Sunday, June 29, 2014

Thomas B. Thrigesgade

Thomas B. Thirigesgade is a main road through Odense.  It was built in 1970.  It runs right in front of my apartment.  Lots of traffic.  For the past several years, the city of Odense has wanted to make this area more pedestrian.  Walking areas, shops, bicycles.

Well, this weekend, the city of Odense closed the highway.  There was an enormous celebration, antique cars, food, dance, beer, and lots of people!!!

I think the best way to show what went on is to just show you the photos I took.  What an incredible weekend.





Car show!







Dancing!



Bowling



Racing!



And people, lots of people!!!




There were Beautiful girls with backpacks of coffee!!!



And I found a Miata that looks like Lois, my Miata back in the States!


A very nice weekend!
I had a great time!

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The Box

This is not my typical "Danish" post.

I got a phone call from my sister Debbie yesterday.  And she asked me the oddest question.

"Mom and Dad had an air conditioning service out to look under the house.  The contractor had a 14 year old son helping him.  After a bit, the son went up to Mom and said "I found something really interesting under the porch.  It looks like it has been there a long time."

"Guess what he found" Debbie asked me.

Immediately I said "A shoebox?"

"Yes!!!!  How did you know?"

Mom asked the son to get the box and bring it up to her.


"The Box"

It was in rough shape,  the bottom was rotten, an old Belk Berry cardboard shoebox.

When they opened it, this is what they found.


And in the box was a note.


Now if you can read this, you have much better eyes than I!  My sister some how deciphered it and this is what it said:

"In this box is Water, Iron, Plastic, one Steel Razor Blade, one Rock, one piece of Tin, one piece of Floor Covering, one piece of Wood, one package of Acid Soil, one Coin from our money, one piece of Paper, and one box of Matches for starting fires."

"I hope this will be of some help to you".

Yours truly,
Butch Farabee
Debbie Farabee
Who live in the U.S.A.
This was made in 1967
The 20th Century

Somehow, I had remembered.  When Debbie and I were kids, (my nickname is "Butch"), we saw something about people putting a Time Capsule in a building as they were completing it.  I'm not sure if we saw it on TV, or read about it, or we may have heard about it in school.

Anyway, we decided to make one of our own.  We had recently added onto our house, adding a porch with a crawl space under it.  The perfect place to put a Time Capsule.

I didn't remember what we put in it until Debbie sent me the photos, but I remember getting a shoebox for the job.

On top of the box, we had placed a piece of wood and written on it in chalk:



I have no idea why we chose what to put in the box, but I remember being excited about someone finding our "treasure" hundreds of years from then.

Well, it didn't make 100 years, but it did make it 47 years.  Not bad!

Mom said the contractors son was very excited to see what was in the box.

Debbie and I also included a photo of us (including my baby brother Steven, who for some reason was not involved in our escapade!



Our Time Capsule worked!  We should have filled it with something important, but actually, I think we did.

I meant to ask Debbie if she got the contractors son to sign the piece of wood!  That would have been perfect.




Saturday, June 21, 2014

I meet the Queen of Denmark

Okay, I didn't actually MEET the Queen of Denmark, but I did get to see her, and she DID drive by my apartment.

On Thursday, the 19th of June, the Queen of Denmark, Margrethe Alexandrine Þorhildur Ingrid (or Daisy, as she is affectionately known by all of Denmark), arrived in Odense with her husband,  Henri Marie Jean André, Count of Laborde deMonpezat, better known as HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark.

Now when you are the Queen of Denmark, travel around your country is done in great style, befitting a Queen.


The Royal Yacht!

The Royal Yacht Dannebrog was named by Queen Alexandrine in Copenhagen in 1931 and hoisted its flag for the first time on 26 May 1932. Dannebrog now serves as the official and private residence for the Royal Couple and other members of the Royal Family when they are on official visits overseas or on summer cruises in home waters.

Length: 78.43 m
Width: 10.40 m
Draught: 3.62 m
Mast height: 23.00 m
Displacement, fully loaded: 1238 tons

The royal compartment includes The Queen’s and the Prince Consort’s studies, a dining salon, a lounge, the bedrooms and more. HM The Queen and HRH The Prince Consort have taken a personal interest in the interior design, the choice of furniture and general outfitting. The royal compartment contains furniture and fittings from the previous royal vessel from 1879.

But enough about the ship (I do love ships).  The Queen was scheduled to arrive at 10 AM and the Queen always arrives on time!


At 1000 exactly, the Royal Yacht docked.



The cutest little girl had flowers and gave them to the Queen and curtsied.


The Queen then walked down the red carpet (amazing how that carpet appears everywhere she goes.  I'm lucky to get tile!!!!)


There was much pomp and circumstance!


Anna and Gaston were there with me to great the Queen.  What a cutie!  And of course I mean Anna!!!


There were lots of children there with flags to greet "Daisy"!


The Queen of Denmark


There was a very big crowd there to greet the Queen


The Queen's husband, HRH Prince Henrik


After the Queen greeted the crowd, they got into their "transportation".  A 1958 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, licence tag "Crown 1"

It is good to be the Queen!



After the Queen left, I went back to work.  As I went home, guess what I saw across the street at my favorite bakery?  The Queen on a tour of Odense.  I watched her get into her Rolls.


And drive by me!


It was a very good day!


Monday, June 16, 2014

Sailing Trip

Søren and Dorthe Schnack, Engineers at OMT, invited Dan Willertz, an Engineer from BIW, and me, to go sailing on Sunday!  How could I pass up an opportunity like that!  And it was Father's day!

Søren and Dorthe live in Kerteminde, about a 1/2 hour car ride North East of Odense. (1 hour by bicycle, I did that several weeks ago).  Søren picked us up in Odense at 10:00 Sunday morning and headed to Kerteminde.


We were sailing out of Kerteminde harbor to the island of "Romsø", a small island just off the coast.

Søren keeps his boat, a 37 footer, at the Kerteminde Yacht Club.



"The Boat"


Dorthe packed a lunch for us, we cast off and were underway!

It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm.  The water was amazing clear, and actually warm enough to go swimming!  Denmark constantly surprises me!



Sailing out of the harbor


Rounding the point


Romsø Island in the distance


Approaching the island

We got ready to anchor.  Søren  steered, I was up forward with the anchor and dropped it.  As Søren moved the boat back to set the anchor, the anchor line parted!  Old rope!!  Søren  started to go overboard to get the anchor, but I stopped him when  I spotted the anchor rope floating.  I snagged it with the boat hook and we were in business!

After we were anchored, we decided to eat lunch and then go ashore for some exploring.


Lunch!




After lunch, we inflated the dingy and went ashore.

No one lives on the island permanently anymore.  There are several summer cottages for rent, as well as an old light house and fog horn.




There are hundreds of deer on the island, not tame, but you can get close to them before they run.


It was absolutely beautiful there.  We walked half way around, and then cut through the center to get back to the beach.







Back in 1909, there was a man that lived on the island full time.  He called himself "King of Romsø".  Someone on the mainland decided the king needed an automobile, so they put a new Model T Ford on a fishing boat and brought it over to the island!


The remains of the Model T

We made it back to the boat, hoisted the anchor, and sailed around the island.






A perfect day in Denmark!


Many thanks to Søren  and Dorthe for a wonderful day.