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Living History in Lejre

Head on with history in Lejre, Denmark

Was history your favorite subject in school? Or did you hate all those "annos" you had to know by heart? I’ve never really understood why you’ve had to learn all those years by heart. Isn’t more important to understand why and what the consequences where? Understand development, innovation and how things worked back then?

There’s a museum few kilometers south of Roskilde that is my favorite. It’s called Lejre – living history. At first it was a field for archaeologists to try to understand historical way of living through experiments. They found an iron age house that looked like it had been burned down and then buried into the ground by time. So they rebuilt the house as they thought it looked like, burned it down, buried it and then dug it up again the year after to see if it looked the same.

That’s the natural way of learning. Experiencing it on one self. You try things to understand them and how they work. And that’s what Lejre is all about. There is nothing there you may not touch, twist or even chop, mash or burn. It’s all there for trying it out, to get a better understanding of it. Learning it by living it. You can even try to live as an iron age family for a whole week in the iron age village or even go one step further, ehh... back, into history and live in the stone age shelter for a week, making a living with nothing but stone age tools. We met this stone age woman in front of her shelter with a two year old who slept under some animal skins in the shelter. It makes your journey back in time very realistic.

A two year old sleeping in the stone age shelter.

My kids love the place but we haven’t been able to convince my wife to live like a stone age woman yet. Even though I’ve promised not to drag her around on the hair. We’ve been there a few times and the day goes by very fast. You can get corn to mash and bake biscuits, practice your swing with the axe when chopping wood, sail wooden canoes on the pond, shoot with a bow and arrow and create "new tools" with a granite rock in one hand and a flint stone in the other, hammering them together on the right angle. It’s not as easy as it may sound. At the end of the day you’ll have tired but pleased kids that have been loving to learn the way of live in the old days all day long. Try to keep that enthusiasm in the classroom.

There is not much food to order there yet but one of the old farm houses will be changed into a food court next year. Hopefully a do-it-yourself food court with some local ingredients on the table. But for now we brought our own hot dogs and grilled them on open fire.

One of the things that brings places to live are stories. I love good stories and that’s actually how I look at my work, as a storyteller. I help companies tell their stories to their customers. In May there’s a three day holiday weekend in Denmark when Lejre gets filled with storytellers. They come from all over Scandinavia and tell elves stories, ghost stories, naughty stories, exaggerated stories, true stories ... what ever stories they can think of. Most of them are in the Scandinavian languages so if you don’t speak any of those, taking a crash course before you attend would be a good idea ☺

Enjoying summer in the country side.

Hjörtur

Forgot Their Three Year Old in The Airport and Flew to Paris

According to Associated Press, a family of seven (same size as my family) forgot their three year old daughter in Ben Gurion airport in Israel when they flew to Paris, and didn't even realize. They were late for their flight and made a run for it. In all the stress they managed to get their 18 suitcases on board and four of their children. But it wasn't until the captain of the plane announced it on the speaker that they realized they had left one child at the airport. A policeman had found the 3yo girl wandering around the airport crying for her mother.

This is us, coming of the train from Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. Yep, we took all the kids and all the luggage by train from the airport. Easier than trying to fit it into one or two cabs with car seats and everything. No child left behind.

Now, this would never happen to me our you. Or would it? I mean, how on earth could this happen? I don't know what happened exactly, but I can imagine how something like this happens. They are rushing to the gate and separate. When they arrive on the plane, being last or one of the last passengers, they can not get 7 seats together and are scattered around the plane. So if the mother thinks the child is with the father and vice versa, no one gets worried though the child is missing.

The biggest danger is if the routine is broken up. If the child is usually with one parent and is asked to be with the other. I remember a man who was very stressed in his job. One day he was suppose to take his two year old to the kindergarten but in all the stress and rush he forgot and left the child in the car when he got to work. It died because of the heat. We did loose a child this way in Animal Kingdom once. Luckily, we realized within 2 minutes and found her right away. Our failure was not making sure the other parent had taken over the surveillance of that child, so no one was counting her when head counts were made.

 

So what do you think, could this ever happen to you?

Hjörtur
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Tivoli, Hygge and Danish Design

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose."
Woody Allen

The number one tourist attraction in Denmark is Tivoli, one of the worlds oldest theme parks located in downtown Copenhagen. It's about as downtown as it can be, located between the town hall and the central train station. Tivoli has both nice rides and entertainment, but it’s greatest asset is the atmosphere they have managed to maintain. With lights all around, a small China town, old booths and café’s with danish pastry and interesting restaurants, Tivoli's a must see for visitors to Denmark.

With 9 kids at the table, it was impossible to get a shot of everyone sitting, smiling and looking into the camera.

We went with our hosts to the pirate ship, an old sail ship that has been turned into a pirate themed restaurant. It’s impressive. The ship is very real, floating on the water with natural movements, and the captain’s cabin, where we ate, was nicely decorated with pirate weapons and icons. The servants were correctly dressed, the menu followed the theme in the names and descriptions of the courses and I was looking forward to a truly themed experience. Unfortunately, the staff, though appropriately dressed in pirate clothing, was not in on the concept. The service was bad and we didn’t get our steaks prepared as we asked for. Not even the second time around. So why bother offering us rare, medium and well done if the chef can’t figure it out? They were so close to delivering an excellent experience, it’s sad that they fail at such simple things as those.

It amazes me how the service level in Europe in general is so much lower than in the US (ok, I’m generalizing here, I’ve got excellent service in Europe and lousy service in the US as well). It’s often so simple things, such as a smile, ask how the food is (and listen to the answer), offering even the smallest compensation when something goes wrong etc. Small, simple things like that can make such a great difference.

Theme parks are really one of Denmark's strong holds. You'll find theme parks within a few minutes from each other all around Denmark. When in Copenhagen I would recommend Tivoli and Bakken (the worlds oldest theme park) and Legoland in Jutland. Those are the best ones for international tourists while others are more aimed at the locals.

Danes are all but workaholics. Their expertise is “hygge”, which we might translate as “cozy time”. The downside of this is that they start closing everything at least 15 minutes early so that they can get out the door the minute they are supposed to close. So be prepared for that and show up in time. They don’t like to have things on stock either so they usually order a little less than they could possibly sell so that they won’t have any “leftovers” at the end of the day. That’s a bad habit, specially for a last-minute and spontant person like me ☹

But “hygge” is at the same time their best quality and what I love the most about Danes. They really know how to relax with friends and family, take things easy and enjoy the moment. It doesn’t have to be fancy, they’re more on the romantic side. A checkered picnic tablecloth, candle light, red wine or beer and very healthy sandwiches. You put all this in a basket – on the front of your bike – and ride to the park or beach and enjoy the day. Maybe this is also the reason why Danes are so creative. They give themselves the time to think and create, rethink and recreate. And they don’t just build castles of sand, they also really know how to sell their design and export it. The Danish culture has both created and been created by great designers and architects like Arne Jacobsen, Georg Jensen, Jørn Utzon (Sydney Opera). Beside Tivoli, only a few meters south of the town hall, you’ll find Danish Design Center where you can see examples of the best in Danish Design through the years.

Cheers to that
Hjörtur

Kayaking in Copenhagen

Sight-seeing in the cities around the world usually includes a double decker and a loud speaker. In Copenhagen you’ve got some interesting alternatives. Certainly, Copenhagen by bike is an interesting experience with the great biking culture you’ll find there, excellent infrastructure where bikes have their own lanes and traffic lights. But one of my favorites is kayaking. Ole, better known as Kayak-Ole started offering Copenhagen sight-seeing tours on kayaks on the canals of the city sometime last decade and they’re gaining increased popularity. You get real close to the city and it’s life lanes in an interesting, alternative way.

For those with children or “less advanced” kayaking skills, you can sail in open tourist boats around the canals with a loud speaker telling you stories. We’ve taken our guests on that tour many times as it’s a tour anyone can enjoy and quite a cheap one too.

Since we weren’t really looking for sight-seeing around the city, having lived there for six years, we decided to spend the sunday afternoon kayaking at Amager Strandpark, a new man-made beach and waterplayground. There’s a place called Kajakhotellet where you can rent kayaks to play on, which we did. You might get your butt wet (as you can see ...), but it's worth it. I took the smaller kids with me for shorter rides which they really loved and we ended the day on jumping into the water. Well, at least some of them did :).

 

Hjörtur

Copenhagen Zoo

We visited Copenhagen Zoo – “the wildest place in town”, checking out the lions and polar bears, elephants and zebras. Part of the zoo has been recently renovated with new habitats for the elephants, the African prairy animals and the hippopotamus. The change is very positive making these habitats much more attractive to both animals and human spectators.

The  youngsters are always popular, making the zebras and the sea lions a must see. Specially the sea lions which have a very cute little cub. While many of the large animals with the big dangerous teeth may be impressive to see in real life, the petting zoo is usually the winner for the children, where they can pet the goats, play rabbits and ride ponies. Anything that’s hands on for kids is the most fun.

Not as attractive was the polar bear cage. Some animals seem to have even a better live in captivity than out in the wild, but others are really sad to see. The polar bears fall into that category. Used to having a whole North Pole to cross, being able to swim tens of kilometers and having wide open spaces as far as the eye can reach, no cage can do them justice. They’re pretty much like a whale in a fish bowl. It’s no wonder some animal activists cheered when a polar bear was shot in Iceland recently in a failed attempt to save him, when saving him could have meant putting him into that small space in Copenhagen Zoo. It’s not that I don’t have faith in what they’re doing at Copenhagen Zoo, I just don’t think some animals should be in any cage at all. Set up a movie screen with some amazing footage of the animals in stead, info and even a dead example of the animal. It’ll never be the same, but that doesn’t have to mean it’ll be any worse.

If you want to experience safari animals in more open spaces, there’s a safari park in Lolland, south of Sealand called Knuthenborg Park & Safari where you can drive in and see the animals in “open” spaces. Another interesting place is the Danmarks Akvarium in Charlottenlund.

Hjörtur

Denmark

We went to Denmark for ten days, visiting old friends and playing tourists. It was Jokull Logi's first trip abroad, at the age of 6 weeks. Two of his older sisters were even younger when they went abroad for the first time, only eight and ten days old. Our youngest daughters first international flight wasn't until she was three weeks old though.

Denmark is a very family friendly country, but as the course of your Euro is, it’s not the cheapest one these days. We lived in Denmark for 6 years and wtayed at a friends house. There are not many friends that both can and are willing to invite a family of 7 into their home for 10 days. Thanks, dear friends. They even had a car with seven seats that we could borrow once in a while.

Copenhagen is very easy to get around without a car. The buses drive every 5 minutes on all major routes and they have an excellent train system. So a car is unnecessary in Copenhagen but may come in handy if you’re planning on visiting some of theme parks that are to be found on every other corner in Denmark. You see, there is not much to attract tourists in Denmark – nature wise. They have no mountains to climb, no gorges to cross and no rivers to sail. But they have a history and additional to that, they have created a number of great theme parks, some of them the oldest in the world. The most famous of them is Legoland which can now be found in Germany, UK and the US as well. We didn’t visit Legoland this time though, but we weren’t bored. Not at all. In the next few days I’ll posting some of our adventures in Denmark.

Hjortur

Jokull's First Camping Tour

Green fields, black sand and white glaciers in the background. The Icelandic killer sheep lurking behind three green straws. Our scenery on our little road trip in Southern Iceland last weekend.

We didn't start out with a camping in the back yard. We went to a valley called Þórsmörk (Thors woods), an isolated valley in the Icelandic highlands with steep glacier covered mountains on three sides. We thought it was about time Jokull Logi would see an original glacier :)

Thorsmork is a popular destination for superjeeps and hikers but two of the most popular hiking routes in Iceland lead to the valley, Fimmvörðuháls and Laugavegurinn. I hiked Laugavegurinn a few years back but for all the others this was the first trip to Thorsmork.

We drive a Dodge Durango which usually feels like a quite large SUV when driving in down town traffic, sticking both front and rear end out of some of the parking spaces but they're usually compact size. In Thorsmork, we were driving the tiny little highway SUV, surrounded by trucks on 35"-44" inch tires.

We were towing our Coleman camping trailer. We had to cross several fords over glacial rivers to reach our destination, putting some stress on both vehicle and passangers, although the youngest one just slept tight without a worry in the world.

We only spent one night in the valley but had a really nice time with some bbq and a short hike. The infant and our small tires did limit are ability to travel around though. The second night we spent at a summer house in southern Iceland. Jokull Logi proofed that he'll make a great travel companion. No objections to the car ride, the camping or any other "inconveniences".

Looking forward to our next trip that is planned to Copenhagen in just a few days.

Hjortur

ps. we were a little stressed about having Jokull Logi in that polar bear outfit. You see, we usually don't have polar bears in Iceland. But in the last weeks two have come a shore and both got shot. Since then people are seeing them everywhere and we wouldn't want someone mistaking him ...

Our Number Seven

Yep, we're seven now. May 14th, at 15:46 GMT our fifth child was born. A strong and healthy baby boy. It was a fantastic water birth with out any intervention or medicine. I joined the hot tub with my wife and helped her deliver him self while the midwife was on the camera. A truly amazing experience.

So now we have a new crew member on our traveling team. We've already named him. His name is Jökull Logi which means Glacier Flame. Sounds quite extreme in English but both names are common in Icelandic, though the combination is maybe not. He's already got a few plane tickets and camping tours planned, so stay tuned.

Hjortur

We Have a Plan

I think we've made up our mind (I sure hope so, since we've already bought the tickets). And we're not going coast-to-coast. Not this fall. After doing a lot of calculations we realized that the trip would probably cost around $30.000 including car rental, flights, accommodation and dining. And that's a bit much. A bit too much. So unless we would get a sponsor, we can't do it. But we're going to see the mouse no matter what.

So what we've decided on is flying to Orlando in November and staying in Florida for three weeks. We haven't decided on what we will do, but as the plan looks today, we're going to start with a week down in the keys, then a week in a house in Orlando and finally a week on a Disney Hotel. And of course we will visit all the parks in Disney World. Another option we have been thinking about is if we should go to New Orleans, but I guess the Keys will be on top. More child friendly, I suppose. What do you think?

Hjörtur

Which way should we go?

The first idea was to fly to New York and drive to Disneyland California via Philadelphia, Lancaster (Amish), Nashville, Memphis, Dallas, El Paso, Phoenix, San Diego and LA.

But we've been thinking. Maybe it would be more fun to start in San Fransisco and drive to Disneyworld, Orlando via Sequoia, Las Vegas, Phoenix, El Paso, Houston and New Orleans.

What do you recommend? We have been to New York, San Diego, Las Vegas and LA before. We would really like to hear your oppinion on this. Should we drive towards the morning sun or the sunset?

Cheers
Hjörtur