Friday, October 17, 2008

Settling In

It is Friday night and as we watch A-M and J's favorite tv show (Denmark dance show) I thought I'd write a quick blog and share our week. As the title says, we are starting to settle in here well. Tonight was the first we had a meal at home, with just A-M and J. The past four nights we have either been to other family members houses for supper, or had the whole immediate family here for supper. Suppers with a group of people have lasted as much as four hours, or spending the entire night at the table. A new experiance for us (B at least). This mostly just happens in Canada for special occasions, so perhaps our being here is the cause for such long suppers and that is not the norm. Anyways, leaving off with C and J dropping us off here in Kastbjerg, we took a quick trip around the country with A-M and J, visiting an ancient Viking grave, as well as the town of Mariager, with a quaint little downtown. The last picture on the previous post was a little fountain in the downtown square. The above picture is us climbing around the viking grave to make it to the top. The top picture on this post is the monument on the top, marking its location, as well as warning any entriprenuring farmers that digging the grave up for development is strictly prohibited! The picture below is of the oldest building in Mariager, now used for a resteraunt, and dating back to the 16th Century. It is a wonder that it is still standing, and the crook in its timbers is understandable! The first day we went into Aalborg for K's research A-M and J drove us in and took me around town while K got aquianted with the archives and started her research. It went well with A-M and J considering they knew very little English, and I knew very little Danish. Equiped with a ordbog (dictionary) and lots of patience we made it around town seeing many sites. The picture below is K's archive building, an building designed to look like the adjacent church, but never used by the church. The next day K and I took the bus from Kastbjerg into Aalborg, and have continued to do so each day this week. I have been able to tour the town while Kirstin is in the archives, taking pictures, and sketching buildings and details I find architecturally interesting. The picture below shows were I sat the first morning to sketch the Utzon Center, newly built, and designed by Jorn Utzon, the architect who conceptualized and designed the Sydney Opera House. The photo below is of the main square in Aalborg, a crossing of a number of streets as well as two major pedestrian shopping malls. The brown building with three gables is the pride of the town, a building built in the 17th century by a rich sea merchant, Jens Banks. It is a great example of renaissance architecture and one of the nicest buildings in town. I finish off this blog with a phot of one of the two largest churches in downtown Aalborg. It is called Budolfi Kirken. Supposedly K has some relatives buried in the church, but we were not able to find any record in the church of that. The church is very beautiful, painted white and has many very interesting architectural features. I will do a post some time soon with just photos of the church, as I found many interesting angles and features.

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