededag. Store Bededag (lit. big prayer day) is the product of a decision a few hundred years ago to combine 10+ religious observences into a single holiday. It also happens that there is a Copenhagen tradition that people walk around the ramparts of Kastellet the evening before Store Bededag. There were over 1000 people walking around with others picnicing and a military band along with a strange hat contest (pictured). Apparently the tradition isn't that big because all of our Danish friends had not heard about this annual event.

Fine ferry friends

We've been busy with our guests, G&L. They headed home on Sunday after a great streak of beautiful spring Danish weather. The next day I watched hail falling outside my office window. Hopefully J&P will get the good weather when they arrive next week. During their visit, G&L took a side trip to Oslo and three day trips from Copenhagen (Roskilde, Helsingør, and Lund, Sweden).

Last weekend we visited our friends M&P who live near Århus. It was wonderful to see them and they were gracious hosts in every way. We saw the sights including Moesgård, Den Gamle By, Århus Domkirke, and the occupation museum. We enjoyed the trip there, driving across Sjælland to Sjællands Odde (odde=cape) where we caught a fast ferry to Århus. The whole trip took a little over three hours. Sjællands Odde (pictured) is a beautiful part of Denmark with the sea visible on both sides as you drive. There is a little town which is besieged by heavy traffic every few hours when the ferry comes in. The ferry was fast, kicking up a rooster tail the whole way. On the return trip dolphins playing in the ferry's wake couldn't keep pace.

Den Gamle By (the old city), one of the stops during our 2005 visit to Denmark, is an open-air museum of buildings gathered from different parts of Denmark and reassembled in Århus. On our last trip it was pouring rain and we ducked in and out of the old buildings trying to stay dry. This time we had complete sunshine. There were period actors scattered around, including two guys brewing beer in the old brewery. They said they like their job. They provided free samples for visitors who purchased a souvenir glass. Moesgård was an interesting museum covering the bronze age, iron age, and Viking age history of the area where they found a "bog man" who had been thrown in a bog after being killed 2000 years ago. The chemical composition of the water in the bog preserved him and now he lives in a glass box in the museum. The grounds surrounding the museum include a large wooded area and a walk down to the sea along with a stave church, iron age reconctructions, and a collection of stone age sites.

Yesterday the Swedish royals came to visit Denmark. They looked like they were doing much better than the bog man we saw in Moesgård. They arrived at the harbor next to my workplace, so someone went out and took a few pictures. Here is a photo of the Danish Queen with her cousin, the king of Sweden. The Swedish crownprincess Victoria came also, but I don't have a good picture of her. In the evening we watched the beginning of a big state dinner on TV. The queen and king made speeches after an awkward period where the guests made small talk. It actually made me glad that I'm just a commoner.

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.

Vroooommm!

This week's good news is that I passed the driving test and will now have an official Danish driving license (when it arrives in 2 weeks). It's valid until I turn 70 years old and can be used in any EU country and Norway (not in EU). The test was fine. For those who don t know, as of May 1, 2006, non-EU citizens have to take the driving tests in order to be granted a Danish driving license (required after 14 days of residence). I received a temporary license after turning in my Texas driving license. I took the theoretical test then the practical test which was last Monday. This would have been pretty trivial except that I had to do it in a manual transmission car. After a few lessons over the last month, I went for the test in Helsingør. Providence may have intervened because when the policeman asked me to turn right at one point, construction blocked the way. I then turned left and wound my way along some coastal and country roads until I returned to the police station. Had I turned right, I would have headed into the medieval streets of Helsingør full of vacationing Danes and Swedes buying alcohol. The only challenging things on the test were the roundabouts, but there was no problem.

Today is our guests' last full day here. We're going to the ballet. Over the week we have kept a fairly leisurely pace, but we've managed to see a lot of things. We went to the viking ship museum in Roskilde, did a harbor tour, some walking tours, visited the Jewish museum, the Karen Blixen museum, and the DGI Byen swim center. I know I'm forgetting some things, maybe I'll add them when I remember. We've had a great time, and welcome all who would like to visit.