Lou Ann's EuroBlog

"What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road."
- William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

I don't know if some of you are like me and look at the time-stamps on the blogs that you read. It just occurred to me that if you look at the stamp on my blog entries, you are probably wondering why sometimes I'm typing in the middle of the night, or during the best hours of the day when I should be enjoying the trip. Well, my settings with the blog host (Blogger) use an East Coast (U.S.) time stamp. So, if it says that I posted at 1:00 a.m., it really means that I was typing at 7:00 a.m. ... or if it says that I posted at 2:00 in the afternoon, it really means that I was up at 8:00 in the evening typing. Another thing that you might find helpful when navigating a blog like this is that if you click on "Link to this item" at the end of any one of the posts, it will give you a page that has ONLY that particular post on it. If you decide (for some strange reason) to print from this blog, but only want to print one chapter or something at a time, then you can click "Link to this item" for that chapter and print just that one particular chapter.

Another comment, related to time, is that I had no idea before I came here that everywhere I went they'd be using the 24 hour clock. Now, for those of you who are military-minded folks, that's no big deal. But I've found myself walking around subtracting 12 all the time. It's actually not been very easy to get used to. Even the digital clocks in the hotels are on the 24 hour clock. And hours posted in the stores (which often open or close at times that they wouldn't in the States) are given like this: Open 11:30 to 14:30 and 18:30 to 22:00. Just picture me standing in front of a store or a restaurant, pondering. The people must think that I'm crazy!!

My final random thought for this post (I think). I am rather intrigued by the system used for public parking in the countries where I've driven. They don't have any such thing as parking meters like we imagine in the U.S. I have always been annoyed by parking meters in the U.S., and avoid using them if I can. Well, they certainly have paid parking in the larger (and some of the smaller) European cities and towns. The lots/spaces that are paid are quite obvious, with signs all over the place. You park your car and are given a few minutes "grace period". You find a ticket-machine (there are usually machines all over the area where you want to park), pay for the time that you want to park, and the machine prints out a ticket stamped with the time that you are to be leaving the space. You go back to your car, and put that ticket in an obvious place on your dashboard, and you're done. In fact, there were a couple of times that I missed the fact that the lot/space was only paid during certain hours of the day. For example, in Orange, I parked in a lot at about 6:30 a.m., and didn't notice that it was only paid after 8:00. I paid for two hours, and the ticket came out and said "10:00". Funny enough, a U.S. parking meter would just eat your money and laugh at you! Well ... I think that all U.S. municipalities that feel the need to charge for parking ought to use this system. I think it's brilliant! (And, as I tell my students often enough when sharing opinions with them ... "they" never ask ME what I think about these things, so they never get to hear my brilliant ideas!!) :-)

Day Twenty-six (7/21/05) - Tornby to Odense
There are some places that I have encountered in my travels over the years to which I long to return. Skagen, Denmark (pronounced "Skane") is one of them. As I believe I mentioned a few chapters ago, I was in Denmark during the summer of 1984. I have great memories of that trip, the beautiful Danish country-side, and a short visit to the "Top of Denmark", a town called Skagen. Over the past 20+ years, I have thought often of that visit. So, for this day during this trip, my goal was to spend some time in Skagen.

So, when I awoke to pouring-down rain, you can imagine that I was a bit put-off. But, since the weather on this entire European tour has been mostly gorgeous, I decided that I really could not be upset about a day of rain. Besides ... I have a GREAT rain jacket (that I purchased for use in Alaska two years ago, where I ended up not needing it too often), and really ... how can a little bit of rain hurt a person?

I wasn't too far from Skagen, and along the way I found many (MANY) hotels that would have been perfect for the previous evening. Oh, well ... live and learn. :-) I also found a wonderful bakery on the main road through Skagen, and discovered that Danish breads are almost as wonderful as French breads. Yummmmm!!! :-)

I walked around the main town of Skagen for a short while ... it's a lot more touristy than I remembered. But, then again, there's a good chance that we didn't get to the main part of the town when I was here in 1984. We stayed with local families in their homes, and the trip to the shore at Skagen is actually a couple of kilometers from the actual town. Anyway, I found the tourist office and got a good map of the area with some recommendations from the young man who worked there. I then found a restaurant with free (!!) internet, and checked my e-mail. Then, because I didn't feel right using their internet without buying anything, I sat outside and had a delicious cup of cappachino.

From there I drove out to what's called Grenen. You need to have a mental picture of the geography of northern Denmark. You can see a bigger picture on this map. Skagen is on a very narrow finger that points north. Grenen is a couple of kilometers down that road at the very end of the land. On the west (your left) is the North Sea and on the east (your right) the Baltic Sea. (They are called Skagerrak and Kattegat, respectively.) The seas each flow toward each other. At Grenen, you watch the waves on your right and left moving toward each other and meeting in the middle, right in front of you. Here's an aerial photo that I found online that does justice to this idea.

When you arrive in Grenen, there is a parking area and visitor's center/restaurant. Then you can choose to take a shuttle (a tractor pulling a bus-like thing) or walk the rest of the 1.5 km (across the beach) to the actual northmost point. It had stopped raining, and I chose to walk along the beach. There were about a gazillion other people there (it was about 11:30 a.m.), so it wasn't very private ... but it was a nice stroll down the beach. Don't get this image of a warm, sunny white sand beach like you can find in Sarasota. The beach is definitely sand, and is definitely the kind of stuff that you'd want to put a blanket out on. Except for the fact that the wind is so strong that you almost have to wear glasses or sunglasses. And except for the fact that the temps really don't really get past 65 degrees on a really warm July day. So, there were no sun bathers. Just people who wanted to walk to the top of the world (or, at least the top of Denmark).

So I did the obligatory walk, waited in line for everyone who was taking pictures, took my own pictures, and walked back down toward the lighthouse. I found a nice place to sit and think about life in general for a short time while watching the water and the ships and the little kids playing in the waves. It's interesting ... water acts the same everywhere ... it evaporates into the sky and falls as rain ... it sits in big reservoirs such as the oceans, seas, and lakes ... and the waves roll onto the shores with a little bit of foam at the edge ... and it looks the same on a sandy beach in Denmark as it does on a sandy beach in Kitty Hawk, NC or in Bandon Beach on the Oregon Coast. And it always seems to have a calming effect on me. Anyone else want to join me in that sentiment?

A weird thing happened while I was standing at the northmost point in Grenen, waiting for my turn to get to the front of the line. Two fighter planes came roaring overhead, very low. Fighter planes. Like you hope not to see flying low over the Pentagon or something that you'd imagine seeing in a movie like Top Gun (unless, of course, you're in the Air Force and you see these planes all the time and can identify each machine by name and model number). They took a close turn around the point and flew up above the clouds, and by their huge sound we could hear them flying back again from the same direction that they started. It was strange. Not only was I totally surprised that what I expected to be a quiet visit to a remote part of nature was interrupted by sounds from home ... but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why fighter planes would be flying over Skagen, Denmark. I was a bit concerned (what with recent world events and all), but left it at that. The next day, while talking with my friend in Ringsted and her husband, I told them about the incident. Her husband said that planes like that have specialized cameras and photograph the coast quite often, as it changes as the seas knock up against it. For mapping purposes. Hmmm....

Well, after I was satisfied that I had seen Skagen and Grenen again and had been to the top of Denmark and had remembered the things that I wanted to remember from my 1984 trip to the same place, I headed back for my car and drove South again. This time I was going to do the East Coast, but decided to stick to the bigger highways (a week really is not enough time to see an entire country if you're staying on the back roads!) rather than the Marguerite Route like I had done the day before.

I got back to the city of Odense by about dinner time. On my drive through Odense two days before I got a map of the city and someone had marked the internet places for me, so I typed for an hour, found a pizza place that had DELICIOUS (and VERY inexpensive) pizza, and then typed for another hour.

I have to mention that the internet place that I used in Odense was the gaming kind of place that I had discovered here and there while I was on my Alaska trip. When you are looking for internet places while you're travelling, there are all sorts of different venues. Some are restaurants with a computer or two in the corner or a room with five or ten down in the basement. In Villereal (France), the internet place was in a room above the tourist office (BRILLIANT!!). Some are four or five computers in the corner of a copy/FAX place or some other business. But, in some places, you'll find these gaming rooms. They're huge. I think that this one in Odense must have had sixty computers or more. They were set up mainly for people who play games online. Groups of mostly kids (teens through twenties, although some younger and some older) and mostly male (I didn't see any girls playing games) will each sit at their own computers and play these games against each other through the internet ... and will call out to each other and yell and scream and cheer, etc. It's loud and it's weird. This place also had music going. It reminds me of an article that I blogged about a few months ago.

Well, I found a lovely hotel right there in the heart of Odense ... called the City Hotel Odense ... and enjoyed a beautiful room there.

Day Twenty-seven (7/22/05) - Odense to Ringsted
I enjoyed a wonderful buffet breakfast there at the hotel and left around 8:00 or so. I drove across that very long but beautiful toll-bridge that I crossed a couple of days before. This time, the weather was beautiful, so I had a chance to stop and take some pictures of the bridge before I drove it. Interestingly enough, I found out later that this bridge is secured like the one that we crossed when we went over the Yukon River in Alaska. Since that Yukon River crossing (along the Dalton Highway) is the only one for many many (hundreds?) of miles, the bridge also houses the crossing for the Alaska Pipeline. So you can imagine that it's secure. You are not allowed to stop your vehicle for any reason. There are cameras and security hidden in places that you can't imagine. And, I understand that this bridge in Denmark is the same way. You get on the bridge and keep driving until you are off the bridge. That's that. Anyway ... it's a pretty bridge, and was interesting to drive, except that it was VERY windy!!

The bridge put me back on the main island in the eastern part of Denmark (the island called Zealand), which is the same island that Copenhagen is on. I took some more country roads and drove up to the town of Helsingør. Now, you may think that the name "Helingør" sounds a bit familiar. Like Elsinore? Yup ... you got it. Elsinore (in Danish, "Helsingør") is the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet. There, you can tour the Kronberg Slot ("slot" is the Danish word for "castle"). All of the guidebooks make some play on the idea of walking around and contemplating whether to be or not to be. LOL!! As it turns out, the character Hamlet is based on a mythical character, Amleth, who lived many centuries before the Kronberg Slot was built in Helsingør. (More on the story that Hamlet is based upon.) But, many tourists (like yours truly) bring their precious financial support to Helsingør based on this inaccuracy, and the city won't ever complain. :-) Anyway ... the castle itself is beautiful, and I only walked the outer parts of the grounds, as I wasn't really interested in an inside tour. And, no, I did NOT ever, in any way, shape or form, at any point, contemplate whether to be or not to be. I just took pictures. :-)

After getting my fill of the castle at Helsingør, I turned around and drove toward the town of Ringsted, which is about 45 minutes west of Copenhagen (considered a suburb, but not very suburban!) Another of my online photographer friends, Bente, lives there, and has invited me to spend a few days with she and her husband. I called Bente's cell phone from a rest stop, got directions to her home, and made my way out there.

Bente and Søren live on a street that has only three homes and a farm at the end. They are surrounded by wheat fields. You can't even tell that there's a street there from the "main" road (which isn't too big itself). The home is lovely ... a 1925-ish old farm house that they're remodeling. They are putting in new floors, walling, windows, doors, cabinets, tiling, everything! They've got a beautiful porch looking out onto her beautiful gardens and some of the fields nearby. She also has decided that, since moving from the suburbs into a more rural area, that she is going to have a vegetable garden. It's a great garden, and she's growing all sorts of fun things like potatoes, radish, dill, parsley, pumpkins, sweet peas, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. We've eaten well!!

That first night with Bente and Søren, we just sat around and talked, had dinner, and talked some more. Their English is very good. And, I am very impressed that, to be polite, they speak to each other in English when I'm around, even if they're not talking about anything that has anything to do with me.

Before heading off to bed, I did some laundry (yay!!) and typed a bit on this blog (all of the entries that say "Ringsted" were typed at Bente's home) which has been very helpful, and has kept me away from those often-strange internet places.

Day Twenty-Eight (7/23/05) - Ringsted (and Copenhagen)
These days with Bente have been nice and lazy days. We are seeing some sights ... but not at any sort of rushed pace. That's really very nice, as I'd been questiong my sanity at spending such a long time being a tourist in Europe.

This morning, we got up and had a late breakfast, and at about 10:00 got in the car for our adventure. We were going to go straight to the train station, but Bente turned into a parking lot that didn't look much like a train station parking lot. It was the school where she works with very young children (ages 6 to 10). The Danish system of education seems to be very different from that in the United States, if you look at the very little that I'm understanding of it. I don't know if it's better or worse than the one we use in the U.S., it's just different. Anyway, we couldn't get into the school, being a Saturday, so we peeked into windows of several of the classrooms. The building looked relatively new, and was very wide open. Many of the walls, even those facing outside, were glass from floor to ceiling (reminds me of my own classroom). It was a school ... with individual desks and chairs and manipulatives and other educational supplies sitting around. I was very glad that Bente decided to stop there ... I always find it interesting learning about how other schools educate their children ... and in a foreign country, it gives me much to think about.

Well, after looking into quite a few classrooms and work areas, and talking a lot about education, we got back in the car and drove to the train station. I think that it was like a small commuter train that connects to the subway system. I think. :-) It's nice not having to understand any of this because I'm with someone who does! :-) Anyway ... it's easier to take the train into Copenhagen because parking is difficult, and you're not going to drive your car around downtown anyway.

The first thing we visited in Copenhagen was the Rosenborg Castle. This is one of three castles scattered around the country belonging to the current monarch of Denmark, Queen Marguerite. She is 65 years old, and has been on the throne since 1972. In the castle, we saw the royal treasure, which includes many historical weapons, expensive home decorations (like vases, etc.) and the crown jewels. There are jewels there that you see Marguerite wearing in some of her formal photographs. That was rather interesting! We also did a tour of the castle and saw all of the important rooms and many, many pictures of previous Danish monarchs. Denmark is one of the oldest nations, so the history of their monarchy covers hundreds and hundreds of years.

After seeing Rosenborg, we walked down to Nyhavn, which is the harbor ("havn") that you see pictured when you look at pictures of Copenhagen. Like this one. In fact, the name Copenhagen in Danish is actually "København", and many of the coastal towns and cities in this country end in "-havn". Anyway, Nyhavn is actually a very touristy area ... lots of restaurants and shops and photo-spots ... and city-cruise origins. Bente took me on an hour-long tourist cruise of the harbors and canals of Copenhagen. It was wonderful!! I found it fascinating! I can't really give you one thing or another that impressed me, other than I enjoy learning about a city that I'm visiting, and this cruise did a fabulous job!

After wandering Nyhavn just a little bit, we continued walking around the city a little bit. We evenutally made our way to a tall, round tower (you can see it here ... the Danes call it "The Round Tower". LOL!!) Anyway, inside there is a ramp that goes round and round and takes you to the top of the tower (a few stairs at the end, but nothing like St. Paul's in London). At the top, you can go outside and get a 360 view of the city. It's beautiful! Of course, I took lots of pictures of the skyline. It was a lot of fun!

From there, we realized it was later than we thought, so we hopped back on the train again and came straight home. We ate dinner, watched a bit of a movie ("Dennis the Menace" happened to be on the television (the one with Walter Mattheau as Mr. Wilson) ... interestingly, the Danish subtitles use the name Henrik for Dennis and change Wilson to Olsen.) I typed a bit more and went to bed.

I'll apologize here for this post being soooo long ... but I wanted to catch up with myself here, while the internet access is free. I tend to be the first one out of bed in the morning, so it's a nice time for me to type and keep up with my e-mail and blog posts. Thanks to those of you who keep up with the reading of these novels. :-)

Day Twenty-nine (7/24/05) - Ringsted (and Bogø and Falster islands)
Today was the kind of thing that I LOVE when I'm travelling. I had a day that was completely UN-tourist-y, yet completely immersed in the true culture of the place that I'm visiting. It was fabulous!!

Again, we got up and had a lazy late start (enjoyable!) Apparently, Bente's family knows that she will be late for most things, so when she says that she'll be at their homes by, say, 11:00 that she'll really not be there until after 12:00 or so. They call it "Bente time". Anyway ... we were going to be visiting Bente's sister (and family) and father. Both live on the island of Bogø, about a 45 minute drive south of here. If you're a map person, look at a map of Denmark and find Copenhagen (to the extreme east (your right)) and notice that it's on an island called Zealand (in Danish, Sjælland). South of Zealand are three large islands, from west to east, Lolland, Falster, and Møn. There is a little island between Falster and Møn that you can see if you look closely. That's Bogø. (Another interesting tidbit ... the "g" in the word Bogø is silent. Try saying that word!!)

On the way to Bogø, we stopped at a very photographic manor house. These wealthy manor homes are scattered around the rural areas of Denmark, and apparently the owners run large farms and own much of the surrounding land. Many are private. This one, in Bregentved, happened to open their gardens and grounds to visitors on Sundays and Wednesdays. We walked around a lovely pond with lily pads and took some pictures. Søren is also a photographer, and each of the three of us has a Canon digital camera and had a blast taking pictures of the landscape and of each other taking pictures of the landscape.

Well, we went to visit Bente's sister, Alis, first. Alis and her husband Lars both work at a school on Bogø. Bogø is a rather rural community. They have a lovely home ... and quite enough space for their three children (ages 4 to 15). The school is walking distance to their home, and Alis wanted to show me where they work. Alis is a classroom teacher, and teaches a large age range of kids, and it sounds like she teaches a wide variety of subjects as well. Lars is what we would call a guidance counsellor for the older kids.

This time, Alis had the keys to the school buildings and the codes to any of the rooms that were key-coded for security. There were actually two schools (across the street from each other) that she showed me. I am trying very hard to understand the education system here in Denmark, but it is so different from that in the United States, that I'm almost having to throw out what I know about education systems and start from scratch. I guess that the kids go to a "kindergarden" type of school at ages 5 and 6. Then they have a "basic" school from about ages 7 through 16. It can be nine or ten years, depending on what they want to do next, which will be either a general secondary school (three years) or a technical (vocational?) school. I'm not sure if I got that all down right, but I've found a couple of websites, and I'm going to continue reading about it (again ... this will all help with my work with our International Baccalaureate stuff at Jefferson).

Both schools are boarding schools. The government pays the tuition for the students. The first school we walked through was almost like a finishing school. The kids are in their last year of the "basic" school, and deciding what they are going to do in the following year. So, all of the kids are the same age (about 16). There were the normal school things, classrooms and desks and materials and science labs, etc. Alis told me that, for the most part, the teachers change classrooms and the kids stay in the same place all day. They recently sent their 15 year old daughter to school in New Hampshire for a few months to improve her English, and she was shoked to see that she had to walk around the school to her classes every 45 minutes! :-)

The other school, across the street, was for a wider range of basic school aged kids. Not the real little ones, but the ones that were from like 11 to 15 or something like that. This building was VERY new. I loved the way it was set up. It looked like what we would call "team areas". They don't have a team set-up for their classes, so the kids aren't quite in self-contained areas. But I could totally see a building like that being used for such a thing. If you're familiar with our building at Jefferson, picture the Turbo Tiger area, with doors closing the area in. Then imagine a lounge area in the middle with the 5 or so classrooms surrounding it. In the lounge there are chairs and tables and arm chairs and all ... so that kids can do group work or take tests or whatever you want to use the large group area for. There were several of these large group areas throughout the building. It was great!! I was VERY appreciative to Alis (and Bente!) for taking the time and energy to show me their school. I certainly learned a lot, and have piqued my interest in learning more about how other countries structure their education systems.

(Bente - please send me an e-mail to correct any of this that I might be getting wrong about the schooling in Denmark! Thanks!!)

Walking home from the school, we had to walk past an old windmill. Now you may imagine an old fashioned style windmill. In fact, this is a picture of the very one. They have removed the arms on the outside, so it looks a little strange (although not as strange as you would think ... it's still very obviously a windmill!) They want to try to restore the windmill to working condition. Alis happens to have access to the keys to the inside of the mill, so we were able to go in and climb up and see the insides of the mill.

Now, if my description of the whole "I can't believe I'm not going to be able to get a copy of the new Harry Potter book on July 16"-debacle hasn't convinced you that I'm a bit flakey, try this one. I am NOT a country girl. I have no clue as to how things in rural areas work. I never actually considered the meaning of the word "mill". Honestly!! It never occurred to me to wonder what purpose a thing spinning in the wind might serve. I also never connected windmills to mills driven by water. I just always saw them as pretty and old buildings. Duh!! :-)

Inside this mill, we got to see where all the wheels worked and the grinding apparatus to process the things like the flour. I guess that the farmers in the area would bring their wheat to this building, and it would be ground down to flour, and then it would drop through a chute and be lowered through a hole in the floor at that level into a wagon or other container waiting below to carry it away. Yeah, I buy my flour at the grocery store. I've never contemplated how it's processed. I know that it's different now, but flour has been a staple food item for hundreds of years. I guess this is how it used to be done!

Obviously, I was fascinated by the workings and basic machinery inside the mill. Everything was terribly dusty, and the stairs (I think that we climbed at least three flights of steps or ladders) were very steep, very narrow, and mostly rather worn. It was tricky ... but totally worth every minute of the visit!!

Back at Alis' home, she showed me the kids' rooms. They are a very artistic family, and the kids (and adults!) have paintings and other artwork posted creatively around, as well as works in progress (the 8 year old daughter has a canvas on an easel for an oil painting that she is about to begin!) Lots of books and lots of learning things ... you can tell it's the home of educators!

While we were at Alis' house, Alis and Bente's father stopped by. We were supposed to be at his home a couple of hours ago for lunch. :-) So, we got in the car and drove over to her father's house. He made traditional Danish meatballs for us (they're called Frikadeller). Bente tells me that every Dane has his or her own way of making Frikadeller, so it will always be different when you have them. Often they are served with a brown sauce, but we had them without the sauce. We ate them like sandwiches ... on brown bread with butter and cucumbers. It sounds weird, but was DELICIOUS!! I had several helpings!! :-)

After lunch, the four of us (including Bente's father, Henrik, and his Canon digital camera) got in the car again and went down to the local ferry terminal. Not too many years ago, the only way to get from island to island in Denmark was to take ferries. The bridges are relatively new things. Many of the ferries still run, and are often used by people living on the islands to do things like shopping, etc. Bogø only has one small store, so when you need to do a big shopping trip you can drive on the highway over the bridge or take the ferry. The ferry deposits you directly in front of the main street of a town where there is a much larger grocery store, so it's often more convenient to do your shopping that way.

Anyway, we got on the ferry. The ride to the next island (Falster) was only about 10 minutes. I don't recall ever using a car to ride a ferry, so that was fun. The ferry let us off in the town of Stubbekøbing (I'm including some of the fun place names for you on purpose...) From Stubbekøbing we drove a little bit along the east coast of Falster, stopping to take pictures of the landscape and some of the homes (there were homes with straw walls!!) here and there. We had some ice cream (of course!). And we also stopped for a hike through a small wooded area that has bronze-age burial mounds still very visible (about 72 mounds in all!) We walked around that park for a while, and then got back into the car to take Bente's father back to his home on Bogø (it was too late for the ferry to return us, so we took the bridge on the highway).

Driving the countryside was a lot of fun ... it's a gorgeous landscape, like I think I've mentioned. I could just sit and look at the fields and the flowers for hours and hours.

Well, we got home and I decided to take advantage of their huge tub (not a hot tub or a jet-thing, but a very, very large tub) and took a very hot bath and relaxed for quite a while. Then we had a late dinner. Bente and Søren had visited the United States for the first time ever in March to see Søren's brother who lives in Florida. We have talked quite a bit about the cultural things that we each find interesting about the other's country. One of the things that Bente really liked to eat in the United States was ... pancakes! (This made me think of my three nephews, who could eat a stack of pancakes each without thinking twice! I think that they go to the local Friendlies for breakfast once a week (their traditional Sunday outing) and the kids feast on pancakes! Anyway ... Bente told me that Danish pancakes are different than American pancakes. They are thinner. Almost as thin as French crepes. And they are eaten in a similar way to crepes. You spread a topping on them (jam or sugar or something) and fold them up and eat them with your hands. We also had a nice discussion about eating American pancakes (or French toast) slathered with butter and swimming in hot maple syrup. (Is your stomach growling yet??) :-) Anyway ... we enjoyed our pancake dinner, and then I went to bed exhausted! What a great day!!

Before I close this post, a few more random thoughts. First of all: I'm caught up!! It's early Monday morning, and the pancake dinner I just described was last night (Sunday). Yay!! I'm not sure if I'll have more than one more chance to type while I'm away, so I wanted to get as much typed up as possible. That's why I allowed the post to get so loooonnnggg. Thanks for staying with me!

Secondly, let me give you a picture of my next few days. Bente and her husband are leaving for their own holiday tomorrow (Tuesday), but didn't like the idea of my staying in a hotel tonight if I didn't have to, so they have graciously asked me to spend the night tonight with them again. We won't do any touring around today, although I may do some driving around on my own this afternoon if the weather is nice. Tomorrow (Tuesday), I will leave Ringsted and drive some more (I have a mind to see more of the little islands around here). On Wednesday, I return the car and fly to Paris. Wednesday and Thursday I have a room at the same hotel outside Charles de Gaulle airport where I've stayed a couple of times in the past couple of weeks. I'm not sure what I'll do with Thursday, which is my inbetween day. I was thinking of taking the train from the airport into Paris (which would involve taking the airport shuttle from the hotel to the airport, then change to the commuter train, and then to the subway train ... spend a couple of hours in the city ... and then reverse the process ... all leaving enough time for myself to get ready to fly back to the states on Friday). I'm not sure if I have the energy or desire to squeeze one more thing into my trip, and may just spend the day Thursday in and around the hotel. There is a little village within walking distance, and they have some restaurants and a park and so on. It's supposed to rain Thursday, too, so I have no idea what I'll decide, but I'm definitely leaning toward "low-key"!! Friday, as I said, I'll be flying out, Charles de Gaulle to Iceland to Baltimore. With the time change, I'll be home on Friday evening.

Not sure when you'll hear from me next. It might very well be this weekend. As previously, if you don't hear from me and/or are concerned, look here for a comment from my mom, as she's the one I'll be in touch with if I think you might want some information about changed plans.

Otherwise, let me close with this. The Danish say goodbye with the word "Hej". It is pronounced "hi". As in the same way that we say the word that we greet people with at the beginning of a conversation. Talk about being confusing for someone who speaks English!

So ... HEJ!!! :-)