Here Comes the Sun (Starting Tomorrow)

Well, here we are, B and me, blogging on the longest night of the year. Interestingly, it's also the eve of our (very temporary) departure from Denmark. We're heading back to the US to spend Christmas with B's family in New Jersey. The confluence of these factors naturally led us to reflect on our time here so far--and we can only conclude that we are exceptionally lucky.

We've made some fantastic friends here. Some are Danes, some are not. They've helped us and made it really fun to explore our new home.

You've already met French J and Lithuanian A, of course (see Legoland! if you didn't). But there's also German D and German M, and Danish C (and C-lets), G (and G-lets?), and E and J-C (and their offspring too), plus lots of others.

E and J-C recently helped our Dane-ification by giving us this Advent wreath. They explained that we should light one candle the first Sunday in Advent, two the next week, and so on. We've loved having the delicious wreath whiffs and last night lit the last candle!


Danish C, who can hardly be mentioned without his horde of C-lets, gets specially recognized for being our first family here in Denmark. He's the one who graciously hosted B upon his arrival here, and has involved us in some great family parties and shown us neat places here in Århus.

He also introduced us to Danish G, who was our fantastic host this very weekend. We took a little trip down to København on the train to visit her and her daughter. Here's where we started.

We wound up at København Hovedbanegaard, where we disembarked and made a vandretur around the downtown area. Everything was very snowy and festive! Then we continued on our way up to Kokkedal, where G provided us with a lovely dinner and the best of company. In the morning, we plowed through the snow over to Humlebaek, in order to visit the Louisiana art museum. We were a bit early, so we took a walk around and admired the snowy sound.

We could just see Sweden in the distance. Although it's an unusually cold winter this year, you can't walk to Sweden across the ice yet. (That really did happen once. In 1658, the Swedes tromped over the ice and invaded unexpectedly. Danes have never really recovered; this marked the true end of having a decent-sized country). Right now, there's just grødis, which is gruel-ice.

Here's the inside of the museum. It was really neat. We saw two special exhibits--one of Anselm Kiefer and one of Walton Ford--as well as the museum's regular collection. The building itself was also great; pretty much the pinnacle of Danish design, in our books.

And finally we headed home again. It is home now. And as I said to B on the train,

"You know, I kind of love Denmark."