Friends

Marianne:
We are so priviledged to have absolutely wonderful friends! We see some of them pretty often and for others it can be months, and even half- or whole years in between. What is important, however, is that frequency doesn´t matter. When we are together, we pick up where we left - without any difficulties.

Recently we have had visits from Utah - twice even. Initially Julie and Dave came to Denmark. Dave was attending a meeting in Copenhagen and fortunately Julie decided to join him. We met with them the 12.9. at hotel Scandic in Vester Søgave where they stayed. We had a wonderful dinner together, and some days later they came and visited us in Farum. It was so great to see them again - and the situation was exactly as described earlier: It felt as if it was yesterday that we last met. And yet so much has happened since then: Their new house is (finally) finished, Dave bought a couple of new motorcycles and a car - or was it two? Julie has submitted her retirement papers, so she will stop working buy the end of this year and they are in the process of selling their cottage at Bear Lake - and swap it with another one. After all, fact is that they are still Julie and Dave - now matter have much has happend in their - and our - lives.

We had the same experience when Joyce and Bob arrived on Friday 18th. They came here from Brussels and had by then also been in Paris for some days. We drove to FriisBo, where we arrived in the Friday night. We enjoyed a cheese and sausage plate that we brought with us. Along with one (or two?) bottles of red wine, it was an absolutely wonderful start to the weekend.

We spent Saturday in Skagen, at the very North of Denmark. We visited the Buried Church, the Lever Light and the norther tip of Denmark (Grenen). We ate lunch at the harbor enjoying the beautiful weather followed by a walk in the town. There was (obviously) time to get a huge ice cream - the two men are quite fond of ice cream.

Sunday we first went for a walk on "our" beach. Joyce and Bob were fascinated both by the "cliffs" and all the German bunkers, located on the beach.

Later on we drove to Lønstrup - a nice town only a few miles away from our house. On the way we made a stop by the old light house at Rubjerg Knude. You feel a bit as being in a desert.

In Lønstrup we walked down to the beach - and we randomly bumped into my parents who were out for a walk. It was nice - and Joyce and Bob were really happy to meet them. We ate lunch in the town before heading back to FriisBo to pack up and then we drove back to Zealand.

Monday the program was sightseeing in Copenhagen. We took the train and subway to Christianshavn, where we ascended the tower of the Church of Our Saviour.

Then we visited Christiania, which is part of Copenhagen well know for its liberal attitude towards marijuana.  I think that especially Bob found that it was a pretty fun place. I have the feeling that he has been a bit of a hippie in a previous life. It is quite overwhelming for an American (and also for an authoritarian Dane) to see that here they relatively open, sell marijuana. It also felt a bit scary since some of the vendors wear balaclavas to remain anonymous.

We rented some electrical city bikes, on which we drove around for the next 3 hours. We saw a lot of places that we think are special in Copenhagen.

We started however by the Little Mermaid that to most tourist is a  bit of a disappointment. But still everybody want to see it. We were at the Citadel, passed the Christiansborg Palace, the royal castle Amalienborg and a lot of other places before we ended the bike ride in Nyhavn, where we ate lunch.







We enjoyed seeing Copenhagen from the canals, when we went on a canal tour. It was fun to see how different the city looks from this perspective.

When we got home, we were pretty exhausted, but we wanted Joyce and Bob to try the Danish National Dish, which is fried pork (bacon) with parsley sauce. We were curious to hear how they liked this traditional dish - and fortunately they loved it.

Tuesday we played golf on Mølleåen (our home course) and Wednesday they took off to Amsterdam. From there they are going on a river cruise to Budapest.

I attended a meeting on Wednesday evening and afterwards Michael and I drove to Lone and Peter´s, where we were going to swap cars. They had been so kind to lend us their car while we had visitors. They treated us with coffee and apple pie - and it was absolutely amazing to hang out with them.

When we got home, I checked my email - and could read that our lovely friend from Holland, Theo, had died after being ill for a long time. We visited José and Theo in July, which was really nice. It was close to three years´ since we saw eachother last, when they left Utah because Theo had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. But as soon as we met, it was as if only a week had passed.

We have experienced many great things together. We have been partying, driving snowmobile, skiing, ballooning, taking photo lessons, been on white river rafting, etc. etc. We did so many things together and we always had fun, but could also be serious together. José and Theo introduced us to the game Sjoelbak, which has become something of a passion. So much that we both have a board in FriisBo and here in Farum. The latter has a very specific meaning to us, since we got it as a gift from José and Theo.
We will miss a great friend.