ROOTS - not the movie - 6

      The second full day in Denmark came to an end, it was very good, the sun set, "the third day".

A late evening sunset in June 2007 in Denmark.

     Today is going to be just about as busy as yesterday. We are going to visit the little village where one of my aunts, my mothers sister, and her husband and two children lived, we are going to a town where we used to go on school field trips as well as the village where we lived for a while and from where I have my first conscious memories. We are also going to see if we can find my God Parents, now well up in years. We will go by my maternal grandparents old house and other places where I spent time as a child.

     After a good breakfast the Toyota is cranked up and off we go. First to the tiny village of Petersvaerft (Petersværft) which means Peters Wharf - http://www.visitdenmark.nl/nl/denmark/petersvaerft-gdk615123
Here my aunt lived with her husband, and I can't remember his name, and their twin sons. My uncle was a game warden and caretaker for Peter's Gaard (Peter's Farm) except this place is no little farm as measured in Denmark; 450 hectares / 1112 acres of farmland and 1050 hectares /  2595 acres of forest. http://www.darlington.dk/page215.html - http://www.vordingborg.dk/Everest/Publications/Afdelinger/Institution%20Lokalarkiverne/20090428100736/CurrentVersion/Petersgaard.pdf
Most of the links I find are in Danish so you will have to use Google Translate to get the text in English.

     While on summer vacations at my maternal grandparents house which was only a few kilometers away my brother Max and I would spend a lot of time at Petersværft, mostly because Ulvsund (Wolf Sound) was right there, and my uncle had a nice rowboat which we would row in the sound and sometimes borrowing my aunts sheets, we would row up wind and sail downwind. The forest was full of wild life, deer, rabbits, birds and it was truly a place for boys to explore. In addition, the bike ride from "mormor and morfars" house was a treat - the last bit of road was rather steeply down hill with a series of "steps" and one can build up considerable speed before getting to the bottom and a hard left turn.  If you go to google earth and zoom in on 54 deg. 58 min 14.39 secs N and 12 deg. 04 min 30.00 sec. E and you will see Petersværft, including the road and the pier or wharf. My aunt lived in the house right on the corner.

       Here are a few photos from the area.

In this building a lot of the wood used on the sailing ships built at
 in Petersværft the late 1700's and into the 1800's began to take shape here.

 A typical house in Petersværft. My childhood home looked like this

before the present owner removed the walls and replaced them with brick.

 Norma wondering if we could buy something like this?

An absolutely idyllic setting.

What peace there is in small places like this.

 



       Now it is off to Vordingborg, a city of some size, by Danish standards, with a population of not quite 12,000 in the city but about 46,000 in the general area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vordingborg,_Denmark  -  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/632857/Vordingborg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vordingborg
The city is old and is the home of Vordingborg Castle (ruins) and the Goose Tower (Gåsetårnet) which was a field trip from time to time from Horbelev Skole. We enjoyed the time here, not so much for the history but for a day away from school and a time to explore and play around. Therefore Norma had to see this very old piece of important Danish history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vordingborg_Castle

       What remains of the old "Vording Borg" is a large hill, some of the moat, a few ruins of walls and the famous Goose Tower http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A5set%C3%A5rnet
http://www.360cities.net/image/goose-tower#224.60,-3.30,55.3
http://www.visitmoen.com/ln-int/denmark/gasetarnet-gdk615135
There are many legends and stories about the Goose Tower, the golden goose on top of the tower and the attempts to steal it, including by the Nazi's during WWII. The goose is now made out of another metal and is not nearly as desirable. The grounds of the old fortress also holds a botanical garden.
A short walk across the grass of the fortress one finds Vor Frue Kirke (The Church of Our Lady), meaning the church dedicated to the Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Theotokos. This church was completed about 1460, during what in Denmark is "politically correct" called the Catholic period, since the Protestant period didn't officially begin until 1536 when the King of Denmark established the Church of Denmark, just as a famous character established the Church of England. Originally the Church of Denmark was Catholic in all but obedience to the Roman Pontiff, but that changed with influx of the teachings of Martin Luther, and the country slowly but surely became Lutheran or as Danes say, protestant.
http://www.vordingborgkirke.dk/
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=vor+frue+kirke+vordingborg&qpvt=vor+frue+kirke+vordingborg&FORM=IGRE
http://www.vordingborgkirke.dk/vor-frue-kirke/

      Here are our photos from Vordingborg fortress, Goose Tower and the church.

 Gaasetaarnet (Goose Tower) in the background.

 Norma resting on a section of the old wall,

about 654 years old the day the photo was taken.

 The view out of one of the windows of the tower,

note the steep ground and the moat in the center.

The walls of the tower are immensely strong,

just look how thick they are.

The tower viewed from the "attackers" point of view,

from outside the moat.

 



Inside Vor Frue Kirke. Note the separation of the

sacred from the profane, which has been maintained.

 

      It is time for us to see if we can find where my godparents live. I have not seen them since 1989 and then they were living in their own home, now they are in a small apartment somewhere in the town. They don't know we are coming because we didn't have a telephone number. As luck would have it we found them and were invited in for coffee and some refreshments. We had a good couple of hours with conversation about the old days. After I went to sea they would always come to my parents house on my birthday and the day would be celebrated in my absence. Both have gone to their eternal rewards, Inge a few years ago and Anselm last year so I am glad I got to see them both.

Anselm, my godfather, to the left and Inge, my godmother, in the middle and

yours truly to the right. The scary part is that they do not look much older than I do.

 

     From there it is time to go to Oerslev (Ørslev)

http://www.stad.com/index.php?city_id=2615666#photos  

a small village where we lived for a few years and it is from here that I have my first conscious memories. My parents were managers of the forsamlingshus for a number of years - (literally translated it means "gathering house" or "meeting house"). This is the location with facilities that people would rent for weddings, anniversary celebrations, etc., in other words, proper celebrations where a multiple course menu was made, proper dinner settings made (no paper plates, plastic ware or similar). Waiters and waitresses were hired and everyone showed up proper attire for an evening of celebration. This location was or perhaps still is used after funerals for "grav oel" - the celebration of the life of the dead person - celebrated with among other things dark beer - grave beer.

The Forsamlingshus as it looks today or did in 2007.

 

      The various website pictures that I looked at show the buildings looking the same as the above photo. We lived in the wing on the left and on the second floor and the kitchen, bathrooms are on the first floor and banquest hall in the wing at right. The staircase at the end of the building I remember well; I must have been about 4 1/2 years old when I took a backwards tumble off of the stairs, there was no railing then, and hit the back of my head on the sidewalk. I remember bleeding profusely and getting my mother all upset. It was also in this house that Max and I first did the blaming the other for something we both did. I do not remember the particular incident but we have heard about it many times.

It appears that there was to be a gathering of some importance at the forsamlingshus one morning, which would involve breakfast and a lot of "Danish Pastry" which in Denmark is called Vienna Bread (Wienerbrod - Wienerbrød). We are told that it was sitting on the counter of the kitchen to be sliced, however many pieces, but we understand there was quite a bit. It appears that prior to slicing we got into it, each eating from one end, and never quite making it to the middle, but having eaten enough to cause some concern for there being enough for the gathering; never mind the state of our stomachs'. When we were asked who did this we supposedly pointed at each other and said "he did". We were about 4 years old at the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_pastry

 

Here is a link to the forsamlingshus, which dates back to 1889 so in 2007 it was 118 years old.  http://www.orslevforsamlingshus.dk/index.php/billeder

 

      To the left of the buildings is a large parking lot, which has now been paved over, but back in the "good old days" it was a gravel lot, and a boy that lived on a farm behind the forsamlinghus and I would have epic battles on that parking lot with our tin soldiers, long before plastic, and in one of those battles my soldiers lost and were buried under the gravel of the parking lot. As far as I know, they are still there, just waiting for someone to come by with a metal detector to discover them and dig them up. The one and only time I have been bitten by a dog was a dog from this farm as well; I was walking up the lane one evening and apparently startled one of the dogs and it bit me pretty seriously in the leg.

The lane that leads to the farm where I and Max had friends.

The forsamlingshus is just out of sight to the right.

 

      To my left in the above picture is an interesting old house with walls that are almost 3 foot / 91 cm thick. This house was also used a weapons house and later as well as a residence for the pastor of the church. when we lived in the forsamlingshus the church ground caretaker lived in the house picture below with his family. We also played with those children. In the late 60's I remember visiting there one time while home between ships.

     

      This building is from between 1450 and 1490 and is now used for storage.

 

Behind the wall is the church yard (grave yard) and the church itself. We took a few pictures inside the church.

 

 The entrance to the Sanctuary.

 

A view down the nave of the church.

the raised ambo (Prædike stol - the preaching chair) to the right.

 

The Altar with the Menora and a

depiction of Christ after being taken down from the cross.

 

Like most churches in Denmark this one, dating from the mid 13th century, has a lot history, being from before the Protestant period, in other words, when the country was Catholic. The red building in front, now a storage room, is just 200 years younger.

http://www.visitdenmark.nl/nl/denmark/orslev-kirke-gdk615138





http://www.oerslevkirke.dk/index.php?id=1648

       Two more stops today; a visit to an aunt, my mothers sister and as far as I knew back then, the only one of that side of the family still alive among the aunts and the one uncle. We have her address but she does not know we are coming; she will be surprised.
We showed up and knocked on the door and there was an older version of Moster (aunt - mothers sister) Ruth and when I told her that I was Gunhild's son Allan she said "Hold da kaeft", in other words "Oh, shut up". I had not seen Moster Ruth since 1975 or perhaps earlier than that. Again, more coffee and cookies and conversation;

 Aunt Ruth Larsen

Nephew and Aunt.

 

      I should add that Aunt Ruth husband Frederik had a blacksmith shop, back in the days when there were real blacksmiths. He also repaired farm machinery, bicycles and other odds and ends. They had, next to the blacksmith shop a gas station, one of those old gas pumps where people told you how many liters they wanted and one pumped that amount up into the glass with a hand pump, and then dispensed it into the tank of the car or motor cycle. Our uncle often patched our bicycle tires when we were vacationing at Mormor and Morfars house; our next stop for today.

 

     Some of my fondest summer memories are from mormors and morfars house or little farm, since morfar farmed a few acres, had a few cows, one horse and a few pigs as well as chickens and ducks.

Max and I would ride our bicycles from Bregninge, cross on the ferry, bicycle across the island of Bogø, then across the island of Møn, cross the bridge between Møn and Sjaelland (Sjælland), through small village of Kalvehave (Calf garden) past the large estate known as the Hovdinggaarden (The Chiefs Farm) and up the tree lined lane to my maternal grandparents house which was first on the left. For a couple of boys, probably no more than 8 or 9 years old when we first started doing it, it was quite an adventure. The bike route was, one way, 25.6 miles / 41.2 km. Mom would pack each of us a lunch and we would have something to drink and off we went to return 10 to 14 days later. If we had flat tires along the way we would go to the nearest house, knock on the door and tell them of our dilemma. As far as I remember that only happened once, and the couple that lived there, wherever it was and whoever they were, fixed the tires and gave each of us a soft drink, something we rarely received.

It looked just as I remembered, not having been there since 1975.

 

      Mormor and morfar have long since left this life, first morfar and a few years later mormor, and I do not know who lives in the house now because there was nobody home. Why do I have such good memories from this place? For a number of reason; first it is on a little travelled lane, second there were farm animals, third there were plenty of berry bushes as a windbreak, fourth there was forest within 150 meters, and in this forest was an old Viking grave which had been excavated.

     

      I remember waking up in the mornings to two very distinct sounds, not counting the rooster. The sound of the birds and the wind in the trees, but also of mormor pumping pressure into the tank of her kerosene stove. Yes, the house had no electricity, it had kerosene lamps, a kerosene stove as well as a wood burning stove, it had no indoor plumbing but a well with a good old fashioned hand pump and each morning Max and I would go out and pump two buckets of water. Then we would have a great breakfast of something. Dinner was almost always followed by Æbleskiver, mormor simply made the best. Here is the link so you should try them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86bleskiver



 http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Aebleskiver/

 

     We would spend each day exploring the forest, or riding our bicycles to Peters Wharf and row the boat there, or visit my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Frederik, as well as help mormor and morfar. We would be tasked with moving the cows once or twice a day so the grass would have a chance to grow taller.

One other memory of this location is the outhouse, which was a "two seater" and the toilet paper was yesterdays news paper and magazines. One always hoped that the paper was not glossy. They had an old RCA Victrola which we had great fun with, including the old wax records which made fantastic Frisbee's but they didn't generally survive the landing. The first summers we visited our "morbror" (mothers brother) still lived at home, since he was only about 5 or 6 years older than us. He later joined the airforce so we had the place to ourselves.

The kitchen window is on the right, and I assume the other smaller

window is also to the kitchen but I can't remember.

 

      Since the place was empty we went off to find the old Viking grave in the forest but didn't find it. It appears that my memory was a bit off. We did hike down the forest lane and at one point was a strange sound coming from the side of the road but we didn't see anything so we kept going. What we did find was the hill we would snow ski on and learn how to turn, after the school of hard knocks had me run into a tree. The forest had been seriously damaged by heavy winds in the late 1970's and a great deal of it was knocked down but it is making a comeback. The last time it suffered seriously was during winter of 1941 (during WWII). It was a very severe winter and the sap would freeze in the trees and make the crack. Mormor and morfar, as well as my mother, would tell us of the large "cannon fire" like sounds and they were always concerned the Germans occupying that part of Denmark were busy shooting at somebody, but it was the trees simple splitting as the sap expanded when freezing.

 Not the Viking grave hill, but a hill never the less.

We snow skied down this hill on Uncle's skies.

 

     On the way back to the car we decided to check the source of the strange sound, and as we got really close we heard it again; it was a little fawn calling for its mother, and Norma told me we better get out of there because "mom" might just be upset when she comes back.

The fawn calling for "mom"

Norma walking on the forest lane.

 

     Another day comes to a close. We have seen a lot and had some good visits. Time to go back to Frank and Lone's house.

 

More to follow in the next post.







 





A side trip to the vegetable garden

      We haven't looked at the vegetable garden in quite a while, which may actually be a good thing, because there wasn't much to see.

     It seems that when we are at home during the summer and there is an adequate amount of rain, natural, or an adequate amount of rain, artificial as in watering from the rain barrels the garden does OK, even when we have to resort to using the "good" City of Houston water containing chlorine and all sorts of other chemical additives to make it "healthy".

      But when we are away for extended periods of time, last year one month, this year five weeks, and it doesn't rain, even though someone has been put in charge of the garden and instructed, very specifically, in what to do it doesn't do well. Such was the case last year and this year.

      The tomatoes withered for lack of water, the cucumbers shriveled up for the same reason; there were "canyons" in the dirt big enough to drive the biggest Caterpillar Mining Truck into each one, all for lack of water, rain or otherwise. Only one "scrawny" looking cherry tomato plant did its best to put out a few tomatoes. The pepper plants, on the other hand, seem to be thriving as do the onions, both the white and the bunching type, and earlier in the year I did have a good harvest of carrots and garlic bulbs.

      Yesterday, I pulled all the tomato plants and cucumber plants, but I left the pepper plants alone.
Among the peppers are Large Red Bell Pepper, Anaheim, Yellow Banana, Habanera's, Jalapeno and Yellow Bell Pepper. I also tilled the soil where possible and planted a fall garden; radishes, broccoli, turnips, red cabbage, carrots, red beets, baby choi cabbage and I am even trying for another batch of cucumbers since we live in growing zone 9 very near the Mexico Gulf coast, where it rarely freezes and we can plant fall crops and early spring crops into October and early November.

      Here are a few photos of how the vegetable patch, my "back 40", looked like after the work over of yesterday.

ROOTS - not the movie - 5

     The first full day in Denmark came to and end and it was good. The second day is all laid out,
visit the old home where I grew up, visit an old friend from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. grade, visit the old school, visit the place where I used to go after school to work on the fishing boats, take a ferry ride on the sister ship (ferry) to the one I was on when I at the age of 9 decided I wanted to go to sea.

      Off we go in my sister-in-laws little Toyota, we cross the man made "landbridge" between Moen (Møn) and Bogoe (Bogø) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog%C3%B8 and drive to the ferry landing at the village of Bogø.

      Bogoe has an old windmill http://www.moellearkivet.dk/bjerreby-mlle4  The link is in Danish so use Google Translate to read it.

       In Bogoe we board the old ferry for the long ride across Grønsund (literally translated it means Green Sound). The distance from the ferry landing at Bogoe to Stubbekoebing (Stubbekøbing) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stubbekobing    on the Island of Falster is all of 1.3 Nautical Miles / 1.5 Statute Miles / 2.42 Km. At a speed of say 7 knots (8.1 mph / 13 km) it takes the ferry from loading to landing is about 11 to 12 minutes.    

      The ferry we took this trip on was the IDA and I assume she is still the only ferry running on that route. I made my decision to go to sea on the sister ship (ferry) named, if I remember correctly, Gudrun. The Gudrun was built in the mid 50's. The Ida is just a bit younger otherwise they are / were identical. http://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark/bogo-stubbekobing-ferry-gdk615162
The above link has some nice pictures.

Yours truly thinking back to that day in what must have been
about 1954 when I was standing on a deck similar to this one
and decided that I wanted to go to sea. The trusted sister-in-laws Toyota in the back.

Norma is getting her sea legs on this "long" voyage across the "ocean".
Note she is dressed for Danish summer weather. It was a rather cool day.

      One of the things that are discovered that although we are now in the area where I grew up and rode my bicycle and went to the "big city" someone had made new roads, how dare they, and we could not find our way to the right road to go to Horbelev (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horbelev), the village where I went to school. We found a lady stopped outside a house and we asked her for directions - she said follow me, I live in Horbelev - and to this day I wonder if she recognized me because she added something curious; "I live in Dr. Rasmussen's old house and you are welcome to stop by for coffee." Did she purely on speculation assume that I would know who Dr. Rasmussen was, or did she recognize me but didn't identify herself. We will never know. Anyway, we followed her and entered the village on a road I recognized as we got closer. We thanked her profusely for the invitation but declined since we had a lot on our plate this day.

     First was a visit to and old friend from school, Ole and his wife. They live on the farm he grew up on although he no longer farms, and to get to the farm we had to drive through the village of Saerslev, Falster (http://www.stad.com/index.php?lat=54.8413&lon=12.057192). The link may not be the best but it does have some photos from the general area. As a child I lived in Saerselv for a couple of years and it was from there that I began 1st grade, walking to school in Horbelev, but it was only "uphill" on the way to school and "downhill" going home. So as a first grader I had to walk the enormous distance of a little over 1 km each way (0.6 miles). From our house, which was a rental house, to my friend Ole's house / farm was a great distance with a "big" hill in the middle was about the same distance. However, in the summer we could cut across the farm fields and shave some distance off.

Ole and his wife Alice in their den.

 
     We have, of course, gotten a bit (or perhaps a lot) older since we saw each other last in the late 50's. But the farm looked the same, the little allée from Falskerslev road to the farm house is not nearly as long as I remembered it, but it still had the majestic old oak trees lining it on both sides.
We had a nice visit reminiscing over old times. Ole played a bit of the violin that I remember his father played. Coffee, cake, snacks, conversation, remembering this or that.

      We had to move on because on today's schedule are a number of stops. The first one is Horbelev Skole where I went to school except for one year at Bregninge Skole and the last year at Jungshoved Skole. Here I did first grade and the other grades moving quickly through the grades. The school is no longer a public school in the proper sense of the word, having been purchased by a group of families so they can privately educate their children, in other words, home schooling in a real school setting.

 The building that housed first and second grade.

To the left but out of view is an apartment for a teacher,

in this case it was Mr. Jensen and his family that lived there.

 

The building that housed 3rd, 4th, 5th grade and the

administration office, the principal and two teachers had to administrate as well as teach.

In the wing at right were 6th, 7th and so on grades plus "home economics"

in the "attic" with a full kitchen and one or two teacher apartments.

Not visible but directly behind these buildings was the library (in the attic)

and the principals living quarters.

 

      It was nice to see the old school but difficult to connect because the people that were there were really to young to understand what it meant to have been a student there when Hr. (Mr) Nørgaard was principal and he taught art, chemistry, physics, botany, anatomy; Hr. Jensen taught math, language, English, history, gymnastics (we had real gymnastic not PE); Frk. (Miss) Andersen taught Danish, literature, music and I can't remember all the subjects and she had great looking legs; There were other teachers; among them Hr. Tambourg who taught the deep subjects as wells as woodshop and who also taught at Bregninge Skole, Frk. Jørgensen who drove the coolest car, a VW, a Carmen Ghia, which was the closest thing we got to see as a "hot" sports car because it was a convertible.  Memories!!!!

 

      After the school it was time to make a quick visit to an uncle through marriage, Onkel Einar who had married my mothers sister Lilly. Aunt Lilly died many years ago from lung cancer. She smoked like a chimney and when the cigarettes got to be too much she switched to cigars and when they "choked" her she began smoking pipe. We found his house but unfortunately he was not home. Uncle Einar died later that year but we did not find out until the following February.

       

      Off to my old home, the house I consider, to this day, HOME, the house I grew up in. It is located in the village of Bregninge. Again remember that thing about having to walk to and from school? Well, we did, but in Bregninge we had to walk  uphill both ways - for a distance of 2.4 km / 1.5 miles - come rain or shine or snow. For an explanation of the uphill both ways do a google maps search with topography and you will see that it is a fact. Most often we used our bicycles but with a fair amount of snow on the ground during winter we walked and enjoyed the walk. However, for the one year that I went to Bregninge Skole (2nd grade) it was a very short distance. There were two teachers at Bregninge Skole, Hr. Tambourg mentioned earlier and Frk. Voldom. Since this school only had 1st and 2nd grade and a big class would be 18 students their work was somewhat easy. Both lived in their respective apartments at the school. Hr. Tambourg with his wife and two daughters and Frk. Voldom was single.

 

     Since Frk. Voldom had received her Masters Degree in Heidelberg, Germany she also offered private classes in German and I studied with her, together with a large number of adults, for a number of years but never really had occasion to use the German I learned. Frk. Voldom also had a certain way to get students to attend church, the nearest church being Horbelev Kirke (church). Those who had detention were often given the option of going to church to "pump" the organ since she was the organist and it was an old bellows organ. Dare I say that I did this from time to time. http://www.danmarks-kirker.dk/lol_fal/horbelev_lol.htm     http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horbelev

 

     The old home was a bit of a disappointment, and it was the first instance of the realization that you cannot go "back home" because what one remembers and what actually exists now, has changed drastically. Whoever was the current owner of the house did not do the old home any favors. Having removed the old façade and the support beams and replaced all of it with brick it just didn't look quite the same.

The old house as it looked 6 years ago.

Same old house; where the wall is white was my parents bedroom.



The yard looks un-kept. Where the small tree is was a very large

cherry tree which would put out a lot of cherries each and every summer.

      We didn't find anybody home here so I could not show Norma the cubicle that Max and I called our room. We wandered across the street to an old farm there where there used to be two boys named Kaj and Tage, and guess what, their parents still lived so we had a short conversation. Again we were invited for coffee and cookies and goodies, but they day was getting short and we still had two more stops to make, Pomle Nakke (http://www.visitlolland-falster.com/ln-int/denmark/pomle-nakke-traktorsted-gdk615669) and Hesnaes (Hesnæs) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesn%C3%A6s.

 

     On the way out of Bregninge we had to stop by the village pond, which most if not all small Danish village have for in the "good old days" this is where the fire engines would drop their hoses to get water to put out fires. In the Bregninge Pond my Uncle Einar and my father build super house for ducks so they would be more comfortable in the winter.

 The pond in Bregninge with a typical old Danish village house in the back.

Another view of the pond and the island made by Uncle Einar

and my father on which the "duck house" was situated.

 

Each small village in Denmark did have or still has one of these ponds. In the "good old days" they would be used by the fire department to drop their hoses to get water to put out fires. This particular pond also supplied the village of Bregninge with water which was first run through the water works, filters, chlorine, and whatever else was put in the water to make it safe. This pond was also a great place to skate in the winter, except near the water works intake because the ice was always a bit thinner there, which we usually found out the "hard way".

 

When I was a child Bregninge had a co-op grocery store (Brugsforeningen), a butcher shop, an independent little grocer (Købmanden), a real carpenter shop and of course the school and there were most likely about 10 or 11 telephones in the village, it is now a "bedroom" community and the stores are closed

      Pomle Nakke http://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark/pomle-nakke-traktorsted-gdk615669 was a great place to go in the summer for ice cream and for an occasional but very rare"fancy dinner out". It is situated on cliffs and from what I understand it has been moved "inland" a couple of times to keep from falling into Oestersoen (Østersøen which literally translated means East Sea) which is generally known as the Baltic Sea. We just stopped because we didn't find anyone there but did walk around for a bit so Norma could have some idea of where I played as a child and the route taken by bicycle; from home to Pomle Nakke was about 3.8 km / 2.4 miles, and from there to Hesnaes was an additional 1.9 km / 1.2 miles, so 11.4 km / 7.1 miles for the roundtrip.

      Hesnaes Strand (beach) http://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark/hesnaes-strand-gdk738544 was and is among one of my favorite places in the world as is the little fishing harbor at Hesnaes Havn (http://marinas.com/view/marina/10763_Hesn%E6s_Havn__Denmark) which when I was a child was a rather busy little fishing port. I would make haste from school to home to drop my school bags and books and take off for Hesnaes knowing that just about everyday I would make it in time before one of the fishing boats went out to check their nets and I would go with them.

     Hesnaes is also know for a couple of very interesting houses which have survived to this day.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/66454601

Here are a few photos from the beach at Pomle Nakke and from Hesnaes.

 The rocky beach at Pomle Nakke. Note how steep the cliff is.

 A typical Danish summer day at the beach at Pomle Nakke.

Small fishing boats in Hesnaes Harbor. As a child I

used to work on boat like that, but back then they were

made out of wood and made men out of steel.

 

     The boats that I would go out on were owned by a man and his two sons. They had a number of people employed as well. In the small shack in the picture below they would stack the empty fish boxes and also clean the fish before they were boxed and shipped off to market in refrigerated trucks. The catch was most often flounder, cod and eel.

Remembering back "when" I would clean fish here

and come home smelling like fish.

 

     Occasionally a big fishing boat makes its appearance and this one did as if on cue.



      It brought back many memories; the smell of the saltwater, the smell of the nets (in those days nets were not made out of nylon, but were made out of natural materials and then often tarred to prevent rot. The sound of the one or two cylinder diesel engines in the boats. The engines were usually built by Hundested Maskinvaerk and were "hot bulb" engines with their distinct sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66t2Zl6w-Ic

      When the day comes that I go to my eternal rewards, whatever they may be, this is the place where I would very much like my ashes to be scattered, at Hesnaes Beach and in the harbor basin. I have great very much treasured memories from these two locations.

Up the coast a bit is the old Hestehoved Fyr (Horsehead Lighthouse) but we didn't take the time to drive to the lighthouse. When I was a child it was an annual picnic location; my mother prepared a lot of "open face sandwiches" and they were loaded into a picnic basket together with a proper table cloth, napkins, silverware, china and of course drinks. Then we would all get on our bicycles and ride to the lighthouse for a real picnic on its grounds. Back in those days the light was attended but I do not know if it is now.    http://www.fyrtaarne.dk/hestehoved.html
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/74222114
http://tjow.dk/Fyr/slides/g077.html

      The day is almost over and it is time to head back to Moen and to Franks house. We were expected to stop at the butchershop in Maglebraende for some steaks, but by the time we got there the shop was closed. We called Frank, on a borrowed cell phone, and gave him the bad news. Then we took the Farø bridge on the way back because the ferry had stopped running for the day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far%C3%B8_Bridges
      Frank and Lone went shopping while we were on the way back and when we got there the dinner was ready.

More to follow in the next post.

  

 

 

 

ROOTS - not the movie - 4

      As mentioned in the previous post day 2 in Denmark started out awfully early with a sunrise about 4:25 AM (GMT+1). After the usual hygiene duties and a nice Danish breakfast of more "real" bread, cold cuts, cheeses and coffee it was time to organize the day;

• Transportation - my sister in law Lone was then the owner of a nice small Toyota Land Cruiser, stick shift, 4 cylinder diesel engine and she offered it for our use while we were there. This is a little "jeep" type looking thing that would serve our purpose well. 
• Currency - we have US Dollars in the form of cash and traveler checks. Some of the traveler checks will have to be converted or cashed and turned into Danish Kroner so we need to go to a bank. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_krone )
• As a matter of urgency and therefore very important, I have not had a proper Rød pølse since 1989 or 18 years ago, so this is a must on this day. A Rød pølse (Red Sausage) is a hot dog, but the casing of the hot dog is distinctively red and crisp, served on a bun with mustard, dill, pickled cucumber, and other goodies.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B8d_p%C3%B8lse (PS - I haven't had one since that day and it was over 7  years ago, so have a certain amount of empathy for me.) Those of you who have enjoyed a real Chicago Hot Dog will have some idea of what this is all about.

  

  This is not a Rød pølse but the famous Chicago Hot Dog, this
  one enjoyed at a Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros Game
  at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

      Of we go, first to the gas station to fill this little Toyota up - and we are in for one "hell" of a shock. We knew that things were going to be expensive, but we had no idea.

      We pull right up the diesel pump, I insert my American Visa Card which the machine swallows and then on the display it says, in Danish of course "indtast pin kode", in other words, "enter pin number". We don't have pin numbers on our Credit Cards in the US, only on the Debit Cards.

      Now the &%$#*@ pump will not release my credit card, but my language will not add anything of value to this post. So off I go into the station and explain my dilemma to the attendant, a nice lady who happened to be Norwegian. She releases the card and informs me that she will override the pin code requirement, good news.

     Back to the pump, which has now released my card, and I begin pumping diesel into my sister in laws little bitty Toyota, surely this thing won't hold much past 10 gallons (37.84 liters). Well, if memory serves my correctly it held a couple of gallons more but of course the pump is not dispensing gallons but liters while the on the display the amount of kroner is rolling by at a fantastic speed.

      I am mentally trying to convert from Danish Kroner to US Dollars as we are pumping. At home, Houston Texas, gas prices were at that time about  $2.98 per gallon / $0.79 per liter and diesel about 12 to 15 cents per gallon more. It takes about, again at that time, about $37.00 to fill my little Subaru Forester up with gasoline. Being conditioned by that I note that my heart rate and blood pressure is rapidly increasing as we go $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, $20.00, $25.00, $30.00, $35.00, $40.00, $45.00, $50.00, $55.00, $60.00, $65.00, $70.00, $75.00, $80.00, $85.00, $90.00 - finally $92.00 - GET THE SMELLING SALTS OUT, please, we have to revive this man.

      Then off to the  bank to convert traveler checks into hard currency. Then off for the Røde pølse.

      My brother Frank and his wife live on the island of Moen (Møn) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B8n near the "big" town of Stege http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stege,_Denmark, the city in which we purchased the gas, exchanged the currency and ate the Røde pølser (plural).

      For some odd reason we didn't take any pictures this particular day most likely because I was in a state of chock after the gas station, or if we did they have been deleted.

       With the essentials out of the way, let us see what we can find of local attractions; there is Stege Vold, the old city wall made for protection against invaders. Most of the links I have been able to find are in Danish so I recommend copying the text into google translate to see what they say. This link has a nice photo of one of the old towers on the wall; http://www.geolocation.ws/v/P/44005765/road-to-stege/en 
and this link shows a good section of the wall and the moat; http://www.geolocation.ws/v/P/77182153/stege-vold-juli-2012/en
There is also the old commercial harbor which is now mostly a marina and being a former seafarer (Ship Captain) and a former sailboat owner I have a natural inclination to gravitate to all things marina and ports and boats.
http://www.vordingborg.dk/cms/site.aspx?p=23547
  
      Attached, if you will, to the island of Møn by a very narrow land bridge is the very small and old town of Nyord (New Word). This is a rather picturesque community (what did we do with the pictures), which is reached by a road along the beach. As with all small communities in Denmark, if you are on the coast, you have a small harbor basin and at one time Nyord was a busy fishing port. http://www.geolocation.ws/v/P/77184135/nyord-bygade-juli-2012/en

     After bumming around for awhile we headed back to my brothers house for dinner and an evening of great conversation about the "old days". It is important to remember that when I left home to go to sea in 1961 Frank had not yet started first grade in school so much of what I remembered he didn't remember at all.

 More to follow in the next post.