Denmark

Denmark was a good fit for all our traveling styles. Throughout this journey I've tried to keep a balance of all our divergent favorite parts of traveling, and we hit them all in Denmark. For Chase you need history, especially medieval or Viking and good museums are most appreciated. Marshall likes animals and activities. As for me, I like scenery and seeing things that look totally different from other regions, such as houses or clothing styles. We got it all in spades in Denmark. For Chase there were Viking sites galore. We visited old grave sites and forts, some had been rebuilt, and some were just remenants of earthen walls. We saw swords and armor galore in several museums, most notably the National Museum of Copenhagen. We went to the Viking ship Museum in Southern Denmark, where 5 viking ships have been brought up from underwater, put back together as much as possible, and then reconstructed versions built. We even got to go on a Viking boat ride, manning the oars, which were long and heavy, Marshall and me on the sail, and they let Chase steer all around the cove and back into harbor, with about 16 people rowing. He was thrilled. As for Medieval history yesterday we went to a place where the only full sized working trebouchet in the world has been recreated. We saw something about it last winter on the history chanel, and tracked down its location. Both Chase and Marshall got to help on the firing. For my activity loving son, Marshall, we visited Legoland in Denmark, which was lots of fun. There were whole cities made of millions of legobricks, recreating the major cities of Europe, and some of the U.S. as well. We went on rides that had life sized lego models of Vikings, pirates, wild animals and more. Marshall was thrilled there, and again in Tivoli park in Coppenhagen which is the oldest amusement park in Europe. It was charming at night with thousands of lanterns lighting the park. He also got his animal-loving needs fulfilled with loads of fields of sheep, bed and breakfasts with chickens, dogs, and cats, and one night when just he and I went for a walk at dusk (about 10:30 p.m.) in the countryside. There was a field of brown cows which blocked our path and I swear scowled at us most fiercely! And for me and my traveling preferences, Denmark was lovely. The countyside was beautiful. Not dramatic like Norway, but beautiful rolling fields with little thatched roof cottages.
We now just have a few more days to wind our way back through the Netherlands, Belgium, and France and return the car in Paris. Then I get the joy of trying to pack the lovely assortment of stuff we've picked up, such as a bulky heavy World War I helmet, A giant flint rock from Denmark, fragile marrionettes from the Czech Republic and the large recurve bow Marshall has been dragging around since Hungary! When all is said and done it will be 21 coutries in 3 months!!!!!!
Until next time, Mijke

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