A Merry and Blessed Christmas

To all who visit this blog A Merry and Blessed Christmas.

Roots - not the movie - 10

     Since the actual events are now 6 years in the past I may mix up the chronology of events by a day or two now and then, which is not really important.

     We have arrived in the town of Svendborg at the home of my brother Rene and his wife Vivi. They offer a restaurant dinner and I remember a restaurant from way back when, when I was in Svendborg on the good ship "Oklahoma" in either late 1961 or early 1962.

M/V "Oklahoma" of the DFDS company in Copenhagen.
She was built in 1956, a modern diesel cargo ship with a crew of 31.
I was on her from September 1961 to about the same time in 1962.

      The M/V "Oklahoma" was on a generally fixed trading route between Northern Europe (Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Scotland and England - then across the Atlantic to the US East Coast - starting in Boston and port hopping South (New York (actually Hoboken foot of 7th street pier, New Jersey), Baltimore, Camden, Philadelphia, Newport News, Norfolk, Savannah), back  up to New York and then across the Atlantic again, to repeat, more or less, the same voyage itinerary again and again, always full of cargo.

     So off we are to the restaurant and I ordered a dish I had not had in a very long time, smoked eel.
http://www.therural.co.nz/hunting-and-fishing/how-to-prepare-and-smoke-an-eel
I would encourage those of you who may not have tried this dish to give it a try. It is very good when prepared correctly. It is still very good if not done quite correctly, but the eel will be a bit greasy (Omega 3's which is good stuff). I do not remember what Norma, my brother and wife ordered, but regardless, my plate had way too much food on it, and my stomach was way too small.
And here occurred one of those "situations" that makes one realize that although you may be in the country of your birth, you are no longer home.

     Being conditioned by almost 50 years in the US I asked for a "doggie bag" for the leftovers and everyone looked at me, except Norma, as if I had just arrived from another planet. "What do you want that for?" was the question from the waitress and my sister in law. "I want it so I can give it to some poor hungry homeless soul on a street corner" was my reply. The answer came back, and it shouldn't have surprised since we are in the "from cradle to grave welfare state", but it did. "There are no homeless hungry people in Denmark!!!! What gave you such a crazy idea?" Oh well, live and learn. But this little event was the first of several small cultural shocks to come in the next couple of week, but I should have suspected that after the incident with the credit card a few days ago.

      In that restaurant hangs a platter of the good training ship "Georg Stage", a full rigged square rigger, on which I was a junior officer in 1963.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Stage
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=georg+stage&qpvt=georg+stage&FORM=IGRE
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=georg+stage&qpvt=georg+stage&FORM=VDRE
http://www.apparent-wind.com/georg-stage-visit.html

     The original "Georg Stage", which was built in 1882, is now the "Joseph Conrad" and can by found at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad_(ship)

     The next day, after a good breakfast, we went to the island of Taasinge which, in Old Danish, means Thorsbed or Thorsmeadow (Thor in this context is the Norse god) , which we crossed yesterday on the bus.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A5singe  
Here are several points of interest; The Taasinge Museum among them which I visited in 1989 http://sights.dk/english8x6/skipper.asp. Today we are off for Valdemar Slot (Valdemar Castle). http://www.valdemarsslot.dk/
 http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=valdemar+slot+taasinge&qpvt=valdemar+slot+taasinge&FORM=IGRE
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/12688832
     We do not drive over the bridge and to the castle, rather we take an old "passenger island packet" that roams between the string of islands just south of Svendborg. This little vessel is named "Helge" and may have been steam powered in her past based on the size of the stack, she was built in 1924.
Here are a few links with information on this antique vessel, some of the information is in Danish so translate using Google Translate. Some of my photos are below.
http://www.geolocation.ws/v/P/23570584/ms-helge-af-svendborg-bygget-1924/en
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=%22Helge%22+svendborg&qpvt=%22Helge%22+svendborg&FORM=IGRE
http://www.svendborg.biz/veteranskibet-ms-helge

     After an enjoyable ride we arrived at the landing at Valdemar Slot. There is quite a bit of history attached to this castle and working farm, but as with all "landed gentry" in Europe, the farm is no longer able to pay the bills so other sources of income exist.
     The castle has an interesting history; Valdemar's Castle was built 1639-44 by King Christian IV for his son, Count Valdemar Christian from whom the castle takes its name. The King's construction on Taasinge began when Valdemar Christian was 17 years old , and the king spared no expense to give his son, the prince, an abode of great significance. With Steenwinckel as the architect and builder, the king built a splendid Renaissance chateau in the style of and larger than his own Rosenborg. But Valdemar Christian never got the benefit of its castle - he preferred to go around Europe as a commander and never settled on Taasinge. In 1656, he died on a battlefield in Poland, 34 years old. During the wars with Sweden (1658-1660) Valdemar's Castle was occupied and badly damaged, and it was the naval hero Niels Juel, who saved the castle from ruin. In 1678 Niels Juel began an extensive renovation of the castle and rebuilt it in Baroque style, as the fashion prescribed.    Naval hero Niels Juel 's grandson of the same name, Chamberlain Niels Juel lived in the castle from 1723 until his death in 1766 , he was a very energetic man . He summoned the Holstein architect G. D. Tschierscke who created the beautiful castles that we know today with the stately gatehouses, the artificial lake in front of the castle, carriage and shed wings along the lake and the pretty tea pavilion which is the focus  point from the beach. Since 1974, the castle has been open to the public. For most of the year one can walk the beautiful halls, admiring the decor and all the historical details, and also welcome the fact that this wonderful, historical place is still full of life. The owners live in the house, and let visitors see themselves as the house's personal guests, making the visit a special experience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Juel
http://www.admiralnielsjuel.dk/index.php?page=4

 The public road goes right through the buildings.

Note the speed limit 15 km / just a bit over 9 MPH

 One of the barns.

 This building is 22 years older than the United States.

 The actual castle - the servants lived up in the 3 story attic.

One of the gate houses.

My brother Rene (left) and I

 

     It is now time to get back on the "Helge" and head back to Svendborg, a city steeped in maritime history. Here are a few photos from the harbor.

 In a shed where someone is building a Viking ship replica

 A look inside the hull of the Viking ship

 A two masted schooner entering port

      This boat, the "Hjortø", was the "mailman's / postman's" means of the delivering the mail, as well as a few passengers, to all the island south of Svendborg.  On the youtube video you can hear the reliable old slow turning single cylinder diesel just "chuck" away, but you wont see much of the boat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au7G6gUiLNo, the following link contains a few images of the boat http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=hjortoe+svendborg&id=8831180C6A664921007D3397562E8F53BAD0B588&FORM=IQFRBA

and this last link is another image of the Hjortø

http://www.geolocation.ws/v/W/File:PostbaadenHjortø02.JPG/-/en

The video on the link below is of new noisy twin diesel boat on the same run, this run in the winter. The video is 9 minutes long and all the conversation is in Danish.

http://wn.com/hjortø

 

 A fantastic looking little launch.

http://www.fram.dk/

http://www.fram.dk/tilblivelsen.html 



Two schooners in port.

 

 

      Yesterday evening we had the "doggie bag" episode. This evening we arrived at another culture shock. Knowing that Europe is expensive and that for Europeans to come to the US is like for them to come to a giant "dollar store" we knew that from time to time we would be surprised by the prices; as in when I filled up my sister in laws little Toyota, but there was  more to come.

 

      Yesterday I had seen a little Italian restaurant and I suggested we go there for dinner and my brother said that place is way too expensive; why don't we go to this "hamburger" place just opened up by a former ships cook. So we did and ordered 4 cheese burgers, french fries, 2 beers, a glass of wine and a softdrink. A young man brings the order to the table together with the bills, Danske Kroner 456.00. I almost fell out of the chair, that amount is roughly $84.00 US / EU 61.00. I had to ask what in the world made these burgers so expensive, since in the US we could have had 4 burgers with fries and soft drinks for about $40.00. They replied; "The young man who brought these to our table is making about $16.00 per hour, not the $5.85 as the minimum wage was in the US at the same time. That explains it.

That most expensive hamburger.

 

     Then it was time to drive back to the house for a nightcap but on the way we drove by a "historical" building; the building where the worlds largest shipping company, Maersk Line, can trace its humble beginning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Maersk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._P._Moller-Maersk_Group

http://gcaptain.com/maersk-line-history-video/

 

     A short walk along the waterfront before calling it the night.

      More to follow in the next post, which will be in January so here are the wishes for a Blessed Christmas and a Most Happy New Year.







ROOTS - not the movie - 9

     The time has come for us to depart my brother Frank's house so he and his wife Lone drive us across the island of Møn,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B8n
http://www.denmark.net/denmark-guide/places/mon.html

and across the island of Bogø
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog%C3%B8
http://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark/bogo-stubbekobing-ferry-gdk615162
http://www.stad.com/index.php?city_id=2623847

through the town city of Stubbekøbing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stubbekobing 
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=stubbekobing+denmark&qpvt=stubbekobing+denmark&FORM=IGRE

to the "big" city of Nykøbing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyk%C3%B8bing_Falster ) (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=nykobing+falster+denmark&qpvt=nykobing+falster+denmark&FORM=IGRE )

on the island of Falster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falster 

It is at the bus station in Nykøbing that the time to say good bye comes - we have had a great visit for a long time - though not often; the last time being in 1989 and the time previous to that in 1975.


Oldest brother (me) left and youngest brother, Frank, on the right.

 The tickets have been purchased, the luggage loaded on the bus, and we are off across "Guldborgsund", which literally translated means "Gold Fortress Sound", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guldborgsund
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=guldbergsund%2c+denmark&qpvt=guldbergsund%2c+denmark&FORM=IGRE

to the island of Lolland and across that same island, on highway 9.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolland

On we go through the town of Sakskøbing with its humerous water tower, in the photo below,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakskobing
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=sakskobing+lolland+Denmark&qpvt=sakskobing+lolland+Denmark&FORM=IGRE



    Then through the towns of Maribo,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maribo 
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=maribo+lolland+Denmark&qpvt=maribo+lolland+Denmark&FORM=IGRE

followed by Stokkemarke, Halsted which has a nice old church, skirting the town of Nakskov and finally on to the small village of Tårs, where the bus is driven on the ferry which is the next part of the journey - the ferry between Tårs on the island of Lolland to the village of Spodsbjerg on the island of Langeland (Longland), so named because this island is long and very narrow.
http://highways-denmark.com/ferry-spodsbjerg-taars/
Being a former ship captain and always interested in thing maritime (ships, cargo capacity, etc..) I had a good look at this little ship but did not find any capacity charts. There were quite a few auto's as well as two or three trucks and one bus on this trip. On the upper deck is a snack bar and lounge.
The crossing of the Langelands Belt takes about 45 minutes, and there is a departure every hour.
We met the sistership going in the other direction; the photo below.

In Denmark there is a little "joke" that one can always recognize people from Langeland because they are pigeon toed, otherwise they would get their feet wet with all the water on each side of the  very narrow island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langeland

Then it is across Langeland, skirting the "big" city of Rudkøbing on Langeland, cross a small bridge onto the island of Siø, population about 20, http://ipicture.mobi/?c=da&UN=-3816726&DG=ISL
then across another bridge to the island of Tåsinge, which is rich in history;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A5singe
http://itouchmap.com/?c=da&UF=-2752229&UN=-3819727&DG=ISL
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=taasinge+denmark&qpvt=taasinge+denmark&FORM=IGRE

The only one more bridge and we are on the island of Fyn (Funen)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funen 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funen_County
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fyn+denmark&qpvt=fyn+denmark&FORM=IGRE

 

where my brother Rene and his wife Vivi lives in the town of Svendborg. Since we are four boys and I am the oldest and Frank is the youngest Renee is number three in the line.

Norma, Vivi and my brother Rene who is even taller than Frank.

Their "dream" house in the back - it is not their house, they only

dream of owning it.

We almost missed getting off the bus in Svendborg because the bus did not go to a bus station, but continued on the highway, and I just happened to see someone at a bus stop that looked like Rene and called for the driver to stop.

This was an interesting day - we saw a lot of Denmark - and perhaps we suffer a bit from impression overload.

More to follow in the next post.



This is very GUTSY -

Would anyone care to follow in this man's footsteps, kayak wake?

Man paddles kayak from Minnesota down Mississippi River, to Key West, up US East Coast, across Northern Shore of Lake Superior to return to his starting point.

He even paddled a section of river I was at this past summer, the Kaministiquia River, in Ontario, Canada.

Kakabeka Falls on the Kaministiquie River, Kakabeka, Ontario

Looking downstream on the Kaministiquie River from Kakabeka Falls, Kakabeka, Ontario

This short article is a good read.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/231690841.html

A quick aside - paddling the Mississippi River

This is a most interesting story .
http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2013/10/adventurers_successfully_paddl.html

Roots - not the movie - 8

     After a while and certainly after a lot of activity, one begins to loose track of time, or in this case, track of the days. today we begin full day xxx in Denmark and then ask, "say, how long have we been here?". Let us add and subtract, we left home on such and such a date and arrived here the following day in the morning; so we have been here 5 full days including the day we arrived. It is time to "take a day off" and just hang out and that is what we did. Conversation, food, English Mastiff and dog slobber, more conversation, more food, more dog slobber and the we decided to have dinner at a little restaurant in a small village nearby.
     This resulted in a humorous experience and a bit of a surprise as well, though the two experiences are not related. The restaurant is or was in what was a house. It didn't look like much on the outside, but once inside it looked like one of those places where one needed coat and tie and a reservation, assuming the maître d' is willing to give one a reservation. But it was not; the whole place had maybe 10 tables all of which were occupied so there was a wait. While waiting I commented on the piece of equipment sitting in the lobby and the owner of the restaurant stated that it was a "flad fisk maskine" or in English, a "flat fish machine", in other words, if there are flat fish, such as flounder or halibut on the menu, but none available, then they take whatever fish they have and run it through the rollers and it will be come flat. The machine in question was an old clothes wringer / pressing machine.


A similar type "flat fish machine" although the one in the image is not made in Denmark.
Insert regular fish on one side of rollers, crank and a flat fish comes out on the other.



      Since we had this above conversation I decided to order flounder, not the machined kind, and it was very good. I can't remember what everyone else ordered but we had a very good meal and it was time to pay. Considering that my brother and his wife had  been "supporting" us for the past several days I thought it would be appropriate for me to pay the bill and handed my American issued Visa Credit Card to the proprietor, and I quote her words, which were rather loud for everyone to hear; "An American Credit Card! I want no part of it. First of all they make us wait 8 weeks for our money and then they charge us an astronomical fee for processing and handling." Then she gave me one of those "what planet did you arrive from" looks and continued; "Do you not have a Dankort or some other debit or credit card that is readily acceptable in Europe", sheepishly I had to reply "Well, I thought I did, but I guess I was wrong".
     The situation now presented a dilemma in that I didn't have enough cash on me to pay the bill and had to rely on my brother to pay for the meal we invited them to have, however, I must say the meal was great, but if you encounter this place have cash on hand. That situation has since been corrected, not in that I paid for a meal for them here, but in that he was reimbursed.

     The following day it was time to go to Møns Klint (the cliffs of Møn) which are made out of chalk, the skeletal remains of ancient shellfish from millions of years ago, with Frank and Lone as tour guides. As a child, and Frank was way too young then for him to remember, we did visit the cliffs with our parents one summer, back when Sommerspiret (the Summer Spire) was still standing; erosion by wave action took its toll and the spire collapsed in 1988.

This painting is by Frederik Hansen Sødrig and dates from 1830.

Sommerspiret is the tall pinnacle center left. 

  





     However, along the way we had to make a short stop at Klintholm Harbor because of my love for small ports, commercial fishing boats and sailboats. We found that seagulls are the same the world over, they call for food and these actually look like they eat pretty well. For some odd reason we did not take any other pictures at Klintholm.

Some of the gulls at Klintholm Havn



 

Klintholm Havn is also know for one other reason but you have to click on the link to read about the work of the inhabitants of the village at the close of WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klintholm_Havn

  

Along the way we also stopped at a Museum Farm but it appears that we only took one picture, actually we had someone take a picture of us (below). Considering the coats it is hard to imagine for those of us living in much warmer climates that this is late June.

 

      Off to Møns Klint which really isn't that far but then nothing in Denmark is very far, except the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The cliffs are impressive, as white as ever, and as tall as I remember them. The links below are full of information and photographs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mons_klint
http://famouswonders.com/mons-klint/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoCenter_Mons_Klint (this center opened a few weeks before our visit so Queen Margaret II, who officiated at the opening, missed us, too bad.)
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=mons+klint&qpvt=mons+klint&FORM=IGRE

      Here are our photos from the trip to the cliffs, and the many steps down (easy) and back up (not so easy).

 We counted the steps but I no longer remember how many

but there were many. Resting places can be found along

the way as in the bench seen on the right.

Norma on the beach with its very white "sand"

which is chalk and the rocks.

A view of the cliffs, note the "chalky" color of the water.



About every 4' or so (1.2 meters) there is a layer of rock

in the vertical surface of the cliffs. Ecological time can be calculated

in the millions of years based on the intervals of the rocks.

And even in this pristine natural environment mankind's

polluting touch is seen. Here is a "ketchup" container

from a fast food restaurant (you can name them on one hand)

that some brainless human being just dropped on the ground somewhere,

which then made it into the rain runoff stream which made it into

the Baltic to eventually wash up here.

The offending fast food container is in the center of this photo.

A view from above, again note the "chalkiness" of the

surf 120 meters (394') below which is caused by

the action of the surf on the chalk cliffs.

    

    One last note on the cliffs; if one opens Google Earth and zooms in on Møns Klint near 54 deg. 58 min N and 12 deg. 33 min 10 sec E one can actually see the chalkiness in the suft along the shoreline.  We also made a stop at the Geocenter which was very interesting and then we were off to visit  Liselund Slot ( Lisa's Grove / Liselund Castle). During the cold war years the Danish Air Force had a radar station situated nearby which kept a very vigilant eye to the east and south for the communists that could come out of what was then East Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and of course the USSR itself. My mother's brother, our uncle who is / was only a few years older than Max and myself was in the air force and was stationed here and met his wife, Jonna, at Liselund.

     The history of the place is interesting, but what really draws visitors is the landscaping, the beauty of the nature and the architecture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liselund  One should not confuse the original Liselund Slot with Liselund Ny Slot (Liselund New Castle) which is of much younger origin.

http://www.liselundslot.dk/00032/

     The park is fantastic http://www.moenia.dk/liselund/liselund.html (this link is in Danish so copy and paste the text into Google Translate to read it in your language). Here are a few photos from that afternoon as well as additional links; http://www.insula-moenia.dk/liselund.html

Liselund Castle with some hopeful residents in front.

It would be nice to have such an estate but the upkeep????

A view across the reflection pond.

A reflection in the pond.

 

     The nature around the park is interesting and lends to the use of one's imagination;

"Have you seen a tree with a long nose around here?"

"If I stick my head into the tree they won't see me"

said the brown bear.

It is like being in the Pacific NW with what is

called "Temperate Rain Forest" as Denmark is just

south of the Boreal Forest climate zone.

http://www.nordicforestry.org/facts/Denmark.asp

Giant ferns, nice steps on a hill.

Another small lake in the park.

Norma, Frank and Lone with a duck flying by.

Little brother (the youngest) and Big brother (the oldest)

Another house in the park.

 

      Another eventful day comes to a close; day 6 in Denmark, not counting arrival date. Tomorrow is departure day and we have to move on, but not before we have a nice dinner and more conversation about the past and the future, often joined by the supersized dogs.

Lone and the two English Mastiff's.

 

     After dinner it is time to walk off some of the calories and we come upon one other piece of old Danish history alongside the road;

The original "council" seats as the political and practical situation

of the area was being deliberated.

We found this "council chamber" located in the small

village of Hjelm, also on the island of Møn.

 

      Go again to Google Earth and to co-ordinates 54 deg. 55 min. 32.35 sec. N and 12 deg. 15 min. 10.88 sec E and one can see the stones and the shadows they cast.

 

More to follow in the next post.