Kings, Queens, Pubs n Castles

August - October 2017
A 59-day adventure by Karen Read more
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  • Day 59

    Home again!

    October 14, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Arrived back home yesterday around fiveish. Got a surprise with the kids waiting at the airport! So lovely to see everyone! Agape and Geoff had the place look lovely, everything mowed and cleaned! Looking forward to a few restful days in our own bed!Read more

  • Day 56

    Egeskov Castle

    October 11, 2017 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Had the loveliest last day for our trip today. We went to Egeskov Castle in Odense. It's technically not really a castle. Was owed by a Count and his family. They have done a superb job of displaying their home plus all the extra museum showrooms for cars, bikes, merchandise, Not to mention the surprises in the attics, the gardens and Tatiana's Palace!

    Very bitter sweet goodbyes to Johanna and Jonas this afternoon. We could not have asked for a more warm hearted welcome then we've had from this lovely young couple and their wonderful families! We only hope they will all come and visit us in Australia so we can repay them in kind! Xx
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  • Day 55

    Aarhus

    October 10, 2017 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Going to Aarhus where Jonas will meet us after his navigation test. They told him yesterday it's a shame he wants to be a rescue swimmer, he should continue on with navigation. But he wants to join the rescue team.

    First of all we visited Joanna favourite Deer Park, beautiful big park with all the trees starting to change colour and lots of deer around. Weird sound the deers make calling to each other.

    Then off to lunch in Aarhus Street Food. Looks like a dump from the outside but cool place filled with lots of containerised kitchens inside an industrial building.

    Aarhus old town is a preserved historical town and we had a lovely couple of hours wandering around there.

    We met Jonas , who had passed his test with flying colours and had hot chocolate and coffee. We were going to have dinner at a roof top bar but the rain put a stop to that but Jonas remember a restaurant that had just opened and had good reviews. Kod it was called, means meat, ha ha no wonder he remembered it.

    Great choice though it was beautiful and the steaks were nearly as good as home!
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  • Day 54

    Silkeborg

    October 9, 2017 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    So this morning we are in Silkeborg at Jonas and Johanna's. Nice relaxing morning and a walk around the lake and a bit of the town.

    Jonas is in navigation training while we are here, and today his flight goes over Silkeborg. So we had to be at a certain spot at a certain time to watch them fly over. It is only a little plane and they were flying really low, was very exciting actually, they wagged their wings at us when they saw us waving.

    We went off to find some lunch and have a look at the church they're getting married in. At the end of the square and beautiful of course.

    Jonas come home about two and we took a trip out to Aqua which is an very small zoo Johanna works at some times. Good deal because she got us all in for nothing just in time to watch the otters being feed. They are so cute and so greedy!

    Then off to visit Himmelbjerget, Sky mountain. There are not many mountains in Denmark and this one is a big hill really but beautiful views out across the river and we'd taken a picnic so we enjoyed the views with our cake.

    Johanna is making us a special soup tonight from potato, pesto, bacon, tomato and some vegetable which none of us could really figure out what it was in English. Jerusalem Artichokes, the root of the sunflower surprisingly enough. Delicious with a few wines and scrapbook memories of South America. Great night!
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  • Day 54

    Sunny Day Touring

    October 9, 2017 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Goodness we are being looked after well in Denmark. Another delicious breakfast and then a trip to Henning's brother in laws place to see their Windmill. Sounds like an odd thing to do but Karson owns a share of this windmill and was going to take us up to the top for a look.

    Graham and I climbed into the little lift and Henning, Karson and Johanna's climbed the hundreds of steps up the ladder. We felt really bad especially for Johanna's, she doesn't like heights and it was such a long way.

    It was absolutely amazing! Karson opened the hatch on the top and we could stand up there and watched the blades spinning around. It was such a beautiful day we could see for miles. Then there was a hatch in the floor and he opened that, yeah I didn't like that one so much. 100 or something meters straight down yikes!

    We'd passed a dairy the day before, Jonas told us belonged to his Aunt and Uncle and was fully automatic. We wanted to have a look so they rang them up and off we went for a tour of the dairy. The cows come in, get washed, feed, then milked, washed again and then are let out for the next one. All the data goes on the computer to see how much milk each cow is producing, how many times they are being milked, how much feed they are eating. Incredibly efficient!

    Henning and Randy came for a trip over to the Thy National Park with us, it's on the coast and is all grass and heather covered dunes down to the ocean. Beautiful! We spent a few hours there, walked on the beach, had some lunch, watched the surfers.

    The kids had been listening to our music so driving back to Silkeborg that evening, Johanna and Jonas gave us an education in Danish music. We couldn't understand most of it but catchy tunes and they had a great singalong. Keep us all amused on the way home.
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  • Day 52

    Rain Day Touring

    October 7, 2017 in Denmark ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    We all slept in a bit this morning in Vejle thanks to the great dinner and lovely company last night.

    It's a totally different day today, grey and raining. We went for a little driving tour of town and a walk around the harbour with Pia and David. Some brave souls were out in the rain with us but not many. There is a lovely gated forest in Vejle and we walked through there, just in time to see the deers being feed. I haven't seen a wild deer yet and these are technically wild although they do have a fence around their very large forest, and someone to come feed them every day.

    On then to Smorrebrod lunch at a typical Danish restaurant with Johanna's parents and Aunt and Uncle. Smorrebrod is different toppings on rye bread. I had the curried herring which according to everyone was a brave choice... Um had me a bit worried, but it was delicious and they were all so proud of me for eating it.

    Off for a couple of hours drive up to Jonas's parents place in Hunstrupvej near Thisted. Lovely place in the country with dairy farms, grain farms and small crop farms all around. They had cake and coffee waiting for us and then we went for a quick drive before dinner to see the worlds tallest windmill! They were over 200 meters tall. Huge, and they had a great display building there explaining how the windmill works and how it's made!

    Back home then for a 3 course beautiful dinner Jonas's Mum had ready for us. Oh my goodness we have had some beautiful food and tonight was no exception!
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  • Day 51

    Legoland

    October 6, 2017 in Denmark ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Today we went to lego land. Who knew it would be so much fun.

    We picked up Johanna's uncle and then her Mum, Dad, Aunty and Jonas came to join us just after lunch. 8 adults in a kids theme park. Hot dogs, beer, train rides, roller coasters, dragons and mini land. Everybody's happy place.

    Back to Johanna's Mum and Dad's for dinner with the family. It was a delightful evening!
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  • Day 50

    Roskilde

    October 5, 2017 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    The girls had another great day planned for us. We are off to see the cathedral in Roskilde , and then to see the Viking Museum. But first we have to get Millie off to day care and have a delicious bacon and egg breakfast.

    The Roskilde Cathedral is a very important church for the danish people. 20 kings and 18 queens are buried here. As well as Harold Bluetooth who the Danish designer took the name for the now famous Bluetooth! It looks very modest from the outside, but on the inside there are lots of alcoves coming off the main part of the church. The architecture and decorations are amazing. So much history for the danish people. The present queen has designed her own crypt ready for her funeral, with stone from the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Its a bit of a question at the moment whether her prince will be buried with her or not.

    The girls were fascinated and we had a lovely time reading about all the kings and queens of Denmark. Erik even managed to keep himself under control this time as well although there was just as much gold in this church. Luckily the church closes for lunch at one o'clock or we might still have been there.

    There are some pretty buildings in the area around the Cathedral and we found a nice cafe there for lunch.

    After lunch we were off to the Viking ship museum. They found five Viking ships in the harbour here in the sixties and have reconstructed them like a big jigsaw. All five boat have also been replicated and are anchored in their little harbour! They are on display at the museum along with lots of other relics found in the area.

    There is a rope display where they show you how all the ropes were made, a carving section and a boatbuilding area where they are still making Viking ships there today and Graham tried his hand at carving. Think he's missing the shed!

    I
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  • Day 49

    Copenhagen

    October 4, 2017 in Denmark ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    After arriving in Denmark last night, took a bit of trail and error too figured out how to get into the city on the train. Nice quick trip and the train station was only a couple of blocks from the hotel.

    We had a bit of a walk around the city in the morning and then Joanna, Amalie and little Erik came to pick us up.

    The girls had organised a tour through some of the palace rooms for us, so after negating the Downton traffic and finding a park we made it there. The changing of the guards had just finished a little while ago which was a good thing because only a handful of tourists were left.

    The tour was in Danish that day but the girls did there best to interpret as much as they could and it was wonderful to see all the staterooms and receptions areas. So ornate with beautiful tapestries and painting everywhere.

    One peculiar room was highlighted in gold and Erik couldn't get over it, he kept throwing back his head to look at the ceiling. Then he found his voice and figured out he sounded nice and echoy in these big rooms. After about five minutes the security guard asked if one of the girls would take him out. Poor little man I didn't think he was that bad. But he will have a good story when he's older. Only six months old the first time you're chucked out of somewhere.

    We waved to Mary and Frederick on the way out, saw the lights were on so I'm sure they were watching. We were all starving by then so off to find some lunch at the gorgeous Nyhavn. Beautiful area on the canal with lots of restaurants and cafes. Too cold to sit outside today though!

    The girls are great company and even though Copenhagen is not really their normal stomping ground, they did really well to keep us entertained with bits of history and fun facts!

    We had to fight the afternoon traffic to get back to Horby where Amalie lives and we are staying for the first two nights.

    It's so lovely after 7 weeks to have someone else do all the organising everything for you. We're very happy to sit back and let Joanna lead the way.
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  • Day 47

    York

    October 2, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Our last full day in the UK. Do we drive to York or take the train? The train won and good decision, Abby dropped us off at the station and it was much faster than driving, even with changing trains at Leeds. We were there in less than an hour.

    What a nice city York is, beautiful York Minister, The Shambles, The city walls. We visited all of these and had a great time just wandering around the older part of the city.

    Some friends of ours are coming to spend the night on our driveway in their motorhome. We had a lovely evening catching up on each other travel adventures. Theirs much longer than ours, they have been travelling for seven months in their motor home.
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