Aarhus and home

 

I took this picture while we were eating our hotel breakfast.  I loved the aesthetic of everywhere we went in Scandinavia.  

We explored a bit in Aarhus.  I had seen a record somewhere that Adam's great grandparents got married in the Aarhus parish (Domsogn).  When I googled that, I got this building.

It was beautiful and had the most amazing doors:

I have no idea if they got married there or in the church across the way or what, but the building was pretty.

After that we went to the infinity bridge.  They rebuild it every April and take it down every October.  (I don't know whose basement they store it in!  It's pretty big.)

It is this big continuous circle out over the water and the water was completely clear.

I found some pretty rocks and sat down on these rocks to write in my little notebook.

I wouldn't even include these pictures because I look goofy, but it was so funny.  The ferry arrived across the bay and a big wave came along and soaked me.  I made a run for it!

I was soaked from my knees down and Adam thought it was hilarious and I thought it was slightly less hilarious, but still pretty funny.  It was very surprising.  Of course then I had the story to tell our children about the rogue wave that almost killed me.

From there (after I changed my shoes) we went to a big department store, Salling, which has a rooftop garden.  I think rooftop garden doesn't quite capture it though.  It has a skywalk and lots of little paths and ambient music and it was just beautiful.

different shoes, but pants were definitely still wet....

We took the ferry back to Zealand and drove to Copenhagen and bid Denmark a fond farewell.

This little guy was directing traffic at the security checkpoint in the Copenhagen airport.

We flew to London, stayed at a hotel right by the Gatwick Airport.  The only thing we did in London that time was go to Mark's and Spencer's.  (Adam bought me some chocolate pudding on the sly.  It was the same thing he always used to bring home from London for me and I was thrilled when he produced it in Los Angeles).

Yum!

We flew to Los Angeles the next day.  We stayed in this cute retro hotel in Long Beach.

We walked to California Pizza Kitchen for an early (late? our bodies didn't know what time it was) dinner and friends, I was flagging.  It was well WELL past my bedtime.  I went to bed around 6:00 PM and Adam went to the pool.

I woke up VERY early and in the 6:00 hour, Adam and I took a walk along the beach.

The waterfront was empty and we had the beach to ourselves (besides the homeless people still sleeping).  

We went to Newport Beach and had amazing fish tacos and ice cream at Salt and Straw.

It felt kind of like we were re-toxing rather than detoxing from our trip.  There were homeless people and litter and lots of marijuana smoke in LA.  Also, so much gum on the sidewalks.  Do Americans just walk around spitting out their gum and leaving it?  Still, it was nice to be home where we understood everything.

We flew back to Provo that afternoon and Mark picked us up at the airport and it was great to see him and great to be home.

It was a trip of a lifetime and I'm so grateful that I got to do it with my husband of a lifetime (and beyond)!

Roskilde and Danish roots

Mark and I have been having an enjoyable time together.  Yesterday we weeded at Olivia's a little (our tiny contribution to her beautiful yard for the upcoming wedding). Then, we stopped at my parents' house and helped pick cherries.

What an aesthetically pleasing fruit cherries are to pick!

After picking about three buckets, we sat in the sunroom and visited and pitted the cherries.  My mom was closest with her estimate.  She guessed we had 30 cups and we had 29.  My mom overpaid Mark for helping with the cherries then she fed us lunch.

So it was a pretty good deal for us. (Also we will get some of the cherry pie!)

We came home and Mark cut the grass along the brook and I raked it out of the water, which was a satisfying job.  

Today we will go back to Utah.  It's been so nice being here.  All good things come to an end.

Back to the travelogue:

June 23

Roskilde

We left Copenhagen and drove to Roskilde to visit the Viking Museum.  It was fascinating.  Over 1000 years ago, five Viking ships were sunk in the harbor to better control the seas.  More recently (I think in the 1960s), they were discovered and excavated.  Once the wood dried, it crumbled so they had to keep it wet for years before they came up with a solution (the injected it with something to protect the wood).

Rebuilding the ship fragments into the five ships, gave a lot of information about how the ships were built.

Looking at a map of where the Vikings were, they were in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Normandy, Scotland, Ireland and England.  My places!

I've learned about other ancient cultures, but this is the first time I've learned about my very own ancient culture.

They had a workshop where they were working on boats, plus a finished replica.

On our boat tour in Copenhagen, the guide commented that the weather was going to turn and we were going to experience "Viking Summer."

If by Viking Summer, he meant rain, we did indeed get that.

It was such enthusiastic rain, the cars on the road pulled over for a few minutes.

We took a ferry from Zealand (the island Copenhagen is on) to Jutland (the peninsula Aarhus is on).  It was a 90 minute ferry and very pleasant.  When it was raining so hard, I asked Adam, are we going to capsize on that ferry?  (I am never dramatic.)

He pointed out what we had just learned at the Viking Museum about how long they'd been sailing in those waters.  He said, "I think they have the kinks worked out."

They have indeed been at it for a while.

While we were waiting for the ferry, I sketched pictures of some of the houses we were looking for where Adam's people had lived.  

I texted a picture of my sketches to our kids and said we were ready.  They were, of course, very supportive of my efforts.

I had them on my phone, I just had time on my hands and a notebook so I sketched them.

We went to Vinkel, where I think Adam's grandma's family lived right before emigrating.

Adam's great grandpa, Simon Simonsen was christened and his great great grandparents are buried at this church in Vester Velling.

The grounds were beautiful!  Some of the best we saw (and all of the churchyards were very nice.)

The Simonsens worked at cutting peat moss in Denmark and here's a picture of the family in the peat bog.

Less than a ten minute drive from Vester Velling was Øster Velling.  Vester = west, Øster = east.

Karoline Lang was christened there.

Down the road was Helstrup, where Karoline was born.

Despite all my doubters, my little sketch helped me find the house.  (Sketching helped me pay attention to the details.)

(Besides my sketch), these are the pictures of Karoline's house that were on Family Search.  And I think this is the house!  The windows in the roof are different, but I'm calling it the same.

So that was exciting.

We went back to Aarhus from there.  

We had zero expectations, but ended up loving it.  We went to a pita restaurant for dinner (delicious!) and the bishop used google translate before drinking this so he could make sure he wasn't about to drink alcohol.  

Grateful Friday + Copenhagen

Hello from this lovely spot.

We got here yesterday evening.  I'm grateful to be here.  I don't know why I can't be two places at once, because I always want to be here and then I keep doing other things.

There was an air of neglect around here.  The yard was very overgrown and the house was dirty when we got here.  Adam mowed quite a bit and I trimmed the lilacs so you could walk on the sidewalk without being impaled.   Adam vacuumed and I wiped down the kitchen counters and the rest of everything is waiting for us today.

Also, I'm looking forward to walking with the ladies and we are going to make potato salad too.  I want to quilt with Olivia.  

This is all to say, I'd better get moving.

I'm grateful for America too.  Happy 4th of July!  I think we're on the struggle bus in a lot of ways, but I also have hope that despite the polarization and crazy misinformation and just plain crazy, things are OK.

We have people who care deeply and we all want the same thing: a good country.

Here's some travelogue for you: 

June 22-June 24, 2025

Copenhagen is beautiful and friendly and colorful and treacherous if you aren't wearing tennis shoes (cobblestones).

I've never seen so many bikes in my life.  

We stayed in a charmingly crooked apartment in the middle of the action.  When I set down my roller bag, it rolled away because the floor was so uneven.  

This is the little hall to the bathroom.  Walking around the apartment felt like a funhouse.

I loved how light filled it was.

This was the world's most uncomfortable couch, only matched by the Danish torture contraption that was the bed.  The second night I gave up and tried to sleep on the little bench over by the window.

There were a washer and dryer up this perilous little set of steps.  Adam dropped me off and went to return our rental car and I attempted laundry.  

I was using Google Translate to understand the washer and dryer.  I decided not to go with extra torrent.  Sounded dangerous.

This is us on the colorful escalator to the Metro on our way to church on Sunday.

Here's where we went to church:

The set up of the church reminded me a little of the Yale ward where we attended in New Haven.  Upstairs there was a big multipurpose room with chairs set up and that was the chapel.  It was way bigger than what we had at Yale though.  It was a full sized ward with an overflow down below.  About 5-6 people greeted us at the door.  They would say "hej" to us and we would answer with hello so they knew that we spoke English.  They all spoke English too and were super friendly and welcoming.

I got exactly three bits of information out of the meeting.  The talks were based on Elder Stevenson's talk from General Conference.  One sister missionary who spoke was from Fresno, CA and the other was from Layton, UT.

I liked hearing the meeting in Danish though.  I liked the singing and I was glad to be able to take the sacrament.  Adam told me later that it was meaningful to him to hear the sacrament prayers in Danish and consider that was how his great-grandparents first heard them.

There were a lot of kids in the ward and it was wild how loud it was.  (Granted our ward with very few children and lots of older people is extra quiet.)  I loved how the bishop smiled fondly at the ward the entire time.  He just looked tickled that everyone was there.

My favorite part of the meeting was the pianist.  He seemed to me to be about Braeden's age.  He had a man-bun and was wearing a closely tailored plaid shirt.  He added flair to the songs.  He added extra chords and runs and it was delightful to me.  He sat right in front of us between songs and pulled out a bag of knitting.  He was working on a really complicated pattern using 3-4 different colors of yarn.  I told Braeden about him and Braeden said, "I love this guy!"

I think they would be friends.

After church we walked about half a block to the Copenhagen Temple.

Beautiful!

Other highlights of our time in Copenhagen:

Vor Frue Kirke

The original Christus statue is in this church.  The same artist created sculptures of the twelve apostles.  Copies of them are at the temple in Rome.

Yes, I did switch into my tennis shoes after church so I wouldn't die on cobblestones.

I love going to all kinds of churches and I've noticed that I never quite feel the Spirit in the same way as I do in our churches.  This place felt like an exception to me.  It felt very reverent and sacred.  I just loved it.

We stopped at (you guessed it) Coop for lunch and ate on a park bench near Rosenborg Castle.  We took a walk in the King's Garden.  

Also, in Copenhagen we paid a visit to The Little Mermaid...

...and took a canal boat tour.

We saw lots of great stuff on the tour, including but not limited to the narrowest house in Copenhagen.

The tide was low, and this is how some of the canal bridges were!  I can't imagine if the tide was high!

What it comes down to is that I loved Copenhagen.  I loved it even more with this guy.