BAZILLIONS OF WIND TURBINES, WIDE STREETS, PROPER SIZED CAR PARKS, BIKE PATHS EVERYWHERE (especially Denmark), MOTORWAYS WITH SPEED SIGNS, AUTOBAHNS WITH NO SPEED LIMITS, TALL, FRIENDLY, BEAUTIFUL & TRI-LINGUAL PEOPLE (especially Denmark) CHEAPER THAN UK ( not Denmark), BEER CHEAPER THAN SOFT DRINK, NOT A SINGLE FULL ENGLISH JUST COLD MEAT & CHEESE FOR BREAKFAST, CHOCOLATE ON BREAD FOR BREAKFAST TOO !, NEVER ENDING WAFTS OF CIGARETTE SMOKE, FAR FEWER TATTOOS, DOGS IN THEIR KENNELS NOT IN SHOPS/CAFES.
It is several weeks after we have returned from our 'European vacation'. Thanks to the people who contacted us during the London riots to express their concern. Since coming back we have zoomed off to Dorset to see the Weymouth carnival and what turned out to be the penultimate Red Arrows show - at least for a while. The kids are back at school now after two months off and are bemoaning the loss of the holidays. Aisha is in Year Eight...William is in Year Five. Mark's mum is up from Australia visiting and he still hasn't got a job - at least not one that pays.
You may recall that we zoomed off to Cornwall pretty much as soon as the holidays started. Two days after returning from Cornwall Aisha headed off to her latest girl guide camp. She had good weather and a good time and came back just 2 days before we left for our driving trip to Europe. Prior to going to Cornwall she went on a 'London Bridges Walk' walking across all the eight bridges in the capital.
While Aisha was at camp we had a couple of Australian visitors. Mark taught for 5 years at Gold Creek Senior school in Canberra. He taught year 6 for most of that time. At Charnwood, the school he was at before leaving for UK, he caught up again with a former student of his from Gold Creek. Tegan had been in his 2004 year 6 class at the same age as Aisha is now. In 2010 she was at Charnwood doing some practise teaching. She talked about her plans to tour Europe in 2011 and Mark offered her a place to stay if and when she was in London. As it turned out the only UK dates that matched with us being around were the week before we left for Europe. Tegan, a PE specialist, was a big hit with the kids, playing tennis and soccer at the nearby park.
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| AT THE START OF THE VISIT. |
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| AT THE END OF THE VISIT. |
Tegan's visit coincided with the visit of a good family friend and father of Aisha's best friend Rachel. Hugh was in the UK on business and offered to bring us anything we missed form home. He came with such Australian delicacies as Tim Tams, Cheezels, twisties and a box of jaffas!
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| HUGH BEARING GIFTS. |
Tegan surprised us all by saying she remembered almost nothing of year 6 schooling. Fortunately Mark was able to remind her of some of it by dredging up her old school report that he still had saved on the computer ( teacher's throw nothing away !). Tegan taught us how to make her renowned white chocolate cheesecake which was a great dessert for the sushi meal we shared with Hugh.
Mark decided he would now actually try to teach Tegan something useful
and showed her how to make sushi.
Our trip to Europe was our first out of the UK. We opted not to head south to Spain or France but rather to go north to Scandinavia, principally to visit friends in Denmark. In the 1970s Sally became friends with Marianne, a Danish exchange student to Tasmania. We also had our Danish friends, Helle & Christian, from our days in Damascus.
We decided to drive and make the most of seeing what we could of Western France, Belgium, Western Germany and Denmark. Driving into a train carriage to cross the channel was quite a strange experience. It was a quick 30 minutes or so before we were driving out straight onto a French motorway. Mark was quite apprehensive about driving in Europe. While he has driven in Jakarta on the 'right side' and in Syria and Turkey on the 'wrong side of the road' it was in a car that had the steering wheel on the other side. While the first half hour or so was quite nerve wracking, especially at the first roundabout, it all went well. The only real problems were looking out for oncoming traffic when overtaking on single carriageways and paying for tolls and at parking stations. It was on these occasions that Sally came in handy, when she was awake that is.
Overall Mark found the driving refreshingly similar to Australia and far easier and much less stressful than in the UK. In general, the European roads were better quality and wider, not just the motorways but the smaller rural roads too. Mark could go on & on about the driving but won't. We thought parking might be an issue but it wasn't. Either the hostels had car parks and we walked into town or there were reasonably priced parking stations that the car actually could drive into and park in easily.
In general the maximum European speed limit is 120 or 130 km/h. The fabled German autobahns however really don't have speed limits - in parts. At first we didn't realise what was happening when the TomTom GPS speed limit indicator disappeared. It was at times unnerving overtaking at 140km/h + only to find the rear view mirror suddenly filled by a car (more often than not an Audi) which had flown up behind wanting to overtake. Mark thrilled the kids and terrified Sally by getting up to 157km/h. Later, when they were all asleep, he made it to 161km/h but was still being overtaken !
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153km/h, soon to be eclipsed.
The sections of no limits are broken up quite regularly by reduced speed limits and road works. Going north to Denmark it was hard to avoid the Hamburg bypass and the apparently usual traffic jams that occur. We ground to a halt for 15 minutes at one stage and people got out for a walk about. Mark embarrassed the kids by doing 'car dancing'. Coming back we ended up adding almost 2 hours to our journey as we raced from heavy traffic through clear sections back into heavy traffic. |
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| W slept through three countries at one stage ! |
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| Special Ted helped Aisha with the big words. |
We had been able to pre-book youth hostels right the way through. A far cry from the hostels we knew when we actually were youths, hostels now seem to be used not by impecunious young travellers but rather by local families, grey nomads and school & scout groups.
One of the most amazing things for us about the whole trip was driving through a total of 6 countries and ending up with only one stamp in our passport; the re-entry to the UK received at the Calais port.
We had a great introduction to Europe on our first night in De Peerdevisser - Oostduinkerke (East Dunkirk). The hostel was a pleasant walk from the seaside town. We strolled through quiet, well kept streets past large houses with decent sized yards to find, not surprisingly, a seaside resort town. The kids had the first of several planned and, in this case unplanned, kids surprises when they were able to hire some pedaled go carts and zoom around the promenade.
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| A HORTICULTURAL TRIBUTE. |
This town is apparently the only place left in Europe where men use horses to trawl the shallows for prawns, a fact celebrated on the main street of the town. When we arrived on our first afternoon we went down to the beach and saw what we thought were people exercising horses in the shallows. They were in fact the trawler men. We had the first of many French / European style breads and pastries and found that, as would be the case throughout our holiday, that beer was cheaper than soft-drink at restaurants. With the exception of Denmark, we found that Europe was cheaper than London.
We tried to minimise our lengthy drives but our second day had us doing the first of a couple of 4+ hours as we drove from Oostduinkerke to Munster in Germany. We broke the journey in Bruges and were very glad we did. We had tried to fit Bruges in as a proper stay over but given the distances we had to drive it had to be left as a quick visit. As would happen several times during our trip, we ended up quite by accident finding parking literally a few minutes walk from the very centre of the old city. For our first look at 'Old Europe' Bruges was magic. The broad cobbled central square with a fountain in the middle was surrounded by beautiful old buildings. As we walked into the square we saw a crowd gathered around some performers. Perhaps some traditional 'Belgianese' dancing we thought. No, it was a group of Morris dancers from The UK! Unlike the last time we saw Morris dancers, these must have been 'extreme' or possibly 'punk' Morris dancers as they were performing intricate manoeuvres with swords !
Bruges ended up giving us another unexpected experience when we walked into the courtyard of the old town hall. We were looking around when the distinctive sound of a didgeridoo drew our attention. A busker, Curt Ceunen, was performing with bells, didgeridoo and a kind of brass drum we later learned is called a 'Hang'. The sound was amazing not only for the acoustics but the incongruity of an ancient aboriginal didgeridoo being played in a Belgian town hall courtyard. More of his work can be found by youtubing Hang+Didgeridoo+Bruges. The hang is a fairly modern instrument, created in 2000 in Switzerland, but based on a Helmholtz resonator which itself was developed in 1850s by Herman von Helmhotz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_(musical_instrument) We were on a tight time frame but were able to squeeze in a visit to a Belgian chocolate shop. Of all the wonderful places we visited on this holiday we were most impressed by what we saw of Bruges and will devote a specific trip back there in the future to explore it more fully.
A couple of hours later we were in Munster for our second night. As happened throughout the trip our Munster hostel was well located and, in this case, right next to the Aasee lake. Munster seemed to us to be a relaxed, laid back town. It has a large student population most of whom seemed to be riding their bikes along the bike paths that snaked their way around and across the city.
From what we have seen in the UK, bike paths are almost non existent and riding a bike in any part of England means weaving in and out of parked cars or traffic. Either that or chancing life and limb along the narrow lanes and blind corners of the countryside, with numerous occasions where you have to dismount. In Europe, bike riding looked, in many places, to be the preferred mode of transport. As admirable as all this is for us, as pedestrians, it meant having to not only look the wrong way for traffic when crossing the road but also to be vigilant about where we were walking as many of the city footpaths have a 'bike lane'. In Canberra, when riding on the bike paths, it is usual to ring your bell when approaching pedestrians. Not so in Europe. We were not the cause of any accidents - although it was a close call a couple of times.
We were lucky enough to be in the 800 year old Munster Cathedral when the astronomical clock struck 1pm. As well as trumpeters and bells the animated Christmas scene has the Star of Bethlehem rising above the manger followed by the three wise men who bow to the baby Jesus. A large crowd had gathered to watch this quite incredible performance form the 500 year old clock. Below is a video of half of it, the whole thing happens twice. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/munster-cathedral Unlike in the UK, and as we found out later Denmark, the German hostels do not allow guests to use the kitchen. We made good use of the usually very good breakfasts included. No Full English here though, instead for the next week we had a steady run of bread, meat and cheese for breakfast. The kids were not too worried as another of the European breakfast customs for adults as well as kids is chocolate, in varying forms depending on the country (Nutella, chocolate wafers and chocolate sprinkles), on bread.
We ended up eating out in varying fashions for all of the first week of the trip. We varied it between cheap hostel dinners for £4 per head, Turkish kebabs through to more expensive restaurants. On a warm, clear evening in Munster's old town, we decided to try some traditional German food. We found a restaurant with outdoor seating serving pork knuckles and pretzels which sounded pretty German to us. Below is a 'panorama' of the restaurant (middle picture) we ate at and the surrounding area.
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| Now THAT''S a pretzel ! |
Since moving to London we have been very aware of the amount of smoking that goes on. Maybe we are just more conscious of it here but it seems to be far greater than at home. Unlike in Australia, smoking here is still allowed in outside eating areas (it is banned inside - although standing at the doorway and smoking is not seen as a problem) and in most public places. We were amazed and disappointed to find that smoking seems even more common in Europe. We found that whenever we were outside there was a steady waft of cigarette smoke. This was particularly noticeable when eating outside where most of the tables nearby had smokers happily puffing away.
In Munster we hired bikes and rode around for the day. We ended up accidentally riding through the main cemetery. Apart from feeling terribly disrespectful, we were struck by how beautifully kept the graves were with living shrubs. Although we did not take photos there we did in Denmark where they were similarly beautifully well kept.
From Munster we went to Bremen, because of the traditional tale of 'The musicians of Bremen' which we'd read with the kids years ago. The musicians are a major attraction and we had to wait our turn to pose for photos. The shiny legs of the donkey result from the belief that if you hold onto both legs and make a wish it will come true. The musicians sit on the plaza behind the old town hall. Unlike many of the heritage sights we saw, this 'rathaus' survived the war almost untouched due in part to luck (60% of the city was destroyed) but also to the local people boarding up the outside walls of the building. This was one of a couple of UNESCO listed world heritage sites we were lucky enough to see. Built between 1405 -1409 the exterior was extensively renovated in the early 1600s giving it the impressive form it now has. Inside were spectacular wall sized paintings and, most surprisingly, scale sailing ship models from as early as the1700s. Some of these models have guns that can, and have been, fired. The people of Bremen had been ruled by the Church for centuries but increasingly resented the control it exerted. When greater freedom was allowed they thumbed their noses at the Church and built the town hall literally within a stones throw of the Cathedral.
It was at this stage just a few days into our trip that we started to hear news of what was happening in Britain. We couldn't find any English language news on the radio and access to computers and the internet was difficult. When we booked into a hostel in Hude near Bremen, we were asked whether we still had a house left in London! Having been in Jakarta in 1998/9 and seen the fall of President Soeharto we felt uneasy about how the situation could deteriorate. Fortunately three miles is a long way in London and our general area was not a focus for rioters, although one local phone shop had its windows damaged and the nearest computer store was damaged.
From Bremen we drove up to the north German port town of Lubeck. Here again we left the car parked at the hostel & walked to the old town. Along the way we found a small model of the old town that was specifically designed for blind people. The beautifully crafted bronze model was intricately sculpted and had braille descriptions. William immediately thought of Luke, his school friend in Canberra and how much he would have appreciated this. We then spent an hour being fascinated by a performance at the world's only underwater marionette theatre! http://www.wassertheater.de/home.php
We have seen many beautiful churches in the UK and were surprised by how different the European ones seemed to be. Not better, just different. Each one was quite distinct and usually gave us, well Mark & Sally anyway, a chance to say 'wow'. It seemed to us that the European churches had a more open airy feel. As with the UK and of course much of Europe, many historic buildings were severely damaged or destroyed during the war. While they have been faithfully restored, we couldn't help but wonder what they would have been like had they survived unscathed. In the St. Marien Church in Lubeck the old bells have been left where they fell as a result of 'British attacks' during WWII - a stark reminder that there were two sides to the war. Lubeck was bombed on the morning of Palm Sunday 1942. A fifth of the town was destroyed and the church was almost completely burnt out.
We were again taken aback by the sense of light and airiness with its high vaulted ceiling, which at 38.5m, is the highest brick vaulted ceiling in the world. Outside the church, Germany's third largest and a UNESCO listed building, the kids found the devil, as you do, to chat to. The story goes that while the church was being built, between 1250 - 1350, the devil flew past and, angered by the scale of the work and intent on destroying the church, grabbed a block of stone and threw it down threatening to destroy the church. To appease the devil the workers promised to build a pub opposite the main doors of the church. The block of stone, complete with the devil's claw marks, was left where it fell and the pub is still across from the church. Final restoration of the church interiors only finished in 1980.
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| Marien church |
Crossing to Denmark from Germany was a ridiculously easy process. We drove to the ferry port, lined up, paid the fare and drove on-board, 40 minutes later we were in Denmark. Sally and Mark had been to Denmark in the early 90s to celebrate the combined 100th birthday (50 + 50) of Helle & Christian. At that stage we did not have the time to see much of the country. As we crossed the strait we saw some of the hundreds of wind turbines that dot the country. Apparently they account for 25% of Denmark's power needs. Pretty impressive for a country of just 5 million people. A lot of what we saw in Denmark was pretty impressive. The people were all young, fit, tall, beautiful, honey coloured, happy and helpful & at least tri-lingual. At least Mark thought so!
It wasn't hard to imagine the vikings and the impact they had on the people they defeated. Having been to York and learned about it's viking past it was great to be where it all started. We were already conscious of the influence Europe has had on English language and culture. For example the Danish word for closed is 'lucket' (locked) and the word for baby, 'spædbarn', is similar in part to the Northern English word 'bairn'.
We went straight to the island of Møn, an unpronounceable island off the southern coast of Denmark where Sally's 1970's rotary exchange friend Marianne and her family have a holiday house near where her parents live. We eagerly anticipated Denmark's beautiful sandy beaches, but having also read about the Danes' pretty relaxed attitude towards beach wear, we felt we had to let the kids know that they may well see a lot more of the Danes than they might have expected! As it turned out the warning wasn't needed as, unfortunately, the weather gods that had smiled on us during the first week started to turn their backs on us during the 2nd week.
As the weather was not much good for the beach, Marianne, her husband Henrik and daughter Trin took us all out on their rubber speedboat to a small sand island about 15 minutes zoom from the beach. We all went for a swim but it was a long walk out to anything like deep water.
On the way back the kids had a turn at driving the boat. The video below show how much the kids enjoyed themselves ...but you can also hear just a hint of how concerned their parents were! While the kids have an appreciation that they are seeing special places 'up here' and we know that the sum total of all that we do will influence them in later life, it is these experiences, more than the cathedrals and museums and 'old stuff' that the kids will remember. For that alone we are very grateful to Mariane, Henrik and Trin.
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NO GLASSES !
AISHA CAN'T SEE WHERE SHE IS GOING ! |
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| SPEEDBOAT BILLY. |
A little less hair raising than the boat trip was the bike ride they took us on through some of the last remaining remnant forest in Denmark. When Marianne's bike needed a quick repair, we stopped at relatives of hers nearby and there we spotted a very large, very black slug. While we have slugs in Australia, black ones are unheard of. These are native to Denmark and are now almost unseen on the main island of Zealand and rare on Jutland as they are being eaten by introduced brown slugs !!
Like their mum, Marianne & Henrik's children Mads and Trin have both been on Rotary exchanges. While Mads also went to Australia (Yamba), Trin went to Rotarua New Zealand. When we arrived she had only been home for a month after 12 months away. While she was a lot of fun and the kids loved her, we all felt it was our patriotic duty, as Australians, to give her a hard time about her strong Kiwi accent !! As revenge for our teasing she taught the kids an intricate clapping rhythm which accompanied us on much of the rest of our journey and remains with us in East Finchley. Thanks Trin!
With Marianne, Henrik and Trin we had the first of several typical Danish meals with lots of herrings, rye bread and soft boiled eggs. William will tell you that herrings are an acquired taste, one that he did not quite manage. The rest of us found them quite OK, although later in Ribe we found herrings for breakfast a little tricky to embrace wholeheartedly.
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| A FABULOUS MEAL ON MøN. |
We left Marianne's for Copenhagen and to catch up with our Danish friends from Damascus days, Christian & Helle. Having recently retired from the Danish foreign service they were both happy back in their house in a suburb of Copenhagen. We reminisced about Syria in the 1990s, worried about Syria now and enjoyed more good Danish food and drinks. Christian introduced us to a famous Scandinavian spirit, Aquavit. We first tried Aquavit in Damascus at Christian & Helle's place. It is a fiery drink a little like a cross between whisky and vodka. The earliest known reference to Aquavit is from a 1531 letter from a Danish lord to the last Catholic Archbishop of Norway. He had sent the archbishop a sample of the drink, as you do, writing " this is some water called Aqua Vite and is a help for all sorts of illnesses a man can have both internally and externally".
Part of the production process of the Norwegian brand, Linje, involves it travelling in oak barrels across the Equator to the southern hemisphere and returning, therefore crossing the equator twice. The constant movement, high humidity and fluctuating temperature of the journey apparently causes the spirit to extract more flavour and completes an accelerated maturation which is considered essential for quality Aquavit. Attempts have been made to artificially induce this effect but the result has been judged far inferior to the real thing. What amazed us, and even caused Sally to have a glass, was that this bottle was certified as crossing the Equator on board the Norwegian ship Tampa. Any Australian will instantly recognise this as the name of the ship that rescued a sinking asylum seekers' boat in August 2001. The ensuing attempts of the captain to land his vessel and the asylum seekers on Christmas Island led to a highly politicised stand-off, a boarding by SAS commandos and much debate both locally and internationally. It all had a profound effect on Australian domestic politics.
We spent a few days in and around Copenhagen. It is a beautiful city, criss-crossed by canals. We took a canal boat ride, visited the amazingly accessible royal palace and the stunning round 'Marble Church'. Another highlight was the small but engrossing Freedom Museum where we learnt all about the Danish resistance movement during WWII. The kids are still talking about the brave individuals and stories they heard there.
Visiting Copenhagen is not complete without seeing 'The little mermaid'. We saw her from sea, while on the canal tour, and land. During the land viewing we met a group of very tired but excited Columbian scouts who were on their way home from the World Scout Jamboree held this year in Sweden. Sally was able to engage them in conversation in Spanish but they spoke good English with the kids and gave them jamboree badges for their scout and guide blankets.
Australia and Denmark have numerous links. Mark feels that the Danes and Australians are very similar in their attitudes, ideas and general approach to life. He strongly suspects the vikings actually went a little farther in their journeys than most historians have thought. The most obvious association is the iconic Sydney Opera House designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon. Mark worked at the Opera House for 5 years while at university and in the first three years of his teaching. Another link is that a Hobart girl, Mary Donaldson, met and later married Prince Frederick of Denmark. Mary lived in the same suburb as Sally, went to the same school as the Eldridge kids, their parents migrated at the same time from the UK and both mums were in maternity wards in the same hospital at the same time giving birth to Mary and Sally's sisters. Perhaps most impressivley Sally's mum is on kissing terms with Mary's father. It could so easily have been Princess Sally ........
We spent the evening at the famous Tivoli gardens where the kids enjoyed the rides and the parents watched. With a history going back to 1843, Tivoli is more than a theme park having theatre and musical attractions for adults. By the time we left at 11:30pm a full sized swing band was playing to an audience of enthusiastic dancers. Mark & Aisha used the opportunity to have their first proper Dad & daughter dance, albeit in completely the wrong style and beautifully out of time. Mark blames Aisha !
Back at Helsinor outside the train station in the rain at 12:00am there was a long queue for taxis and no public transport evident. Mark & Sally reverted to their traveller mentalities and decided we would walk back to the youth hostel just a few kilomteres away. Along the way we regaled the kids with stories of similar, though much more arduous(!) journeys undertaken not through necessity as in this case but through refusal to pay what in reality was a small amount of money for transport. After a long day the kids were suitably impressed.
Christian took us to Kronberg castle - more commonly known as Hamlet's castle. From the walls of the castle we looked out at "occupied Denmark", more commonly known as Sweden. The cannons at the castle are still fired at various royal occasions including a 21 gun salute at royal births. In January this year they were fired 42 times when Princess Mary had twins. There were amazing state rooms and paintings to see. Down in the cellars we found the statue of Holger Dansk the legendary viking who will wake when Denmark is in danger.
We also went to Fredericksborg castle in Hilerod just outside Copenhagen. Started in 1560 by King Frederick II, it has been restored after a devastating fire in the 1850s. In the chapel we saw original Carl Bloch paintings on various aspects of Christ's life. These mural sized 150 year old paintings were amazing in their almost photo realistic style. The detail in them is astounding and it really is like looking at a photo. According to one of the guides there, American tourists come to Fredericksborg just to see these paintings which, for some reason, are particularly well known there.
Fredericksborg castle also showed us the incredible intricacies and detail of this period of Danish religious design.
While the weather seemed to inhibit the Danes on the beach, we saw suggestions of what may have greeted us had the weather been better.
On our last night in Copenhagen, Helle & Christian took us to a local Italian restaurant. We had a great night out, due in no small part to the good nature of the head waiter who showed William how to fold napkins in an amusing though somewhat sexist way.
From Copenhagen we went on to Jutland and Denmark's second largest city, Aarhus. To get there we drove across one of the longest bridges outside of Asia - the 18 km long 'Great Belt Fixed Link' Bridge. We also paid the biggest toll we have ever paid - £30! Unfortunately by this time the weather gods had well & truly turned their backs on us but did provide some impressive vistas as we headed west across the country.
Along the way we stopped at Roskilde, home of Europe's second largest music festival after Glastonbury. We weren't there for the festival which had taken place in July, but to see the Viking Centre and the Roskilde Cathedral. Built in the 12th & 13th centuries, the cathedral has been the burial place of Danish monarchs since the 1400s. It's an amazing place with grand sarcophagi, including the proposed tomb of the current Queen, Marguerite II.
At the Viking Centre we saw six viking long boats that were deliberately sunk in Roskilde Bay to block access by invading fleets. Visiting lots of exciting churches, thrilling museums and action packed ' old stuff ' did have the kids feeling a little ......underwhelmed at times. At the viking centre they found a way to amuse themselves.
There was a lot to see in and around Aarhus and we spent two days there. The excellent Moesgard museum has, amongst other exhibits, the world's best preserved 'peat bog body'. Found in 1952 this 3rd century BC body was identified as a man sacrificed to the gods. He had his leg broken, his throat savagely cut and was then placed in a bog. The alkaline nature of the bog has preserved him so well that the stubble of his beard is evident as are his fingernails.
The museum also has an amazing display on the 'Illerup find'. In 1950 a collection of 15,000 items were discovered in the mud of a by then overgrown lake. It seems that in around 200 AD a fleet of Scandinavian warriors sailed into the area. A battle ensued and the local Danes won. After the battle the war booty (clothing, swords, helmets and riding gear) was systematically smashed, cut up & generally wrecked. The Danes rowed out to the middle of the lake and dropped these into the lake as an offering to the gods.
It isn't known what happened to the surviving enemy warriors but given the treatment meted to their weapons it is not hard to imagine their fate.
Den Gamle By (The Old Town) opened in Aarhus in1914 as the first open air museum of its kind in the world. For Australians it is a bit like Old Sydney Town - but better. The aim is to preserve some of Denmark's village history, life style, buildings and trades. It now has 75 complete and intact historical buildings taken from 20 townships across the country. In some case sections of whole streets were dismantled brick by brick and reconstructed in Aarhus as they were. Periods focussed on are the 1800s, 1920s and 1970s. Scary when you find items you used in your youth in a museum !
As we left Aarhus for Silkeborg we made a small detour for another of Mark's 'kid surprises' and went to 'Racecar' the largest indoor go-kart race track in Europe. We were lucky arriving when we did as we had the place to ourselves. As we left a group of about 30 turned up. We all had a go, the kids had two, with William narrowly beating Mark for fastest lap. Aisha demonstrated her resilience yet again by crashing early on, see the video below, but continuing through. Fortunately, she was not seriously hurt and only ended up with an impressively colourful bruise on her leg.
William did many, many drifts (skids) and had his own mini accident in the lap just after Aisha's accident. The track supervisor came out to slow him down but we think William interpreted the man's slow down signals as gestures of worship as he went even faster !
Before leaving Aarhus, and between rain showers, we went for a walk through almost Tasmanian style wildnerness to get to the beach. Although the weather was cool it was sunny so the kids went swimming. Mark & Sally declined.
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| AISHA PLAYS HIDE & SEEK IN THE NORTH SEA. |
At Silkeborg we were limited in what we could do. Our planned canoe trip did not happen as it rained so much. It looked like a lovely place and maybe we will get back there one day when the weather is better.
From Silkeborg we went to Ribe, Denmark's oldest town. Again we were at a hostel that was a short walk from everything. This hostel was by far the best with great facilities, more of those beautiful Danes mentioned earlier and some vikings on Harley Davidsons who wanted to drink with Sally - a lot.
The hostel had its own full sized gym where the kids discovered the joys of badminton.
Sally went on a tour with the nightwatchmen who keeps up a centuries old tradition of going out to check the safety of the town each night. This lovely old man now conducts free tours which attract good sized groups twice an evening. As well as describing some of the architectural highlights of the town, he also sings traditional songs as he leads the groups through the quaint cobbledy streets and describes some of the famous Danes from the region. Ribe's most famous citizen was Jacob Riis who left Ribe after being rejected by one of those beautiful Danish women. In 1870 he went to New York and fell into poverty. He was able to get a job as a police reporter and started to document the plight of the homeless. He started photographing what he saw, becoming a pioneer of the use of the flash in the process. His photographs highlighted the terrible conditions endured by New York's poor and, as a result, efforts were made to clean up the slums. He also focussed on clean drinking water and establishing parks in the city. Through a combination of his photos and journalism polluted water supplies were cleaned up and parks established. He was lauded by the then president of the board of commissioners for the NYPD, Theodore Roosevelt, who said in part Riis was ..." a most useful citizen of New York..."
Lego land is tucked away in the middle of Jutland an hour from Ribe and not particularly close to anywhere. We debated whether we would go or not given we had been to Tivoli and, as exciting as watching kids on rides is, maybe once in a week was enough. In the end we went. It was amazing to see such large and complicated models made entirely out of lego. The rides were fairly tame compared to Tivoli and we realised we should actually watch the rides before lining up for 20 minutes to go on a 45 second ride that even Mark declared 'tame'. Having said that, the video below shows how much fun the kids had. Having already been soaked in previous battles the kids decided to get their raincoats. William, in a green coat to the left of the screen, chose the duck and hide strategy while Aisha, in the black coat near the middle of the screen, chose the ‘run away’ strategy. What you can't quite see on this low res version of the video, but is very evident in the original video, is the enormous smile on Aisha's face.
As we left Ribe we stopped in at the local supermarket to get some food for the journey to Utrecht. We noticed the car below with unusual license plates. We don't whether the owner is aware of the Ford vs Holden rivalry in Australia or if his name is simply Holden, as one of Wiliam's Dutch friend's brother is called, but it amused us anyway!
Before leaving the UK we had decided that in order to fit everything in our last full day would have to be a 'driving day' of some 7-8 hours from Ribe in Denmark through to Utrecht in The Netherlands. As mentioned this was made longer by the traffic jams around Hamburg. Arriving in Utrecht later than we had planned, we booked into our one night of planned luxury, a boutique B&B with a separate room for the kids! We took advantage of a break in the rain and walked down to the old part of town to look for a nice place to eat. Breakfast was a relaxed but sophisticated affair and a very enjoyable start to our last day in continental Europe.
From Utrecht we drove to Calais via our friend Rachel's place in Bruxelles. Having met up with Rachel and her family at her mum's in Glastonbury and having subsequently visited her mum several times since, we couldn't miss out on seeing Rachel and her family at home. We had a great lunch and caught up on what was happening in the EU.
Going back to the UK was not quite as easy as getting across. The queues for the passport control were long and, unlike leaving the UK where the French border control simply looked at our passports and handed them back, the UK border actually did 'stuff' to them and put in a stamp! The delays may also have been caused by only half the staff in the office actually working - the others sat around chatting and laughing..... To be fair, we cannot blame the laughing immigration staff, because we also gave ourselves too little time to get to our designated train departure by spending too long in the duty free shop. Before leaving the UK we were led to believe missing the train time would be a catastrophe. It wasn't! We just waited in the queue along with many others who appeared to be in the same situation until we got to the front of the queue and onto the next train.
We arrived home late on 14th August and really didn't unpack much as Mark and the kids left on 16th August to go to Dorset for five days to catch up with our friends Jane, Nigel and their son Julian. Sally went back to work and caught a train down to meet us all on Friday night.
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Thrilling videos and historical pictures will be posted soon in the next installment of
'Strutting around London' !
