saturday

this morning... a race! 

somewhere in copenhagen.  near the concert hall.  and this musical note... 

we were supposed to get a tour of the concert hall (which is not the building behind the note), but it fell through maybe.  just fine.  i imagine (not in the reality sense but in the daydream sense) that someday greg and i will go to a concert there and see it up close without kids.  the architecture and acoustics are supposed to appeal to the audience.

jon and persille and their children found some car seats and stuffed the burley into the trunk of their station wagon and brought us to the race.  a 5k.  fairly informally organized.  no numbers, no medals, no one keeping time.  but enthusiastic organizers and home baked goods at the end of it all.

on a small canal bordered by apartments, a technical university, and t.v. studios.

organized warm up...

i learned recently that stretching before exercise doesn't help and doesn't hurt.  but warming up isn't a bad idea.  

a cultural difference greg and i both noticed... this car, which shouldn't have been driving through the starting line of the race, drove through the starting line of the race.  this happens in the u.s. too, of course, but in this group at least, all of the racers promptly (as in, a good 10 seconds before necessary) made way and then good naturedly applauded the driver...  rather than standing in his way until the following second's only two options become moving or ending up on the underside of a car... and then banging on the windows or giving the driver defiant looks... what we imagine would happen in the good ole' u.s.   

 and the car goes through and the race begins!

greg is the only one pushing a large contraption in front of him so he stays toward the back of the crowd until it thins out.  and then they round the corner and i go watch the swans for a bit.

with one of their five kids.

keeping a close eye on me...

and i show you a close-up of a typical bicycle used in copenhagen, used to transport kids, and, probably groceries...

city forest...

then i go back and eat my oatmeal and watch the 10k runners (who began the race a few minutes earlier than the 5kers) trickle in to begin the second leg of their run... 

but then, not far behind, the first of the 5k group...

through a fluke, because jon and persille's son, who was far ahead as the leader, made a wrong turn, making william and henry, and then greg, the first to cross the finish line.

mercifully, henry, who typically cannot tolerate riding in a car, fell asleep on the way home, and unfortunately, so did william, who is now struggling to fall asleep as i write this at 9:15.

after the car ride: two firsts in denmark-- greg got a truly expensive haircut and william rode his bike to the grocery store, along the, fortunately, calm streets of himmelev.

we made a pizza for dinner-- if you're going to do this, i would recommend adding finely chopped garlic and capers to the top of it.  delicious!