Rudkobing, Denmark II

We're taking it easy, spending a lot of time swimming, using the sauna, the kids on the dock catching crabs, shrimp, several different fish. Last night we had a whopper of a thunderstorm, lightening, big thunder, wind and lots of rain. It was a real treat for us displaced mid-westerner's.

Finn came down twice this week to go sailing, once with his daughters friend and again with Hannah, I think expecting to take the whole gang out, as it was the day Vibeke was here too. Turned out I was the only one who really wanted to go, and there was some issue with life jackets for the kids, so Finn, Hannah and I went out. Aqain I had a great time, and got to show them a few of the finer points of sailing and boat handling. They seem to have a pretty good handle on it already. I think they'll have fun with their new boat. Yes, I'm a little jealous.

Vibeke came down from Odense and took us up to her folks in Lohal for dinner. Lohal is the cutest little town that has no attractions other than a harbor that you ever did see. Her folks are very sweet, served us a wonderful dinner of fish and new potatoes. Also showed us all their boats and gardens.

We took a couple short trips, one up to Traneker, but somehow missed the Tickon art display, one of the finest outdoor art settings in Europe. The other, down the island to Skovsgaard, a mini castle with most of it's outbuilding infrastructure intact. It was donated to a conservation group who use it for growing and teaching about organic agriculture. There are extensive nature walks, demonstrations and classes for kids. Also the castle itself is a museum including the basement area where the hired help lived and worked, circa 1800.

Internet isn't easy, occasionally get a poor signal in the condo, usually have to go sit by the restaurant where there's power and a clear view to the harbor's 802.11 antenna. A booster antenna would be nice for the laptop's but as they have inbuilt wireless there's no obvious way to hack an external antenna.

The Thieves of Denmark

Well. How do you like the new look of the blog? No more pictures. My camera, the little square waterproof one, which faithfully took almost 10,000 pictures around the world is now in some stupid sub-human's possession.

Yesterday we had lunch at an outside (the only outside) table at the Kabob Place in downtown Svendborg Denmark (The one on Lundevej, I think). Unfortunately I took my shoulder bag off and hung it on the back of the chair. During the ordering shuffle Connor got that chair and when we picked up to leave, I forgot the bag. 10 minutes later, driving away, I noticed. We went back immediately but it was gone. The shop keeper hadn't seen it and none of the hundreds of people walking by had noticed or stopped a suspicious act like picking up a shoulder bag from a table and walking off.

I didn't loose all that much, the bag and camera being the vital items. But I've had that bag for nigh on 20 years, not to mention (almost) all the way around the world. It meant something to me. The bag was handmade by a nice person I met in Eugene Oregon. It had artwork on it handpainted by a Thai artist. I'm sure the stupid jerk that stole it will just toss it in a trash bin and attempt to sell the camera (which has a broken latch - ha!). So if somebody offers you a Pentax Optio 43WR with a broken battery door latch, please break his arm or cut off his hand for me.

Actually it was an altogether unpleasant visit to the once fine city of Svendborg. After having my bag and camera stolen, we discovered we had left our car parked 5 minutes too long in the EuroPark Car park. It seems the car parks are run by the local mafia. 5 minutes over and you get a bill for 510 Kronar (~$87). Now how am I supposed to deal with a bill for 510 Kronar? I mean, an even 500K, and I could just slip a 500K bill into an envelope with "EuroPark is a Ripoff" written on it and mail it off to the conveniently provided address on the bill (It's not a ticket, it's a bill, since it's issued by a private agency rather than the police.) But no, it's got to be 510K, which means I either have to mail a 10K coin (bad idea) or get a bank draft or something. Another fleecing opportunity for the local mafia.

And there's no way out of it for a tourist. If I just walk away from it, EuroPark goes to the car rental company and gets the money from my credit card. Then the car rental company gets to charge an additional hefty "handling fee" for taking the unauthorized money out of my credit card. EuroPark has a phone number (+45-7914-2117) but it doesn't seem to work. I've been told by two people (one in the tourist info office!) that EuroPark is known for ruthless pursuit of tourists.

Next, The Kabab place, where we had falafals turned out to be not so good either. Today we all have upset tummies and um, digestive distress.

This leaves me sadly disillusioned about the otherwise very civilized Denmark. I guess there are stupid people without ethics everywhere. Really can't say I recommend this city of Svendborg, Denmark.

A small computer disaster (or two)

Had a couple minor mishaps with the old workplace (aka the IBM laptop).

First disaster: I ordered a new battery on ebay, since the standard battery is getting tired. The one that finally came was for a different computer. (It also took almost a month; the seller claimed 10-12 days world-wide. Guess he didn't mean Ireland.) Anyway, so he shipped another one to Ireland, after I told him I wouldn't be there and to ship it to Denmark. It arrived after I left. I'm not going to bother Tom with figuring out if it's the right kind or not. So the seller shipped a third(!) battery to Denmark. It was here when we arrived. It's the right shape anyway.

Second disaster: I seem to have left the big battery somewhere. Or it got lifted by the airline, like Hawaiin Air lifted my GPS. The only other place it could be is at The Old House, but Tom looked for it to no avail. Rats. Down to one very tired standard size battery, good for an hour at best.

Third disaster: I accidentally left our european plug converter in the bathroom light at Tom's house in Ireland. So we had a shortage of plugins when we arrived in Odense. There was a little race car set power supply sitting there with the right voltage, DC, and the right plug. So I plugged it into the computer. I mean, just because it had 13 amps instead of the measly 4.5 amps the computer charger had shouldn't make any difference, right? Well, a little while later I noticed the battery isn't charging anymore. Oh oh. Better plug in the real charger and see. Nope - no charge to the battery. Try the old battery. No, that isn't charging either. The computer runs on the charger, but the battery isn't getting any juice. Probably there's some circuitry that controls power to the battery that the 13A charger fried. Probably a mother board change. Shit.

Checking the IBM website, I find Monk IT A/S in Odense is listed as the IBM repair station authorized to handle warranty service on their laptops. And the computer is still under warranty. Oh goody. I call them and they say they won't work on it, Monk gives me some other IBM number (which I'd already got off ibm.com) That number has a phone tree that ends in a dial tone no matter which button you push, but another number I got off IBM's site gets a real person. After some push and shove they confirm that Monk can't/won't work on it (so why are they listed?), I have to send the computer to a place outside Copenhagen. There's a 5 day turn around (Yeah right!). I could take it there, but there's a bridge between here and Copenhagen that costs $35 each way. Just not worth it.

Back to disaster 1. The new battery shows an error in the battery monitor. It won't indicate voltage, current or any of the other parameters the real IBM battery does. What with frying the power supply and all (see disaster 3), I can't tell if it doesn't have the voltage/current sensors the real IBM batteries have or it's the problem with the power supply. I wrote the supplier complaining about the lack of feedback from the battery. He said ship it back, he'll send me a new one. But I'm not sure at this point. Maybe it just needs a good charge.

So I guess I'll live with the old workplace tied to a line plug for the remainder of the trip. And I'll have to buy another big battery, and get the laptop fixed when I get back to the states. And we had to buy another line converter here. Of course they only had a gigantic universal unit that cost $10 (for a plug!), but hey, that's life on the continent.

Denmark

Another week, another country - Denmark. We took the usual collection of taxis, trains, planes and a rent-a-car over a 7 hour period to get from Findhorn Park to Odense.

Denmark is a land of islands, water, sailboats, and wind turbines. Lots of wind turbines. So many in fact, that the government has stopped subsidizing their placement, for now.

Arrived at Ole and Vibeke's outside of Odense in good form - just in time for dinner. We'll be taking care of their farm, (horses, dogs and a cat) for a week or so while they are in Spain.

But first, a couple weeks in a condo on the harbor in Rudkobing. (Danish has lots of strokes, umlauts, diaeresis and stuff that I won't try to reproduce here.) Even better, the owners of the condo just bought a sailboat, which they wouldn't mind having a little help sailing! Whoopee!

Rudkobing is a pleasant little villa with most of the requirements met - small enough to walk around, lots of bike trails, beach, both rock and sand, charity shops, a computer store, several phone stores, a grocery or two. Danes take their cycling seriously. There are bike lanes everywhere, and lots of separate bike/walking paths leading to interesting places, like the beaches. They also take their water seriously. Every beach has access and is well used. The water is surprisingly warm for this far north (55 deg North).

Even I went swimming (sorry no pics of my white body in a swimming suit.) The water is also very clear. It doesn't appear to have the nutrient load our Oregon waters have. I suspect that's because it's almost all very thin water around here. I got to look at a navigation chart, and noticed that the majority of the water is on the order of a couple meters deep, very little over 10 meters. Which brings to mind another thing they take seriously here: I've seen more sailboats out on water with their sails up than I've seen since Auckland, way back in NZed (remember NZed?). This looks to be a pretty cool place.

Did I mention several days of sunshine and temps in the high 20's (Centigrade, that is)?

Findhorn Foundation

Almost a week at Findhorn, and still feel like we're targets of a "fleece the eco-tourists" campaign. Everything here costs, most of it twice the going rate. The damn bus to Forres (20 minutes) is 9Poids for the four of us. The taxi is cheaper! And don't get me started on our accomodations.

We moved into a B&B run by one of the old timers here, thinking we'd get to spend some quality time with a knowledgable Findhorn person. Not a chance. She seems to actively avoid us when we meet on the many walkways, and we hardly ever see her at the house. Can't say I recommend that B&B experience here.



On the other hand we've met a number of really nice people who would gladly share their last piece of crust with us, and have many interesting insights on the famous Findhorn settlement. In the interest of preserving my sources, and because I'm really an outsider, and don't understand all that's going on, I won't go farther than to say it's going to be an interesting decade for Findhorn.

There's a part day "work experience" program where you do something active with the group here, like garden or kitchen work. It goes very nicely, and the people doing it are wonderful. Francie did a turn in the kitchen, and they asked her to come back and help on Friday. However, since they charge 14Poid for the experience of working with them I elected to pass this time around. Besides, I don't feel like pulling weeds.

I will mention one interesting development: There is now a Findhorn Foundation and a "larger community" called the New Findhorn Association . The Association is now larger than the original foundation. It consists of all the spinoff companies and individuals that live or work in some degree of association with the foundation, but are not foundation "members". It's actually quite a good arrangement, an extended community around an idea that helps to perpetuate and extend that idea.

One of the very finest people we've met here, Hans Bracker, is the organizer of the Association website, and also has his own site, Soft Flow . where he discusses the tools he uses to develop wiki webs. Hans took us under his wing the day we arrived, and has given us the grand tour of the area and generally been the shining light of our time here. Many thanks Hans, we love you. Oh yes, today was his birthday.

Inverness and Lock Ness

Inverness and Loch Ness are near Findhorn (or vica versa), so we decided to take a little trip to see if we could find the critter in the depths. We booked a trip with a Jacobite tour that took us to the 4000 year old Corrimony burial cairn, the Urquhart Castle, and a boat trip down the lake and into the canal. It took all day and we loved it. Sometimes it's easier to just relax and be a tourist.

The Nessie expose was fairly honest about the whole thing being a hoax, but you might as well look, because you never know...


Corrimony cairn appeared very primitive, just a pile of rocks, except the center held a room with a dry laid wall and a tunnel door. Also there was a stone circle around the outside. I'll wager it was originally more ordered.

The Urquhart Castle was a ruin, destroyed by the last British occupant as he left to keep the Gaelic's from the western Islands from using it. Typical British slash and burn administration.

The trip down the lake was uneventful, that is we didn't have any Nessie sightings.

The canal was pretty, much larger and better maintained than the Irish canals. There was quite a bit of traffic.