Rural Denmark

In the end, we might've seen more of Denmark than most Danish people have ever cared to see. We had time to kill before boarding the boat back to England, so we set off for a rural area where Kierkegaard's father was from, a town called Saedding (prounouced Setting). Apparently, the Kierkegaard family was a bunch of nameless peasants who were allowed, by a nice priest, to live on the land right next to the church. Thus, they became known by their location. "Kierkegaard" means "church yard."
This stone shows where their house once was. This is where Soren Kierkegaard (the theologian/philosopher Chris is studying) was born and lived until he was a young adult and moved to the big city, Copenhagen. He lived in Copenhagen the rest of his life until he died (in his 40's).
This is the church with a beautiful little cemetary amongst these rows of bushes. It was another chilly and windy, but beautiful day.
We left here and went to Esbjerg and waited in a long line to get on the boat and head back 'home.' So, this marks the end of our trip. Back to a phone and internet access, friends, the familiar, better contact with family, and our own space again.

Playing in the park.....

Our last day in Fano, we had to get our tire fixed. So, we headed to a nearby park to pass the time. This was a really cool trampoline---shaped like a big pillow on the ground.
Luke pretending to be George of the Jungle. Has anybody else seen that horrible Brandon Frasier movie? We're embarassed to admit that we actually watched it a few times through on the old VCR in our hotel. "George" (Brandon Frasier) is raised by a gorilla, but encounters a blond, ditzy human woman whom he falls in love with and marries. Then they live in the jungle together swinging on vines and crashing into trees while all the animals pity their stupidity but laugh and love them for their sweetness. What's really sad is that this movie is on video with German subtitles in a hotel somewhere awaiting to impress upon young minds what American movies are all about.........oh my!
Who dressed this child?? (Certainly it was his father!)

Day 3 at the beach....

Our third and final trip to the beach was very educational. Now, I've never been in a sandstorm before but I truly feel for those who have. This wasn't even a sandstorm, but let me tell you----it was painful being pelted by fast sand. Mostly, it hurt our eyes. We quickly decided to take the stroller out of the back of the car, re-angle the car against the wind, and drink coffee and eat ice cream out of the back.
Happy Caleb was just fine staying where he was.
The stroller (and it's very big and heavy---a double-wide) blew over in a matter of minutes. Still, it was really fun hanging out in the back of the station wagon. And, it was a beautiful day despite the intense wind.

Slugs

Disgusting to me, intriguing to a 3-year old boy.....

Better prepared for the beach...

Our second day there, we were much smarter about how to tackle the beach. We all had several layers on with back-up clothes in the car. (Is that a horse behind Caleb? Funny that I didn't notice it at the time! We were too busy checking out the nude people on the beach!!)
Assuming normal positions here.....

What a cutie---out fishing with his net!
Two little cuties sitting on the hood of the car. Luke was saying, "Don't worry, Guys! I won't let him fall off." Forget that he might get strangled---what a good big brother!!

Fun at the pool

Mr. Water Safety......he wanted the belt, the floaties, and the flotation toys. That's our boy! He is a bit afraid of the water, but certainly warmed up to it after a few days.
The first day, Caleb kept up with his morning nap while we played in the pool. The next few days (when we didn't have the camera), he swam with us. He does NOT like to be cold (just like his Sweetie!), but as long as he stayed warm he liked the water.
Notice the awesome slide that starts in the top right corner. Chris and I LOVED it. We even timed ourselves going down it and let me just say that no one can beat Chris' 10 seconds record. Luke didn't want anything to do with the slide. We did get him to go down it a few times but it was an expensive endeavor (lots of bribing involved) so we finally quit asking him.

THE VACATION PART.......

We left Ribe, drove to the port in Esbjerg and drove straight onto a boat along with about 25 other cars. It was a 15 minute ferry ride to the island of Fano. When we drove off, we were a little nervous about finding our hotel but this island is tiny. It was no trouble finding our place.

Almost immediately we headed for the ocean. This is our car parked on the beach. I've never seen so much sand. It's totally unlike any beach we've ever been to before because you have to drive over lots of sand to get anywhere near the water.
Precious Caleb......approximately 30 seconds after taking this picture, he had sand all over his entire body----including his eyes, ears, and nose. We had to strip him down and put one of my t-shirts on him.
Speaking of t-shirts.....Luke did NOT like having his shirt get wet. Here he is complaining to me that he's got to take it off. The water was VERY COLD so I didn't blame him. He and Chris had a wonderful time searching for crabs and jelly fish and sharks (according to Luke) with the net.

Ribe

We left Christiansfeld for a town called Ribe (prounouced like Reba, the country singer). Here is a beautiful church with a statue of the minister Brorson who was very influential back in his day.
That is a stork's nest on top of the building. As the tale goes, once a year a stork comes to the town and perches up there. The first person to see the stork will be blessed with good fertility. (The stork is not due any time soon, but we kept our heads down just in case!)
This is one of the best kept old towns in the country. It has been well preserved throughout the years and is quaint and really cute. It reminded us of the little streets in Annapolis.

Christiansfeld

We got to Christiansfeld around 6:00 or so and found a cozy little place to stay. We walked around the town a bit, ate dinner, then went to bed. We were all really tired. Caleb slept in his pack-n-play, Luke and I in one twin bed, and Chris in the other twin. It was a rough night for me---Luke practically break dances in his sleep!
This is the old hotel where all the kings used to come and stay. I'm not sure why it was such an important place for kings to come, but I can say that we went because it has a strong history of Pietism. Unfortunately, the museum Chris had wanted to see didn't open the next day so we left fairly early.

Funniest quote of the trip happened here: when we were asking about the price of the hotel, I said, "We have 2 adults and 2 children." And Luke said, "And 2 specials and 1 Raffe. Don't forget them!!" (Special is Luke's blanket---he has 2 of them; and Raffe is the giRAFFE that Caleb sleeps with every night.) How sweet!

Leaving Copenhagen.....

We cleaned up Else's apartment in the morning, then we packed up most of our things and drove Chris down to the Kierkegaard Centre. He wanted a few more hours to copy things and say good-bye to the people he'd met. With the apartment clean, I didn't want to take the kids back inside, so we did everything we could outdoors. Here they're eating their grapes out of the back of a toy car. In the courtyard at Else's apartment complex, about 10 retired men and women would gather and drink (yes, alcohol) from sun up (literally 7:30 AM) to sun down. They enjoyed the grape truck which delivered as many grapes to them as they would like.
After grape-ing out our friendly drunken neighbors, we headed out to a park. I've never seen swings like this before, but they are the best! Caleb especially loved it.


After the park, we went back to the apartment and cleaned up the final bits. This is the view of the apartment as we waved good-bye (Else's apt. would be behind the trees on the left side). We picked up Chris downtown and headed for Christiansfeld.

Tivoli

One of the biggest attractions in Copenhagen is a park called Tivoli. It's really big and is a lot like Six Flags except that it's got nice restaurants and lots of beautiful trees and flowers.
Caleb had a blast crawling around the area for little kids.
Chris and Luke drove this boat around the pond. And, mysteriously, they only had one little fender bender. It was with a very cute little blond girl and her mother. Luke thought it was hilarious and Chris turned a few shades of red. :)
This is one place where Tivoli is very different from Six Flags. It was decorated so interestingly.....bikes and all sorts of artwork coming off the walls.

It was a fun (but expensive) day.

Gilleleje

We drove up the eastern coast about an hour from Copenhagen to a town called Gilleleje. It was, of course, in the name of research again. There is supposed to be a rock commemorating where Kierkegaard sat and stared at the ocean (??!!!), but we never found it.

Despite that, Chris had lots of fun reminiscing about his childhood vacations at the beach. He thought this town reminded him of Grayton Beach. We had a really nice time playing near the water and being daring and walking out this really long pier.
Other than the night some new friends cooked for us, this was the best meal we had in Denmark. Fish cakes, french fries, and beer in the sunshine. And Luke had his own favorites---a hotdog and orange juice. It just doesn't get much better than this.
It was a bit cold when the wind would blow.....here are Caleb and Daddy in their matching outfits.
Here we are in a tiny town with only a handful of restaurants, and 1/3 of the world away from Chicago----and yet, this is a Chicago style pizza place. It was unfortunate for us because we'd just had yummy fish cakes. How wild is it that this restaurant exists here?

Quality time on the porch

Luke: "Maybe I can trick Caleb into thinking this water is yogurt if I just pour it into the yogurt container...."

Luke: "Here you go Caleb. Try this YUMMY yogurt."

Caleb: "I may have been born in the afternoon, but I wasn't born YESTERDAY afternoon! Give me that spoon and you can have your water-yogurt!!" :)

A normal day......

In the mornings, we would go to a park....

At the top of a slide.....
Pretending to eat birthday cake......

Then, we'd go "home" for a picnic lunch on the porch or we'd have a picnic lunch at the park. (The less food eaten in Else's apartment, the less food spilled on the floor and smeared on the couch and carpets!)

Several days, after lunch on the porch, we would pour water everywhere, then make footprints in whatever dry space was left..... Actually, this was great entertainment for them and for me. :)

The aquarium

After a busy Saturday driving all over the place, we wanted a more relaxed Sunday. So, we stayed in Copenhagen and went to the aquarium. We got to see them feed the piranhas; and then we went to a room where they had shells and hermit crabs and little flat fish that you could TOUCH with your hands. Luke befriended an 8-year old little boy who was really good at catching the fish in his hands (but keep them under water) so he could pet them.
After the aquarium, we walked across the street to the beach. Here's Caleb crawling down the bike path.

Roskilde Cathedral

Next we headed on to Roskilde. We couldn't go in the cathedral because someone was getting married, but it is huge and gorgeous on the outside.....and Luke had a great time checking out the newly-wed's limousine. All of the Danish kings and queens are buried inside the cathedral.

Grib Skov and the slugs

After Helsingor (see below), we drove on to Grib Skov and went for a walk in the woods. It turned into a hunt for slugs---now one of Luke's favorite animals. Anyone who has ever read this blog (all 3 of you) can rest assured that many Danish slugs were named in your honor. He got so excited about finding them, he started saying things like, "MAMA!! DADDY!! ANOTHER ONE!! This one looks like me, but that one looks like Carter, doesn't it? And this one looks like.....?" And on, and on, and on....

Apparently, Kierkegaard came out this way by horse and carriage and thought it was a beautiful area. But, I'm not sure what Kierkegaard thought about slugs....

Helsingor

Our 2nd weekend excursion included a trip up to the northeast corner of Denmark----to a town called Helsingor. It is unclear as to whether Shakespeare ever came here or not, but apparently, this is the castle in which Hamlet is set.

Adventurous Caleb will crawl on any surface----even in grass as it slaps the top of his forehead. Finally he came up for air, thanks to this anchor.

Just 50 feet away is a rocky beach and from there we could see the shores of Sweden. There were lots of ferry boats going back and forth and lots of fishermen. We had a good time skipping rocks and waiting for someone to catch something. In the mean time, Caleb left his saliva on all the rocks we didn't throw into the water.

Fredricksburg Gardens and Copenhagen Zoo

One gorgeous Tuesday morning, Luke, Caleb, and I set out early and walked to the zoo.
Click on this one to get a larger view, but there is a brown bear just in front of Luke. My heart skipped a beat when I saw it, but I somehow managed to get a picture before running down to grab Luke up and move him away to the side a bit.
This zoo was incredible! There were not only a zillion animals, but there were playgrounds throughout as well, and a petting farm.
The highlight for Luke was definitely the sprinkler system. He got completely soaked.

After the zoo, we had a nice picnic in the park. Then I walked the 2 miles back to our apartment with both boys snoring.