Archive for the ‘Trips in Denmark’ Category

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London, Denmark and things in between

In Living in London, Trips in Denmark on December 15, 2009 by Michael Tagged: , , ,

A blog post from me has been long overdue, I know. It’s been a month and a half so I’ll give you a quick rundown of the highlights. (For more reliable updates check my twitter or Ann’s blog)

In London
5th of November the Brits celebrate the Guy Fawkes failed attempt to blow up Parliament. We went to the local Roundwood Park to see a the fireworks. Before the show we grabbed some hotdogs and looked at all the kids fighting with light swords.

Circles

Trips to Denmark
In November I went on a round trip in Denmark partly for business but also to see friends and family. In Copenhagen I stayed with Mikkel who loves to cook (and I love to eat his food).

Mikkel working on the crab cakes and sauce

In Aalborg I visited Peter, Maria and little Oscar and met Martin for a beer or two at my favorite classy and trashy bars.

Porter @ Victoria

In Odder I had a playdate with my nephew and ended up at my parents place for a couple of days.

This Denmark trip ended with a big Christmas celebration in the barn of my aunt Solveig where the three cousins were celebrating Christmas big style. Always a big, fun party and this year cousin Rasmus was home on leave from his soldier duties in Afghanistan. Here are the three brothers Rasmus, Mogens and Christian.

Brødrene Thygesen

Three weeks later I was back in Denmark again – this time with Ann. Since Ann and I are spending Christmas in Malta we went to exchange gifts and celebrate a mini-Christmas with my family with a nice dinner, gifts unwrapping, Lego building with Magnus and cookie making with my dad.

Men at work

After the family stuff we went for a trip to Århus to see Christian, his wife and 6 month old son. Before that we went to The Old Town an open air museum where they have old buildings from all over Denmark that has been disassembled in their original spot and rebuilt in the museum.

Colourful houses
Ann on the square

Visits in London
Ann’s mum and sister came to visit us in London at the end of November. With them we went to see the musical Blood Brother with Melanie C. One of the other days we walked along Regent’s Canal to Camden Market.

Regents Canal

My cousin Rasmus the soldier and his friend Daniel was passing through London so I spend a day walking around London with them and catching up.

A friend from high school Jan and his girlfriend Kristi came to London this weekend and I had a great time playing guide/discovering London with them as we walked through town on a nice winter Sunday.

St Pauls

With Jan and Kristi we made it to an evensong at Westminister Abbey. For the first Sunday of Advent, Ann and I had gone to St. Paul Cathedral (pictured above).

Getting out of London
We went to Canterbury in Kent for a Sunday to meet a friend of Ann. The weather was not the best but we got to see the medieval town and huge cathedral where the Archbishop of Canterbury resides.

Canterbury Cathedral

With Ann’s family in London we took a trip to Oxford where we did Ashmolean Museum, Museum of Natural History, Museum of History of Science and Pitt Rivers Museum.

Pitt Rivers Museum

That was it for the highlights. As mentioned Malta is coming up for Christmas and I’m really looking forward to that :) Hopefully I’ll get around to writing another update or two before – if not – Merry Christmas!

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High School Reunion

In Trips in Denmark, me on September 6, 2009 by Michael Tagged: , , ,

This year it has been 10 years since I graduated from high school in Tønder – wow, time indeed flies.

Christmas Dinner 1999

The image above is from Christmas ‘99, six month after we graduated where we gathered 22 of the 24 or so from our class. During the past 10 years we have usually tried to meet up for a dinner every year between Christmas and New Year but as people got partners and children, we have seen fewer people turn up for these events. The past couple of years we have usually been less than 10 for the dinners. So as this was the 10th year since we graduated some of us talked and some worked (Helene) to organize a dinner for all of us during the annual Tønder Festival.

To those of you who are not from Tønder, this is one of the bigger folk music festivals. The festival itself takes place in big tents on a meadow outside the town but as the population of the town triples or quadruples over this weekend the whole town is bustling with happy people, musicians and vendors trying to make a buck and many come here for the party more than the music.

Last weekend I went back to Denmark to stayed with my parents for a couple of days and catch up with my old class mates in Tønder. We met up at one of the many beer stands and started out catching up.

Hygge ved ølboden

15 people showed up and everybody there looked liked themselves. Maybe a bit rounder and with a few more wrinkles around the eyes but when everybody was there it was like yesterday we would go to class and hang out afterwards. The old jokes and friendly teasing was on from the beginning – just like in the old days. Some things just never change. Others do. My two partners in crime during those years were now recent-father and father-to-be and their past enthusiastic conversations of Mercedes S-class, Audis and other high-octane topics were replaced by discussions of titanium baby strollers and which brands strollers was the easiest to dismantle. The vehicle had changed while the rest of the conversation was still the same, it was still the two “drengerøve”* having a passionated debate :)

Den billige side

It is not the easiest job to find a table for 15 people on Saturday of the festival but with the right connections we had managed to get a table in the festival’s restaurant Fiddlers’ Green. We spent a couple of hours there hearing what people were up to now and just having a good time. Most of us are done with our education and we have spread out to all walks of life all over Denmark (and beyond).

Hele bordet

After dinner we went to our regular Friday afternoon retreat Cafe Victoria for a nightcap. 10 years ago I would have probably stayed out, gotten too drunk, lost my glasses and slept in a green house because I couldn’t find my friend’s house. This year I went to bed before 2 am on my designated bed well knowing where I put my glasses. I think I’m getting old – and that’s not too bad :)

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Summer in Denmark

In Trips in Denmark on June 29, 2009 by Michael Tagged: , ,

While Czech Repulic was getting washed away I went to Denmark for a bit more than a week. I had not been back since Christmas so it was really great to get back.

View from Tørskind

I started out in Odder where I spend a day with Magnus, my nephew. First I went with him to preschool (it’s called 0th grade and the kids are 6-7 years old) and had a good time with Magnus and his classmates. During his school day we had morning singing (or whatever it is called) followed by roll call, and me telling his class a bit about what i do and about some of my travels. I didn’t really know how to approach kids at this age but they had a map of the world and Europe that we used to talk about different places and how they were different than Denmark. They seemed interested and had their own stories of trips they had made so the time went quick. Then it was time for a library visit with a fairytale reading by the librarian, followed by the class showing off what letters in the alphabet they had learned.
After school Magnus and I went home to play for the rest of the day untill Majbrit and Mogens got home. Here is a video of a slide with a “bomb” we tried to make from his bed to the living room – can you ever get too old to play with Lego? :-)

It was really great to spend some time in Odder with family and catch up with the little guy – who is not that little any more.

The family in Odder

Friday Ann arrived and stayed for the weekend. For once she wasn’t visiting in the winter time so I was happy to see that the weather was fairly good to us.

Tiny, cosy house

Saturday we packed a lunch and took off to the southwestern corner of the kingdom. First stop was the sight of where the Golden Horns were found. Apart from two stones marking the locations of the finds there wasn’t anything to see here. Apart from the tiny, cute house pictured above right next to it. The gold horns are two very unique finds in Denmark and their history is quite remarkable.

Main street in Møgeltønder

We continued to the village of Møgeltønder (pictured above) where Schackenborg Castle is situated. Schakenborg is the home of Prince Joachim, the younger of the queen’s two sons. He just had to his first child (Prince NN :)) with his second wife (his third in total – officially) so there were crowned storks in the garden to mark the expansion of the royal family.

The stork has visited the castle

We stopped at Hojer Mill to have our lunch and went to the coast to see dike and the vastness of the marsh landscape out west by the Wadden Sea.

Us in front of Højer mill

At night we went to Ribe to walk around with the watchman as he told about the oldest city of Denmark.

Nightwatch man in Ribe

Sunday we went to the area around Tørning and had a barbecue there with my folks.

[Picture of BBQ from dads camera - coming soon]

Ann was flying home on Monday so we spend the day making our way slowly towards the airport. We stopped in Jelling to see the rune stones and mounts marking the christening of the Danes and the burial place of Harald Bluetooth. Before Ann took off we had dinner at my aunt’s and uncles farm which is just next to the airport.

Jelling Church

My cousin Anders graduated high school on Tuesday so there was a big party in his parents garden and the weather was perfect. Congrats to him!

People in the garden

Now I’m back in rainy Prague. Hopefully it doesnt stay that way because Mikkel, my thesis buddy is visiting me.