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)?