from the baltic!

actually, from roskilde!  but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.  i apologize to my daily-basis readers that the place i chose for us did not come equipped with internet access.  i might have used greg's smurf phone to compose something, but i am not quick with that little phone keyboard and it auto corrects like no one's business-- so much so that it probably would have autocorrected my user name rendering me unable to log in to blogger.  so... i took an unwitting threeyears vacation.  here is a brief recap... 

on friday after lunch we took a bus to the train station and from there caught a train to the island of falster, just south of sjælland, the island we live on.  henry fell asleep at the bus stop and stayed asleep through most of the train ride.  william occupied himself with the toys he'd packed in his backpack and shared them with a little boy who sat across from him... which is all to say, a relatively easy time.  we got off the train in nykøbing, falster, which is where greg's mom's grandfather lived until immigrating to the united states.  we toured as far as the train station parking lot where we caught a bus to marielyst-- a little resort town on the baltic.  i had wanted to find something for us in nykøbing, but what was satisfactory was not available (i.e. a little house in town) and what was available was not satisfactory (i.e. a hotel with too many breakable figurines).  

but we ended up in a little cabin a 30 second walk from the sea and a 20 minute walk to provisions.  a good find!

the path behind our house...

friday night, greg, kathy, and i walked to find food.  it was a holiday (general prayer day) which either meant everything was closed or, because this was a resort town and everyone was taking advantage of the day off, everything was opened.  we found a restaurant and went in.  the bartender told us of a small grocery store up the road so we went there and bought food for something along the lines of gumbo (no spices, but still a good meal).  

then, a walk on the beach... cool and overcast... 

which doesn't impact one's ability to throw stones into the water...

saturday was beautiful.  not as warm as previous days, but blue skies, which is almost as much as you need for a seaside vacation.

there is something about the sky here in denmark.  perhaps its proximity to the ocean. i don't know that you find these clouds in madison. do you?

and here... little henry, who might just wear that red jacket all year round...

but it does not stop him from filling up a bucket with sand... 

carrying it to his destination... 

and getting a little help with the water part... 

william and his grandpa spent much of the time building "a mucky old castle" while henry helped dig out the "lake of doom."  ahh, to have sons.

building a river... like father, like son...

happiness at the beach... 

next day... today... we packed up and went back to nykøbing, to their medieval center.  this, of course, was of great interest to william given the jousting contest, archery, condoned rock throwing activity, and the trebuchet launch.  

 and the geese...

throwing rocks at a target...

two trebuchets...

two littles...

one boat...

and with that, our baltic adventure has ended and we are back now, readying ourselves for the next.  tomorrow we leave early for billund, apparently known only for, or maybe created solely for... 

legoland! 

stay tuned... 

being

greg went to work.  the guys went to school.  not easy these days.  i don't know if the surprise trip to copenhagen was the tipping point or if that morning was a revelation for william about the extremes of his emotions surrounding school and saying goodbye, but everyday since has been a reliving of that morning.  i'm trying to look ahead to a year or two from now... when he has adjusted to this move and settled in... because right now it's hard not to think, "he would be so much happier right now if we were still living in madison."  there is more than happiness.  there is learning, growing, adapting, and just sort of 'being' in whatever your life experience happens to be... since it might happen to be something you would not have chosen or planned for.  still, it's hard to watch him go through, what i would have hoped could have somehow been, an easy transition.  so. yes. i suppose it's difficult for me to just 'be' as it pertains to his adjustment.  i want to look forward, but i need to accept the present situation as it is... and just be. 

... 

well... it was not difficult to be out and about in roskilde today.  the fourth beautiful day in a row.  greg's parents and i rode our bikes into town and experienced a perfect spring day.  i will mostly do pictures here because it's nearing tomorrow and i really should sleep now and then.  

i know you must be thinking i'm recycling the same photo of a pathway lined on either side with a row of trees, but that's what they do around here, and this is, in fact, a new one for this blog... 

a unique headstone...

roskilde cathedral in the background...

instrumental tree...

the cathedral again, in the background...

it was a beautiful cemetery on a beautiful spring day.

...

we had lunch outside on the pedestrian street.  if you visit denmark, i don't think you can go wrong with the fish.  today-- smoked salmon.  

and then to the cathedral.  outside, looking up... 

across the street... 

i may have discovered why my favorite color is yellow.  it looks so nice on these old houses.  oh, roskilde.  there is so much to like about you.

again, the domkirke...

and inside... 

if you ever come to roskilde you really should visit the cathedral.  it was beautiful and amazing-- all of denmark's kings and queens are in tombs, inside.  

my pictures do not do it justice, but here they are. 

tomorrow-- the baltic sea!

wednesday

why are my shoes in mittens?  

because i married into a family of scientists who don lab coats, lab glasses, and shoe mittens for fun... even on vacation...

no real science going on.  just a tour of greg's lab before danish lessons.  but i know they all had fun. just look at them again!

our way back home... a yellow field across the fjord.  and the third beautiful day in a row-- unprecedented! 

pickled herring and some danish cheese for dinner, in honor of our locale.  and a walk through the churchyard and down to the fjord... and back home where we put two sleeping boys to bed.

a different angle than usual

a view of the old school (i.e. home) from the church

spring in denmark

sunset over the fjord

pedaling

tonight as i was rubbing henry's back to help him fall asleep, my thoughts drifted to the car we'd rented back in madison the week before we left for denmark... and i panicked.  "wait a second... whatever happened to that car?"

could it still be sitting in our old parking lot in madison?  no... we drove it to illinois.  did we leave it there? parked in front of greg's cousins' house?  after all, they did drive us to the airport.  i know that because i remember saying goodbye right outside the terminal, on that adrenaline-filled night back in february.  why haven't we heard from the rental car company?  because they can't find us!  we ditched the car and moved to denmark!

wait! no.  i remember now.  we drove ourselves to the airport.  i know that because i remember sitting in the front seat, sharing my last-minute (and therefore unfeasible) thought with greg, who was also in the front seat, that i really ought to have tried to learn just a little danish before moving to denmark.  yes, that was it, and then greg's cousin took the car seats and said goodbye to us, and william, henry, and i and our five (six?) suitcases and six carry-ons went into the terminal while greg returned the rental car.  phew! 


i'm sure one day it will be tiring to look back and think about all we did to get here (without creditors pursuing us internationally)... and all we did once we got here... and all we're doing still... and what it will take to get us back.  but those retrospections are a long way off.  sometimes when i'm riding my bike, if i think too much about the pedaling part, i get tempted to stop, because the knowledge that the constant motion of my legs (and only the constant motion of my legs) is obligatory if i want to reach my destination, is almost, well... tiring.  it's also why we rarely sit down and relax before our children are asleep and the dishes are done. because if we realize the whole practice of raising children and keeping a house from condemnation is tiring, before 10 o'clock at night, then our children would not be raised and our house would be condemned.  so... no deep retrospection on the details until it's well behind us and our children are raised... or at least old enough to put themselves to bed.  i'm just going to trust that we've done what we needed to do to get this far, and that we'll do what we need to do to get us to tomorrow and after that.

so now, i will go back on my word and give just the shortest retrospection, in pictures only (so is it a retrospective instead?), about today...