Götenborg: The Gateway to Sweden

…or as the Swede’s say: Sweden’s Front side.

It was lovely to get away from the Danish winter to “how the winter should be”. Freezing cold but sunny and dry!! Snow has been falling consistently now since New Year and there was a thick blanket over everything.

It was good to see Britt again (a friend we met during her postdoc work at the AWMC in Brisvegas) and I had a good work out trying to understand Swedish. There are many words in common with Danish and Danes and Swedes can understand each other speaking their native tongue. It is a bit like speaking English with a Scotsman from the Highlands, perhaps.

On Saturday we took at tour in town. First to the food markets where we bought some Swedish delicacies, then I bought some mittens and a Mössen -which is the classic Swedish fisherman's hat, I am told. All I know is that it was warm.

Welcome to Götenborg (8 MB Windows Media Player Movie)

There is a lovely forest not far from Britt’s home and we spent Sunday on tour through the snow. There are many lakes here and it is a popular place for water-sport in the summer and skiing in the winter.

Walk in the forest (8 MB Windows Media Player Movie)

It was a short trip. It took us 12 hours to get there on Friday due to the snow and train delays and then we are off again Sunday afternoon!

The sunset over the water as we came out of the harbour was beautiful, and we look forward to coming back!

Homeward Bound (2 MB Windows Media Player Movie)

The Ice man cometh...

You could say that I deserved it...

After my suggestion in the blog before last that DK is not really that cold, the "big guy" has seen fit to send some of the finest weather known to man. The Danes call it islag or "ice-layer" and it is actually superchilled water that falls and turns to ice as soon as it hits something.






It is really beautiful when everything has a layer of ice. All we need now is some sun...












This is a shot from down by the lake at Uni. The sign reads, "Ice is unsafe". It means for skating but it is a good motto in general, if you ask me. Also attached is a pic from almost the same angle from September (you can recognise the benches by the lake in both pictures).






















Needless to say, I walked...

















The grass is just so crunchy underfoot...

New Year 2006

We managed to create quite a party in our little living room! Here we are enjoying the starter of venison prepared from a buck roe deer shot by Steen (one of our friends, actually to my right out of view). As I mentioned in the previous blog, hunting is popular here. If I remember, the distaste that I felt the previous day out in the forest at the thought of hunting those beautiful animals, was replaced on this evening by a rather lovely taste and washed down with copious amounts of red.

Ruth and Romain donned disguise to get closer to the locals.
Inge and I made a good cocktail team. As expressed in my face, this taste testing is a serious business!

Some of my Aussie habits have to be maintained, despite the sub-zero temperatures... Frozen daquiri anyone?

Come midnight the sky lights up with the spectacle of an every-man-for-himself amateur fireworks free-for-all that honestly has to be seen to be believed. The sale of fireworks is not restricted and it is a rite of passage for every young man to loose some portion of their anatomy during their teenage years to this orgy of fire. The body count was low this year - no deaths, several buildings and apartment burnt down and only one serious injury when one of this countries brightest minds put the rocket in his mouth before lighting...

Happy New Year!

Aussies come to town...

Denmark, being a part of Scandinavia, has a reputation for cold winters which is not really true. However, as we were having some of our friends from Oz to visit over New Year, fate conspired to keep this myth alive and well. The days following Christmas saw a snow storm come in over DK giving us sub-zero temperatures and blanketing the country in about 10-15 cm of snow - the first real snow fall of the year. There was a lot of snow around - Romain and Ruth's plane could not even land on the day they were due to arrive (29/12) and they had to return to Paris and try again the next day.

We took a walk in the winter wonderland in the forest south of Aarhus. Here we are at the gates of Marsellisborg Manor which is where the Royal Family spends Christmas (r-l; Me, Diane, Rikke and Romain). In a show of patriotism we had packed some vegemite sandwiches in the hope that Mary might be in but unfortunately they were not home.







This is the view along the coast to the south of Aarhus and out over the bay. Anyone for a dip?












Ruth and Romain getting up close with some of the local "wildlife". They are actually in an enclosure but I am not certain if this is to keep them in or the hunters out. Hunting is popular here and every other deer in Denmark lucky enough to be "wild and free" has every man and his dog chasing them with a shotgun.








After our walk it was back home to get stuck into the herring and the snaps... Skål!

 

Aaron's Birthday - 10th December, 2005

The birthday boy and Rikke

Rikke and Maria

B, Inge and I

Braden's Aarhus t-shirt was a big hit with the locals...