Saturday and Sunday, July 4 and 5 - The North Sea
Pam and I get up and bike down to our beach at Høl again before any of the kids are up. I swim, and She does beach yoga. Pam also makes and leaves these fairie mandalas at every opportunity.
We buy sugar snap peas at the roadside stand on the way home. We would have bought jordbaer as well, but there will be plenty to pick from our garden, plus the jordbaer jam that Tanja has in the refrigerator. Homemade.
We drove to Jutland's West coast on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we were at Henne, a beautiful expanse of beach chock full of Danes and Germans. Rowan, Griffin and I played in the water, Berit read her book on the beach, and Pam and I walked the strand as usual. We only saw one naked family. Rowan and Griffin and I finished with some hacky-sack.
The beach town in Henne is cute. We got ice creams and everyone read their books. I got licorice ice cream (lakrids). Have I mentioned the Danish love affair with licorice yet? Licorice everything. I'm really going to miss it.
After a failed attempt to get into Vejle's Gorilla Park we once again made for the West Coast - this time to Ringkobing and Hvide Sand (White Sand). It took a while, but we found the parkour park in Ringkobing.
By the time we hit the beach at Hvide Sand, the skies were dark, thunder boomed in the distance and apocolyptic gulls circled in swarms, swooping down to feast on the small jellyfish.
Rowan and Griffin were in the water, Griffin scooping up jellyfish and throwing them to the gulls. I dove in also as Pam combed the beach for rocks. She was like a North Sea mystic with big headphones vaned draped in towels, walking through the rain, collecting talismans.
Beriit, engrossed in her book, never left the car, and was none to upset about it when we all came scurrying over the dunes in the downpour.
Monday - Gorilla Park
We showed up at Gorilla Park at noon and our group assembled for instruction - first in Danish and then in English. We secured our harnesses with locking caribiners and zip-line accessories and were off - first on the practice course and then into courses one through six.
Each course took us a little higher, across traverses that were incrementally higher, scarier and more challenging. The kids were off by themselves on course 4. I finished course 3 with Pam, and then we skipped to course 5 to avoid the line.
How high were we? I don't know - 50 feet? There were some pretty scary obstacles, like the one where you have to jump on a snowboard and surf to the next tree.
We all had a blast and finished the evening in Vejle's downtown area. More ice creams and a candy store that had a Willie Wonka-sized selection of licorice.
Tuesday - Horseback Riding in Romo
On the island of Romo we rode Icelandic horses through forested dunes. I giggled like a little girl as I bounced maniacally through the never-ending trotting.
Towards the end of our two hour journey, it began to rain. Afterwards, we thought we'd find Sonderstrand, a Romo beach popular with naked German tourists. Instead, we found this vast expanse of sand that Pam insisted was the beach at low tide. Only Rowan would set off with us across the barren sands, kicking the soccer ball.
Wednesday - Jurrasic World
Today was a rain day. After mailing our postcards, buying dinner and stopping by our bakery for coffee and breakfast pastries, we made a spur of the moment decision to pile in the Berlingo and speed off for the movie theater in Vejle. We made it just in time to enjoy our tradition of going to see Chris Pratt movies on rainy days during our vacation (last year it was Guardians of the Galaxy in Massachusetts).
We cleaned the house and the car. Tomorrow, we head to Middelfart to catch a bus to Copenhagen. The journey home begins.
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