Drunk Danish Graduates by the Truckload

This past weekend the streets of Lyngby (as well as those all over the country) have been filled with trucks toting students finishing their final year in school (equivalent to our high school seniors in the states) on their traditional Danish celebration. The students decorate trucks with flags, banners and flowers. They then load up in the trucks of all sorts; moving trucks, pick up trucks, old military trucks etc... The students stand in the back waving beer bottles, flags and making as much noise as they can while they are transported to each one of their homes where their parents treat them to a little food and drink. As you can imagine they get louder and rowdier with each stop they make.

As we walked along Lyngby Hovedgade we were passed several times by different trucks. We were even lucky enough to see three guys mooning everyone behind them. (I can just see American parents horror and reaching for their childrens' eyes to shield them. Here, I think everyone just laughs) Often there are signs on the back of the trucks that will say honk 1 time for a cheers, 2 times for a drink, 3 times for a flash and different variants on it. As one of the trucks passed us (the one with the mooning boys) there was an overwhelming smell of alcohol wreaking from it. haha.

Since we live mere steps away from Lyngby Hovedgade we were able to hear the screaming, singing, chanting, hooting and hollering students along with all the honking cars congratulating them all day long Friday and Saturday both at home and at the gym. About once every two hours the noise got increasingly louder as a truckload would drive past our flat. I love stuff like this in Denmark. This could never happen in the states for 100 different reasons, but it is so perfectly Danish.

I didn't have my camera or video camera on me while we were walking the streets but I got a couple videos from our windows.

Bamsefestival

Friday and Saturday there was a cute little festival in Lyngby called "Bamsefestival",or in English, Bear Festival. Teddy bears, not real live bears, but that sure would be interesting to see a bunch of bears walking around Lyngby Hovedgade, and perhaps a little scary....hmmmm...

Sorry, I got sidetracked.

The main street, Lyngby Hovedgade, was closed off to traffic which made it even more cute than it usually is. I should mention that the main street is just steps away from our flat. We both walk some part of this street on a daily basis. We live in the center of town which makes our lives here, incredibly convenient, especially when events are going on, we can just pop outside to have a look! There were fun things going on all day long. Magicians, dance shows, free candy for the kids, animal balloon makers and much much more. This took place all throughout the center of town. We walked around a little bit just to soak up the fun atmosphere. I had never seen so many Danish flags flying in Lyngby before, and I've seen a lot of Danish flags especially on the royals birthdays.

You'll have to make this picture big to see all the flags on both sides of the street. There was barely any wind this day so all the lovely flags just kinda stayed limp on their poles.

Kiddy Flea Market at Town Hall
Everything being sold here was for kids. Toys, stuffed animals, and other fun kiddy stuff.

Bamse!

Its not everyday you see tiny horses walking up and down Lyngby Hovedgade

Michael waiting on me to take pictures.

Panorama of our cute Lyngby Hovedgade.
The shop with the blue awning is our bakery.
It is much easier to see if you click the picture. :)

The Wayne and Tanya Tour

Michaels mom and stepdad, we will call them, "Tanya and Wayne" got here on Tuesday and we have been busy having fun since. As each day passes we are all quickly getting more and more red. The weather has been more than beautifully perfect. It's mind boggling. Today the high was 70 degrees, tomorrow 72. Last year while Mary and Jason were here at about the exact same time, in fact, actually it was a few days later, we were still in warm jackets and it was quite cold. brrr...

Day 1: They arrived and we took it easy. :)

Day 2: "Lyngby Fest" (as Mary called it)
We gave T&W the grandtour of "Our Lyngby". It mostly included the main street that we walk on daily and the things we see and do around town. We got to visit inside the Church, which Michael hadn't done before, and we took a little tour of Michaels office. They got to meet several of the Danish students that did the DTU/TTU program that lived in Lubbock and Dallas for a while. After that we went and showed them some of the forest and the older area of Lyngby. While we were walking around town these loud strange sounding sirens started going off. Michael and I mentioned to each other that it sounded like something from WWII warning of an attack that you might hear in the movies. We asked one of the Danes at work about it and sure enough, they test these sirens every year at this time to make sure they are still working. They were put in to say, "The Germans are Coming!!" For me, that was something pretty cool to hear.

The forest in Lyngby

Forest

Day 3: Copenhagen
We spent Thursday showing them what I call, the city section of Copenhagen. They saw the main train station, The Town Hall, Strøget, Kgs. Nytorv and Nyhavn. We drank coffee at one of our favorite cafes, ate lunch at Nyhavn and stuck them on a canal tour while Michael and I baked in the sun on the canal ledge. We finished the day with a nice cold, "Soft Ice".

Tanya found a new favorite chair at "Illums Bolighus"

Flowers at Kgs. Nytorv

Tuborg Man and horses

T&W on the Canal Tour Boat

Sun-Burning

The Must Have Shot at Nyhavn

Day 3: Beach, Bakken and Dyrehaven
Anyone that knows Tanya knows she loves, loves, LOVES deer. The first time we lived in Denmark we knew she would love "Dyrehaven". We were lucky enough that today the deer were out in full force and we were able to get quite close to them. We spend much walking through the park and a lot of time watching the deer walk about.

At Bakken

Stopping for Lunch

Michael and the statue

This Picture is for Mr. Jason Graduated from Law School today loves the hunting lodge Partney!
Congrats from the Hunting Lodge Jason!

Chillin' with the Deer

Still Chillin with the Deer

Michael pretending he is on Safari

We have a ton planned for the rest of their trip. I'll try to get stuff up here more often especially for Nana and the rest of the Family in Lubbock! :)

Pige Tur

Today my friend Dorte (you may remember her as the witch from Halloween) and her daughter Emma had a little "pige tur". It doesn't translate well in English, but it was a little "Girls Day" outting for us. :) Dorte is one of the secretaries at DTU whom really helped us not only feel at home, but helped us in so many aspects the first time we lived in Denmark. She seriously made living abroad so much easier for us for the first time than I could possibly describe. Emma turns 13 in a couple of weeks and is getting very good at English so it is fun to speak with her and watch her brain work as she listens and responds in English. Danes never cease to amaze me with their English speaking skills that they acquire at such a young age. In turn, there was a fair amount of Danish scattered throughout our meeting.

We met and the Lyngby train station and went to cafe where we got cake and various drinks. I had a great cup of coffee that complimented the most delicious slice of chocolate cake. The cafe we went to, Cafe Mig og Annie, is maybe 1 block from our flat and I pass it almost daily, but have never stopped to enjoy it properly. I was extremely pleased and actually preferred it to the other cafe a few blocks away that we usually pick. It was a cloudy day but still quite warm (50-something degrees) and comfortable and we were able to grab a table outside.It sits right next to the big flower shop on the Hovedgade (main street), so we had a pretty view of all the gorgeous flowers that are showing up.

After we ate we shopped around the Hovedgade in all the shops and went to the store center. (like a mall, it is the big black building you can see from the view of our flat if you can recall our pictures) It was a fun day and I walked away with two bottles of wine from one of the local wine shops. yum.

Emma and Dorte

Emma and Moi...and a lady in a big purple scarf

Lovely Lyngby

The past couple days have been absolutely freezing. The air reminds both of us of fall and we keep joking that winter is just days away. The past couple of mornings it has been so foggy and our slanted windows have been covered in ice. When I open the windows to see what it looks like outside, I see people on the street scrapping the ice off of their windshields. The only thing that is keeping my faith that spring is indeed coming are the early sunrises, late sunsets, budding trees and all the pretty flowers popping up!

The Magic Hotel
Now you see it

Now you don't

Sunrise at 6:30am

Grassy area with lots of flowers at the Lyngby Mølle (Lyngby Mill) on Lyngby Hovedgade
Michael walks past here twice a day on his way to/from work.
I pass it only about 2-4 times a week
Looking Towards TI

Christmas Weekend

Michael came home really early on Friday so we got the gym out of the way very early, came home, ate dinner and went on a little walk around Lyngby to take pictures of all the decorations and shop windows. It was FREEZING out, but we had fun.

Our Building decorated for Christmas
Our flat is on the far right at the very top.

The Window Display at Johannes Fog

Chocolate Shop Window

The Lyngby Hovedgade is the main street in Lyngby where all the shops are. It is an old cobblestone street and located just a block or two from our flat. We walk on this street daily, and Michael walks this at least 4 times a day! Once to get to work, then to get back, then to get to the gym, and back again! In the big intersection there is a big crown hanging. It is usually only up at the holiday time and in the summer around the time of the Lyngby Town Festival.

Lyngby Hovedgade Decorated for Christmas
This one looks better if you click on it to see it big.

Sunday night Michael and I made Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies and Sugar Cookies together.
The chocolate chips you buy here are much different than the ones in the states and I think are a bit sweeter and bigger, so while they were really good, I prefer them with the smaller less sweet Chocolate Chips. It actually created more of big pockets of Chocolate rather than small little bits of chocolate.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sugar Cookies
These turned out awesome!

As we started to make the cookies Michaels family called us on Skype from Lubbock from Nanas house. We were sitting (And by we I mean the laptop and webcam) were sitting at the counter so we had a good veiw of the table. It was so much fun and we felt like we were right there with them. The best was when we answered everyone started singing to us and Nana was in the background recording the whole thing. We talked with them for quite some time, and everyone was walking around and different people would sit and talk with us and it really felt like we were there. It was great.

In Denmark Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve, which is really quite funny to us. Flemming and Maja invited us over to their house to spend Christmas Eve with them and some of Mayas Family. It was a lot of fun with all the traditional food and the singing and walking around the Christmas Tree just like last year. Unfortunately, most of the pictures I took didn't turn out so well.

Dinner

Flemming and Helena

Jul i Lygby

Sunday was "Jul i Lygby" or "Christmas in Lyngby". There was a little parade through town with not 1, not 2 but 3 Santas! By little parade I mean it passed in about 2 minutes, but it last about 45 minutes as it made its way through the 3 big main streets in Lyngby.

The parade ended at the Lyngby Town Hall, where the lighting of the big town Christmas tree took place. It was FREEZING out so we bundled up very well. We had a nice time in our little community and it was fun to see so many happy people out in the streets. Unfortunately our camera and video camera died before the lighting actually happened.

Michael in front of the Post Pub.
We walk by this building every day on our way to the gym.
My main grocery store is located right next to this building

Video of the Little Parade

Me with the Lyngby Christmas tree

We got some Glogg and Æbleskiver's to help get into the Christmas spirit

This picture is taken where the big Christmas tree is. It is just a few minutes walk from our flat. You can see a big black building in the distance in this picture. That building is the same building that you can see from our balcony. Also, to the right in this picture you will see a clock hanging on the wall of the building. Right below that is the store where Michael and I purchased our wedding rings from 5 years ago!

Same black building as seen from the Pate Pad

Friday night we also put up our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree along with the rest of our decorations. It is goofy looking, but he is kinda cute in his own special way.

You might recognize this tree from somewhere.
He is from our balcony.

Mariebjerg Kirkegård

Sunday as we were on our way home from the gym we couldn't help but notice that the weather was, oh so pleasent. It was quite cold but absolutely lovely. The air felt fresh and there was a beautiful thin layer of fog and the clouds were hanging low in the sky. We decided it was the perfect day to go for a walk.

Oddly we decided to walk to "Mariebjerg Kirkegård". It is a big and beautiful cemetery in Gentofte about a 20 minute walk from our place. (Gentofte is one of the two towns we lived in our 1st time around) Now I must say we don't often walk to and around cemetery's for fun, but from time to time, we love to search them out while we are outside of the US. This one in particular was very peaceful and quiet.

The Entrance
The trees were SOOO tall. I should have gotten a picture with one of us standing next to them. The pictures doesn't do the height justice.

One area of the cemetery had these cool unmarked plots. There was a map showing who was buried where. Each octagon had I believe 12 people each buried in them! The plot with all of the flowers on it only had 2 people.

A pretty pathway in the cemetery

We walked around a bit looking at all the marked plots and found some as old as 1889 and some as recent as last month. The four that stuck at the most for us were a husband and wife who both lived well into their 90's. They were buried with who we guessed was their son who died when he was only in his 30s. There were 2 plots we saw for babies. One was 3 months old, the other was 1 month old. The gravestones on both were so simple and beautiful. As we were making our way out, our eyes caught a flickering. There were 5 freshly lit candles inside little lanterns next to a glass box of stuffed animals and a Christmas wreath. The child buried there was only 10 years old. The area the family had decorated was precious.

We then stumbled into an area with big crypts in a almost jungle looking area! (I know, there are no jungles in Denmark) I took pictures of the crypts but it was so dark because of all the tall trees surrounding them, they didn't come out well.

Bad Crypt Picture

We left and enjoyed on our walk back home with our fresh reminder of how precious life is and how the small things we were worried about at the time (What can we do to rent a car for 10 days so Michael can stay in the highest level of membership in Avis), don't matter that much after all. :)

Just Another Day in the Forest

This weekend turned out to be another really beautiful weekend. The sun was out (mostly) and it was just cool. Not even cold. So, knowing our beautiful days and our sun is limited at this time of the year, we hopped out today to enjoy the weather. Before we left Michael plotted out our route and wouldn't tell me where we were going. So I was clueless, but he did good :)

A Farm and a Lake

Furesø (A lake)

We walked along a path for awhile as we were entering the forest
This was on our right
(I turned around to take a picture from the way we came)

And this was on our left

Walking through the forest
Some kids in a canoe enjoying the weather too

Cute little bridge over the creek

Then we came across this interesting HUGE oak tree. It was so unique in the forest and we were surprised to stumble upon it. The sign next to the tree said it was 800 years old.

"Klopstocks Eg"

And a lovely sunset taken from our sunroom from Saturday October 7th