Liz's European Adventures

I was invited to spend the weekend at a Danish summer house in GRENÅ, which is on the 'nose' of the peninsula I live on. I finally got to go see what this whole summer house thing is about! It was house of the parent's of my soccer coaches friend - so I went with my good guy friends and some of the soccer girls. It was a weekend of just relaxing, having some drinks, going to the beach - kind of a nice little getaway from the city.

The weekend was over the 4th of July weekend, which was nice that I had a way to semi-celebrate. Also, I had heard and read that the largest 4th of July celebration outside of the US, actually takes place in Denmark! It is a celebration of the Danish-American partnership, and takes place in a park called Rebild - and is outside of the city of Aalborg.

The celebration was not a big deal - I was expecting fireworks or something...definitely did not happen. It was nice to go and see what it was like, but the celebration was mainly speeches and older people - not so great for the crowd of young people I brought with, not to mention the fact that it was scorching hot!

It was so hot!!! We needed water!

My Danish friends having a nail-hammering contest into a log

We are playing in the little pioneer/Indian town

The state of Nebraska

The flags of the 50 states lining the walk - kind of cool to see this in another country

I LOVE this picture. Very representative of my new life now!

The crew as we walked into Rebild

Soeren, being a nerd in the back of the car

Kenny, one of my soccer coaches

Sommerhus 2009

Laying on the beach, relaxing

Our friend, the dead crab we found

Notice the 'jelly fish'? They were all lined up on the beach and I have never seen anything like this!

The boys, recovering

When the boys rolled out of bed, this was their spot in the morning

Kanne and Kenny

The Danish boys trying to teach me to open a bottle with a lighter...and I can kind of do it now!

Britt and Chanett

One of the coolest trips BY FAR I have taken was with my friend Anne. She is from a town about an hour and a half north of Aarhus called Aars. We went home to her parents house for the weekend. We had traditional Danish food every day, and would borrow their car for the day and travel around Northern Denmark (Jutland, the main piece of land).

Anne did a FANTASTIC job of planning the trip. Everything she chose to show me, I thought was the coolest thing ever, and would never have suspected to find these things in Denmark. We went to Aars and drove around. I saw her hometown and where she grew up, where she went to school, played tennis, etc. We drove up the Northwestern border of Jutland. We went to Blokhus, Løkken, Aalborg, Frederikshavn, Skagen and more!

Another interesting aspect of the trip was the car. Anne's parents have an Audi SUV, which you do NOT see in Denmark that often. It is a very nice car - the camping edition (think Ford Explorer Sport). The car is probably about $60-70k in the US. Because of the taxes and fees on cars in Denmark, the car was worth the equivalent of $100k USD!!! I could not believe that there were that many taxes! Yikes, no wonder why they all ride bikes!

Lincoln left me in the morning, and went and slept with Anne...traitor!

Jerry's is an American grill in Frederikshavn. It is owned by her cousin and her cousin's husband (who is an American). It was pretty cool to have dinner there

Den Tilsandede Kirk used to be the largest Danish church in medieval times but it had to be closed in 1795 because the dunes had reached the entrance-gates of that church and blocked it. The sand drift started around 1600 and reached the church at the end of the 18th century. The congregation had to dig their way into the church when they wanted to attend the services. The struggle against the sand continued until 1795 when the church was closed by royal decree. Today, only the tower is visible. The direct translation of this building is 'The Sanded Up Church.' It is a church near Skagen from the 14th century that over time, has been covered by sand, so now all that is visible is essentially the tower part of the church

WWII bunkers in Skagen - again, cool to actually see evidence of the war

Another bunker

Anne and I in Skagen

Skagen is the northernmost tip of Denmark. It is where the two seas meet (you can see the waves crashing against each other). The current is so strong here. This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life.