The Stones! (not Mick)

"Gorm the old" is the first historically recognized King of Denmark, reigning from 936 to his death in 958.  He was married to Thyra and had three sons, one was "Harold Bluetooth", who was the second King of Denmark, reigning from his father's death until his death in 986.

Yes, Bluetooth, just like the wireless technology.  The idea for the Bluetooth name came from Jim Kardach of Intel, who was reading a historical novel about Vikings and King Harald Bluetooth at the time he was working on the technology.

Both Kings reigned over Denmark from the town of Jelling.  When Gorm's wife Thyra died, he had a giant mound constructed for her burial.  He also had a stone carved with Danish "runes".

When Gorm died, his son, then King Harald, had a second monument made, also a stone carved with runes.

King Harold is credited with being Christianity to Denmark.  His father had been buried as a "pagen". When Harold converted to Christianity, he had his father reburied in the church.

All of this history lesson is leading to a train trip Mary and I took to the small village of Jelling to see these stones that were carved over 1000 years ago!

From the train to Jelling

 The church at Jelling

The graveyard around the church was beautiful.  The groundskeepers were in the process of decorating the graves with evergreens for winter season when we visited.

 The stones were carved over 1000 years ago.  In 2008 cracks were found in the stones, due to weathering.  The Heritage Agency of Denmark decided to enclose them in glass casing that creates a climate system to keep the stones at a fixed temperature and humidity and protect them from weathering.

I have noticed I am "weathering" as well.  I have signed up for the enclosure system and will let you know how it works out.

 The smaller of the two stones

For all of you "Non-Rune Readers", I have translated the stones for you.

 "King Gorm made this monument in memory of Thyrvé, his wife, Denmark's adornment"

This is the first time the word "DENMARK" appears anywhere!

 The larger stone

The stones were originally painted 1000 years ago, but only bits of paint chips survived.  This is a what it is thought to have looked like.  Besides the runes, one side of Harold's stone has a carving of Jesus Christ

"King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyrvé, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian."

 The two mounds surround the church

 I climbed to the top of both mounds.  WOW!  The white posts off in the distance represent the wall King Harold built around the town of Jelling

A panoramic shot

Mary and I also got to go inside the church

 It was beautiful.  Very plain, white, and stark

 But when the church was first constructed, the walls were covered in paintings.  The only ones to have survived were around the alter.

Most churches in Denmark have a ship.  

The largest part of any Christian church is the area where the congregation 

sits and is called the nave, which comes from the Latin noun "navis", 

meaning ship.  It is called that because of the long shape. 

Since Danes have literally been sailors as far back as can be traced, it makes sense that they would place ship models in the nave of their parish churches to remind the congregation of their heavenly destination and the perils which could "sink" them during the voyage.

Mary and I enjoyed our trip to Jelling.  It is a beautiful place.

One last thing.  Take a look at your Bluetooth device.  The logo looks like this:

Danish runes!  The logo is a combination of the rune for "H" and "B"

Harold Bluetooth, the second King of Denmark.

I'm going to be a Grandfather!!!!

I'm going to be a Grandfather!!!   (Which, of course means that Mary is going to be a Grandmother!!)

Lars and Elizabeth are expecting in June.  I'm not sure who is more excited, Lars and Elizabeth, or Mary and me.

Mary and I have already started thinking about one of the most important things, what our grand-baby should call us.  Mary has chosen (I will not divulge that here), but I don't know yet.

This is an important thing.  Should it be Grandfather (too formal), Mr. Farabee (WAY too formal!), Grandpa, Pop, PaPa, Granddad. There are Norwegian versions (Farfar), Playful (Big Daddy, not really me), Trendy (Popster, Skipper), the list goes on and on.

But I guess the important thing to me is not what my new grandchild calls me, but that I will have a grandchild.  It doesn't get much more exciting than that.

New booties we just got for you here in Denmark.  I hope you like them.  Whatever you call me, it won't matter.  Just make sure you call me.

Trip to Oslo

Mary and I took the ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo last week. We left Copenhagen at 16:30 Monday afternoon and arrived in Oslo at 09:30 Tuesday morning.

Our trip started with a bicycle ride from our apartment to the train station in Odense.  It is amazing what you can load on a bicycle rack with a little practice.  We both had suitcases and backpacks and never had a problem.

Copenhagen Central Station

We got off the train at Copenhagen Central Station and caught the bus to the ferry Terminal and checked in.

The only reason it is called a ferry Is because it carries cars.  It was more like a cruise ship.  561 feet long, with 671 cabins and can carry 1790 passengers.  Six restaurants, five bars, and a nightclub.  What a ferry!

 Our cabin

Dinner was wonderful

 Cruising up the Oslo Fjord was beautiful

Because we only had about six hours in Oslo, Mary and I decided to take a bus to two very famous museums that as located close to each other.  The "Viking Ship" Museum an the "Kon Tiki" museum, both about a 30 minute bus ride from the ferry terminal.

Mary and I have gotten very used to riding trains and buses when we travel.  Everyone is nice and we have yet to "get lost".  Norway was no exception.  We walked the 15 minutes to the Oslo Central Station (yes, all big cities have a Central Station) and bought two round trip tickets.  Bus number 30 and we were off!

 Oslo Central Station

 Statues everywhere

There were always school children getting on the buses.  This group of 40 were "herded" by 3 teachers!  All the children had on yellow vests.  We saw many groups like this.

 Our first stop was the Viking Ship museum.

 On 8 August 1903, professor Gabriel Gustafson of the University of Oslo received a visit from a farmer, Knut Rom from the Lille Oseberg farm in Slagen in Vestfold.  Knut had dug into a large burial mound on his property and had come across what he believed was a ship.  How right he was!  He had discovered the "Oseberg Ship"

 In 834, two prosperous women died. The Oseberg ship was pulled ashore and used as a burial ship for the two ladies. A burial chamber was dug right behind the ship's mast. Inside, the walls were decorated with fantastic woven tapestries and the dead women lay on a raised bed. The women had a number of burial gifts with them. There were personal items such as clothes, shoes and combs, ship's equipment, kitchen equipment, farm equipment, three ornate sledges and a working sledge, a wagon, five carved animal heads, five beds and two tents. There were fifteen horses, six dogs and two small cows.

The museum Mary and I went thru housed the Oseberg ship, as well as the "Gokstad", the "Tune".  All of these ships had been discovered from1885 to 1904 early 1904 in burial mounds.

The "Tune" 

 The Oseberg Ship when first uncovered

 The "Gokstad"

We then hopped on the bus and went to the "Kon-Tiki" museum.

 On the 28th of April 1947 six men, led by Thor Heyerdahl, departed the port of Callao, Peru, on the balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki. Risking their lives, they set out to cross the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate that this type of ocean voyage could have been carried out 1500 years ago.

 I read and re-read the book many times as a boy.  I still have my copy of this classic story of adventure and exploration, a paperback from 1965.  If you have never read this, you need to.  Actually seeing the raft these men used to cross the Pacific was a dream come true for me.

 A 1947 version of a shark cage

 A whale shark "visited them" during their voyage

Side story.  As we were walking to the Viking Ship museum from the bus, Mary noticed she had left her scarf on the bus.  One I had given her.  As there was a bus every ten minutes, we said goodbye to the scarf.  2 1/2 hours later, as we got on a bus at another stop, Mary noticed her scarf in the window!  Somehow we had gotten onto the same bus, and someone had turned it in.  Mary talked to the driver (interesting conversation, he didn't speak English, Mary not a word of Norwegian) and got her scarf back.  While we were at the museums, Mary's scarf had taken a tour of Oslo on its own.

 Boats in the harbor

After the Kon-Tiki, we went back to Oslo and had lunch.  I love omelets.  There are good, mediocre, and down right bad ones.  I never thought I would have to travel to Oslo, Norway to have the BEST omelet I have ever eaten.

Just the right size, bacon, feta cheese, spinach, done to perfection.  And, because it was lunch, with a salad and a Norwegian "Ringe" beer.  Wow.

 We got back to the ship and headed back to Copenhagen.

 Leaving Oslo

Moon Rise

In the morning we passed "Kronborg Castle", the setting for Shakespeare's "Hamlet".

 We stayed overnight in Copenhagen at the "Star Hotel", close to the train station.  Very nice.

 We took a "tourist bus tour" of Copenhagen and saw the Little Mermaid Statue.

And later, we did a late night walking tour of Copenhagen

 Giant Thermometer

This was a great trip, Mary had never been to Norway and I got to see the Kon-Tiki.  And Mary's scarf got to take a tour without us.