The First Week!

Eve and I had a long flight from Brisbane to Singapore, a long, long flight from Singapore to London, then a short hour and a half to Copenhagen. Sue met us at the airport which was fantastic, and we had our first taste of Danish cooking.

Then for the first time as a reunited family, made our way to our new home in Soro (pronounced SORyoo).
We have a room in the student quarters (however we are the only ones here for the Easter week).

Soro is a beautiful town with 3 lakes around old,old buildings and a culture of riding bikes everywhere!

The university has provided us with bikes to ride and we have made good use of these each day. The track around the big lake is about 9 km.... a good workout for an old fella not used to it. The weather has been unbelievably good. Although the week started out fine and cool we have ended up in short sleeves and even short pants!

Spring has been happening so fast. It is amazing to think that when we flew in from London we came over forests bare of leaves and wet with winter snowmelt. Daffodils were everywhere and the forests had a carpet of white flowers.

These photos were taken on Tuesday, however now it is Sunday, everything is different. The first daffodils are finished, the tree buds are bursting and life is everywhere around. The gardens of Ankerhus (the uni) are full of magnolias, rhododendrons and apple trees. The magnolias are in full bloom now, the apple trees are just beginning and the rhododendrons are a little behind them. C.S.Lewis' description of the end of winter in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is so real here.

Communicating has it challenges. While most people speak very good English and are happy to do so when you explain where you are from, bus timetables, train timetables and the like are generally only in Danish. The shopping centre had the little area for dogs while you do the shopping.

We went to Roskilde the ancient capital of Denmark. The Viking Museum was fantastic. The picture shows portions of boats excavated from the bottom of Roskilde fjord.

Eve even let Mummy dress her up as a viking!

Then Saturday we went to Sweden for the day (as you do)!

It was a bus tour from Copenhagen, north to Elsinore (Helsinor), across on the ferry to Helsingborg in Sweden and then through the ancient university city of Lund (where Carl von Linne...Linnaeus for the scientists, studied) and then to Malmo and back over the Oresund Bridge to Copenhagen. Agriculturally Sweden is very different from Denmark- the paddocks are much bigger and much more business-like to an Australian. There is a town called Dalby and the countryside even looks like the Darling Downs.

On the commentary we heard lots about the wars between Denmark and Sweden over the disputed territory of Skerne.

The buiding above is Kronborg castle at Elsinore, the setting for Hamlet. Apparently Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern were actual historical figures, and check out the Prince!

So that has been the first week in Denmark. There has been so much so far and so much more to see and do yet.