Denmark!

Monday, March 4, 2013

Last week was so relaxing. The kids played and played and played. We mothers had intended to do several day trips, but the kids were so content just to run and play together, that we ended up skipping the day trips. As a result, we had plenty of time for chatting, cooking and eating yummy things, shopping online for books (they homeschool, too!) and catching up on everything we’ve missed doing together for the last year or so. Most of the time when we vacation we run around like chickens, and it’s really fun, but also really exhausting. This was really fun and so relaxing – except that we did stay up a little too late a couple of nights.

Today we arrived in Denmark. It is still surreal to be jetting around to all of these places that I’ve only ever seen on maps! The part of Denmark we drove through was rural with a lot of farmland and few houses. The fields covered rolling hills and were so beautifully manicured that they looked like fabric in several places. Most of the farmhouses were whitewashed, with a few red bricks ones for variety. We got off of the main road and followed a more narrow, winding road back to the house The Linguist rented for the week. We rounded a beautiful lake…and then turned the other way to get to our house. It sits next to what seems to be a farm.

Danish Bay area that leads out to the Baltic Sea

Our Danish Farmhouse (for a week)

I say “seem” because we haven’t actually seen any animals. However, we’re pretty certain because of the odor that assailed us when we opened the doors to get out of the van! Oh my stench! We’re guessing pigs. Fortunately, the inside of the house doesn’t smell like that! I’ve decided that I love the layout of the house, and the kitchen especially is appealing – with a row of windows; a huge, long countertop; and tons of cabinets. The bedrooms are good sized and the dining room has one of the largest tables I’ve ever seen. It’s large enough that the kids can spread all of their books out without being in each other’s armpits and with all of it spread out, we can still eat comfortably at the other end. It easily seats 20!

Young kids and moles really enjoyed the large backyard.

Some lovely snowdrops behind the house.

After dropping off our luggage, we headed into town to find a grocery store. We get tired of eating out when we’re traveling – some combination of price and trying to keep the kids happy while waiting for food. We always plan a few nights out, but then cook for ourselves on the other nights. The grocery store was a little bit of a culture shock. The door to get in is one of those circle doors that goes around and around. You know – the ones you kind of jump into and out of and hope you don’t get knocked down by? The Net hopped in and scooted to the innermost part – effectively shutting down the whole contraption and trapping us inside! A nice woman used hand gestures to let us know what the problem was and we happily exited.

Next was the pricing. In Denmark they don’t use the euro, they use krone. Now although euro are worth more than American dollars, they look about the same on a price tag. The milk is 1.20 euro and the pasta is .70 euro. Even though we’re technically paying more, it doesn’t feel that different until I see that $100 is gone for my 70 euro purchase. Krones (not sure if that’s the correct plural or not) are a whole different ballgame. The price of the chips was 19.81 and we paid 33.75 for 15 bananer (bananas). Vandmelon (watermelon) rang up at 50.00 for 2. It wasn’t until we got home and found a conversion that we had any clue what we were spending! Turns out I paid $15 for small bottles of shampoo and conditioner and 2 bars of Dove soap. Yikes!

Top to bottom - 20 Kroner back /front view;
5 Kroner back /front view

The surprising thing was how similar the items were to things we eat/use in the States. They had Costco-sized packages of ground beef, eggs in 30 packs (refrigerated, too!) and a variety of frozen pizza and salad dressings. (There were some different things, as well – most noticeably, the pheasant eggs that were situated above the 30 pack.) They don’t use the produce glove like the folks in Italy, nor do you have to pre-weigh and put a sticker on your produce. They do it all at the counter for you. The shopping carts were also free, although we had to buy more grocery bags since we can’t seem to remember to take ours with us.

We had to try out some of the pastries, of course. They had little hotdogs wrapped in bread that the boys tried. We also got an assortment of cookies that were pretty similar to what we eat in the U.S., some buns with dark chocolate chips in them and 2 small loaves of chocolate orange cake. The cake was yummy with the fresh strawberries, but not too different from something we’d eat stateside. The other little treat we got was an interesting mix of tastes. They looked like skinny cookies (picture breadsticks) with a thick stripe of Nutella down the middle and thin stripes of white glaze for decoration. The cookie tasted almost like peanut butter, though, and the white glaze had a strong enough almond flavor that we couldn’t really taste the Nutella. We had to try that one a couple of times. The breads we purchased are delicious – harder outside crusts, but soft and tasty interiors. One loaf was just plain white, but the other was filled with flax and some other seeds and nuts and something that made it yellow polka dotted…still not sure what that was…but it was tasty!

We were relieved that the store took our bank card and actually had a chance to test that out right away. Unlike a U.S. store where you collect everything and pay at the end, in this store, you had to pay in each different area. We paid at the bakery, paid at the grocery store and paid again at the clothing/shampoo/soap area. People were very friendly and spoke to us in what sounded like near-perfect English while apologizing for their lack of English-speaking ability. 

Incidentally, we discovered that Mater from the movie Cars is Danish…right on the box of tomatoes we purchased it says “Tomater.” So there you have it!