First Three Days in Copenhagen, by Alissa

After a week of travelling through the vast, rugged landscapes of Iceland and having only ourselves to talk to, we GORGED ourselves on social engagement in Copenhagen. Andrew played at the Jazz Festival, Max and Cedar quickly made friends at the first playground we encountered, we spent a good chunk of a day getting to know the folks who have graciously offered their home to us this week, feasted with more new friends, and spent Thursday with Brooklyn friends who are in Denmark, as well!  

Perhaps Andrew will write about the Jazz Festival. His gig was very late, so Cedar, Max, and I stayed home and contented ourselves with watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. We’re staying at the home of Bo Kruger, who I met through online professional networking I did prior to our trip. When Bo realized his family would be on vacation during our time in Copenhagen, he generously offered us the use of their home.

Yesterday, we had the great fortune of being able to spend some time with Bo and his family, before they took off. Bo and his wife Marianne Boye have a company called Moving Minds (www.movingminds.dk). They use many different kinds of interactive and improvisational techniques in meeting facilitation and training.  Bo has also written a couple of books about facilitation that make use of his Indiana Jones alter ego (www.kontoretsindianajones.dk). Thus, the entire Indie cinematic collection that Max is hoping to work his way through before the week is over!  
Max had a great time playing foosball with their 9 year old son, while their 12 year old daughter shepherded Cedar around and was greatly amused by her antics. Bo and I crammed in conversations about positive psychology, improvisation, and evaluation during any minute we weren’t needed by any of the four children!

Later that evening, we visited the home of Julie and Arne. Julie is a long-time friend of musician Jason Huang, and she hosted a beautiful traditional Danish summer dinner for us and about a half-dozen other friends.  We feasted on salmon, potatoes, peas-in-the-pod, and Rødgrød med Fløde, a strawberry and rhubarb pudding that is so difficult for outsiders to pronounce that it has become a favorite Danish pastime to ask foreigners to twist their tongues in their unsuccessful attempts. Julie and Arne’s son once travelled to England with another Danish kid for a soccer match and proceeded to have a hilarious time getting as many of the couple of hundred English kids they were hanging out with to contort their tongues around the impossible dish! Despite its inpronuncability and Julie’s insistence that her version didn’t have the right texture, I found Rødgrød med Fløde to be quite delicious.  

Hopefully Andrew will include a post detailing the many stories we heard from Julie and Arne’s friend Charlotte, whose husband was the founder of Copenhagen’s Montmartre Jazz Club in the 60’s. Wild, amazing stories of travelling the world with their 6 children, introducing new cousine to provincial Denmark (Italian pizza, French bread!), and generally approaching life with a deep sense of glee and adventure. Super inspiring.

We got home around midnight, stumbled into bed, and woke up early this morning for an outing to Sagnlandet Lejre (www.sagnlandetlejre.dk), a living museum and research center that has several “villages” illustrating life from the stone age, iron age, Viking times, and 19^th century. There, we met up with our Brooklyn friend Charlotte and her children, as well as Charlotte’s sister and children. Cedar was super excited to spend time with Charlotte’s daughter, who she knows from pre-school. Six children and four adults tromped all over, checking out blacksmithing, wool dying, traditional cooking techniques, wood carving, and many other crafts and skills. It was a feast for the senses.

Stone age hut

Cedar and I paddling away in a dug out stone age canoe

We interacted with both experts and ordinary families, on holiday in a most unusual and --especially from Max’s perspective-- entirely enviable manner. Families can sign up to live in one of the villages for a week, dressing, playing, and working in accord. Children run around barefoot in rough homespun clothing, while their parents cook and tend to daily needs. The center is open to the public for about 6 hours a day, but the families continue living in the past during the other hours as well. Max is now seriously envisioning our next vacation where he’ll get to hunt wild boar with his friends. Super fun!

The landscape was quite moving, too: rolling hills of new, green grain blowing in the soft wind, ocean-like in its wave action; forests of oak and scrub; cute little wild boar piglets (boarlets?) rooting around in the mud. 

Good times and we haven’t seen a lick of Copenhagen in three days! Tomorrow we’ll take it easy and do a little exploring.