To Denmark and Back

We are now back from Denmark and northern Germany for a week and I am just now getting around to posting some pictures and updating our blog. We had a great trip! We visited friends from my graduate school days in Bremen for a weekend. Unfortunately the weather was very wet and cold, but we had a great time playing at an indoor pirate-themed play center and visiting the downtown of Bremen which is really beautiful. See the picture here of us by the famous statue of a shepherd and his pigs in Bremen. I remember visiting exactly this statue with my dad when we visited Bremen when I was in jr. high school, so it was really fun to see it again.

Then we drove north to Denmark to visit my host family (from my year in Denmark 20 years ago!) We stayed two nights in Odense, touring around my old haunts. Then we spent the rest of the week relaxing on the Baltic coast where they have a summer house. This part of Denmark is just idyllic, at least when the weather was as summery as when we were there. The summer house is a cute little fisherman's cottage (apparently 9 people lived in its 3 rooms before it became a vacation house) in a row of similar cottages on the waterfront. We spent the days at the beach, or just playing in the water and yard of the house. My host sister and her family were there with us (and did all the cooking, which was heavenly!) and it was fun to hang out and talk about old times and Danish politics! Tina and Per have a 6 month old baby who was also delightful (and sleeps all night!) We were sad to leave, but on the way back to the Hamburg airport we stopped in the small town of Schleswig which turned out to be more old-fashioned fishing charm. This turned out to be a great place to break the 4-hour drive back to Hamburg and we roamed all over town.

Now we are back and our departure feels more and more imminent. Markus is still pushing his project forward, but otherwise we are trying to identify what needs to be done to move, and what we still want to see or accomplish while here. Today, for example, we met our danish friends at a children's zoo in a town at the far end of the lake (Rapperswil). The zoo is owned by the big Swiss circus company (Knies) as a place for trained animals to retire or winter. While it is a zoo, it also specializes in all sorts of animal rides (ponies, elephants, camels, horse-drawn trains etc.) and sea lion shows. We just had a wonderful time. The highlight of the day was the bathing of the 4 elephants. After getting hosed off, the elephants then get into the pool of water and submerge themselves. Then the trainer helped them spray the audience. We got soaked (which is ok since the weather was hot) and the kids were screaming with laughter.

The other task we have for the next couple of weeks is to visit all of the people we haven't yet seen in Europe. We are planning a big visit to all of Markus' friends from highschool and college that he is still in touch with, which will mean a kind of marathon trip around western Germany. Before that, we will visit Markus' brother's family again to celebrate our neice's first day of school. Apparently that is a really big deal here, with lots of presents and cake (hey, it is German here afterall!) and special "schuletute" which are like big paper horns full of goodies. Markus has been waxing nostalgic about these for weeks so I am interested to see what they are all about. Anyway, all of this is to show that we are trying to milk our last weeks here (6 to go now) for all the possible fun and friendship we can. We also continue to find great new playgrounds and other points of interest in Zurich.

Last Friday we attended the Google party to celebrate the opening of their new garden patio. The decadence just goes on and on! Now the patio hosts not only the latest in garden decor, but also a sandbox for young and old. The party was great with lots of bbq! It was full of kids it felt like. I think this is because lots of the young and mobile googlers were taking advantage of the 3-day weekend afforded by the Swiss day (see below). The highlight of the party was a big bowl of water balloons. What were the organizers thinking????

Finally, I wanted to quickly describe the Swiss national day which was yesterday (Aug. 1). We were expecting something really big and patriotic, given that the Swiss basically use their flag as a marketing tool and seem to be very proud of all things Swiss. Indeed, we did see lots of people out in Swiss flag t-shirts, but truthfully I felt like many of them were like us: tourists or visitors who were there to see what it was all about rather than Swiss enjoying their Swissness. The parade of people in traditional dress and military divisions carrying bayonets was cancelled because it was raining. But later, when the rain stopped we headed down to see what was happening in the city center. There were some interesting tidbits, like old men playing alpine horns (think giant wooden pipes that rest on the ground and sound like trombones only much louder) or a parade of men carrying monster-sized cowbells and making incredible noise with them. But overall, the main event seemed to be eating brautwurst and enjoying some Swiss music. At night, however, as soon as it was dark the fireworks started. Zurichers apparently buy an enourmous number of fireworks to supplement the several shows put on by the city. They began just before 10pm and went on until 2am. This in a country in which it is illegal to put your recycled glass and cans in the public bins after 7pm because it disturbs the peace! Nicolas woke up in a panic (which was overcome when he realized it wasn't guns but fireworks that we could partly see from our apartment windows.) So I guess patriotism found its outlet though noise and light late at night. We found the whole event surprisingly lifeless. Of course, next weekend is the Zurich version of the Love Parade (a giant technomusic-themed street party/parade/drug-induced euphoria) so perhaps the people here are just saving up their wildness for that!