Category Archives: Denmark

Oprah drops in

November 30, 2009 10:26 pm // 3 Comments

Denmark was recently featured on Oprah, partly because of the buzz it’s gotten as the happiest country on earth, and partly because she was here anyway in order to push for Chicago’s olympic bid.

In the first clip Oprah tours an apartment that is portrayed as being fairly typical. But it’s not even close to being typical. There are some typical things about it, like the extremely compact refrigerator (by American standards), but most of it is not at all typical. The “cave” where the kids live is quite strange. Sure, Danish bedrooms are often small, but that’s more of a closet than a room. And the parent’s bed and bedroom is extremely unusual — it’s in the freakin kitchen! I’ve been in dozens of Danish homes and never seen anything like this apartment.

Oprah visits a “typical” Danish home

The second clip is more interesting. Read More →

Posted in: Denmark, Politics

Farewell to Fall

November 9, 2009 12:43 am // Leave a Comment

Officially it’s not over yet, but it feels that way. Fall can be glorious in Denmark, but is sometimes disappointing. There are so many colors, and they hit all at once. If you’re lucky it won’t rain for a while, but it usually does, and the crisp and vivid colors get wet and murky.

The church in Børkop, where Lisbeth was baptized 'Duck Crossing' A field close to Lisbeth's parent's house

Leaves turning at the Copenhagen Technical School Leaves turning at the Copenhagen Technical School A bike trail not far from the apartment

But fall is still a special time of year.  There’s something profound about fall. It makes summer seem like a silly, frivolous season. Fall is a return to reality. It’s both more sane and more sentimental than summer, and the transition surprises me every year.

Posted in: Denmark, Pictures

25 seconds at home

October 25, 2009 9:53 pm // Leave a Comment

Twenty-five second exposure from our apartment at about 1:00 am

Posted in: Denmark, Pictures

Ride of the day

October 16, 2009 11:37 pm // 1 Comment

Summer is over and it’s cold (about 4 Celsius / 40 Fahrenheit today). The leaves are changing, and I’m wearing a hat and gloves on my commute. But it’s not cold enough to stop me from going for long rides after work. Not yet anyway.

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Right now I’m doubly motivated. First, I still have  a lot of enchiladas, huevos rancheros, and stuffed sopaipillas from our vacation in New Mexico to burn off. Second, daylight savings time ends on the 25th, after which any riding I do after work will be entirely in the dark.

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Posted in: Bikes, Denmark, Pictures

The audacity of ignorance

October 16, 2009 11:30 pm // Leave a Comment

When we arrived in the US for vacation last month, we stayed in a hotel in Albuquerque the first night. It had been a rough night, and Ellen was especially tired and jet-lagged. She was fussing at breakfast, so I took her for a little walk.

I was walking past the pool area when a man in his late fifties approached me and said, “That was me — twenty seven years ago, I was walking around with my infant son at this very hotel.” We chatted a bit about being parents and such, and I mentioned that we were jet-lagged. He asked where we came in from. I told him we were visiting from Denmark.

“Denmark! Wow, they’re having big problems there!”

I didn’t know what he meant. I wondered if something terrible has happened since we left. I tried to think. There’s the economic crisis, but that’s not just in Denmark… maybe he was talking about the Mohammed cartoon crisis… but… that was almost four years ago… but that is typically the only thing Americans actually know about Denmark. So I said, “Yeah… I guess…” Read More →

Posted in: Denmark, Politics, The US

On “Obamacare”

August 30, 2009 10:43 pm // 2 Comments

Americans don’t have any experience or perspective on socialized medicine. That’s abundantly clear from the horror stories that are currently circulating among opponents. There are many reasons given for the opposition. So many, in fact, that it’s hard to summarize what the objections are. The most famous, of course is the “death panels“.  But another objection is that it will further stifle the economy — that it’s socialistic and therefore bad business.

In my experience it’s the opposite. The system that America has currently is what’s bad for business. Costs are too high, and millions are uninsured — we all know that much. But it’s worse than that. Americans often stay in jobs they hate or don’t take jobs they might like better because they don’t want to risk losing their medical coverage. Now that is bad for business.

Read More →

Posted in: Denmark, Politics, The US

There’s a fly in my paradise

August 5, 2009 11:14 pm // 1 Comment

I’ve been riding in Copenhagen for over three years now, and it’s fantastic. I doubt there’s a better city for a bike enthusiast. It’s not perfect though. Here’s a list of things you’ll find on bike paths, ranked from best to worst.

  1. Cyclists that are predicable, considerate, and alert. This is by far the largest group.
  2. Cyclists that probably mean well but suffer from an iPod or cell phone dependency that prevents them from being either predicable or alert.
  3. Three-wheeled bikes. This includes parents on Christiania bikes, hauling their kids around, and some disabled people who have strange sort of scooter-tricycles, some of which are electric. This is a well-behaved group, but these bikes take up a lot of room. Luckily there aren’t that many, and they’re pretty concentrated in the inner-city.
  4. Racers riding $5,000 bikes and wearing full-body condom-like suits who act like they’re perpetually in the final stages of the Tour de France. I don’t like to be slowed down either, but it’s a reality on a public bike path. You mostly find these folks out in the suburbs.
  5. Tourists that are distracted by the sights and therefore periodically veer into the path of other cyclists. Or just stop in the middle of the lane without warning. This is only a problem in the city, in the summer.
  6. Pigeons, dogs off leash, stray cats, broken glass, etc.
  7. Cars parked partially or fully on the bike lane because the driver is more important than anyone else in the world.
  8. Steaming piles of fresh dog shit (this actually almost never happens, but I mention it to underscore the repugnant nature of the remaining two items.)
  9. Scooters on the bike lane legally. This means a scooter that is limited to 40 kilometers an hour, or about 23 miles per hour. Still, I think they have no business on a bike lane at any speed. Bike lanes are for bikes.
  10. Scooters on the bike lane illegally. This is the single most irritating and dangerous thing about riding in Denmark. These scooters are modified for speed, and driven by assholes that pass you without warning at three times your speed, and then leave you breathing toxic fumes. If you’re just too fat and lazy to ride a bike and really have to have a scooter, drive on the street with the rest of the motorized traffic.
Posted in: Bikes, Denmark

Lazy man’s crane

July 7, 2009 10:38 pm // 2 Comments

I’m not a good nature photographer. I lack the patience. If an animal happens to bound across my path I’m happy to try and capture a good image, but I’m not going to hide in a bush all day or painstakingly sneak up to a heard of grazing whatevers.

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In this case I got lucky. I just happened to be riding by as two kayaks approached this crane and I knew it wouldn’t let them get much closer. I stopped, waited five seconds, and got these shots.

Posted in: Denmark, Pictures

17.5 hours of daylight

July 2, 2009 12:09 am // Leave a Comment

June 21st was the longest day of year, which in Copenhagen means sunrise was at 4:25 AM and sunset was at 9:58 PM. It’s a great time of year (but a bit confusing when you wake up in the middle of the night and have no idea what time it is.)

At Saint Hans: 9:11 pm DSC_7746.JPG The Saint Has bonfire (9:15 pm)

On the 23rd, Danes celebrate Sankt Hans (Saint John), an ancient summer tradition. The idea is essentially to drive away evil spirits. Apparently in the 1920s the evil was personified as a witch that is banished to the mountains of Germany by the fire.  (It’s not uncommon for the bonfires to have simple witch effigies on top.)

Noah Pia

This year we were invited to a Sankt Hans in Hellerup by our friends Pia and Søren (I got a picture of Noah, their 8 month old, but not Søren). It was really nice, especially in contrast to our first Sankt Hans together, when the wood for the bonfire was so wet that it wouldn’t burn. We were at a huge park in town with hundreds of people, and after an hour or so, they tried silly things like thowing in plastic bottles.

The sea near Dragør (10:03 pm) Trees near Søvang (10:26 pm) A farm near Søvang (10:34 pm)

But Sankt Hans is just one evening. It is one of the longest, but there are plenty of long, long days this time of year. Days when I can head out for a bike ride at 9:00 PM and it doesn’t get dark before I get back.

The view from our bedroom (12:49 am)Days when we can sit on a couch out on our terrace and watch the light slowly fade. Days when I have plenty of opportunities to grab my camera and catch that very late afternoon light that I like so much.

Posted in: Denmark, Personal, Pictures

Change of Address

May 24, 2009 11:44 pm // 1 Comment

Home for the last three years

Since I moved out of my parent’s house, I’ve moved around quite a bit. The longest I’ve stayed in the same place was my house in North Bend, outside Seattle, where I lived for five years. The second longest stay has been my apartment in Christianshavn, where I’ve lived since April, 2006, shortly after moving here. For most of that time I had the place to myself. Lisbeth moved in with me in March of last year, and then Ellen joined us in Febrary of this year. And although we could certainly have continued to live there, space was getting a bit tight.

The new building

This weekend we moved to a very new (and less central) apartment. The new neighborhood is called Ørestad, which I wrote about over two years ago here. Back then I thought it was the last place I’d find myself living, but… a lot has changed. Read More →

Posted in: Denmark, Personal, Pictures