From: cindy@solan10.solan.unit.no (Cynthia Kandolf)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Danish Mountaineering Vacation
Date: 23 Aug 92 15:15:51 GMT
Distribution: soc
Organization: /home/ludviga/cindy/.organization

My favorite travelling companion has been hinting ever since we got
back (at 3 am Thursday morning) that he would like me to give a brief
synopsis of our vacation in Denmark, particularly concentrating on
the day when we climbed the two highest, uh, mountains in the country.
So here goes....

We traveled to Denmark by car, leaving from Oslo the morning of August
9.  (That's a Sunday.)  This was a bit of a mistake, because it turned
out to be an unusually hot day.... and of course the car had no air
conditioning... we both smelled a bit ripe when we got to the ferry
at Helsingborg.  No matter, the tax-free shop is air conditioned, and
they do have cold drinks on board.  (The tax-free shop, strictly
speaking, does contain tax-free liquor.... little 1 or 2 ml doses 
wrapped in tax-free chocolate. ;-)

After completing the 25-minute crossing, we began to hunt for the
kro where we had reserved a room.  A check in the Dansk Kroferie
brochure indicated that the kro in question had a swimming pool -
and there was much rejoicing.  A check of the signs by the side of
the road indicated that there are a heck of a lot of places in
Denmark with the endings -r|d (MFTC says this occurs in Norway too,
although i can't remember any such places off-hand) and -lev.  We
were later to add to this list -rup, -drup, -strup, -l|se, and
(MFTC's favorite) -balle.  A suggestion was made that -l|se means
"without", since the first place we came to with this ending was
Stenl|se... without stones, therefore good farming land.  But then
another place called V{rl|se was located.  "Without weather" doesn't
make much sense, and the suggestion was dropped.  If anyone actually
knows what these endings mean - and if they have any descendents
in the modern Scandinavian languages - Steinar and me would appreciate
the explanation!

Now where were we?  Ah, yes, arrival.  A quick dip in the pool
restored out spirits and probably made us a heck of a lot nicer
to be around.  We then had supper -- which is when i discovered
one of the first important (well, to me anyway) differences
between Denmark and Norway.  In Norway, when one orders a cola,
one is about 90% certain to get Coca-Cola, with Pepsi taking up
the other 10% of possibilities.  In Denmark, however, an unspecified
request for a "cola" is as likely to result in a sweet, colaish
beverage called "Jolly Cola" as either of the above.  I quickly
learned to check first and avoid or at least be prepared for the 
stuff.  MFTC had no such problem; his drink of choice on this trip
came was based on barley malt rather than cola nuts.

We spent a good part of the first few days in Copenhagen.  Now,
all cities have one problem in my eyes, and none can escape it,
because it's in the definition: lots of people.  However, Copenhagen
made up for it in my eyes.  The people there created some life as
well as noise and heat, and the city also has some cozy old
districts away from the worst of the rush.  Both of us liked
Nyhavn especially.  

I don't know if bicycles have the absolute right of way in Copenhagen
or not; traffic seemed to work on the assumption that they do.  If
you are a pedestrian this is an advantage, because you can win a fight
with a bicycle (as opposed to a car).  It is confusing at first if
you are a driver, however, because the bicycles are expecting you to
let them through.  There were several times when i was sure some
bicyclist was going to be imbedded into a tourist's radiator grill...
fortunately we didn't witness any actual collisions.

Of course we made the obligatory visit to Tivoli.  Alas, expectation
exceeded reality - which in normal English means it was a very
nice place, but not as fantastically magically perfect as its
reputatation claims.

We also visited Roskilde.  The cathedral there is full of old dead
people buried in fantastic caskets - or rather, not buried, because
the caskets are just sitting around in alcoves.   Modesty was not
the strong point of the kings of the Middle Ages - particularly
the one who called himself (in Latin) "King of the Danes, the
Norwegians, the Vandals, the Goths, etc".  

The real purpose for visiting Roskilde, though, was the Viking ship
museum.  Those of us who are not afraid to be accused of being
stuck in advanced childhood are not afraid to say that Vikings
are way cool 8-)  and so is the museum.  It doesn't have as much
"stuff" in the way of tools etc. as the similar museum in Oslo,
but it has much more organized and informative displays and a
wider variety of ships.  The movie about the excavation of the
ships, and the weird problems that had to be overcome, was also
quite interesting.

We had originally planned on three days for Copenhagen and one for
Roskilde, but Roskilde took less than one day - the remainder of
which was spent in Copenhagen - and we began to wonder if we were
unfairly giving too much time to Copenhagen at the expense of the
rest of the country.  So we headed south... to find that Falster and
Lolland really are flatter than the "big island" of Sj{lland... and
to see Knuthenborg Safaripark.  This was one of the best parts of the
trip!  Tigers walking ten meters in front of the car... llamas
sticking their heads in the window to get a closer look... giraffes
and zebras and the whole bit.

It was around this time that i discovered what the word "bageri"
means.  Visiting Denmark is hazardous to your waistline...

The next day... which by this point is Friday the 14th... we set out
for Odense.  On the way we stopped at the site of an old Viking
fortress, where i bought a Thor's hammer to have around for those...
er... appropriate occassions 8-)  The fortress has one reconstructed
house, but most of it is simply stones marking where the buildings 
did stand - much to the disappointment of a young German boy who i
overheard asking his mother..."Aber wo _wohnen_ sie, mamma?" 

Odense is, of course, the birthplace of a certain fairy tale
writer.  If you don't know who, just go there; you will know in
about 5 minutes.  I think there is a law against anyone leaving the
city without knowing that.  More fun - for me at least - was the
railway museum, full of old steam locomotives and a rather large
model railroad layout (although the one my father wants to build in
the basement someday is larger, this one actually exists ;-).

Then, on Sunday, we headed off for Billund and LEGOLAND!  I think i
can safely say this was the highlight of the trip... tiny villages and
cities built of Legos... little Lego trains that really move around,
loading Lego freight cars onto a Lego ferry that will move them across
the harbor where Lego boats come sailing in and out... meanwhile a 
Lego drawbridge lifts to allow a Lego boat through, so a Lego truck
that wants to cross the bridge must stop and wait its turn....!!!
I think i took about a hundred pictures there... give or take a few
8-)

And i can't neglect mentioning the Lego stave church in the "Norway"
section, can i?

We visited a few other places in Jylland, but this is getting long
enough so i'll just mention our mountaineering exploits and leave
the rest go for now.  (None of them were so spectacular that they NEED
writing about, IMHO.)  Believe it or not, we managed on the same day
to climb Denmark's _two_ highest mountains, Ejer Bavneh|j and
Himmelbjerget.  We drove to Ejer Bavneh|j, following the signs from
the expressway... until we came within sight of a tower, causing
yours truly to utter the immortal words: "Are they trying to tell
us this is the _top_ already?"  Cheated of the chance to ascend on
foot, we settled for climbing to the top of the tower, and then
photographing the stone in front of the tower on which was
inscribed these brave, heart-felt words:  "DE HAR NU NAAET DANMARKS
H|JESTE PUNKT 170.95 M OVER HAVET"  (You have now reached Denmark's
highest point, 170.95 meters above sea level).  

Later in that same day, we made the harrowing climb of Himmelbjerget.
I believe we now hold the soc.culture.nordic record, having ascended
in just under four minutes.  (To those who posted the previous claim
of 15 minutes, from 6 am to 6:15 am, we offer this advice:  it goes
faster if you don't open the beer until you get to the top.)  And this
is how we came to achieve what some would have called impossible -
some would have called foolish - and others would have called really
boring - ascending the two highest peaks in all of Denmark on
one and the same day.

Anybody but Steinar made it this far?  Good.  Thanks for reading.

(Further comments may be posted when my fingers recover.)

-Cindy Kandolf
 cindy@solan.unit.no
 Trondheim, Norway
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic