Everywhere are statues, roofs, and other structures built from copper. So everywhere is the beautiful color of copper that is green with patina combined with red roofs, colored buildings, old castles, and very contemporary designs in furniture.
The language is fascinating. It is unique and the words are often very long. We've learned that many nouns are connected into one word using special letters. So one long word might really be more than one noun.
The very best part of Denmark....the Family. Below are a few pictures of Denmark, but many pictures of the family.
Arriving in Denmark
Flying over the islands as we are landing. When we arrived at the airport, Lene and Reza were waiting for us holding the Danish and American flags (darn! we did not get that picture).
Road signs, the letters ae combined below made one letter and make up one of the letters that are unique to the Danish language.
Dinner at Kai and Gudrun's House...a small reunion
(To see the photos up close, just click on a photo to enlarge it. Then you can click on it again to zoom in. Hit your back arrow to return to the blog.)
Arriving at Kai and Gudrun's house.
Arriving at Kai and Gudrun's house.
Lene meeting Gudron. This visit has brought together many relatives living in Denmark who had never met before.
Ken and Kirsten, Kai's sister.
A toast (real Champagne, not sparkling wine).
Tina, Kirsten, Per, Hanne, Lene.
Kai, Reza, Gudrun, Ken
Everyone sitting around discussing who is related to whom and how and looking at photo albums.
Gudrun making an amazing traditional Danish dinner.
Kirsten had many interesting stories about the family.
The table, these photos are for Sally.
A traditional Danish meal of new potatoes with gravy, chestnuts, peas, green beans, venison/deer with gravy, white wine from California, red wine from Italy. This was after some wonderful appetizers and before the delicious chocolate cake.
Ken showing the family pictures. Most of the pictures were those that we had scanned in for LD and Sally (Ken's parents). This was a great time.
On the way home, the GPS took us through a tiny and quickly shrinking road. The pavement ended and turned to dirt. We were very worried. But we came out safe. By the way, it's still light out and it is 11 o'clock at night.
The next day, taking the train from Lena's house to town for sight seeing.
A copper statue that has turned green from patina.
The next morning at brunch, meeting more family including Lene's son Daniel, daughter Miriam, Willy and Lise, Lene's sister and brother-in-law.
Left to right: Miriam, Ken, Nina, Reza, Lise, Carol.
Walking from the restaurant to the Queen's Castle and Parliament buildings. The green roofs are copper that have turned this color from the weather (patina).
Standing in front of the Parliament building. It's in a castle that was built for the royalty, but the king at the time did not want to move into it. Nowadays, the royal family does not live in the castle, it is used as offices for Parliament. Troels, one guy on the right, back, in the blue shirt is a journalist and has his office here. He gave us a private tour. This was fun for everyone because the local family has never before had this tour either.
front: Troels' son Holger (9), Lisa, Miriam, Troels' daughter Ellen (10), Nina, Troels' daughter Laura (5).
The Family Reunion
Now walking to Tivoli, one of the most famous amusement parks in the world. Here we are having a family reunion and dinner.
Bikes everywhere. This town is small enough that almost everyone bike everywhere. This was outside a pub. Beer then bike???
Per giving Ken a very special book. It is an old English/Danish dictionary which once belonged to Ken's grandfather, Thomas Howen. It has been handed down many generations and has been back and forth to and from American/Denmark. The first inscription is dated 1869. Now it's been signed over and given to Ken.
This is beer country.
It was a truly wonderful evening. Many relatives who had never met before. It was a great time. We sang "Han skal leve" (a song sung at every Detrick event) as well as a song written by Kirsten (Kai's sister) about Thomas. It is a tradition for the Danish people to write songs for special occasions.
After dinner, everyone moved across the amusement park to a small place to drink coffee. It is hard to tell from this photo, but if you look closely you'll see that everyone is watching the soccer game on a very large screen. There are hundreds of Danes watching Denmark play Camaroon.
It has so far been a wonderful visit and trek through history for Ken. We wish all the Detricks could have been here with us.
