GODT NYTÅR - 2017

Jens always likes to have the Christmas decorations down by the new year. 
Out with the old and in with the new - I guess. 
I spent several days putting them up at the end of november so that we could enjoy them for the full month of December.  But I had to move like wild fire to have them down in time to put up the New Year decorations and have dinner and everything ready for the queen's New Year speech. 
It's the number one, most watched television program in all of Denmark.

So you can imagine how pissed we were along with the other nearly 1.8 million YouSee cable tv subscribers when we all lost the tv signal just moments before the queen was to go on.

At the beginning of December we got a mail saying that there is going to be a few changes to the cable service starting January 1.
It said that it is just a simple re-setting of the MHz signal.
They suggested to do it now in order to avoid a black out. 

Of course I waited.
TV went black.
And just minutes before the queen was to go on the air. 
 I had to hurry and do the re-setting. 
I did it several times but nothing helped. 
I was getting upset.
First of all because a black out was not supposed to take place until Jan 1.
And here it was still Dec 31. 
And I started to panic. 
We have been waiting all month long for the queen's speech. 

So I knocked on my neighbors door and they said,
"Of course we have a connection.  You can just come over here and watch it." 
But they were having a party with guest and we were still in our grubby clothing. 
"Just come as you are", they said. 
They really are a nice couple. 
But I had to ask them,
"Could you please just check and see if you even have a picture on the screen."

Well, surprise....................... no signal.

It turns out that something went seriously wrong with the cable company.
Nearly 1.8 million people couldn't watch tv. 
Luckily my brain went into fast forward gear.
I clicked onto the tv page on the computer. 
Thank god we were able to watch the queen give her yearly speech on the computer.
Although it was not on the big screen nor from the recliner.

Earlier that day,
before we even knew there was going to be a problem,
our neighbor - the one who invited us in,
gave us some fresh baked kransekage (new year pastry).
And a few weeks earlier,
 our friend Birthe came by with a very fancy bottle of Danish produced cheery wine to say congratulations on passing the Danish citizenship test. 

I had to move everything from the new sofa table to the new computer table.
And there in front of the computer screen we started to ring in the new year with cherry wine, fresh baked kransekage and the queen - this is the essence of hygge (minus the computer chair - ugh).

  

When the speech was over, we got dinner going. 
We started with a bowel of amazing lobster based soup with lots of crab.

When we finished the soup, I put my American twist on an otherwise very traditional Danish dish called Shooting Star. 

3 kinds of fish, a huge pile of shrimp, 2 kinds of caviar, and white asparagus all on a huge thick slice of fresh baked Danish bread. 

Played cards,

walked the dog,

watched fireworks from the balcony

and watched tv from the computer screen on the dinning table. 

By the time midnight came around we still had not eaten dessert because we were filled up with fish.

Kransekage in the shape of a clock. 
The annual "Dinner For One" just before midnight is on the computer. 
You can see the comedy show here.  Start at the 0:30 second mark. 
It's in English.

 Blinking colored lights on the balcony.
Danes don't really do blinking lights and especially colored ones.
Soft white lights are for Christmas.
The colored blinking lights braided with streamers was my expression of New Year's

And then at 12 midnight, all hell breaks loose all over the city.

 You become what you eat.

Across the street from us is a parking lot.
It belongs to the union office.
So most home owners go to the lake that is just around the side of our building. 
From our balcony we can see a tiny bit of what goes on there.
But over the harbor we can see what is going on over the city. 
These few pix above and the 2 vids below are from the lake side.

I hope your new year will bring you peace and happiness and all that is good.
Ka-boom!

Road Trip

I had some time off at the end of May so Jens and I rented a nice station wagon and took a drive to Kolding, Jelling, Vejle, Twin Peaks and Jordrup.

Here we are at a road side stop having a late lunch because of our late start.

Just 2 days ago Jens had cancelled our trip because of his health.

Then it was on again the following day.

Then the day that we were supposed to leave he decided to rent a car.

No worries - there are several auto rental shops just a 5 minute bike ride away.

Our first stop was at Jens's mother's home in Kolding where we spent the night and then left for Jelling the next day. 

We were supposed to stop in and have a cup of coffee with Jens's mother's sister-in-law.  But it turned out to be a 5 minute visit on the door step as the sister-in-law was on her way to the doctor's office.  So into town we went. This is where they have the Jelling Viking Stones.  But first I wanted that cup of coffee.  And here we are having cake and coffee inside of a café that was Viking themed.

So sad and so sorry - the rain was getting ready to pour over our heads and thunder was cracking so we made a mad dash back to the car and never even saw the stones.  But thanks to the internet, we can see them here:

here: Pix from Google,

here: info from Wikipedia,

and here: documentary from Danish television.

Lucky for me the Viking village is just a "stones" throw away from where Jens's mother lives and we will see it the next time we are visiting his mother.

From Jelling we drove to Vejle.  We took the long scenic route through Grejsdal (Grejs Valley).  There's not much forrest in Denmark but this is one of the spots where there are plenty of beautiful trees with a little country road running through the valley between Jelling and Vejle; our point of destination.

Vejle has a long and interesting history. You can read about it here.  I really wanted to see the city center but it is just too much for Jens and his mom so we saw what we could by car, drove along the fjord and then up into the forrest to our hotel. 

The following pix are what I snapped with my camera from the car window.  We of course saw lots more of the city center but it's too dangerous to drive and hold a photo session at the same time.

The pix below is the part of the drive between Vejle fjord and our hotel.  Here the road narrows to a single lane under a double set of train tracks.  It was cute and funny that we had to stop for traffic from the opposite direction. 

So now we have come to our 4 star hotel - Munkebjerg Hotel.  It's very nice and I booked 2 rooms with balconies.

Jens's mom and I went for a doggy walk around the hotel grounds.

I got word from a friend that it is baking hot in Copenhagen but here on the west side of Denmark it's a combo of wetness with fog and a splash of rain.  It seems to be like this often.  Even in some of the pix on the hotel website, there are a number of photos showing off the view from the hotel yet not always with a clear sky.

It's almost impossible to tell from these photos but the views above and over the fjord, from the hotel restaurant are beautiful.

The following day, I got up out of bed and walked the dog.

So I still have on my morning face.

But I just had to take a selfi with these amazingly huge Rhododendron flowers.

We are a bit early in the season but the hotel driveway is linned with giant size Rhododendron plants and I am sure that as I now write this, there is a 10'/3m high wall of bright pink-magenta flowers.

Beyond the hotel grounds and on the other side of the road is a trail running through the forrest where I walked the dog.

Eventually we came to this log cabin of sorts.  Made of real logs and with a grass roof. 

Once I am back from the doggy walk, it's time for our breakfast.

Jens took a few extra sausages from the breakfast restaurant to treat Bounty.

Below are a few pix of the hotel but NOT from my camera.

This is the view over Vejle fjord from the restaurant and the outdoor dinning terrace.

The entrance drive to the hotel and casino.

One of the 2 hotel restaurants.

The hotel had a full spa treatment.

From the other side of the fjord you can see the hotel up in the lush forrest.

Now we are off to find the highest point of Denmark.  Eventually we get lost and can't figure out where we are or where to go.  It's near by and it is called Ejer Bavnehøj Møllehøj (aka Twin Peaks) at 170m/560' high.  Click here for more info. 

They say the views from the top of the tower are fantastic but not today - it was very foggy and this was all I could see from the top of the tower.  On a clear day, you should be able to see a bridge that is only 5 minutes from where Jens's mother lives.

From the top of the world we head out to get a little bite to eat and then to pick up some danish and we slowly make our way to Jordrup where Jens's sister and her husband live.  We visit for a couple of hours and then we head back to Kolding for one more night before driving back to Copenhagen.  It was a lot of driving (just around the corner by California standards) but it was so much nicer doing it in a big rental than in our little city ultra mini fold out car.