Month: July 2024

Bob and I are spending a quiet night at the Clarion Hotel at the Copenhagen Airport after leaving our housesit at 3:00 this afternoon. We arrived at the hotel at about 4:40 after walking to the train station and then taking a train and then transferring to a second train at the Nørreport station. (We were meant to switch to a metro but somehow managed to botch that.)

It was hard leaving the very sweet Kobe, who kept us busy with ball throwing, tug of war, and keep away games. She was also a good sleeper and loved to come give thank you kisses to the person who put her food out for her. We are glad to have gotten to know her a bit but know that she’ll be so happy tonight when her real humans come home.

We’re hoping to get a good night of sleep tonight, as we fly out tomorrow at 11 am Denmark time to London before flying onto Chicago after a 3-hour layover and then onto Des Moines after a 2-hour layover, for an arrival of 9:53pm local time (or 4:53am Wednesday, Denmark time).

What a lovely trip it has been! It began April 3 in Northern Ireland and has had us spending time with friends in Scotland and Cambridge, walking over 130 miles on the South Downs Way, and completing two great housesits in two different countries, all while the UK government changed hands and the US struggled to figure out who is even running for president. (Fingers crossed there’s been a step in the right direction with regard to that.)

‘The Girls from Paris’ statue by Hanne Varming in Terminal 2, where we’ll be flying out of tomorrow morning

As we have ridden on the S train north to Copenhagen, we have passed a number of other stops and wondered about those communities. Bob did some research and discovered an art museum, a park, and a somewhat familiar sculpture for us to explore in Ishoj, four S train stops north of Solrød, but south of Copenhagen proper.

Ishoj is a town of about 22,000, located on the coast. It has the largest population (37.5%) of immigrants in Denmark, many of whom came to work in the country during the 1960s to 1980s and then chose to remain.

Today, was our second big excursion of our housesit. Today, we caught the S train and then the regional train to go to Helsingor (Elsinore in English), home of the castle which Shakespeare used in the play “Hamlet.” (*A play on a quote from “Hamlet.”). While Hamlet did a lot of pondering in the play, it was an easy decision for us to do a quick trip to this lovely port city of approximately 64,000 on the Oresund Strait. It plays up its association with “Hamlet” and also allows for views across the strait to Sweden.

Bob and I didn’t go in the castle due to time constraints but did walk around it and then through the Old Town portion of the city. We think we hit a market day, as it was hopping.

I’d add more, but “brevity is the soul of wit.”

Yesterday, Bob and I traveled into Copenhagen to do some gift shopping and finally try some traditional Danish food at a restaurant recommended by friends from Scotland. The restaurant is a popular spot, so we had booked the first available table a couple weeks ago. We have had a nice spell of sun, but yesterday was pretty rainy for most of the day. We lucked out on our walk to the train station, but the skies let loose again once we got to Copenhagen.

In reading about Denmark prior to our visit all of the travel books noted the famous open-faced sandwiches on rye or hearty bread (Smørrebrød), so we thought we would be stumbling over them while here. We have seen some but not many, and we’ve decided that it’s due to the fact that, as you’ll see below, they do not lend themselves to a take away meal. Not that we eat take away meals very often, but that is usually what is seen on display when out and about. The other item that we had read about was aquavit or schnapps. We had not tried that yet either.

We learned a bit about aquavit versus schnapps from our waiter. Aquavit is made from either caraway seeds or dill. Schnapps is made from anything else. We had a sample of a caraway based aquavit, and I also tried a small pour of the dill based, as I love dill. I liked both but preferred the dill one.

Bob and I took our longest outing of the stay so far by taking a 1.5 hour walk, S-train, then regional train to the town of Humlebaek to visit the Louisiana Art Museum. We walked 20 minutes to the Jersie station to catch the Køge bound S-train for one stop to Koge Nord and change to a Helsingor bound regional train for an 1 hour ride to Humlebaek.

The Louisiana opened in 1958 and is the most visited museum for modern and contemporary art in Scandinavia. We had read about it as one of the things to do in Copenhagen, and it seemed like the building and setting would be just as cool as the art. After our visit, we definitely found that to be true. It also came highly recommended from our homeowners.

Bob and I used our transport cards today to take a 30 minute bus ride to the nearby city of Roskilde. With a population of almost 53,000, it is the 10th largest city in Denmark.

We went mainly to visit the Roskilde Cathedral but also to see the harbor and a bit of the town as well. We had an easy bus ride on a clean, efficient bus and a great visit.

The Roskilde Cathedral was built about 1200 and was the first Gothic building in Scandinavia. The church was originally Catholic, but since the Reformation in 1536, it has been Lutheran. 37 kings and queens are buried here, and there are more than 1,000 graves in the church.

Fun fact about the royals noted here (besides the fact that they have impressive tombs). Throughout the years, they ruled some combination of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Faroe Islands, and Scandinavians seem to require their kings to be named Christian or Frederik. There have been 10 Christians and 10 Frederiks (including the current king).

The sun is shining off and on once again in Solrød after a few days of raininess. We were under a severe rain alert from 8 pm Friday, and yesterday it rained steady with some heavy spells from early morning until after 5 pm. It made for a lazy day though we did get some upcoming travel planning done and got both dog walks in.

This morning I had a slug and snail avoidant run, as I often do here, as I don’t want to accidentally hit any of them. Speaking of snails, we saw one with a fairly large shell on our walkabout today.

Solrød has a number of walking/biking paths, as we’ve mentioned. Some of them are designated by colored symbols (green, gray, black, blue, and red), and we snapped a photo of a small map the other day, which has three of the routes. The map would also be more helpful, if it indicated where you were on the map or had some street markings or other landmarks, but we thought we’d head out today to find a way-marked post and then see if we could follow the route.

We weren’t entirely successful, but we had a good walkabout anyway following some of the green route and much of the blue. We continue to be impressed with the cleanliness of the area, the number of paths for pedestrians and cyclists, the variety and ease of using public transportation, and access to an airport. These are many of the factors we are wanting in the next place we settle. I still haven’t decided about the climate, and we would definitely need to work on our Danish language skills.

Scenes from today’s walk.

Bob and I did a return trip into Copenhagen today to catch the changing of the guard, glimpse the Rosenberg Castle, and check out a popular food hall. The trip in was unexpectedly shortened by about 3 stops (luckily within the city center) when the train conductor announced (in Danish) that the route was ending (or something to that effect). We got the message when the route stops that appear on the overhead monitor suddenly ended with the current stop, and everyone appeared to be leaving. Luckily, Bob was able to find us a route to the plaza in front of Amalienborg Palace to see the changing of the guard at noon.

Built in the 1750s, the octagonal Royal plaza contains four Rococo palaces that were once home to four noble families. Currently, the retired queen lives in one and the current king and his family live in a second. Not sure how the other two are currently used. The Danish Royal Guards stand outside the palace guarding the monarch in 2 hour shifts (when monarch is in residence). At noon, guards from Rosenberg Slot march through the city streets to take over these responsibilities.

The guards struck us as being very young, and there seemed to be less movement/action than in other guard changing ceremonies that we’ve seen. The most drama came from the weather, as we had a bit of thunder and a quick downpour before the ceremony began. Below is my lay interpretation of what happened.

From the changing of the guard, we walked to the food hall (TorvehallerneKBH) via the beautiful King’s Garden with Rosenborg Castle. Rosenborg Castle was originally built as a summer home between 1606 and 1632 by Christian IV. Denmark’s crown jewels are kept in the basement.

It was then a short walk to the food hall (actually two buildings), which was conveniently located near the Nørreport Metro Station, where we could catch an S train back to Solrød. The food halls were impressive but very busy and very warm.

To further explore the Solrød area where we find ourselves, Bob and I headed out for a 45 minute walk on some of the many paved trails to explore Karlstrup Kalkgrav, a lake formed in an old limestone quarry that our homeowner had mentioned to us. It rained off and on during the walk there, while we were there, and part of the way back into town. However, it’s sunny and lovely now.

As we left the neighborhood, I captured (photographically) one of the many slugs that also populate this area. Probably shouldn’t be surprised as they like moist habitats.

Also on the edge of our neighborhood are some obstacle courses on a hillside. There isn’t a school right next to them, so we assume that these are for any children to use.

Then we we continued on the divided path out of the ‘hood.

On our way, we walked by some pretty wildflowers as well as a small outdoor sculpture between a business called OJD (automotive headquarters) and what appears to be an associated (or just named after them) art gallery. We need to see if this is something that we can visit.

The Karlstrup Kalkgrav is now a recreational nature area that allows for swimming, fishing (with a license), and camping. For many years, limestone was quarried on site, and you can see the limestone cliffs that surround the lake. There is a path that we walked around the very clear lake.

Our homeowner said that it is a popular swimming hole for local teens. No swimmers today, but we did see others on the path either walking their dogs or out with family/friends.

Bob and I took the train from the Jersie station in Solrød for a short, 3 stop ride to Køge (pronounced coo). Køge is an old medieval town south of Solrød on the Køge Bay. It is the principal town and seat of Køge municipality, and the urban area has a population of about 39,000.

Bob and I went to do a walking tour of the old town that we had picked up in the tourist office in Copenhagen. It was a great walkabout through a lovely town on one of the nicest days we’ve had here.