Berlin

Chapter 2 - the rest of Denmark

Jane, (Svend's cousin and one of the "big three" woman of the family - Egon's daughters and mother s to "all the second cousins") decided that being a mother of three and working full time was not enough to do so she and a friend opened a clothing store in Gråsten (the fairy tale town where they all live)

The Summer Palace

We all went to see the shop and give it our stamp of approval. It was one of those Danish days of rain and then wonderful weather. We dodged the rain on the way in and when we emerged, not only was the sun shining but there were piccolos playing. Everyone knows piccolos mean a parade or some such thing. Sure enough it was the royal guard walking through the main drag of Gråsten playing "Consider Yourself One of Us". And this is how a rainy morning immediately transforms to a magical afternoon. The town was all happy because the Queen was in residence so there was a band playing in the main square. The singer did a great job and soon we were singing along ("These Boots are Made for Walking" - who can resist that one?) The biggest problem  the afternoon was to choose between an ice cream and a beer. If you know me, you know that is a true dilemma - beers won of course and it turned into one of those great vacation days.

People pretending to be cool at the Matchstick girl, 
written by HC Andersen while staying at Gråsten Castle

So we survived the excellent party that evening. Some of us did karaoke in the rented summer house, and some of us remembered doing that, but not all

The next day after a lovely breakfast and good-byes to a those traveling home, we had a nice quiet day. We dropped of the girls, Amelia Chelsea and Alicia to Abenraa so they could  catch a bus to Copenhagen to return to the US - way too early!! We would loved for them to be with us for at least another week. But this is today's life - people travel to Europe for a week-ish when it used to be a month-ish. But the most important thing is they were there, they had a great time and we were together.

For breakfast the next morning we went to the bucolic place where Egon works taking care of a herd of Galloway cows (cows that have a large white stripe around their middles.) It's a lovely setting of rolling hills and small fishing lake with the cows somewhere in the background.

The cow whisperer 

Not an actual hen, 
but an impressive specimen

This is where Svend was hen pecked. No, not the figurative "hen pecked" by his wife but the literal  being pecked by a hen. Peter Melgård, the owner of the land and the cows was showing us his baby pheasants  that were  being raised to be hunted. Now these cute little chicks who are removed from their mothers after birth are being overseen by real hens as their adoptive mothers (p.s - I'm not making any of this up.) Anyway Svend was trying to put fresh water in the pen and voila - the hen gave him a nasty blast with her beak and he had an ugly cut on his hand for many days.. Fortunately we had a nurse traveling with us (Chris) who was confident it looked OK. I guess there are is a lot of hen pecking in Weymouth MA.

A face-off!

Happy Mathilde

A prominent Dane in our world, mainly because she spent three months at Hicenda Hansen in Sparta, NJ is Jackline, She  met many of our American friends during that time. She returned from that fabulous experience, met a handsome farmer named Christian and they now have possibly the cutest nine month old on the planet. Mathilde.

Too bad Gitte is so indifferent to the child!

Jackline whipped up a yummy dinner of Hungarian goulash for the usual suspects and we have a lovely afternoon touring the barns with their many calves and eating "al fresco" in the front yard.

Some handsome Hansens

OK, don't ask, but I think it involved 
scaring the birds out of the barns. 
I believe the birds just laughed their asses off.

Other highlights of the week were a great afternoon with Gitte Lars, Nicklas and the Boston 5 (Erik, Jen, Chris, me and Svend) to the town of Sonderborg. We stopped at the gorgeous piece of land called Dybol which is the site of a very important battle in Danish history which resulted in the loss of a lot of territory which is now part of modern Germany. Well I personally like Denmark as it is today.

Beer Alley

Gitte and Nicklaus pretending they have a yacth

While in Sondeborg, we took a at stroll by the royal yacht which was in town because the Queen was hanging out at her summer place, as mentioned before. PS Queen Elizabeth of ENGLAND doesn't even have a royal yacht anymore. She should though..

Presenting us, doing Sonderborg

Dessert anyone?

Rikke, you need to go
 on match.com!

We also had a lovely dinner at Janne and Rigge's - no they don't exactly live together, but they live right next door to each other which is perfect. It was an "eating-the-leftovers-from-Egon-and-Anna's-party
supper and the immediate family of 18 or so did a good job. Everything was delicious and the highlight of this get together was when Jacob passed around the skeleton of the buck he recently killed while hunting with his Dad. The fun never ends.

An afternoon and evening in Flensburg
 and a celebration of Erik's birthday featuring - hold on to your hats,
more eating and drinking

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We spent one overnight in Kiel to visit with Otto and Valtruad, part of the German contingent of the family whom we have had many good times with both in Kiel and in Sparta NJ. We always love to touch base with them when possible.
We decided to visit a submarine from WW2 not far from where they live. While we were inside, Otto, Waltrab and Villy got soaked in a violent rail squall. We were a bit panicky (but dry) inside the submarine since so many people pushed in at once to get out of the rain. Just imagine 50 plus men who's jobs it was too man the sub during the war! They were happy to get a few torpedoes fired off in order to have room to get around. They slept in the empty torpedo bays !

There's a wonderful German war memorial in Laboe, just outside of Kiel. that has a solemn, you might say pious space honoring all countries who lost people in World War Two. Additionally there was a very comprehensive display of the Germany Naval history

The next morning we said good-be to Farfar for now, dropped Erik and Jen at the train (the small car we had could not handle 5 adults plus luggage) and headed of to Berlin.


end of part 2..

Chapter one ...Skål to Anna and Egon

We're sitting on a tiny balcony in Krakow listening to a neighbor play a melancholy violin tune. If that's not just perfect, I don't know what is. Krakow has been a delight and although it would be nice to stay longer, the Tatra mountains are calling our names. It's getting hot  around here and like all good royalty we need to get to cooler climes. But first an attempt to chronicle the Adventures of Svend and Nancy's retirement 1.0...

It's impossible to believe we have been in Europe for only twenty days. So many wonderful memories have already been gathered. We arrived on the 25th of July, picked up at the airport by everyone's favorite person, Villy Hansen aka Farfar. It was good to spend a couple of quiet days with him in Lindome. We visited the place where Farmor's ashes are spread in Lindome Kirka (church) It's a beautifully peaceful place and we were there on a lovely windy afternoon, memories of the very memorable Farmor with us. I reiterate the fact that there is nothing as lovely as a beautiful Swedish summer afternoon. We capped of the day with a swim in the nearby lake

A sailor's life for me

After two quick days in Sweden and a visit to Hans and Hanne's "little Eden" home in Kállered (they really have the coziest home and yard!) we were off on the Stena ferry to Denmark. Summer on the Stena line ferries means wall to wall people (mainly Swedes standing in lines without complaining.) I was basically complaining about the fact they don't complain - oh yeah and the fact I couldn't get grādda (cream) for my coffee.
So arrival in Denmark -where one can get grādde (flöd) civilization! 

Due to Svend being tired, I offered to drive - in the rain - driving a standard -foreign county etc. etc. (you get the picture -poor me?) Everyone was driving at the least 100! OK that's really about 62 mph, but it took me some time to mentally gear up to driving over 100. Obviously, we made it and arrived in one of our favorite places - Southern Denmark! Favorite place because of the setting itself  and more importantly the people who we know and love - the crazy Danes.

The reason for the gathering in the south of Denmark of people from far and near was the celebration of 140 years of Egon and Anna, Svend's uncle and "auntie" who were celebrating their collective birthdays of 60 and 80 years. A perfect reason for a good party.

The best part of day two in Denmark was picking up Erik, Jen and Chris in Hamburg. It was of course wonderful to see them. Amelia and her friends would be arriving from their overnight in Flensburg later in the afternoon, also the best part of day two. Villy, Hans and Hanne would also be arriving from Sweden later in the afternoon.  Another best part of day two...

The Boston 5,  - me, Svend, Erik, Jen and Chris lived at a summer house next to Gitte and Lars on Flenburg Fjord. (another slice of heaven) Amelia, Chelsea and Alicia were being hosted by our good friend Thomas, one of the Sparta bear hunters who traveled to New Jersey for the last two years to kill one of our adorable black bears. I'm not going to say I was happy that they were unsuccessful, but I will honestly say I was very happy that they came to stay with us.

Friday afternoon, many of the family and friends gathered at the party site to help get the hall ready. Tables and chairs were set up, (happily our children were well prepared for this task from their years of Catholic education. Oh yeah and they're also very well educated.)
Table cloths were added and then came the interesting part - setting the table! It was decided among we Americans that the Danish woman reigned supreme regarding the proper setting of tables. We let them figure it out and did what we were told. Being American, that's hard to do, but of course the tables looked wonderful with two wine glasses, one water glass, one snaps glass, a couple of plates and a multitude of silverware at each setting. The gorgeous pink hydrangeas from Gitte's garden were absolutely perfect. The empty room was transformed into something beautiful.

Our reward for all this was a delicious Danish dinner with a reasonable amount of beer served in the  adjacent room.

Saturday -

Make new friends..

How do you have a great party in Denmark? Start by picking up the guests from their home, rental home or hotel at about 5 PM with a bus and deliver them back  at about 2 AM. Now you can imagine how much good food, good skoals, questionable singing, dancing, music, skits, speeches, more food, etc. can be squeezed into those nine hours.

It's still light out!

Some of the highlights were Learning "Happy Birthday " in Polish (Stola, stola ja lalalalala - that's my version) Egon's birthday song, a song from the Americans and friends, a skit about Egon by Thomas and Hans Moos, (apparently Egon was missing, but my Danish didn't get me much further than that)

 And the food, let's not forget the food. Whoever chose the menu knew what they were doing. (Egon and Anna) The highlight of the appetizer table was the sol egg, "a specialty of this area." I have learned over the years when you hear those words, expect something interesting. And in the hearty farmland of Sonder Jutland it's always good.

Anyone seen Hans?

Pass the Aquivit!

For this dish you choose a boiled egg that it sitting in vinegar-water on the table, peel the egg, cut it in half, mix the yolk with vinegar, Tabasco, mustard, salt and pepper. Then you put the the egg back together and eat it. Hmmm, interesting yes? Keep in mind there are 81 guests at the party and those in line patiently wait for you to do this (with help from a friendly Dane of course). Why do they do it? I have also learned over the years that the Scandinavians do all this unlikely food preparation for one reason - Aquivit! Naturally, you can't eat a sol egg without a shot of Aquivit. Which is why everyone is so patient.

Who did leave those dogs out?

Needless to say a good time was had by all and everyone's language skills dramatically improved as the night went on. Jacob, for example becomes fluent in English after three or four beers. He is now the heir apparent to the "who let the dogs out" chant.

Thank you Egon and Anna for 140 great years.





Enough of blog one. There's much more to come, but we all need break gentle reader...