Hanging with Family in Denmark

After being in tourist mode for a solid month, Lindsay and I were excited to spend a weekend in Denmark with my sister Lara, her husband Lars, and their beautiful children - Lia, Anya and Karsten.  Most of the weekend was spent playing with the kids, but we also managed to get in a long training run through the Danish countryside, and Lara and Lars also surprised us with a fun outing to Odense for dinner and our first Danish premier league soccer game.

We arrived in Copenhagen on Friday evening around 7:30pm.  Denmark has a great public transport system, so we hopped a train from the airport to Nyborg - about a 90 minute trip.  Of course, Lia and Anya wanted to wait up for us, so we ended up keeping the girls up way past their bed time.

My sister lives in the beautiful town of Nyborg on the island of Fyn.  It's an idyllic setting, not far from where Hans Cristian Anderson was born (he was born in Odense, which is about 30 minutes from Nyborg).  Nyborg has a population of just under 17,000 with a charming old town and castle.  It's a great place to raise kids where no one has to lock their doors at night and kids can bike/walk to school on their own.  The town sits on the coast and is a summer vacation destination during July and August, but is very quiet the rest of the year.  It is also a good stopping point between Copenhagen and other towns further north, so many visitors spend a night here on their way in either direction.  My sister actually rents out a room in her house as a B&B, so they frequently have visitors passing through, usually for just a night.

Nyborg

On Saturday, we spent the whole day with the kids.  Lars picked us up a ridiculous spread of Danish breads and pastries for the morning.  I should have taken pictures - it was incredible.  Lars actually stopped at multiple bakeries to get everything, since each baker has his own specialty.  I thought it was funny that even the baker at 7-11 has his own specialty, a pastry called the frøsnapper, which was literally the best pastry I've ever had in my life.  It had several layers of flaky dough, with a sugary buttery center and was covered with poppy and sesame seeds.  Other delicious items included the brunsviger, a Danish coffee cake from Fyn that consists of wonderful soft bread covered with generous portions of butter and brown sugar, and a croissant-like pastry filled with marzipan that Lindsay devoured with Anya.

Brunsviger

Frøsnapper

After breakfast, Lindsay introduced the kids to freeze tag, which was all the rage for the rest of the weekend.

Lindsay cornering Anya in an intense game of freeze tag

In the afternoon, we took the kids to Strandvænget - a beautiful coastal park that is dedicated to helping disabled kids, and is open to the public as well.  The park has animals - goats, rabbits, horses, etc - a large playground, great open green spaces for picnics, miles of walking trails, and a beautiful beach.

Strandvænget

The kids had a blast feeding the goats and playing with the other animals.  Anya wasn't shy about reaching over to say hello to one of the horses.

Anya making a new friend

The park also has a great playground, where we did some tight-rope walking, climbing, and, of course, more freeze tag.  Never a shy one, Karsten was showing off a bit in the photo below.

Our nephew Karsten

One of my favorite things to do with my dad when I was a kid was to skip rocks.  I was happy to see Lars and Karsten carrying on the same tradition.  Karsten has boundless energy and good coordination - looks like he's going to be a good athlete.

Lars and Karsten showing us their rocks ...

... And look at that follow-through.  Like father, like son.

Anya grabbed my camera for a bit and took some good shots, including the following picture.  Maybe a budding photographer in the family?

Lia looking pretty in the sun

We lucked out with the weather - it was a beautiful afternoon, and we had a ton of fun with Lara, Lars and the kids.  Here's a great shot of the whole family together at the beach.

  

Great shot of the whole family!

The strangest thing we saw at the park was a pacifier tree.  Once the child outgrows his/her pacifier, the parents retire the old pacifiers by hanging them on the tree.  Some of the pacifiers were in plastic bags, other were hung alongside photos of their children.  Some of these have been there for years.  Kind of gross.

The pacifier tree

On Sunday, Lindsay and I got up early for our long training run of the week (18 miles).  We made our way along the coast and then through the Danish countryside before we returned to Nyborg.  Below are few shots from the run.

Running on the bike path along the road to Odense

Almost home!

Arriving in Nyborg towards the end of the run

We finished our run at Nyborg Slot (the Nyborg castle)

While we were running, Lia was at clarinet practice.  Lia is very musical like her mom, and has become an excellent clarinet player.  We were able to watch her rehearse a bit with her classmates when we picked her up.  Of course, she's the standout musician in the group ;)

Aunt Lindsay and Lia on the way home from clarinet practice

On Sunday evening, Lars and Lara took us out to dinner and then to a football match in Odense.  Odense was playing one of the best teams in the league FC Midtjylland.  It was great to spend some quality time with Lara and Lars and get some local flavor at the game.  We were a bit disappointed, however, that the small section of FC Mydtjylland fans were louder than the Odense fans in our section.  Odense tied Midtjylland 1-1.

Enjoying a beer with our hosts

Odense scoring the tying goal

Thanks, Lars and Lara, for a fantastic weekend!  Next stop Oktoberfest.