West to Jutland

I am writing from London on this cool sunny day, dreadfully behind on the blog. So here's a bit more of Denmark where we spent our first month.

On June 29th Simon, Django and I got on a train and retraced our steps from last year, heading to Holstebro on the west side of Jutland, the mainland part of Denmark. It was a four hour trip to get to Simon's mom's house where she lives with her partner Knud Erik.

Django and I went down to the lakes, a less than 10 minute walk away, to throw stones in the water. Ah, simple joys.



another walk to the lake with Ataata.



Some lucky local sheep, grazing in the peaceful green.





Another of our favorite stops, the duck pond. I think Django looks a bit concerned at the approaching mass of voracious water fowl.



Playgrounds in Denmark are really cool. This one was especially nice with play houses, and a mini zip line.



We drove an hour one day to visit Simon's grandparents. They live on an island called Mors a bit north of Holstebro. Simon's granddad is 83 years old and still tends to an absolutely enormous garden where he grows (and sells) potatoes, berries, leeks, apples, and other goodies. It keeps him very youthful!



Django enjoying some of Oldefar's (Great Grandpa's) melt-in-your-mouth strawberries. Seriously delicious!
(just a note on Danish pronunciation: If you're American, don't even TRY to sound it out. You will be woefully wrong. It's rather difficult to write in phonetics also because there are many sounds that we just don't use in English, the letter D as it occurs in the middle or end of a word is one of them. To me the D sounds somewhere between L and TH)



Look what's growing beneath the bird feeder. Apparently the seeds are in the bird feed. Hee hee.



This is a really charming old traditional Danish home with a thatched roof nearby.



Back in Holstebro, Django took Oldefar for a run around the house, several times.



We took a little side trip, heading even further west, almost to the coast, to visit Simon's sister Dorthe and her boyfriend Bjørn. They live in a lovely old and very spacious home that was once a mill, and they are surrounded by many acres of beauty, including their own small vineyard.

We were amazingly fortunate with the weather while in Denmark and here was another glorious sunny day.



After a light lunch we took a short drive to the North Sea. Simon and Dorthe (the 1/2 Greenlanders) braved the cold water. Django (the 1/4 Greenlander) consented to being dipped in up to his bare bottom. I got my legs wet and Bjørn stayed on the beach.

Is it possible to complain of too much sun in Denmark? Strange, unusual, and certainly eyebrow raising, but for a heliophobe such as myself, it IS. (Don't get me wrong, I WORSHIP the sun, source of all life, I just usually like to do it from under the shade of a tree)





The early morning view from our room at Dorthe and Bjørn's house.



We took another day trip to the limestone mines in Mønsted, the largest in the world. They are enormous and very chilly inside with a consistent temperature of only 46 degrees F, 8 degrees C. They were operational for over 1000 years until 1978.

When Christianity entered Denmark there grew a demand for the building of churches. Burned limestone was the main constituent in the mortar, and so a booming business ensued.

Nowadays, the mines are a tourist attraction as well as a cheese aging facility, where 200 tons of cheese is housed in a deep cave at any one time. Most of it is exported to Germany and called "cave cheese". When we entered the caves (before I knew there was cheese) I detected a faint smell that seemed a bit mildewy, like when you forget some damp clothes in your backpack after hiking in the rain and discover them 3 days later. Turns out it was the cheese! It is truly amazing what strange and foul smelling things people will carry past their nose and put into their mouths. Traditional Danish cheese is one! (of course you will find 6 million Danes who disagree with me)



Some random fun: I like that there is quite a lot of public art all over Denmark. This was in a little town by an inlet called Lemvig (lem-vee). These kitties were particularly popular with the little ones, Django included.

Danes seem to take into account the presence of little ones in the daily lives of adults in the sense that there are more playgrounds and activities many places you go. For instance, I was shopping for sandals and every shoe store we went into had a play area for kids with toys and games. What a great, and really helpful idea.



These are old WWII bunkers built by the occupying Nazis. You find these still standing, scattered about Western Denmark, near the sea and fjords (inlets).



Ah, back to the North Sea for more sun and fun in the waves.



Simon relaxing in a hole he (and Django) dug.



Making a sand mermaid. Why not?



One of the hard things about traveling with a child is that very often there are no other children around for them to play with. We were very happy to meet Lissy and Knud Erik's neighbors who have three children, two of them 4 year old twins. Django made good friends with the four year old girl, and couldn't get enough of the boy's riding tractor.

Here's Django going on his first dog walking expedition where HE walked the dog. He was very excited.



One of my undercover, from inside the kitchen spy shots of Django making friends. It was so cute I couldn't resist!



Django with Simon's mom Lissy and Knud Erik. Farmor (grandmother, or father's mother literally) doesn't get to visit with Django very often. This is the fourth visit since he was born. Hope to see you again soon!



next... the beautiful island called Samsø