A couple of these friends (Erik and Annette) we'd only seen briefly in December - and that was after not having seen them for over 20 years, so it was great getting some more time together and we had a lovely, lovely evening, with lots of good food - and wine of course :) In the photo below you can see chocolate and 'flødeboller'. Flødeboller is very Danish - it's stiff egg-whites with a bottom of marzipan/biscuit and covered in dark chocolate - that's the classic 'version'. By now you can get them with all kind of flavours and with white chocolate, etc. (as you can see below)
Friday we walked to town and did some shopping (or rather - Mette did some shopping) and had lunch at Cafe Flora - very, very good food! And later we did home-made healthy gummies - made from blueberries and lemon. I really liked them but Silke thought they were too sour...... Friday afternoon Morten and Mathias came up for dinner (Maja was working) and we had home-made burgers - made on the fire of course - it was SOOOO good :D And the boys had a lovely time playing with fire - it must be in their genes :) Saturday morning, after a trip to the pubic pool - again - the 'M Family' - as we call them (sounds better in Danish), went back home and we spent the afternoon shopping and preparing for a dinner party with friends that same evening. A couple of these friends (Erik and Annette) we'd only seen briefly in December - and that was after not having seen them for over 20 years, so it was great getting some more time together and we had a lovely, lovely evening, with lots of good food - and wine of course :) In the photo below you can see chocolate and 'flødeboller'. Flødeboller is very Danish - it's stiff egg-whites with a bottom of marzipan/biscuit and covered in dark chocolate - that's the classic 'version'. By now you can get them with all kind of flavours and with white chocolate, etc. (as you can see below) Sunday Per was feeling a little bit 'used' - but we were still up quite early to do a bit of cleaning up after last night - as my brother and sister-in-law (Jens and Marianne) were coming for breakfast. Before they arrived I was sitting at the dining table and suddenly had another 'visitor' - or actually a couple of visitors and some of them hungry and thirsty :)
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Today we decided to do nothing - or almost nothing. To start with Silke had oatmeal for breakfast :) After breakfast we walked to Gilleleje to see if we could find some fresh fish for dinner - and again today, beautiful weather! Unfortunately we were a bit late in regards to fresh fish - you have to be there around 7-8am otherwise all the fish are sold. Per had a business lunch in Copenhagen, so Mette, Silke and I walked around town, shopping and having lunch - before picking up Per from his lunch. The weather was amazing for this time of year, so we could actually sit outside and enjoy the sun - and our lunch - while Silke was at a play ground right next to the cafe. Very handy :) After about four hours Per's lunch was over and we met up with him at Kongens Nytorv in the middle of Copenhagen. Here we sat at another cafe - just enjoying the sun while Per 'finished off' his lunch with H.P. and Jens.
Sunday - and my brother and sister-in-law arrived just after 9am for breakfast. Per and I woke up at 5am..... yes, still a bit jet-lagged... and at 8am we were at the grocery store to buy bread and pastry for breakfast - just stuff for breakfast..... We ended up with a trolley full to the brink..... not sure why that always happen! Anyway we got back just before Jens and Marianne arrived and had a lovely breakfast. After breakfast - with lots of Danish pastry - we took a walk to Gilleleje town - about half an hours walk - and bought some fish for lunch - which we could enjoy outside in the perfect autumn weather :) So we can't complain about the weather that's for sure :) Later Per started preparing for dinner - a nice piece of meat on the BBQ with chanterelles and new potatoes - sooo yummy! And so lovely to have a whole day together so we could really talk! It ended up being quite a busy week in Denmark - with family and friends visiting us every day :) And.... the weather was amazing most of the week - which is quite unusual for Denmark at the end of August. On our last evening in Denmark, we went to a birthday party at Mette and Morten's - celebrating Maja and Mathias's birthdays. Saturday morning 5am we had to get up and be in the airport by 7am - meeting Tina and Lucas out there - and then off to Italy :)
Today is Mathias' Birthday so we all had breakfast together - in our rented bach. Mette had baked birthday boller (buns) and went to the bakery to buy Danish pastry - so way too much food from early on in the day........ Later in the day Morten's parents arrived in time for dinner - and so we had more food and more wine..... :) We've rented a bach in Gilleleje - North of Copenhagen - close to the beach. We arrived Saturday and will stay for a week - with the kids here most of the time together with us. Saturday my brother and sister-in-law (Jens and Marianne) came for dinner. The weather was amazing so we ended up doing steaks on the fire - it was soooo good!! But as usual the Danish weather is...... well, Danish. So Sunday it was raining most of the day - even though we were lucky to have a break around lunch time, so that we could sit outside and eat lunch :) And Monday wasn't much better, so we've done a lot of board and card games - and a lot of eating and drinking :) Gilleleje has its own harbour where you can go and buy freshly caught fish - so we've had amazing food - as always :) Both Per and I have now arrived safely in Europe. We were on the same plane to Singapore, and then Per continued on to London and I went directly to Copenhagen. While in transit in Singapore, I happened to walk by a TV and saw the news about a big earthquake in Italy. And... it turned out that we had plans to go through the town that was worst hit - so we'll have to change our plans a bit... So instead of driving far south and then cross inland to Perugia, we'll have to cross from East to West 'higher up' in order to avoid these areas... I was supposed to stay with my brother and sister-in-law; Jens and Marianne, for a couple of days before Per arrives, but their son had an accident while on holiday in Germany - on a Mountain Bike, so they had to drive down to see him in hospital so instead I'm staying with Mette, Morten, Maja, Mathias and Silke :) And the weather - what can I say. I have arrived on THE best summer day in Copenhagen - so can't complain about that :) Too busy to update the blog..... :) It's full on here, from morning till night. We're staying at Mette's right now - and then we'll move on to Tina on Thursday. Here's a few photos of Silke and Mathias. Maja is not easy to get on camera - but let's see if we succeed at some point :) We had four days in Fiskenæs with 'the M-Family' in a bach. And we visited all the places that Per remembered from when he was a child going on holiday at his grand-ma's in Padborg - very close to Fiskenæs. A lovely time - and the weather actually behaved which was nice! After one week in the Northern part of Jutland with Tina, Janus and Lucas - we're now with 'The M-family' - Mette, Morten, Maja, Mathias and Silke - in the Southern part of Jutland. We started out with 3 days on Fanø - a small island off the west coast of Jutland. The ferry takes about 15 minutes to get to Fanø, so not that far :) Years and years ago Per and I spent New Years eve on the island and I've been there before that as well - and always loved it. But... things have changed over the last 15 years and it's way too commercial now. All the little sheds with amber and many of the little cozy places are gone - all for the German tourists. So still a nice place but not a place I would want to go back to again. After three days on Fanø we continued to the east coast of Jutland - very close to the German border. Here we'll stay for four days and Per will show us around his ancestors 'places' - which he'll love. On the way we did a stop in Ribe - one of our favourite towns in Jutland. We had lunch along the water there in a very sweet little place called 'the seal'. And then a few photos from our a trip to Flensburg in Germany - just on the other side of the border. And a visit to Per's parents resting place in Padborg. Saturday we drove to Jutland - meeting up with Tina, Janus and Lucas at the ferry. We'd rented a bach in Tversted - in the northern part of Jutland - not far from the 'top' :) On the way to the bach I had a meeting with my dealer gallery in Århus and I'd brought two paintings from New Zealand. Really nice to see the gallery 'live' instead of just on the internet and good to meet the owner - Gitte - again. After the meeting we drove to Skørpinge, to meet Janus' parents for the first time - Kirsten and Tony. And they'd made a huge lunch - very, very nice (and they were really nice as well :D ). We only had a short time though, as we needed to go and pick up the keys for the bach, so we'd arranged for them to come visit us in the bach the next day - for Sunday brunch. While in Tversted we also met up with HP and Esther, who has a bach very close to where we're staying - sooo nice to meet them again. They visited us in NZ not long ago so it was good to catch up with them while here. And we saw one of Esther's beautiful quilts - wish I could do this - may have to learn this!! Other than that we just enjoyed ourselves. We took trips to Løkken, to Skagen - of course - and just enjoyed the area. Absolutely loved the dunes - such an amazing area before getting to the beach. And we also visited Råbjerg Mile - the closest we get to a desert in Denmark. From Wikipedia: It is the largest moving dune in Northern Europe with an area of around 1 km2 (0.4 mi2) and a height of 40 m (130 ft) above sea level. The dune contains a total of 4 million m3 of sand. The wind moves it in a north-easterly direction up to 18 metres (59 ft) a year. It was a lot of fun running down the dunes and Lucas really enjoyed himself - and so did the rest of us :) And to make the day even better we met a couple of horses in the dunes and Janus convinced the riders to let Lucas try to ride one of the horses - so it ended up being a very, very good day :) After Gaye and Russell left we had a few days in Copenhagen. One day (Wednesday) was spent with Jens and Marianne exploring Copenhagen - something Jens and Marianne hadn't done for a while (and neither had we). We walked 14 kilometers and it was great to see areas of Copenhagen that has changed since we left Copenhagen. Sooo much has happened since we moved to New Zealand! Thursday night we went out for dinner with Tina, Janus, Mette and Morten, at Mielcke & Hurtigkarl in Copenhagen. It was probably the best dinner I've ever had - it was beautiful, colorful, innovative, exciting and completely amazing. Per started out in Florida - the biggest conference ever - 20.000 people..... Microsoft Partner Conference. After 4 days of conference he traveled to Copenhagen. And I flew directly to Copenhagen - arriving a couple of days before Per, which gave me time to be with my brother and sister-in-law - Jens and Marianne. Nice to finally have a bit more time than just a couple of hours... Per arrived on Friday - and 4-5 hours later, on the same day, Gaye and Russell arrived. Gaye and Russell was in Copenhagen for 3 days and Per had a plan from early morning till late night :) Not easy to choose what to show when you only have 3 days.... but I think Gaye and Russell got a good idea about Copenhagen - and they also got to meet the family :D Here's a few photos from Saturday, where we walked around Copenhagen - quite a long walk if you ask Gaye and Russell ;) And in the evening we went to the Tivoli Gardens :D Sunday we did some shopping - visited Illums Bolighus, Royal Copenhagen, Georg Jensen, etc. as the weather was not really that nice. And Monday we arranged a picnic in 'Dyrehaven' - the royal family's hunting grounds (at some point). We met Mette, Morten, Maja, Mathias, Silke, Tina, Janus and Lucas at Klampenborg Station and had bought some food the day before. It was an amazing day and the weather was perfect for a picnic, with a mix of sun and clouds :) We arrived in Copenhagen Saturday around lunch time and Mette picked us up in the airport and drove us to Tina and Janus's place. Both Tina, Janus and Lucas are sick - down with the flu. But it's OK - the weather is not the best - so we have to stay inside anyway - so we all cuddle up on the sofa :) We are spending 3 nights at Tina and Janus and 3 nights at Mette and Morten's. After three nights at Tina and Janus we moved to Mette and Morten's Funny enough the only photos I have from London is from our favourite restaurant - the rest was 'just' business as usual ;) So after business in London we flew to Copenhagen to be with the family for a week. And it was the right time for autumn colours in Denmark as well - so that was what Per would call a Double Whammer :) We had a day walking around Copenhagen, visiting the parks and of course - Tivoli. And we had time with the family - so lovely as always to be back in Copenhagen! |
G&PThis is our blog - we use this to keep track of what we've done and where we've been.... as we can't always remember :) Archives
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