AeroSkobing

A bright warm calm  morning, and we resolved to do as little as possible. We have an interesting chat with the young chap who is working as a waiter here. He is a bright young man, who came to the island as a social worker working with young refugees. He had lots of insights into the rivalries between East and West Aero, and into the local way of life.

After sitting around for a while soaking up the view we went for a slow shuffle round the village, had a coffee in the town square, then visited the AeroSkobing museum. It wasn't as engaging as the Marstal maritime museum. The maritime museum seemed more connected and engaged with something ongoing, while the AeroSkobing museum had various bits and pieces of old stuff, and some interesting stories around objects that illuminated some aspect of the village's past, but all a bit fragmented and remote. AeroSkobing's heyday was sometime in the past, and its main business now seems to be tourism. Which has its own energy - it is great to see people like the proprietors of this hotel rescuing a decaying place and building a vibrant business.

We wandered down to the waterfront and had freshly smoked mackerel, potato salad and a glass of Aero ale for lunch, while watching the engaging spectacle of people manoeuvring their boats in the confined space of the inner harbour. We saw a French motor cruiser have a close encounter with the ferry - which looks like it doesn't stop for anything.

Anne wanted to see if she could find out more about Rasmussen, the painter whose work we first encountered yesterday. After consultation with the local Tourist information, she decided to catch the bus back to Marstal to try the museum there.

While she was gone I walked a bit of the Archipelago Trail. I was hoping to get as far a mediaeval castle mound around the coast, but I miscalculated the timing and had to turn back before I got to it. It was a nice walk though, along the side of fields of young wheat, interspersed with poppies, Queen Anne's lace and corn flowers, with views over the rolling hills out over the sea. I have a theory that Danish horses are more reserved than Australian horses - I could not break through the reserve of these two.

Late afternoon the weather turned chilly. We hadn't booked and the restaurant was full, so we had a glass of wine and an excellent pizza on the terrace, getting only mildly frozen.

We have to pack up again and leave tomorrow. I think I could happily spend quite a bit of time here. There is plenty more to see and do, and, even better, it is a great place to do not much.

Aeroskobing and Marstal.

This morning, after a lovely breakfast on the veranda of the hotel, we went for a bit of a shuffle round the village, trying to get some pictures that would do justice to the magic of this place. Some of the buildings are so tiny, only shorter persons could live in them.

Next, we caught the free bus to Mastal, situated at the eastern end of the island, about 8 kilmetres as the crow flies, 12 by bus thanks to the circuitous route. The bus squeezes down some tny streets, seemingly with millimetres to spare, but we made it without scraping anything. Marstal is a pretty place, perhaps not quite as quaint as AeroSkobing, but still with many narrow streets and pretty houses. Hygge is big, and every window seems to have model boats or wooden birds or some artful object displayed.

After lunch we headed down to the Maritime museum. We didn't have great expectations, but it turned out to be quite remarkable and surprising. A very varied collection of objects nautical, lovingly displayed and cared for. It included a collection of work by J.E.C.Rasmussen, a 19th century Danish nautical theme of painter who lived in Marstal. He visited Greenland several times, and some of his work is a very humane depiction of life there. He apparently disappeared over the side of a boat returning from Greenland. We had never heard of him but we liked his work.

We had a very enjoyable couple of hours there. Our only difficulty, apart from the lack of English captions, was our inability to find the exit. To navigate through the maze like collection of rooms and buildings one had to follow red arrows painted on the floor. We followed arrows up stairs, through spaces constructed to look like ships, wove through street scapes with reconstructed shop fronts, startled ourselves multiple times coming upon life like figures in period costume, and all the time, the departure time for the bus was drawing closer. At last we came to a courtyard and there was a door with a not particularly conspicuous sign saying "udgang" . I thought "Exit" was an international standard, but obviously not in Marstal. A really fun museum though.

But we sprinted down and caught the bus with minutes to spare. Back in AeroSkobing, we walked over to the Vesterbro - the Western beach, and enviously admired the row of charming beach huts there. A bit like the bathing boxes at Brighton, there are restrictions - on size, no plumbing, no staying overnight. But most of them are done up really nicely - lots of hygge again. I would love to transport one home to put in the backyard.

We had dinner in a shop that sells freshly smoked fish, and ate at table watching the going on of life in the harbour. A new lot of cruising boats in, tonight some sort of group of five yachts who must cruise in convoy. We visited one of the "bog bix" which seem to dot the island. These are honesty box second hand book stalls, in a variety of locations. This one was in the Aero winter bathing club room on the breakwater. While Anne selected her book, I examined the photos of club members swimming off the nearby steps, covered not by gentle sunshine as today, but by snow, and the water filled with clumps of ice. Impressive. Even more impressive was the absence of a lock on the door of the club building - it says something about what a benign peaceful place this is.

We can hardly believe we have been here for little more than 24 hours. I realise that I really like islands. And this is a particularly nice one.

Aero

Last night we were a bit later than usual getting out for dinner, and it took us a while to find somewhere that wasn't a)full and b)too expensive/trendy. The meat market area, with the food trucks, tables, benches packed with young Danes, and thumping party music, was a bit dismal, sort of like a film set for a gritty European movie. The darkening sky as rain approached didn't help.

So we were glad to find a table in a restaurant we had eaten at before, and get a reasonable dinner inside as the skies opened. But we felt a bit frazzled by the time we got home, and not sorry to be having a break from big city Copenhagen.

This morning we caught two trains, then a ferry, to get to Aeroe, each step a bit more relaxed than the last, till we stepped off onto the wonderfully picturesque island village of AeroSkobing. After checking in, we went for a shuffle round the village, and could not help but be charmed by the quaint cottages, lovely gardens, and little cobbled streets - it really is picture postcard.

Our hotel is old fashioned and a bit funky, but the couple who bought it a year ago are working away rennovating it. The restaurant is a key thing they have focused on, and it is a big hit, excellent food, and clearly the word has got out, for it was packed. What a difference 24 hours makes - sitting at dinner here looking out over the water we felt about 1000 percent better than last night.

After dinner we went for a walk around the dock area, with a smattering of cruising yachts and some larger boats that look like they run cruises for teenagers - guessing by the groups of teenagers sitting rather mournfully on the decks. The harbour is set up very nicely for visiting yachts though, with a very solid building with woodfired  barbeques, plenty of power hookups, nice facilities block, and even a second hand book shop. I think this would be grand sailing territory, with lots of little islands and lots of anchorages. A fair bit of wind too I suspect.

We are very happy to be somewhere so beautiful, and so relaxed. This is a sort of holiday from travelling, and I think we have chosen the right place for it. 

Roskilde

This morning we got down to the station reasonably early, bought a couple of all day tickets, and caught the train to Roskilde, site if the World Heritage listed Domkirke, and of the Viking ship museum. We got there before 10, and it was lovely to be somewhere a bit quieter. We enjoyed the stroll down the main Street, looking in the shop windows, without the feeling that you were getting in the way of a crowd of pedestrians behind.

In the pavement outside the church was the familiar Camino St

Ymbol  a of the shell. A long walk to Santiago de Compostela from here. I wonder if people actually do it.

The Domkirke itself is built of brick, with details picked out in colourful paint, and as the burial place of royalty and of the rich and powerful, it is packed with over the top marble monuments. Some of the tombstones on the floor were both creepy and incomprehensible.

But there was also some great woodcarving, in the stalls lining the main altar. I really liked this lecture, representing Luke the evangelist.

After a while, someone started up the organ, playing churchy music, which drove us out soon after. We walked down the hill to the museum through a solid rain shower, and got there in time to find out that the boat tours were all booked up till 2.30. I had rather fancied the idea of rowing a Viking boat, but it was not to be. My advice for visiting Roskilde is get down to the museum early and first, and visit Domkirke second.

Notwithstanding, the Viking museum was fantastic. The whole enterprise of raising, documenting, preserving and presenting what is left of the five Skuldelev Viking boats is impressive, and is vividly recorded through videos, photos, the boats themselves and models, replicas, and the ongoing activity of boat building. The way they have made building replicas of the boats part of the museum, and the effort they go to get school kids to engage with this part of their heritage is really fantastic. There were groups of teenagers rowing and sailing, clearly having a great time.

While we were having lunch we watched two teachers with a group of tiny kids, maybe 5 or 6 Years old. With one of the people from the museum, the teachers and the kids all donned mediaeval looking hoods, then set off carrying swords, barrels and fur hides in a procession round to one of the boats. The kids were totally serious about it, as if they were loading up for a raiding party. I can't think of another museum I have seen that engaged kids so much.

By the time we were leaving it started to rain again and we had a long wet stump back up the hill. One can see why the Vikings chose this place for a fortified town - any attacking force would be totally stuffed by the time they got up the hill. We were anyway. We caught the train back to town, and headed home for a nice cup of tea and a lie down.

We are going to Aero tomorrow, which I am sure will be nice, but we are feeling a bit weary of packing. Anne is on strike packing wise. But I guess the adrenaline will kick in and that will get us out the door.

Copenhagen laundromat and museum

According to the mythology of the local bronze age people, a horse pulled the sun in a chariot up into  a the sky. Horse did a good job  a this morning, a beautiful sunny Sunday morning here, and after breakfast Anne was for a quiet morning, and I was good for a bit more exploration, so I volunteered to take our washing to the nearest laundromat, a couple of kilometres away. I unboxed the Brompton, and set off with washing loaded into its wonderful front T bag, joining the sedate flow of morning cyclists. I found the laundromat no worries, but once again dismally failed the laundromat IQ test.

First mistake, which cost me 24 DKK, was to select and pay for an out of order machine. Second mistake was to assume that the machine did both wash and spin - in fact there is a separate centrifuge machine for that. Third mistake was failing to grasp how the drier worked. It said 1 kroner for 48 seconds, but you had to press the button for each 48 seconds you wanted. Put in 10 DKK, press 10 times. Luckily nice Danish people in the laundromat helped me at each conceptual hurdle I floundered on, but I was a bit addled by the end of it all. Getting lost when I went for a ride while the washing cycle was in progress didn't help my confidence.

But, I made it back home with a bag of warm clean clothes, so it was overall a successful outing. After lunch we decided to have a look at the Nationalmuseet. I must confess we chose it because it was close by, but it turned out to be excellent. Those Danish bogs are terrific at preserving elements of the material culture of Bronze Age people's, and there are things like the clothes of the Egtved Girl 1370 BC - if you saw a teenager in the street today wearing them, it would not be too unusual - wooden shields, axe handles still with flint axe embedded, cauldrons, and even a finely detailed cart - the Dejbjerg Wagon - complete with much of it original decoration. And a fantastic model of a horse pulling the sun - the Sun Chariot. And some seriously good hoards. Really wonderful stuff, and well presented. A great Museum highly recommended.

We liked the curation style here, and enjoyed the more contemporary exhibits too, including the last hash stall from Pusher Street in Christiania Free Town. It is strange though to see clothes and artifacts in an exhibition context that we remember people wearing and using.

We also collected our tickets for the trip to Aero, so all in all a good, quiet day. Just as well as we are a bit travel weary at the moment.

Copenhagen Walk

This morning we enjoyed the very welcome luxury of a sleep in. The hotel puts breakfast supplies, like yoghurt and cheese, in the fridge, stocks up the coffee machine, and in the morning, a nice paper bag appears on hooks attached to the door, filled with some fresh rolls and pastry. And a weird Danish English language newspaper that seems oblivious of anything happening in the world.

We had a leisurely breakfast and slowly got ourselves organised and out the door. A beautiful morning in Copenhagen. We strolled along, beside the canal that runs round Castle Island, filled with kayakers, very sleek clinker built rowing boats - descendents of Viking boats for sure - and huge tour boats so long it seemed impossible that they could navigate the bends and low bridges. We sat in the sun admiring the statue of St Absolom, clad in armour, the legendary founder of the city. 

We  perused the offerings of an "antique market" which looked more like a car boot trash and treasure, the found our way over to Nyhaven canal, a stretch of canal lined with picturesque wooden sailing boats, flanked by outdoor restaurants, and packed this Sunny Saturday, with tourists and locals out to enjoy the day.

After lunch we walked back along a pedestrian only street which was also thronged with people out and about. Must be good for business, and the stores lining the street looked shiny, and high end. No trod two dollar shops. With plenty of impressive and what was to us new architecture and monuments. We liked the stork fountain, complete with a live pigeon on top - a nice addition.

A big walk by the time we got home we felt like we had a better idea of the city. We rested up for a few hours, booked our next train tickets for Tuesday, then headed out for dinner into our local neighbourhood, Vesterbro. We tried BOB, which was friendly and was in a great spot for watching the local Danes sailing by on their bicycles. Hundreds of people, and not one in Lycra. Plenty of high heels though. Our scientific sample (ok we got sick of counting after 12) confirmed our impression that there are more female than male cyclists.

We hit the supermarket, and I realised how tired I was yesterday and how much better I feel after a good night's sleep and a low key day.  We walked home via what is shown on the map as a "Food Market" - lots of stalls and tents and food trucks, with benches packed with young Danes and a thumping sound system. They sure know how to have a good time.

We are settling into our neighbourhood, described as "little Paris" in a brochure we picked up today. There sure is a lot going on here.

Copenhagen

We were up early and after a disorganised breakfast service - I thought Germans were supposed to be good at organising things - we were glad to get down onto the train platform in the early morning sun. Once again, I stood where the minutely detailed diagram said our carriage would stop, and once again it turned out to be 100 metres off. But we got our luggage stowed, and settled in for another 5 and a half hour trip.

One thing we hadn't picked up on was that a section of the journey was by ferry. The train pulled up at a very sea side sort of place. There was a mother seagull who had three small seagull chicks running round on the track next to the train. From the rust on the rails I guess no train has gone along there for a while, but it looked like an exposed spot to raise a family.

We all had to pile out for the 45 minute ferry trip across, but it was a nice change of pace, and a chance to have some lunch.

We decided to spring for a first class ticket way back when we booked, and as more and more people squashed into the second class carriages as we went along, it proved to be a good idea. We arrived at Copenhagen central station in reasonably good shape, though I managed to get ten times more Krona from the cash machine than I meant to, so obviously my brain wasn't working too well by that time. I unfolded the Brompton, loaded up our luggage, and wheeled us to our hotel, not too far from the station without too much navigational embarrassment. The hotel is nice- Anne says it is very hygge (a word which I am determined to learn how to pronounce before I leave Denmark) - and there are lots of cool looking places to eat nearby. I liked the look of Chicky Bar, Anne liked BOB - Biodynamic Organic Bar. We can try both out before we go.

Copenhagen seems like a very relaxed sort of city, with a young and seemingly well heeled population. It is eye wateringly expensive though. Basic glass of wine A$15, basic main $30+ - I will be drinking beer while I am here. I suspect the wodge of Krona I accidentally extracted will not last us too long.

But we are very glad to be here - a totally new place to explore.