Denmark

Hi Everyone,

It has been so so long - the longest so far between entries. Life has been good. I have a great job and although I miss home terribly at times, I'm enjoying life over here.

Allen and I went to Denmark in October to see our friend Claus, and to see Denmark. We flew into Copenhagen and there's a train station just below the airport that took us straight into Copenhagen. We stayed in a hostel called Sleep in Heaven - complete with sheep with wings painted on the walls licking the apple of life. The hostels in Copenhagen are really nice and clean and although there was no kitchen, there was a pool table and free internet which more than made up for it. The people are really nice and friendly and I fear they speak better English than I do! I was really impressed with the amount of cyclists in Copenhagen. There are bikes for use within the city centre that are very cheap if not free, but there are fines for if you take them outside of the city. People leave bikes on the footpaths unlocked and no-one has the need to take them as there are so many available. I can't see that ever happening in London or Dublin. Driving was interesting - so not only is the steering on the left, driving on the left but we also had to look out for cyclists. Very scary!

I have to say that if you ever go to Denmark, get a train to Skaagen and hire a car it is up to 1/4 of the price of Copenhagen, and definitely do not hire a car from Copenhagen airport.

What I also really like was the amount of wind turbines in Denmark. I think they're so beautiful and much of their beauty is their symbolism of how clean they are for our environment. I cannot understand why some think they're a blight to the landscape yet have no problem with nuclear power. Crazy! At least wind turbines can be taken down.

We spent a few days in Copenhagen and caught up with Claus and met Lolita which was great. It's always good knowing some locals to show you around. We went to see Claus play cricket (it isn't as big there as Australia but the passion certainly is), and we really loved Copenhagen. It's such a beautiful city and we loved it there. I didn't get to go on a boat unfortunately - but we couldn't do everything. The amount of copper in the city is unbelievable and Allen was fantasising about scrapping it and never having to work again ...........

From Copenhagen we headed up to Skaagen and spent a couple of days with Yesper, Claus' brother, who really looked after us. I still long for Danish' for breakfast. We went to Alborg (where the pictures of the carriageway is). It's really nice as well and one of the main streets used to be a waterway and it looked much nicer when it was. It was apparently covered with a road as it grew bigger, but it looked much nicer before. Allen and I had lots of fun trying on hats at a museum and I have a great picture of Allen in a teardrop shaped hat with net to cover his face from the 1940's if anyone is interested .......... Up in Skaagen we walked along the beaches looking for amber and stone-age tools, and the museums in Denmark are just amazing. The skeletons of Vikings they find are just amazing. We stayed in a great cabin park up there and had fires every night - it was just the best. If I ever were to go back, I'd go back there. We did meet an interesting Danish lady who politely told me I wasn't a viking like her and Allen, and I don't understand fires like they do, but that's another story .............

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