Category: Denmark

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.

Our last day, but definitely coming back.

The best news is that Jo looked at a flat and really liked it. They liked her so already drawing up a contract from 1st October. That’s what I call a result.

That gave us a free morning to mooch

And another extremely expensive coffee. Apparently coffee and eggs are known for being expensive.

A final picnic by the bridge.

And home.

It’s been the first cashless holiday ever. We did get some krone but didn’t use it. Will be useful when Jo returns and starts to scour flea markets. Main reason it is cashless is the Monzo card – no commission and very good exchange rate – and the fact that Denmark seems to be well ahead in that area.

Today was Jo’s “getting to know the university ” day – viewing a flat first thing:

and then a fun games and drinking day with some of her soon-to-be colleagues.

So we went on a little scout around the region.

To the beach

The famous Moesgård museum (look it up!)

Saw some of the fun and games but didn’t see Jo

A trip around the old town

And an attempted picnic but rather too many flies and I bought non-alcoholic beer by mistake …

And Jo had a very successful day.

And getting to know a bit about Denmark.

Aarhus isn’t really on the tourist trail, but does seem to be a lovely city. Admittedly it is August, so quiet and sunny and warm, but there is lots to like about it.

For example the infinite bridge which circumstances led me to being there 4 times.

Early morning – didn’t even know of its existence.

5k run with Jo

Walk with Eileen

Evening to see the non-sunset

Note me being faded out in the photo – nice one Jo!

Some things are quite (very) expensive

Went out to eat in the evening at the world-famous Aarhus Street Food

Really good – two Thai’s and one sushi. But the lollipop (admittedly superb) was £4!

Main part of today was for Jo to see her tutor who sounded really nice. Jo’s office will be in here

And we sat on a bench for a while and looked over the campus

There are loads and loads of cyclists, so we look forward to Jo buying a bike when she moves here. And they are a definite well-defined category of road user. Back home we have cars and pedestrians and bikes sort of fit in where they can whereas here they are definitely a category of their own with their own lanes and rules. And we nearly got run over twice.

And everyone seems to obey road rules. Pedestrians and cyclists wait for green signals, even when there’s no traffic.

That’s the reflections for today. Plus lots of photos from Jo’s flashy phone camera.