Fall on Fyn

Fall is here in a big way on fyn, and since our return from Sweden, we have led a normal day to life. It is a time of shortening days, changing calendars, and changing leaves. School schedules even changed on a small scale - the times for the different lessons have changed, as has Katie's gym day. But aside from these minor changes, and the exhilaration of riding our bikes at night, not much is different.

I am still riding my bike, though perhaps not as much due to less light and seemingly more to do. I have had a few bigger days out recently, and have been treated to some lovely fall sights. The leaves really are changing to all colors from yellow to brown. The light casts long shadows, even at noon, which leaves in the feeling of perpetual evening. Is it twilight? Nope, it is just lunch time.

falling on Fyn

My travels took me to Assens, a largish town on the SW coast of Fyn. It was a lovely ride, and took me past several castles, as well as the largest estate on Fyn (Wedellsborg). Other than its side, Wedellsborg is one of the 5 farms, a cooperative of large farming estates that markets its products nationally in Denmark. Other sights of interest were the castles of Brahneborg and Kenderup (the latter has a car museum in it), and the highest hills on Fyn (131 m) at Froebjerg.

I also headed southeast toward Gudme. That town itself is of no interest, but the country around there is beautiful. The pastoral beauty of Fyn is everpresent, but there are minor changes. The corn is now mostly in, and the harvest of the sugar beets has begun. The latter I noticed quite by accident. What I though was a pile of rocks next to a field turned out to be sugar beets (a thoroughly ugly tuber). The wealthy are also beginning to congregate at the large estates to go pheasant hunting, and I passed several such parties on my tour. Of particular note was the tour group at an estate for the sole purpose of shooting birds.

What else? hmm, the manure collection ponds are being covered, which is a real improvement in terms of smell. I have nearly crashed several times while riding by farms. Pig farms seem to be the worst offenders. So life goes on. Halloween today has come and will go, without celebration. They seem to skip that, and go right to Christmas. In fact, the Christmas shwag has already hit the shelves. I should have suspected this would happen when the Yule beer showed up a few weeks ago, but it still takes me by surprise. Even by the craven super consumer standards mid October is early for Christmas ornaments!

Gotland and Visby

The highlight of our Sweden trip was a trip out to the Island of Gotland. Situated out in the middle of the Baltic Sea, Gotland has been inhabited since the stone age. Geologically it is a large limestone block and the limestone is largely reponsible for the landscape. The island's capitol city is Visby, a small city whose old town is a world heritage site. The old town is encircled by a 1000 year old wall that still has its towers in tact. It is a marvelous and beautiful place.

To reach Gotland there is a 3 hour ferry ride, that arrives at midnight. we had fortunately booked a hotel in advance, so there was no mad search for one at so late a time. The next day we set out on foot to explore Visby. Aside from being a very important Hanseatic port, Visby has been an important port on the Island since the time of the vikings (middle ages). We followed two walking tours to see the sites, and ate well to have a very nice day.

visby

In the evening we ate at an "English" pub which was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It is run by an Englishman and an Australian, who are both married to Swedish women from Gotland. Additionally, all of the workers are ex-pat english speakers (another Aussie and an Irishman) who have Gottish girlfriends. Apparently the anglo-swedish connection is strong! But the place had good food, and also good beer, so there was much to enjoy.

The following day, we awoke to rain. Well, when your plan is to drive around the island of Gotland and do wlks through nature preserves and historic sites, rain is a downer. So we took a slow morning and then went to the Gotland museum. This is a remarkable museum detailing the many stages of human occupation of the island. It starts with stone age (and later) markers left across the island. Some of these are quite intricate and big (up to 2 m). It then shows some of the viking "loot' that has been found on the island. Coins from as far away as the eastern Caspian sea have been found in viking stashes. it is quite impressive.

Finally in the afternoon the weather cleared, and we headed north, so an island called Faro just off the tip of Gotland. What a beautiful, nowhere spot. We wandered on back roads until we came to an old fishing camp dating from the 17th century. Then we returned along the coast stopping to play around on sea stacks and also to look for fossils. It was an altogether different taste of Gotland from Visby, but no less interesting.

gotland

Our final day on Gotland was a slightly different repeat of the day before. We headed north, again found ourselves nowhere and near an old fishing camp. It was quite lovely, and remote. Later on we went to a small preserve north of Visby (only by a little) and walked down to the shore. This place had a little of everything, from oceanside fens to Limestone cliffs. There were also 4 old shorelines from the glacial period which included caves that were formed right at the shore. It was a great stop, and a great way to finish Gotland. We headed back to town to catch the ferry back to the mainland. A great time, Gotland, and a place I would recommend to anyone. There is one caveat though - go in the offseason. During the summer the place has got to be overun with tourist, and unless you like crowds, quite unpleasant.

Kalmar

We stopped over in the beautiful city of Kalmar on the southeast swedish coast. The old town (actually the "new" old town is beautiful, and overshadowed by a moated castle. It was an important sea port during the 17th century and played a key role in that centuries' Sweden-Denmark wars. It also has the island of Oland, a world heritage site, just offshore. We did not get a chance to visit that place (no time!).

kalmar

Our day was spent seeing the sights, so this diary will mostly show pictures. We had a nice day, but also a bit slow, as we were in a bit of a holding pattern waiting for the ferry to Gotland. The highlights were an evening stroll through the castle grounds, a morning run, a trip to the museum, and a bit of impromptu natural "art."

Mons Klint

On Saturday October 11 we headed towards the island of Mons in southeastern Denmark. On the very eastern end of the island (and the eastern side of Denmark excluding Bornholm) is a huge, 150+m high lump of chalk which is cut abruptly on one side by the ocean to form a huge white cliff.

MonsKlint

The chalk was initially formed in a large challow sea during the cretaceous period (the time of the dinosaurs). It is possible to find many different types of fossils in it, from shells to the teeth of large predatory marine species (like this). We found a few belamnites and a bunch of shells while we were there.

But there is much more to the area than the cliff and its chalk. Our first stop was Liselund, an old manor estate whose grounds are now a park. We had hoped to spend the night in the castle (sadly it was not to be) so we decided to stop by. What we found was a very nice park. A park so nice we thought we were in a fairy tale. Poking around the grounds we eventually found a path through the forest to the beach, which we hit at the start of twilight. Wow, beautiful.

After Liselund, we still had to find a place to stay, and did so finally finding a pension bed and breakfast that had two rooms for us. We thought it would be nice and empty, but it was the opposite. Without going into detail, the place was dominated by a large multifamily group celebrating a birthday and pretty much taking over the place. Yuck.

Did that spoil our fun? Not a bit. For dinner we visited a dead seasonal town called Klintholms Havn and ate at a sadly bad Italian restaurant. Ugh. It only got better the next day, when we had time to really explore the cliffs and the newly opened GeoCenter. Wow what a place. There are ~750 steps down to the beach. The beach is cobbled, and the smaller cobbles are all silaceous rock chunks (chert) or fossils. The steps down traverse a lovely forest with waterfalls, etc., and to top it off we hit the place early and had it to ourselves. Great day!

Potato week: the overview.

Last week was a national school holiday in Denmark called Potato Week. I think it stems from the traditional timing of the potato harvest, but it seems that no one is picking patatos around here.. Instead, it is the fall break for Danes, and they head abroad to any number of foreign lands. we followed suit, rented a car (Peugeot 308 - nice car), and headed north to Sweden.

sweden (click for more)

But before getting to Sweden, we stopped on the Danish Island of Mon, which is famous for its white chalk cliffs. We ended spending a day and a half there as it is very nice. we explored old castles grounds, the cliffs themselves, and gathered some fossils. In the early afternoon we left for Sweden, and by 3 pm we were headed across the Baltic sea and into a new country.

Our first afternoon was uneventful, and we ended up in the sleepy town of Solvesborg for the night. The hotel (Hotell Edgar) was not super modern, but was nice enough. The owners were a Swedish woman and her Canadian husband. We were about the only guests, and they gave us a lot of tips on places to go and things to see.

Denmark is as small as Sweden is big. And this size was a bit of a shock after traveling around Germany and especially Denmark. Once we realized this, we had to reframe our expectations, and see fewer things. Oh well, we cannot have it all, eh? First we went through the Swedish glass blowing area (miles of mixed coniferous and deciduous forest), stopping by Orrefors. This was fun because I always like to see glass blowing and the countryside was beautiful with the fall colors. It is not so new though (the country) as it reminds me a lot of Maine.

We ended the day in the old city of Kalmar. The next day we toured Kalmar and included a visit to the museum. After the museum we enjoyed the sunny afternoon playing "Andy Goldsworthy" in the city park. That evening we headed north to Oskarshamn to catch the 9:10 ferry to the Island of Gotland. Oskarshamn is dead, but has a restaurant or two, and so we ate dinner while we waited. It also has some swarming birds:



We watched them until they landed. It was wild. Then we boarded the ferry (that's a big ferry) and headed on, arriving at the hotel on Gotland just after midnight. The following 2 and a half days we spent on the beautiful island of Gotland. We toured the ancient city Visby and then spent some time going around the island. At points I had the feeling, "wow, we are nowhere." And then that was that. Back onto the ferry, a night in Oskarshamn, and back to our little place in Denmark. We saw a lot, laughed a lot, and had a great trip.

Enabaerodde, again...

So, there will be little if any posting this week as we are off and away from the house for the "Potato Week" holidays.  I believe they have this in Northern Maine still, but perhaps not anywhere else.  Anyhow, when in Denmark...

This will be a brief post, but I did want to pass along some pictures of Enabaerodde.  You may remember our family trip there in August.  Well, with favorable winds I decided to make it all the way around to the mouth of the Odense Fjord.  A very nice trip, with beautiful scenery.

enabaerodde2

Enjoy.  

Back from Svendborg

Well my time went so quickly I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol' fifty-five
As I pulled away slowly feelin' so holy
God knows I was feelin' alive.
-- Tom Waits

The other day I decided to take the train to Svenborg and ride my bike home. Svendborg is about 50 km south of Odense, and to get there you have to travel through the Fyn "Alps" and head down to the coast. It is not possible for me to get this far from Odense without training or busing, so I was excited.

As I knew I had a long ride ahead of me, I got an early start, and pulled into Svenborg at 10:20. Heading west out of town I followed route 55 back towards Odense. The start is along the sound between Fyn and the Island of Taasinge, but unfortunately little can be seen from the thoroughfare. Soon enough, the route turned north, and I headed into the hills of southern Fyn.

ol55

What a beautiful area. As I climbed up through fields, forest, and manor houses, the sky slowly cleared. I passed the Manor house Hvidkilde that sits on a lake. A beautiful spot, but unfortunately their front yard now consists of a major 2-lane highway. Another spot of interest was an old farm with a bit of the cobblestone road still in tact. Finally I hit the crest of the "alps, and saw the Egebjerg Mill.

I have now definitively come to the conclusion that the advertised "restored" mills are vastly inferior to those that are not attractions. Last week I found two such "surprise" mills that were perfectly restored, but mentioned no where. The Egebjerg Mill is listed as a great attraction, but is defunct and in need of repair. Same goes for a water wheel that is supposed to have the largest single drop of any mill in Denmark.

Along the crest of the hills is a foot trail that runs all along south Fyn and onto some of the islands. I think in total it is 400 km of trail, but that might be too big a number. Anyhow, for the next several hours I wandered west through the alps, crisscrossing this trail. I chose to abandoned 'ol 55 and take route 79 to Korinth, and then 51 north toward Ringe, before cutting off to Odense. This new route was longer, and allowed me to stay in the hills. It also took me by Skjoldemose Manor House and its beautiful granite barns.

In Korinth is a huge castle, with a very large church attached called Brahetrolleborg Slot. The site was originally a monastery built in the 12th century, and the current building is from the 13th century. It is one of the oldest estates on Fyn, and the church now serves as a parish church. It is also a nice lunch spot.

About 45 minutes later it all went wrong. I had already departed the text (leaving route 51 behind), and had passed the manor of Norskov as planned. But then my trusty map, which had not yet been wrong, suddenly was. There is a new road, and it is not on the map! Uh-oh. On the bonk (out of energy) and thinking poorly, I got turned around in every direction. By happenstance I headed east and ran back into...ol 55. I limped back through Odense and home. A great, but tiring day behind me.

Running with the wind...

My main exploration strategy while we have been here is to choose my ride by looking at the wind.  When we first arrived, it came primarily from the west and south, so I went west and south first (I like to go out into the wind and have a tailwind home).  It switched to the north and east a few weeks ago, so I ventured that direction.  Now the wind has shifted again, so I have revisited some of my previous haunts, but always getting a new take on them.  Three such places are Route to Longeso, Route 65 (toward Faaborg) and Route 35 toward Bogense.

Longeso (click image for more)

Longeso is a beautiful place, and a trip back out there is a nice trip.  I ventured a little further this time, swinging around the lake and finding a woodland chapel in among the trails.  I also found the Odense velodrome.  Details of interest - the forest is full of exotic American conifers.  No wonder it feels like home.  I found a bunch of very cool looking mushrooms.

brobyvaerk (click image for more)

Route 65 took be to the town of Brobyvaerk in the SW of Fyn.  What a beautiful little spot this is.  The church is nice, but even more so is the crossing of the Odense River.  Because there is some drop in the river here, there are water wheel mills.  The town got its name from the local Manor (Brobygaard) and the 17th century weapons factory that was built here.  A side note - I was eating lunch in town when a professional cyclist from Team CSC rode by.  A random occurence, but wild still.  Denmarks "own" team, and I saw one of the half-dozen Danes on it.

otterup (click image for more)

The route to Bogense (35) is mostly done through farmland.  Still, there are some things to see, including a surprise windmill that once ground grain.  No more, this is an outlet for biodiesel.  Later in the day I saw another beautifully restored mill outside the town of Lumby, between Odense and Otterup.  Speaking of which, there is not much in Otterup.  It is a bedroom community for Odense.  

OB Fotbold Kamp

On Sunday the 5th we packed up and joined the crazy hoards at a professional soccer game.  The local team (Odense Boldklub) was playing a team from the Copenhagen suburbs.  Kickoff was 5:30 and we all woke up excited to go.  But outside...torrential downpour.  Well, it was early, so we went about our day hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.  About 3:00 pm we lucked out and the rain stopped and the skies cleared.  Wahoo!

OdenseBoldklub

On the way over, we had to weave our way around people heading to the game.  Farther way there was the odd group on their way, and as we got closer, we had to walk our bikes.  We arrived with 45 minutes to spare.  It is actually a small stadium, so this was plenty of time.  The kids were so excited.  

Pre game, I had to duck out to the concession stand, and when I came back, the kids had soccer balls.  They kick balls - real, good quality soccer balls - into the stands by the dozens.  Katie and Hank both wound up with one, but in the interest of sharing we gave one to the kids of the people we went to the game with.  Smiles all around.  Later on I made a dash to get hotdogs, and then had to slither back through the crowd with 8 hotdogs in tow.  It was a feat, and only 4 or 5 people asked me for a hotdog on the trip back.

Unfortunately, the game did not go well.  They were down 1 - 0 at the half, and then about 5 minutes into the second half an OB player was sent off for misbehavior.  That sparked the team (they played better after that) but it did not help them win, as they got tired in the end.  Still, the quality of soccer was plenty high.  There are players on OB from Poland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.  There are also some from Africa (Cameroon and Nigeria) and Central America (Costa Rica).  It is an international league, and there are some quality players.

Another quirk was the trip home.  We got caught behind the police escort of the opposing fans back to the train station.  Since they won they were happy enough, but slow moving.  And kinda eery following a paddy wagon down a bike path at night.  And there we have it.  We have attended a Euro football match, which is an experience that we will remember for a long time.

The Zoo.

Last weekend we hit the zoo.  Not too much of interest, but there are pictures.  The most entertaining thing was watching the chimps interact.  There was a little one full of P & V giving the older males trouble.

Odense Zoo

A fun afternoon, but in the end, a zoo is a zoo.

The Doldrums...

In taking this trip, we knew we would have good times and bad times living in another society. The last few weeks have been one of those periods of down, a sort of doldrums. The shine of the new place has worn off a bit, and the reality of missing home is a little stronger. We are all missing home a bit, though we are all happy for this experience. So to mark the doldrums, I want to mark some cultural challenges:

• The language is a real challenge.  For Bev and me it is not so much of a problem.  We can exist with a little Danish pretty easily.  And Bev's group works in English, as it has a cast of researchers from many countries of the world.  The kids have it less easy, and are feeling the isolation a bit.  School is toughest for Hank, as he has few English speakers in his grade.  Soccer is toughest for Katie as the other girls on her team do not really know how to bridge the gap.  Katie is intimidated by the language aspect of the team, so it is hard.
• This place is expensive.  Ice cream is $5 per cone.  Going out to dinner is right out - the cheap places are $20 per plate, and the drinks take you to $100 before you know what happened.  Groceries are expensive too.  Danish food prices are 42% above the European average (and the highest in the EU)!  It is in large part due to the taxes they have here.  For your Danish citizen it is acceptable, because the services provided by the state are considerable (free college, a per child allowance (~$4k per kid per year), free medical care, good infrastructure, etc.), but for a visitor, it just hurts.
• Smoking, not football, is the Danish national sport.
• There is a distressing lack of daylight, and it gets less every day.  7 am = dark.  We all have SAD I think.
• The Danes are clearly descended from Vikings.  1) They are intensely competitive, to the point that it has driven Hank's football coach crazy that the team has yet to win a game (duh - they are playing their first year with kids a year older).  He wants to WIN.  It is the same with Katie's coach, who has resorted to recruiting ringers so they can win the league championship.  Football for the fun of it is right out.  2) The playground behavior, especially among boys, is hardly an example of peace in our times.  Give them all swords and sheilds and you'd have a battle royal.  3) There is, I sense, a feeling that the kingdom of Denmark will rise again.  This is behind the refusal of the Euro (see Britain, Great) and the constant reminders that Denmark used to be a vast strong kingdom.  Heck, they even have colonies still (Faroe Islands and Greenland) that want independence but are not granted it.

So there are some challenges.  They in no way reduce the good experiences we are having, but it feels good to put them on paper.  And like any trip where the wind dies, it eventually blows again, and these doldrums will end.

Life and Culture Update

We have been here for a couple months now, and have had some more time to form impressions of the Danish Culture.  What follows are some observations about life and the culture here:

• The latitude is 55 degrees here, and we lose a noticeable amount of light every day. It is darkish at 7 am. Darkish at 7 pm. And you can see it changing daily. Not good for us light lovers.
• A food update: We finally broke down and got "danish" from the local bakery. Yum, that was good. Actually it is the best thing this side of ice cream that we have had here. Shopping quirks continue - the yeast is the wet type, and that has taken some getting used to. We also have the odd failure, that can only be attributable to different ingredients. On the up side, I actually managed good pizza the other day.
  
• There are tanning salons everywhere.
• There is a Danish word that roughly translates as "cozy," that they use to describe many things, including a house's atmosphere.  One aspect of this is soft lighting inside.  So after dark, it is very hard to see anything in this place. Makes cooking a bit of a challenge.

As for reflecting on Culture, it was asked how much American "stuff" we see here in Denmark.  Strictly speaking, the answer is not much, although if we take a broader view of "stuff" there are some more things to say.  The television is full of shows that are from the US and in English.  There is almost no dubbing into Danish.  Instead, it is subtitles.  There are analogs to US institutions.  No, Starbucks is not here, but there is something called Barresso.  Ditto Subway (Sunset Boulevard).  And fast food is a global phenomenon. 

If I take an even broader view, I can say more.  Most view American culture as very consumeristic.  We are very fixated on acquiring more "stuff."  I expected to find Denmark a bit different with respect to this attitude, because it is not "America."  I have been fairly surprised to find that people here are actually quite focused on possessions, and things as status symbols.

A few examples:  The number, variety, and exotic destinations of vacations is a status item for teens in Denmark.  When we asked some 8th graders what to do in Copenhagen, they answered "the shopping is good."  So is this attitude "American stuff?"  I cannot answer that.  But it makes me wonder.  

Almost Nowhere...

Today I left the house early for a train out ride home trip from Middlefart, on the very western tip of Fyn.  I arrived early enough at Middlefart, and even got to look around the waterfront a bit.  it looks a nice town.  

From middlefart

Midlefart lies right on the Little Belt (Lille Baelt), the channel that separates the island of Fyn from the European mainland.  There is a big bridge across, and an estate (as yet unvisited by me).  It has also preserved a fair bit of its oldtown, with nice old houses and inns.

Shortly I headed east back towards Odense.  The first part of this journey is basically, getting out of Middlefart.  Once 10 or so km from town, it turns north and wanders through what I assume is nice country.  I missed it because...

Yep, a flat tire.  Confusion, a lack of tools, and imminent rain took me and I elected to walk back to the nearest train station (just a few kms).  I don't have to tell you that in another 10 minutes time I would have been nowhere with a flat tire, and that would have made for a long day.  As it was, I made the train back to town without incident.  And the bike shop guys told me "just pull the tube out and patch it while the wheel is on the bike [the wheel is bolt on].  That is what we do because the brakes and internal hub gearing make it too hard to take the wheel off each time there is a flat [duh!, why didn't I think of that?]."  Oh well, a bad day averted at least.