Author: simon

Starting with a run. Both felt a bit weary so not especially quick but really glad we did it.

Then headed off into town for a few more sights, some shopping (including a wonderful old map of the North Pole and Greenland for Jo’s new flat).

It had been forecast to rain all day and occasionally the skies were pretty angry but it held off until we were deluged going home. But found time for a couple of beers.

When you start thinking that £8 for about 3/4 of a pint is reasonable you know you’ve gone native. The bank account is weeping under the strain!!

Anyway, lovely view from the lounge.

Bastille Day, but wasn’t able to get croissants for Adrien so had to settle for coffee and baguettes.

Anyway, I keep banging on about normality, and so won’t stop now. Took a metro and wandered down a busy street and felt absolutely fine.

Then plain old sightseeing.

It really is a lovely city – small and not overly busy. It was a sunny day and not too hot. Just don’t think about prices ….

Adrien had to go home later on back to work. He did explain what he did, but apart from “nano” and perhaps “DNA” we’re a bit in the dark.

But some nice photos from Jo from last night.

Journeys are pretty dull. Which really means they are uneventful and pretty quick.

Nearly 200 miles in 3 hours (although the £30 toll to cross the Nyborg bridge – even if it is over 10 miles long – seems a bit steep even for Denmark).

View from the flat.

That’s the bridge to Malmo in Sweden in the background.

Checked out the beach.

And then did that crazily normal thing of getting the metro into the city. It’s only 10 minutes and yet again felt weirdly normal.

And then a wonderful warm evening to enjoy.

Much more of Copenhagen tomorrow.

Another hanging around domestic sort of day. Adrien is making Jo a table for her new flat, so we had to go to Bauhaus (think Homebase) to get wood and stuff.

Took ages but will be worth it.

Botanical gardens for lunch

And down to the beach – think yesterday but less sun.

And just when I thought I had got payments sorted by getting the Monzo card, along comes danemobilepay or whatever it’s called. Need a mobile phone (fine) and a Danish bank account (problematic). Which would be fine as long as they also accept cards, which some places (coffee, Petrol today) don’t.

Anyway, having loved Jo’s flat and turfed her out after she had only been there a couple of days, it’s time to move on. So off to Copenhagen today for a few days. (And Jo and Adrien are joining us which will be great). Then they’re coming back and we’re heading off up north for another few days.

Just chillin.

Walk and lunch on the beach looking at the storms.

A bit of a run (7k since you ask).

(Note still no haircut ..).

Trying to play Tiny Towns (got thrashed).

A night out

Charlie’s family lives in Bovingdon. Kelly loves crumpets which we delivered safely from the UK.

And enjoyed the long days – still light at 10.00.

Yesterday it was chairs, today vacuum cleaners and other such household delights. We’ve got the car here so took the opportunity to visit out-of-town hyper market.

Continuing the theme of what was absolutely commonplace 3 months ago feeling a bit weird now. Although I have to say we’re rapidly getting used to it, so maybe this is a sign of the future – we’ll get over it much more quickly than we might imagine currently.

The flat is beginning to look extremely homely. Seems a shame that we turfed Jo out after a couple of days but we’re loving it here.

Met Adrien last night for a fabulous dinner of homemade pasta carbonara.

I think normality might be a theme for the next few days, at least until we get used to it. Aarhus looking very fine (although maybe not yours truly) first thing.

Then went to see (and buy) some second hand dining chairs for the flat in Ebeltoft which wasn’t a bad place for lunch and a walk.

And the chairs were really rather splendid for £20.

Dinner out without any worries.

Apart from the bill. When you ask for tap water this is what you get (£3 for half a litre). At leat the label is honest.

And an evening bike ride (yes, me as well) to enjoy the long days here up north.

780 miles, 13 hours driving over 2 days and we made it. V v happy.

“Only” 290 miles today. After a morning walk and a buffet breakfast (face masks compulsory) kept going north through Hamburg and beyond. Maxed out at 108mph today so need to try harder when we go back.

Danish border does stop everyone, but it was quiet and only delayed us for 10 minutes. Showed him passports and Jo’s birth certificate and that seemed adequate – even though we didn’t show them any evidence that she lived in Denmark.

And we may have seen the future. It’s totally back to normal here which in itself is weird. We can go into shops, bars, cafes without queuing or pre-booking and so on and so on. And you don’t have to continually avoid people.

More of that in the days to come, including Jo’s fabulous new flat. Meanwhile, might even get a haircut …

Or at least it feels like it. After all the shambolic messages from the government last week, we decided to take the plunge and drive to Denmark. Having done what seemed like hours of research and arming ourselves with quite a lot of paperwork, we set off.

I was then going to call this surreal normality or normal surreality or some combination of those two words. Because today really wasn’t interesting or adventurous at all. Showed our passports on the Shuttle and that’s it – despite driving through France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany didn’t show anything to anybody.

Didn’t like Antwerp (roadworks on ring road) or Netherlands (low speed limits), but that’s about it. Got the Ford up to 110mph on the autobahn and still the Audis, Mercs and BMWs swing past which is mildly disconcerting.

Anyway, 490 miles later we’re about 300 miles from Aarhus.

Nice enough hotel. Feels like it’s set up for middle management conferences of which I attended many at Aon, but beer and food were excellent and much needed. And I think that’s the first time we’ve eaten out since our last day in Morocco in early March.