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Going Home

I’m writing this at Billund Airport. So far the flight has been delayed for 2 hours and 45 minutes, so we’re assuming with the 3 hour cut off for compensation the pilot will put his foot down. Let’s see …

And we’ve just had compensation of 25kr per person. To put that into context, a flat white costs 44kr (although they are extremely good).

Anyway, had a lovely dinner with Tess and Andreas last night. We were all so tired we weren’t sure about going out, but of course it was an excellent idea giving us great food and good company when we needed it.

So how were the stress levels?

  1. Would we get everything in the suitcases
  2. Would the suitcases be too heavy
  3. Would we get all the cases in the car

Delighted to say we passed all 3 with flying colours. So far, so good.

Last morning in the flat

Made it!

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The Big Comedown

After the highs of the weekend, so follow the lows. Now she’s a Doctor (couldn’t resist that), Jo has to move on the the next phase, which means leaving Aarhus after four great years.

So her flat needs to be vacated.

  1. Try moving house when you need to put all your possessions into a suitcase. None of “oh I might want to keep that and so sling it in the car”, so it’s been really tough.
  2. On the positive side, I’ve loved watching the Danish recycling culture. Not a single visit to the tip – mainly leave stuff on the street and watch it get picked up. And that can be half-empty bottles of cleaning fluid or olive oil, to cutlery and crockery, to a dining table. And she has sold so much of her stuff she’s almost broken even.
  3. But finally the Danish requirements for tenants are to leave it “as new”. I guess that’s a bit of a quid-pro-quo for rent controls and security of tenure. So a couple of my jobs were:

Window cleaner (outside and in)

Oven cleaner (first time for everything 😃)

Others had more skilled tasks such as removing light fittings and curtain rails (really) and vacuuming

and loading vans

Plus a tremendous effort by Eileen on kitchen and bathroom – sparkling and looking like new – but no photos allowed.

And as I write on Tuesday evening and we fly back tomorrow the last remaining worry is how to get 3 people, 5 suitcases, one small case and a few sundries into my car to get home from Stansted. As the driver I might be the only comfy one …..

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Our Flat

Yet again Eileen found somewhere amazing – out on the marina with underground parking.

And guess what – it’s the highest building in Denmark and we’re on the 25th floor, so about 2/3rds of the way up. Admittedly it doesn’t have especially strong competition as Aarhus Cathedral comes in at no. 7!

It has given us a different perspective on Aarhus – well from about 300ft up for a start, but also out on the marina rather than nearer the old town.

Views are as you might expect

Not a bad place to be hanging out in for a few days, especially in midwinter.

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Recovering

Well, that is a jug (one of many!) of gin and tonic.

It had been lovely to see the girls on Thursday night when we arrived (girls! They’re all young women now but we’ve known them from Parmiter’s days ….) who had all come over to support.

And everyone was a bit the worse for wear the day after (I think tired and emotional is a good way of describing it).

So ultra low-key day – going to the infinite bridge (packed up for winter) for old times sake

and mooching around the marina (and in reality killing time before bedtime!).