A Short Stay in Denmark

Our middle son, Tom, lives and works in Aarhus, the second city of Denmark, so as part of my visit to UK last month, I flew over to spend a few days with him. I have only visited him once before, in mid-summer, so I was looking forward to seeing Denmark in the Winter. My first impressions were not favorable as I landed in thick fog, but from then on it could only get better.

Of course I took loads of photos and ever since my return I have promised my blog friends that I would post a folder of them. It has taken until today to sort them out, but here they are now. (I should warn you here, that this post is long with a lot, and I mean a lot, of photos, so make yourself comfortable before you read any further!).

My first day was a Thursday. Tom had to do some video conferencing for work, which he could do from home, so I took myself off to walk around the city, and give him some space. 

It was a dull, fairly chilly morning but at least it was dry. The main shopping street is pedestrianized and all the big shops put their wares out on the walkways. It is a good way to ensure they catch your eye when new stock arrives, but they do it whatever the weather, and the air is often damp there, so you have to wonder how they keep everything in good condition.

Most of the Christmas lights were up by then, ready for the switching on ceremony the next night. At the end of the main street I found this huge sphere, covered in lights that were being tested. I later learned it was a photo booth, where you could pose with your friends for a Christmas selfie.

At this point I went down some wooden steps to the lower level where there is a wide walk-way along both sides of a canal. It was full of holiday makers seated outside the many cafés in the summer, and even now it was a pleasant walk.

I like this picture for the reflections in both the water, and the glass fronted office blocks that line the canal. Although many of the trees had already lost their leaves, there was still plenty of Autumn glory to enjoy. This was taken in the park at the end of the canal walk.

This is almost the equivalent of a car park in Danish cities. Very few people use cars. Car parking is at a premium and there is a good network of bus routes. But most people seem to cycle. They 'abandon' their bikes outside the shops. Some are chained but many are not. I don't know how anyone manages to extract theirs from the centre of the pile.

Parking at the railway station is much the same. Part of the popularity of cycling is the complete lack of any hills in Denmark!

At lunch time on my first day, Tom came out to meet me and he took me to a lovely roof terrace bar on top of the largest departmental store there. The empty wire basket at the front of this photo, was originally filed with warm blankets that any customer can take to wrap around their knees or shoulders while eating 'al fresco'. The Danes are a hardy race, and enjoy outdoor life all year round. Most bars and restaurants have blankets on all their outside seating to encourage its use in all weathers.

On this particular day the sun had come out, and we were quite warm sitting there without a blanket, and as you can see, the patio heaters were all turned on as well.

From our table, Tom pointed out a new viewing platform that had only opened a few months earlier. It stretched out beyond the edge of the terrace, so when we had eaten, I wanted to go and see the view. 

When we got up there, he told me that the floor of the platform was glass so you could see down onto the street below! I did manage to stand on it, but it did make my legs feel a bit wobbly.

And I even managed to smile was I was doing so!

I walked across to look down the street, but I was quite happy to step back onto solid concrete ground again! This was the road below us.

The next day Tom had to work from his office and I wanted to revisit the ARoS art museum, which is just a stone's throw from Tom's flat. One of the main attractions there is the rainbow walk; a circular tube of glass that changes colour as it goes around the roof terrace of the museum.

But first I visited some of the galleries, so here are just a few of my favourite exhibits. I took too many to show on here, and I am sorry, I have temporarily lost the information about these. But this was at the entrance to the 'Art across the ages' room. It was called Kitchen Totem, and was made entirely from pots, bowls and other utensils that are found in most kitchens. I am only showing two paintings although there were many other interesting ones. I liked The wave, an almost abstract painting in fairly neutral colours. The second one I liked because there was so much going on in it. I sat and looked at it for ages.

Of course I finished my visit with a walk around the rainbow gallery. It is strange inside because the light constantly changes as you travel round it and view the city landmarks through different filters. This picture was taken on sunny day when we visited in the summer.

But this visit it was a much duller day so the colours were more muted, but it was also less crowded with tourists, so I took a selfie in each area (I seem to have missed the blue one!), and I have put them all together in a strip.

It is a fun and interesting place to visit and I would recommend it to anyone. There is another attraction there, a statue just called 'The Boy' by Ron Mueck, which was shown in the millennium dome in London, but now has a permanent home in ARoS museum. It stands nearly 5 metres tall, and it is the absolute image of one of my grandsons when he was a little!

I saw this on my previous visit and it is beautifully sculptured and incredibly life-like. Sadly, when I asked where he was this time, I was told he was 'on holiday' in an upstairs room while they were rearranging the spaces, and would be on view again this December.

I had a rest when I got home because we were going out again for two events that evening. The first was to listen to the bells ringing out in the Town Hall clock tower. This is a modern structure, again only five minutes from Tom's flat. Last year Aarhus was Denmark's city of culture, and as part of its celebrations, 48 new bells were installed in the tower. They are still rung by hand, and on the first Friday of each month, at 4.00, they ring out a thirty-minute concert, so we stood in the rain to listen.

We rushed home for some quick tea and then set out again at 6.00 to see Santa arrive and parade through the town. He came on board a fishing boat, and we joined the crowds at the dock to see him arrive.

He left the boat while the band was playing, and got onto his open carriage, which then paraded all around the town along with children dresses at Christmas trees and stars, other animal characters, and about twenty other santas! I don't have photos of the parade as I am too short to see enough in such a crowded place, but the atmosphere was fun,and we did see the lights all along the street, come on for the first time.

Here is another view of the lights taken from that glass platform up above us. (Not my photo I must add! But as Tom said, it is probably easier to stand on it when it is dark). We met up with some of Tom's friends that evening and went on to a very friendly bar with them after the parade. So here we are with three friends, one is Welsh, one German and one Romanian! He does have Danish friends as well, and I gather they usually meet up when they want a night out. They were in the bar with us, but didn't make it into the photo!

On Saturday we had planned to walk along the coast, so despite some rather cold drizzle, we set off. We did the first bit on the bus, and then set off along the sand. Tom took this photo because it has (just) got the Danish flag flying behind me.

It was the first time I had needed to wear my raincoat all holiday, but I was glad of it that morning. We were heading for an infinity bridge that was installed last year, and I was keen to see it. It was a narrow platform running in a circle from the beach, out onto the sea and back to the beach again. Unfortunately when we arrived at the site, it had been dismantled for the Winter, and only the first part of the framework that was embedded in the sand, was still there!

So we had to turn back, going inland a little and following the path that ran parallel with the beach, past this pretty waterfall and back down to where we had started.

We decided that instead of catching the bus back, we would walk all the way. It was quite a distance. You can just see the misty outline of buildings across the bay. That are where we were heading for.

It was good to just take our time, chat together, and enjoy the scenery. We were constantly unzipping our coats because we were too warm, and then zipping up again against the next shower, so we were quite glad to get back to the dock and the start of the city again. We entered across the open area under the new library that has been built on the dockside. The city tram runs under it, and there is also a high-tech machine that parks your car for you! Next to the booth for this there is this intriguing sculpture of a city hanging upside down. I don't understand the significance but it is quite fun.

We thought we deserved a treat after all our walking so we went to a little bar and ordered a glass of Glogg each. This is the Danish traditional Christmas drink and it was delicious. The girl behind the bar spooned generous portions of plump dried fruit that was soaking in a spirit, into a glass, added finely chopped almonds and filled the glass with hot mulled wine. She then twisted strips of orange peel to release the oils and dropped it into our glasses and served it with crisp almond biscuits. It was a great way to warm up and set us up well for the short walk back to the flat.

Sunday was my last day and we had intended to hire a car and explore a bit further away from the city, but the weather was bad with heavy rain and high winds, so we cancelled that idea. But after lunch it cleared and we walked out to the Botanical Gardens. Here are just a few of the pictures I took there. The exotic room was the best, and there were lots of butterflies in there, but I didn't catch many of them on camera.

We had out tea there before we waked back to pack, and we had tomato soup served in a dish made from a dried palm leaf.

We finished with a Danish apple cake, which had very little to do with 'cake' but was delicious all the same.

We both had to get back to pack then as we were up early the next day, me for my flight back to UK, and more travels to visit our other sons, and Tom for his flight to Stuttgart for a work conference. It was a lovely few days, and I shall try to do it again; maybe in the Springtime next time.

I hope you have enjoyed travelling around with me. Thank you to those who have stayed the course!

Rocking Your World 2018; Week 49

Well it has been a lovely week here this week, so there is plenty to smile about. The sun has shone all week, at least for most of the day, and there has been some real warmth in it, with little or no wind to make you feel chilly. So on Monday morning Chris and I went to a Christmas Fair at the camp site near us. There was a good turnout, and plenty of stalls to browse through. Some were trade stalls, but most were hand-crafted items with everything from soap to chocolates, jewelry and a variety of Christmas decorations.

I was very lucky because Chris bought me two presents and let me choose them. The first was a lovely crystal pendant, but the lady wrapped it up so beautifully, so I can't show that yet. The second was a very colourful pair of hand made leather shoes. They are light as a feather and will be very comfy I am sure. I managed to take a quick picture of them before they were tucked away in Chris' office until Christmas day. I don't normally have quite such vibrant footwear, but they are fun, and I shall enjoy wearing them. My son's comment was "There is nothing wrong with having an aging hippie for a mum"!

When we had finished at the market we decided to have our lunch out, but the first place we tried was closed. A lot of bars and restaurants around here close on Mondays. So we went on up the steep windy roads behind our village, to the little cluster of white buildings known as Bédar. It is a small village with narrow streets, and cramped houses, but there are now many new villas on the surrounding hills and they all command an impressive view. We went to the Mirador, a restaurant we used to visit quite often, but it is a few years since we were last up there. I wouldn't chose to drive up to it after dark, but it is a lovely place for a menu del día. We sat on the open roof terrace and it was really warm in the sun. And we had one of the best meals we have had in a long time.

I took this view from a little further up the hill, where we managed to find a parking space. You can see right down passed our village, passed Turre and Mojacar, to the sea. It is hard to tell where the sea ends and the sky starts.

Monday was a busy day as we also went out in the evening, to the traditional festival of nine lessons and carols in the big, ancient church in Mojacar Pueblo. This is one of my favourite celebrations. It is a joint venture between the Spanish catholic church and our Anglican chaplaincy. Our two priests lead the service together, readings are alternately read one in English and one in Spanish, and the carols are also alternately Spanish and English. And at the end we sing Silent Night each in our own language at the same time, and it works surprisingly well. The English carols are sung as congregational hymns with everyone joining in, but two of the Spanish ones are sung by the church choir and two by the local gypsy choir. This is the highlight for me, and in case you have never heard a gypsy choir singing carols (and I'm betting most of you haven't), click HERE for a short video of one of their songs. This is singing in the Flemenco style, and it is never as gentle as some of our carols are, but there were only four men and eight ladies in this choir, and they sure filled the church with their joyous voices.

This is a nice photo of our two priests. On the left is father Miguel who oversees four Spanish churches in this area, including the one in our village and this big one in Mojacar. On the right is our vicar, Rev. Vincent, who oversees the three little churches in our Chaplaincy. It is great to have such a good rapport between these two groups. Of course the Catholic churches are not exclusively Spanish and we welcome Spanish folk at our services, but it is mainly split in that way, due to language as much as anything.

For the rest of the week I have been mostly wrestling with a craft project I promised to do for our carol service at our church, later in the month. I am glad to say it is done now, and yesterday I took it to a meeting with a few other people to try and inspire them to have a go too. I won't show it here until after the service though.

We were very surprised to find that the village Christmas lights were turned on this week. Usually they wait until the week before Christmas. I always assumed this was because they stay on until 7th January, after our Three Kings celebration.  So I now have a little white angel at my gate each night, with golden hair and a golden star. They are different from the angels we had on a previous year, as they were blue when lit. She is very pretty isn't she?

I had to laugh at Arwen this week. She has her full winter coat now, and has just adopted my low step stool as her 'perch' for a while. From on top she is almost a perfect circle.

I called her to try and get her to look up for a photo, so we could see her big yellow/green eyes, but she hates having her picture taken, and if look could kill...

On Wednesday I did a little shopping after my sewing group, while I was in Turre, and I noticed that the little garden centre in the middle of the town, had a new display of poinsettias in, so I thought I would buy a couple while they were fresh and I could take my pick. In the end I bought this beautiful peachy yellow one. Most of the yellow ones were a hard acid yellow, but this one was a warm shade with pink tinges to the petal edges, and it had a light spray of fine glitter on it. It is now on a low stand on our front porch, and it is a real beauty.

Of course you can't really beat a true red poinsettia so I have two smaller red ones on either side of the yellow one. And I also bought a small red one to sit on our dining table.

I forgot to take a photo of these today so these two were taken after dark, with just the porch light on, so they are a bit darker than they should be. I may take a better one tomorrow.

And lastly, here is a picture of my little lemon tree. We planted it as just a small thin stick, several years ago. They have to be four years old before they bear any fruit, but this usually manages to have four to six good lemons on it. But this year it has nearer twenty-six, and I have had to use straps to support the thinner branches now the fruit are quite big. I have just looked up a recipe for lemon curd, and I think there will be a lemon meringue pie and maybe a lemon drizzle cake making an appearance very soon. Any other ideas for using them are very welcome.

At lunch time today our choir sang a programme of music from our London concert, some Christmas songs and some carols, for a private function at Arboleas gardening club. The theatre was full and they all seemed to enjoy it. They keep asking us back each year so they must like what we do! We have our own concert for "Family & Friends" next Friday evening. It is a very popular concert and we always get a good crowd there.

And that just about wraps it up for this week, so feel free to stop reading there if you want to.

But now I am going to show a few pictures from my visit to son number two last month. I have decided that I have too many photos from my trip to Denmark, to include them in this blog, so as soon as I have time to sort them out, I will do a special post just about them, and link it into my next Friday post.

My second son Michael recently moved to a new house in Llanymynech, near Oswestry and very close to the border between Shropshire and Wales. He wanted me to see it, and I do like to have seen their houses so I can picture them there, so while I was in UK I travelled to Wellington, (where Mike works), on the train, and he picked me up from the station on his way home. His house is lovely, with much more space for his big family, but it was too dark to see outside, so I was looking forward to the morning. We had a lovely tea together and then my granddaughter and one of my great-grandsons came round to chat which was  nice surprise. I spent the evening being sat on by two dogs and tormented by two kittens until they all got warm and sleepy and settled down together.

When I woke up it was rather cloudy but the sun was doing its best to break through.

Mike had the morning off so after breakfast the boys went off to school, and Mike, Lucy and I took the dogs for a walk, (Well Lucy walked the dogs and Mike took me up the hill in his car!) and we walked along the edge of the golf course. The views were stunning. You could see right out to Wales, as well as back to our home town of Oswestry.

The trees were still showing their autumn colours and it was beautiful.

The path we were on was right on the edge of the cliff, and it looked a long was down so we were careful not to slip on the wet grass.

We then got back in the car and drove down to their house and a short distance further on to some woods that led to the old lime kiln. This is now a heritage site and has been renovated a little, and it was interesting to see. The lime kiln itself is still intact.

You can walk inside it. It is dark and damp and it was hard to imagine it full of rocks, packed round with the burning coals used to extract the lime from them.

There were still some outbuildings standing, and lots of equipment that would have been used there.

This poor man had the job of walking on the roof opening and closing small vents to keep the furnace burning at the right temperature.

It was a tough place to work and many of the men died young because the lime dust got in their lungs.

As we walked back through the woods to the car I saw this old tree branch covered in a deep green moss.

Very soon it was time to get back in the car. Mike then drove me to visit our lovely host Annie, coming back for me an hour later so he could drive me back to the station on his way to work for the afternoon. I packed a lot into a very short visit, but I am glad I manged to see them all. (I showed my photo with Annie a couple of week ago).

And now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking Your World, and go and get some much needed beauty sleep.