The main reason for our traveling to Denmark was for family. My father’s parents were both born in Denmark and all of his uncles, aunts and their children stayed in Denmark.
In 1981, I visited many of my Danish relatives at the end of my summer bike trip in Europe. If you read our blog post about my friend Tom in Scotland, you already know that I’m not the most reliable correspondent. As you might expect, over the last 32 years, most of those relatives have changed addresses, had children or grandchildren and some are no longer with us. The end result is that I had lost track of everyone in the Danish branch of my family. What to do? Why, Facebook, of course!
Last fall, I was telling my mother that I was interested in finding some of the Danish relatives. Mom went to her file and produced an email from 2001. (Mom saves everything!) The email was from Stine and Rasmus Hilker, grandchildren of my father’s cousin Leif Hilker. At the time, they were 16 (twins) and were doing research on their family history and wanted to know something about their American relatives. The email mentioned that Rasmus enjoyed playing computer games. That was my lead! If he liked the computer then, he probably likes it now. A quick search on Facebook and there he was, along with his sister and his mother and a bunch of other relatives I had never heard of!
Through Stine and Rasmus’ mother Helle, I was able to reconnect to the Danes last fall. Helle offered to put Liz and me up at her house while we were in Haderslev visiting. Now, we just had the long wait for mid-June for our reunion.
Then, things got more complicated. In the interim, my brother Chris, my sisters Marilyn, Celinda and Mazie and my mother Marilyn decided to visit Denmark while Liz and I were going to be in Ireland. Of course, they also wanted to visit the relatives so they contacted Helle and made their own arrangements for the week before Liz and I were to arrive. Then, our children Carolyn and Christian surprised us by telling us that they were going to take time off from work, come to Denmark and meet us. Of course, they also wanted to meet the Danish relatives. So, what started out as a visit by two of us turned into an American invasion of Helle’s house, first by four of my Cleveland family and then the four Idaho Brandts a week later. Poor, Helle!
While we haven’t been able to talk to my family that visited first, all reports were that their visit was very nice. Via emails and Facebook, we saw some great pictures and comments. Helle sent to me: “I sit down here with Stine with a tired head and tired ears. Your wonderful family left our house 2 hours ago. We were so glad to have them here in our home. You have a wonderful family. … We had a very good time.”
Now, it was our turn. Liz and I arrived at the ferry port in Esbjerg, Denmark. As we walked out of the terminal, we were greeted by Christian and Carolyn sitting on the curb waiting for us. They had been in Copenhagen for a couple of days and had taken the train over to Esbjerg that morning. What a wonderful reunion! Shortly, we were off in our rental car to Helle’s house in Haderslev, about an hour away.
We found the red carpet rolled out for us with a huge crowd when we arrived! Helle, Stine and Rasmus and Helle’s husband Poul, Helle’s parents Leif (my dad’s first cousin) and his wife Birthe, and Helle’s brother Ole with two of his daughters Terne and Freja. (Ole’s daughter Lærke would join us the next day.) Everyone had taken off work or school just to greet us. What a surprise! We had a wonderful time and talked late into the night. All of the Danes speak excellent English (which is good for us!) but Christian was able to really use his Danish again. (Christian is pretty fluent in Danish from when he was an exchange student in high school.) The next pleasant surprise was that Birthe had arranged for us to stay in her neighbor’s house while we were there. The neighbors were gone and we had the whole house to ourselves.
The next day, 11 of us went to an island off the west coast of Jutland called Rømø which is famous for its beaches. Faithful readers (both of you!) will remember that it has been unusually cold, windy and wet this winter and spring in Europe and this day was no exception. No swimming but the beach was still spectacular anyway – miles long and a half mile wide. What surprised us all was that the Royal Danish Air Force had commandeered the beach to practice beach landings and take-offs for one (of their four) transport planes. For someone like me who wants to be a pilot when I grow up, this was pretty cool. Unlike in America, where no one would be allowed within a half mile of the proceedings, the Danes just put up a few traffic cones about 50 yards from the landing area. This gave us front row seats, complete with M.P’s, emergency fire personnel and equipment and the Danish press.
After about three landings and take-offs, we decided to “sneak” around the area to get all the way out to the sea. It turned out that the Danish M.P.’s weren’t too happy with us. Since we had to cross the flight path of the airplane, they shooed us quickly through so that we didn’t loiter too long in harm’s way. It also turned out that the Danish nightly news filmed the whole thing and “featured” us on that night’s broadcast for a few seconds during their story about the practicing. We’re famous and we didn’t even get arrested or deported!
From Rømø, we continued on to Ribe, Denmark’s oldest continuing town, established around 700 A.D. The town is filled with numerous examples of old, Danish homes, buildings and a domkirke or Cathedral which has had a bishop in residence since at least 948 A.D. After a climb to the top of the cathedral’s tower, we had a leisurely stroll through the old town.
After our day’s outing, we returned to Haderslev for another fine dinner. This time, we were also joined by Dorthe and Pernille, wife and daughter of Niels (Helle’s other brother) and Lærke. The next day, Leif showed us around Haderslev before we headed north. Breakfasts with Leif and Birthe, dinners at Helle and Poul’s, sightseeing excursions hosted by everyone and wonderful conversation with our newly found relatives, this was a great start to our trek through Denmark!
After a brief stop in Silkeborg where my grandfather was born, we continued up north to Sæby, my grandmother’s home town. Sæby, now, is home to Leif’s sister Else and her husband Villy. Leif had arranged for us to visit them, too. Joining us in Sæby was Leif and Else’s sister Kirsten and her husband Preben. These four plus Leif, Birthe and Ole were the only seven living relatives that I had visited in 1981. We spent the afternoon eating, talking and wandering around the neighborhood. Once again, Christian’s facility with Danish really came in handy. While the Danes’ English was much better than our Danish (except for Christian, of course), we would have had a lot of quiet time up in Sæby without him.
Our last family adventure ended our Danish trip. Christian spent the 2006-7 school year as an exchange student in Copenhagen, staying with his host family, the Høi’s, Peter, Kirsten and their sons Poul and Søren. While not blood relatives, we certainly consider them family. Kirsten and Peter welcomed us with open arms! After some sightseeing around Copenhagen and celebrating Søren's graduation from school, they took us up to their cabin in Sweden for a couple of days. On the drive up to Sweden, Peter mentioned that he had heard something about a ferry crashing into the dock the other day. This was the first hint that our ferry from Esbjerg back to Harwich might have had a problem. It turned out that the ferry came in a bit fast and crashed into the quay at Harwich and was out of service! Hmmm… this WAS a problem. We had to be back in London and out of the UK by June 30 before our visas ran out, only five days from then. Kirsten and Peter were invaluable in helping us navigate the various options (no pun intended) and make alternative travel plans. We ended up having to take a train from Copenhagen to Hoek van Holland, Netherlands and catch a different ferry from there to Harwich. We are on that ferry as I write. As we left Peter and Kirsten, it was clear why Christian had had such a marvelous and enriching time in Denmark. He couldn't have asked for a better family!
Our trip to Denmark reconfirmed to Liz and me that our family, both close and extended, are incredibly important to us! To be able to spend that week with Christian and Carolyn, to meet and reconnect with my extended family in Denmark and to meet and get to know Christian’s A.F.S. family was a tremendous gift for us. “Thank you” to all of you who welcomed us into your homes and lives and made us feel special. We truly are blessed!
Here is a link to all of our pictures from Denmark: https://plus.google.com/photos/106613978480302914809/albums?banner=pwa&gpsrc=pwrd1#photos/106613978480302914809/albums/5890904858751947569
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