Europe 2007
Europe 2007
We now have a significant change in our trip. Geoff is working. Helen is not.
The coincidence did not stop there. The boats are built by hand using replicas of Viking tools. To illustrate the techniques, they frequently used illustrations from the Bayeux tapestry (where we were last week). The only ones who did not know that William of 1066 was a Viking are the English. The French know. The Danes clearly know. Strangely, the Danes put the end of the Viking era at about the time of William’s conquest (because the world had become too stable). Maybe William told them to behave themselves after that and called on the Viking Alliance (if there was such a thing) to keep the peace.
From there to the Lejre Experimental Village. Extremely interesting. Run by Copenhagen University. The idea has been to build an iron age village and try to live in it – to see how cold it gets in winter and how to survive. (In the houses, with a fire, most of the heat goes up the smoke hole. The temp is at best 10C and could get down to 4-5C. The room is full of noxious smoke. If you add cattle to try to keep warm, it makes no difference to the internal temperature. The cattle are warmer than outside.) How long does the thatched roof last ?(about 5 years – then after you have rebuilt it a few times, you move on – in 25-30 years the whole village has moved 50-100 metres on). They burnt down a fully “furnished “house complete with animal carcasses on purpose to see what happened. The fire began in the hearth. In 30 seconds the roof was alight. In 30 minutes there was next to nothing left. They covered the remains with earth and left it for about 10 years. They then did an archaeological dig on the remains and found lots of stuff. However, when they repeated the dig about 20 years later they found very little – it was the same as a 2000 year old site. They were trying to get info to compare with real digs. Two women students were walking around in period dress and bare feet. We had polypro on and felt cool. The place is also full of people and kids trying it out. They have a working forge, baker, weaver, leather worker, basket maker etc, as well as a diverse herb garden – studying medicinal uses. As we were leaving, people were arriving to spend the night complete with their roll of skins to sleep in. Blokes wandering around with arrows as there is some big hunting competition on tomorrow.
A few thoughts on Denmark. A very ordered people. We have the impression that everyone knows their place exactly. Maybe not as rigid as the Germans but not as independent as the French. The absence of litter would astound the Irish and the Aussies.
The cars in France, Germany, Belgium and Holland have the country designation as part of their numberplate. Not the Danes. The ‘DK’ if it is present, is insignificant – almost like part of the car’s decals. Danish cars are older and larger than in France and Germany where very tiny cars abound. However, apparently over 50% of Danes cycle daily. Every road has a designated cycle ‘lane’ and they have right a way at intersections and roundabouts. In the country there are many kilometres of cycle way running parallel to the roads. Bus and train stops have large bike parking racks and the streets are lined with bikes leaning up against buildings. The place is very flat – highest ‘mountain’ is only 160m. Most bikes have no gears, the more modern ones have 3 and occasionally you see something going past fast with a derailleur and real gears.
Birds here begin their dawn chorus at about 3:50am at present. We are not sure when it gets dark – between 10pm and 10:30pm. Apparently, they don’t call at all after June 23 (mid summer). A sudden cut off.
Shortly after writing that, the couple who have been saying ‘bonjour’ to us for a few days came over and said ‘you are not French’. He (ex-biology teacher) then told us all the things we should see in Denmark. It would take several summers just to see the beautiful, interesting things. Certainly very proud of their country. Even bought over a bird book for us to use while here. We were told that we must forcefully speak English so that people know we ‘are not French’! We have been told several times that most Danes can understand English because most TV and film is in English with sub titles.
Words and where they come from. Because of the huge Danish invasions of England, we were expecting more recognisable Danish words that are common in English. There appear to be very few. A few boat ones like skiff and skull. The Scottish word ‘barn’ for a child also exists in Danish. Ireland gave us many words/phrases. ‘Daylight robbery’ refers to the window tax England imposed, causing windows to be bricked up and therefore stole their daylight. ‘Upper crust’ was the top of the bread which was not burnt and the better off got to eat. ‘By Hook or by Crook’ is Cromwell’s statement when setting out to capture Cork/Waterford by way of Hook Point or Crook Point – ‘I’ll take it by Hook or by Crook’..
The GPS in the car (‘the girl’) is one of the more useful things we have. Type in the address and she delivers us to the door. It is not only the turn left and right directions, it is knowing that she will get us out of any hole if we miss a turn. Without her, the stress level would be enormous, with the passenger constantly having to navigate and decide lanes and turnoffs in a maze of signposts. The girl makes it easy. Worth every penny. Even when she ‘losses satellite reception’ and gets told off.
Danish weather. We know that the joke about Melbourne weather is that if you don’t like it wait an hour. In Denmark, it would be wait 1 minute. Anders (one of the people Geoff is working with, and who is really a Norwegian) says ‘the trouble with Danish weather is that there is too much of it’. We agree.
Denmark 1
Monday, 14 May 2007