Good friends I knew from Waterbeach moved to live in Denmark. That was enough of a reason for me to go and see Denmark for myself! It was an early start 4AM-ish to get down to Stansted. Happily the Ryanair flight was half full or less perhaps and I had a window seat in an otherwise empty row of three to myself. The rugby scrum didn’t really materialise! So in this instance no reserved seat numbers didn’t really matter. Iain met me at Aarhus airport and took me back quite a long way to Ferslev, said Verslev, where the Brodies have a splendid bungalow, spacious airy lounge! Denmark is a relaxed place, the bungalow had no boiler, village shared hot water coolant from local power plant, meters measure heat drop per house. Brodies had unusual spoons with S Bend in them which could be rested on neck of jamjar. They took me to Lindholm Høje (said hoi) which is an old Viking burial ground covered for centuries in sand. Despite drizzle we had barbecued meat then played Carcassone an interesting board game which I was rubbish at.

Went up to Skagen, pronounce Skayan, Danish like English slur words elide letters et cetera but first went to Råjberg Mile which is the giant evil Sand dune crossing the north of Denmark at 15m a year. Insects worrisome here, only place. Bizarre, a huge mountain of sand just wiping all in his path. Skagen is a spit growing into the sea where the Baltic and North Sea roughly meet. Petrol stations are unmanned, a lot operates on trust here, you park your car and leave dial saying when you parked. Ate at Jensens Bofhof (literally Beef house) where a waitress brought food on a rack of plates, good idea. Donald Duck in Danish is Anders And, and is spirit for confusion.

Bethel Kirken in the morning, set in an immigrant area of Aarlborg. Collecting bags like toasters, good number of older teenagers, good young praise group who sang some hymns in English. Guy ate a burger and drank some Coke as he did his take on the passage where Jesus says what goes into a man does not make him unclean. In this way like the brethren where anyone might get the chance to say something, not a bad idea. The Danish church has a set of headphones so you can listen to the service in English, not bad though poor translator got lost once or twice and translated timid as fearsome. A girl named Nana got baptised. Yvonne cooked some danish pastries, Danes call them Vienna pastries. We went for a walk and got lost in Ryberg forest, very long. Back at base camp played Aerndo a good gambling game and more Carcassone.

I like lightning storms and there was a marvellous one the night before I left. I got up and saw the neighbours also watching out, Lennie poor dog was totally freaked out!