Northern Denmark

This past Saturday I traveled up to the north end of Denmark to visit Helsingør and then took a short ferry over to Helsingborg, Sweeden. I traveled by train, which was neat. Here are a few pics from the adventure.




This is Haven Cafe, where I stopped for lunch and enjoyed Danish meatballs with bread, pickled beets, and sweet pickles. Good people at Haven Cafe.



This is Kronborg Castle, famous for being the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the play, the castle is referred to as Elsinore (like Helsingør).

I elected not to pay the 100 DKK ($20) they wanted to see the rooms in the castle because I'll be visiting another castle soon that's supposed to be much nicer.

After walking around Helsingør a little bit more (and finding a glorious cheese shop that I wish I had taken a picture of and that I bought some Old Amsterdam cheese from) I took a ferry over to Sweden (which I have only recently discovered is spelled Sweden and not Sweeden) (sorry, I know I'm going a little parenthesis-happy right now). For some reason in Denmark, it costs about 40 Kroner for a beer, but only 47 Kroner to buy a round trip ferry pass to Sweden. Here are some pics from Helsingborg.



Apparently there are a lot of folks in Sweden who don't like Israel. They were yelling a lot so I quickly took this pic and left.



Later on the riot crew left and so I was able to climb the steps that they had been standing on. This is the view from the top. You can see Denmark in the background, across the water.



What's that, you wish you could experience the view from up there? Perhaps this will help.



Ok, that's all I have time for right now. Tomorrow, I'll post about Weinerbrød!

So Far, So Good

Hej! Greetings from Copenhagen (pronounced Kobenhown). I've been here for three days now and am starting to feel settled in. I'm living on the outskirts of Copenhagen in a town called Gammel Holte. The office is about 1.5 miles from home so I'm taking the bus for the first time since middle school. This bus is much nicer.

I'm living with a Korean family here called the Ryu's (ayuken!). Yunseong, the father, works for B&K and deals with acoustic solutions such as material testing and beamforming. His wife, who's name escapes me, and his son, Ji Hun, are both great. Ji Hun is 14 and is my guitar apprentice. He also serves as translator sometimes.

I arrived on Sunday morning and slept part of the day. Around 4pm I went out for a walk with the Ryu's so that I could see Dr. Per Bruel's (one of the founders of Bruel and Kjaer) house and also stop by the house of Søren Gregerson, who will be working with me these next several weeks. On the way we actually ran into Dr. Bruel! This cat is 94 and still rockin. He walks around the neighborhood with his "walking sticks" (they looked more like ski poles to me). Here are are some pics from the walk.


Misty, grey, serene, surreal


Dr. Per Bruel and myself


Dr. Per Bruel, Yunseong Ryu, and myself

I wish I had taken some pictures at Søren's house. It is 250 years old and as cozy as.....well, as a 250 year old furnace-warmed danish house. Søren proudly described his hip new furnace which burns compacted wood pellets and has digitally controlled temperature. We took off our coats and scarves and sat down to hot tea, coffee, and some thin sandwich cookies that I can't really describe but were amazing. We talked there for a while and then headed home.

I'm thinking maybe this weekend I will go visit Kronborg Castle in Helsingør. This is the Danish castle famous for being the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet. A few miles down the road and across the Øresund from Helsingør is Helsingborg, Sweeden. I'll probably try to see both towns on Saturday.

Maria Sharapova Would Be Proud

Recently I bought a Canon Powershot Digital Camera to take to Denmark with me (for those who don't know, I leave Jan 10 to work in Copenhagen for 6 weeks). I was playing around with the camera and ended up taking this picture. I don't know too much about photography, but there's something I like about this pic. And it's not just Tebow.



So anyway, now that I have a camera, look for plenty of pics from Copenhagen.