The view of Brent Reservoir. At one end of the reservoir the Welsh Harp Conservation Group has established a hide from where there is a great view to varied wildlife.
Extravagant weekend in London
Last weekend was my first living in London and if it is any sort of indication of what life in London will be like, I’m excited 🙂
We started off the weekend Friday evening meeting at the Tower of London after work for The Tower Festival. Ann had managed to get us tickets for two days at the festival and Friday it was The British Philharmonic Orchestra playing Classic Extravaganza. Before the concert we met up with a couple of local CouchSurfers at a pub and went to the venue with them afterwards. The concert was good and it was quite amazing sitting outside in central London listening to classical music. Here are two short video clips of the concert.
Saturday we went to The Barbican Centre which is a huge modern complex in the middle of London. It is a maze to figure out and although some call it The Ugliest Building in London I kind of like the place especially the inside has a very clean design in a 70s way with wood and concrete.
We went to hear a special concert to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Händel’s death called Handel Remixed. For that celebration they had asked a couple of composers to reinterpret some of Händel’s works. The composers were at the concert as well taking applause after their piece had been played. I wasn’t really expecting much before the concert but was blown away once it started. Compared to the day before the sound was so crisp and clean. The music was also very captivating and I really enjoyed it even though I don’t know much about Händel or classical music.
Sunday we went back to The Tower of London for a day of World Music at The Tower Festival where five bands were playing. It started in the afternoon and they had encouraged people to bring a picnic, so that was what we did.
The bands we saw were Siyaya from Zimbabwe, Abdullah Chhadeh from Syria, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara from UK/Gambia and Tony Allen from Nigeria. They were all good in their own ways but the one I enjoyed the most was Adams on electric guitar and Camara on a one stringed ritti playing “Afro-Blues”. It doesn’t get more worldly than that 🙂 Here is a short video of them playing.
What a weekend! Three separate events and we had more things planned that we didn’t make it out the door to. I’m looking forward to keep exploring London 🙂 Ann has written a lot more about the event’s of the weekend. Here are here stories for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Being in a big city like London there is such a multitude of things to do that our biggest problems are finding out what’s going on and choose what we want to do.
We have started an open calendar for the events we would like to do in order to keep track of things. If you are in London feel free to subscribe to it and let us know if you wan to join us for something.
Good bye Prague, hello London!
So my final days in Prague came to and end faster than I had expected but I’ll save that for a later blog post.
Photo by pnoid00
Tuesday afternoon I arrived in London in the pouring rain and it was raining a lot. Ann has been saying that London weather is not as bad as people make it out be to but this day she was a bit off. I’m not complaining tho. Ann had cooked me a nice English meal of Shepard’s Pie and showed me around our new home. Mmm, our new home. It’s been almost exactly two years since we went on our first date in Prague and now we are finally living in the same country 🙂
The next day the weather was a lot nicer so while Ann went to university I could get out and explore the neighborhood. The picture above is of the house we live in. We are in the house on the left with the red door on the first floor where we share a two bedroom flat with an Aussie/Brit couple.
Our neighborhood is covered with streets of terraced houses – all looking the same but also very different. It’s an interesting place to walk around and see how these maybe 80 year old houses have evolved differently depending of different styles and owners. Some are very nice and others are falling apart.
London is a very multiethnic city which also shows in our neighborhood with all sorts of exotic shops and restaurants. Compared to Prague which is very homogeneous (if you don’t count in the tourists) it’s a quite different atmosphere with all these cultures mixed amongst each other. On my trip I remember seeing Polish, Jamaican, Brazilian, Pakistani, Indian and South African and I’m sure I forgot a few. Also I’ve seen one synagogue, two mosques and a couple of churches and this place:
There is plenty to explore still and I’m looking forward to tasting the different foods and seeing what else there is to explore in this area.
Before I made it home I came across this piece in a school yard, “Share My World” – what a nice welcome 🙂
High School Reunion
This year it has been 10 years since I graduated from high school in Tønder – wow, time indeed flies.
The image above is from Christmas ’99, six month after we graduated where we gathered 22 of the 24 or so from our class. During the past 10 years we have usually tried to meet up for a dinner every year between Christmas and New Year but as people got partners and children, we have seen fewer people turn up for these events. The past couple of years we have usually been less than 10 for the dinners. So as this was the 10th year since we graduated some of us talked and some worked (Helene) to organize a dinner for all of us during the annual Tønder Festival.
To those of you who are not from Tønder, this is one of the bigger folk music festivals. The festival itself takes place in big tents on a meadow outside the town but as the population of the town triples or quadruples over this weekend the whole town is bustling with happy people, musicians and vendors trying to make a buck and many come here for the party more than the music.
Last weekend I went back to Denmark to stayed with my parents for a couple of days and catch up with my old class mates in Tønder. We met up at one of the many beer stands and started out catching up.
15 people showed up and everybody there looked liked themselves. Maybe a bit rounder and with a few more wrinkles around the eyes but when everybody was there it was like yesterday we would go to class and hang out afterwards. The old jokes and friendly teasing was on from the beginning – just like in the old days. Some things just never change. Others do. My two partners in crime during those years were now recent-father and father-to-be and their past enthusiastic conversations of Mercedes S-class, Audis and other high-octane topics were replaced by discussions of titanium baby strollers and which brands strollers was the easiest to dismantle. The vehicle had changed while the rest of the conversation was still the same, it was still the two “drengerøve”* having a passionated debate 🙂
It is not the easiest job to find a table for 15 people on Saturday of the festival but with the right connections we had managed to get a table in the festival’s restaurant Fiddlers’ Green. We spent a couple of hours there hearing what people were up to now and just having a good time. Most of us are done with our education and we have spread out to all walks of life all over Denmark (and beyond).
After dinner we went to our regular Friday afternoon retreat Cafe Victoria for a nightcap. 10 years ago I would have probably stayed out, gotten too drunk, lost my glasses and slept in a green house because I couldn’t find my friend’s house. This year I went to bed before 2 am on my designated bed well knowing where I put my glasses. I think I’m getting old – and that’s not too bad 🙂
Mushrooms, sushi and vikings
The title refers to the activities in my last weekend 🙂 Don’t say I’m not trying to diversifying. But more on that later, first let me catch up.
Since I got back from Denmark I’ve been quite busy with work but have also had time for some other activities.
First Mikkel, one of my thesis buddies from Aalborg, came to visit. It was a long time since I had had time to catch up with Mikkel so it was great to have him in Prague. Mikkel is an avid cook and took over the kitchen a number of times to great delight for me and some friends.
While Mikkel was here I finally got around to go on a city tour of Prague with Helge who I have know for most of my time here. I should have done it a long time ago because the tour covers a lot of Prague history and the central areas and buildings. I’d recommend it for any Dane going to Prague and for English speaking people they do private tours.
After Mikkel left I took it easy for a weekend and only got out to go to Bohemian Jazz Festival on Old Town Square. To my surprise the first band playing was Magnus fra Gaarden, a danish band dressed in cow and 80s costumes playing jazz mixed with electric guitar. Interesting combination. The next act, Josefine Lindstrand was also really cool.
on to the last weekend which started out Friday night at a friends place. He had just gotten back from a visit to his native Hungary and had brought some homemade wine and grappa, which kept us entertained for the night.
Saturday I went to another friends place were we had a sushi party spending all night rolling and eating sushi till we were rolling ourselves.
Sunday I tried to combat the overeating from the night before by watching other people sweet it out as they were engaged in real combat.
An hours drive south of Prague a 9th century festival called Rogar – Blood of the North was taking place. They had set up camp and was living in tents making food over open fire and creating weapons and jewelery in the styles and methods of the era.
The highlight of the festival was the battle. Around 40 guys were suited out in body armor, helmets and weaponry and went at it in full force for about an hour. They fought until everyone was “killed”, then got up again and started over. (here’s a short video)
After the battling we went on a hike by the nearby Slapy Reservoir. The picture at the top of this post is Leigh holding up some of the mushrooms we found. Simona is Czech and she knew what was edible and here is some of the stuff we found.
I have never seen mushrooms as big as a plate before and I would have never dared to touch them if it hadn’t been for Simona. It seems to be a national sport in Czech Republic to go mushroom hunting. Yesterday Simona cooked they ones we found and I must say it was very delicious and I see why its fun collecting mushrooms.
That was sort of a brief overview of what I’ve been up to.
I haven’t mentioned it on my blog before but I will be leaving Prague in mid-September to move to London. And last week Ann and I signed the contract for a place near Willesden Green where we are going to live 😀 So with less than two months to go I will enjoy Prague and surroundings as much as I can.
Summer in Denmark
While Czech Repulic was getting washed away I went to Denmark for a bit more than a week. I had not been back since Christmas so it was really great to get back.
I started out in Odder where I spend a day with Magnus, my nephew. First I went with him to preschool (it’s called 0th grade and the kids are 6-7 years old) and had a good time with Magnus and his classmates. During his school day we had morning singing (or whatever it is called) followed by roll call, and me telling his class a bit about what i do and about some of my travels. I didn’t really know how to approach kids at this age but they had a map of the world and Europe that we used to talk about different places and how they were different than Denmark. They seemed interested and had their own stories of trips they had made so the time went quick. Then it was time for a library visit with a fairytale reading by the librarian, followed by the class showing off what letters in the alphabet they had learned.
After school Magnus and I went home to play for the rest of the day untill Majbrit and Mogens got home. Here is a video of a slide with a “bomb” we tried to make from his bed to the living room – can you ever get too old to play with Lego? 🙂
It was really great to spend some time in Odder with family and catch up with the little guy – who is not that little any more.
Friday Ann arrived and stayed for the weekend. For once she wasn’t visiting in the winter time so I was happy to see that the weather was fairly good to us.
Saturday we packed a lunch and took off to the southwestern corner of the kingdom. First stop was the sight of where the Golden Horns were found. Apart from two stones marking the locations of the finds there wasn’t anything to see here. Apart from the tiny, cute house pictured above right next to it. The gold horns are two very unique finds in Denmark and their history is quite remarkable.
We continued to the village of Møgeltønder (pictured above) where Schackenborg Castle is situated. Schakenborg is the home of Prince Joachim, the younger of the queen’s two sons. He just had to his first child (Prince NN :)) with his second wife (his third in total – officially) so there were crowned storks in the garden to mark the expansion of the royal family.
We stopped at Hojer Mill to have our lunch and went to the coast to see dike and the vastness of the marsh landscape out west by the Wadden Sea.
At night we went to Ribe to walk around with the watchman as he told about the oldest city of Denmark.
Sunday we went to the area around Tørning and had a barbecue there with my folks.
[Picture of BBQ from dads camera – coming soon]
Ann was flying home on Monday so we spend the day making our way slowly towards the airport. We stopped in Jelling to see the rune stones and mounts marking the christening of the Danes and the burial place of Harald Bluetooth. Before Ann took off we had dinner at my aunt’s and uncles farm which is just next to the airport.
My cousin Anders graduated high school on Tuesday so there was a big party in his parents garden and the weather was perfect. Congrats to him!
Now I’m back in rainy Prague. Hopefully it doesnt stay that way because Mikkel, my thesis buddy is visiting me.
Summer evening on the bike
The weather in Prague is playing tricks on us and this past weekend it was almost autumn-ish with high winds and degrees around 12. But today it finally turned for the better and hit a nice 24C as I grabbed my bike and headed out for a ride.
A weekend in Tuscany
Ann spend the month of May in Pisa doing research at a dye analysis lab (correct me if im wrong 🙂 ) at the Università di Pisa. The last weekend she was there I went down to visit her and together we explored a bit of the region.
My dad has been going to Tuscany to bike each spring for the last 4-5 years and my mother has been there a couple of times as well and they have always talked very fondly of the region so I was looking forward to finally seeing it myself. And let me just say that I was really taken with Tuscany – I really have to get back there some day and see more.
I arrived in Pisa Thursday where Ann finished up at the university and we saw a bit of Pisa. Friday we headed to Cinque Terra (which is actually not in Tuscany but Liguria).
Cinque Terra means Five Lands and consists of five small villages clinging to the edge of the rocks next to the Mediterranean. Pictured above is the village Manarola. To get between the villages you can either walk on a trail, take the train that runs in a tunnel beneath the villages or take a boat.
See a bigger version of the panorama here.
We took it easy and walked part of the way and took the train for the rest. The weather was just right and the scenery between the villages as well as the atmosphere in the villages was excellent.
After we had spent most of the day taking in the sights we found a small rock beach where we could cool down before heading back to Pisa.
Saturday we headed inland for the city of Siena and this was as Tuscan as it gets. Set in a landscape of lush, green, rolling hills the train ride there was nice.
With all the houses made from a red-brown stone this place is really like something out of a movie. We brought a picnic lunch with us and ate it at the huge Piazza del Campo in the center of town.
It is easy to get a little lost in the small winding streets. But that doesn’t matter. For every corner you turn there is another interesting view.
On our way back to Pisa we made a stop in quaint town of Certaldo where we could take a cable car up to the old town on top of the hill. It was quite small but we also had it more or less to ourselves and the locals.
Sunday I was already heading back home again. So short time with Ann and so short time in Tuscany. I will have to see them both again soon 😉
Outdoor weekends in Czech Republic
The weather has been great the last couple of weeks which worked out perfect for the things I ended up doing.
Three weeks ago some friends had organized a canoe trip. So we were 10 people who took the train to a small village where you could rent canoes and set out for a relaxed day on the river. Glee had a diving case for a camera so we could take some pictures and video while we were on the water.
Along the route there was a couple of small cabins where you could get cold beer and a sausage. Here we are at our first stop.
This is one of the cool things about doing outdoor stuff in Czech Republic you come across these small beer and grill places in many of the areas where people go to do outdoor stuff. The next place we stopped for a beer Dominic ended up behind the counter selling t-shirts along with a pretty drunk Czech guy. Good fun 🙂
A few times we had to cross some tricky passages and we tipped over and had to get the water out of the canoes but most of the time it was pretty easy sailing.
The next weekend I went with Cyril and Patricia to Karlovy Vary a famous Czech spa town 2 hours from Prague. The legend tells that the hot springs in the area was discovered when Charles IV was hunting in the area and one of his dogs fell into a hole with the hot water and started howling. From then on the city became a place were people went to get healed by the mineral-rich water.
Today the 13 main hot springs have fountains scattered over the city. The water varies a bit in temperature, but I’m not really sure the mineral content is that different from the different springs. There were quite a lot of people in the town and many of them were walking around with these silly porcelain pots that looked like a nose bidet sipping from the hot water.
The health tourism to the area really took off in the 19th century so many of the buildings are from that era.
In James Bond’s Casino Royal the hotel used in the film for the casino scene was the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary so we of course had to go down and check it out.
After having walked around the city for half the day we decided to treat ourselves and spend some time in the outdoor pool with the best view I have seen. The water is 1/3 hot spring water and 2/3 regular sweet water. Here we are in front of the pool. (See it without us or as a panoramic view.)
Last weekend the good weather continued so Saturday I went on a bike trip on my own up along the the Vltava river that runs through Prague. There is a bike route right along the river. Sometimes a bit too close for comfort but I managed to stay on the path.
Here there also was little refreshment stalls for every few kilometer so no need to go hungry or thirsty. I went up the river about 20km and then took a boat across with my bike and rode back on the other side.
Sunday I went on a bike ride again, this time with two friends. We took a train two hours south east of Prague and biked on some small trail along a creek.
Here is one of the stretches in the open where I got my camera out. You can spot Aurel and Marcus as two tiny dots along the edge of the forest.
And of course there was a place in the middle of nowhere where we could get a beer and relax before heading off.
Once I managed to get ahead and get the camera out fast enough to get a shot of them before they rushed by me.
Around lunch time we came across some kind of sporting event that we first thought was a game of football. It turned out to be some sort of firemen competition where a team of 8 people would rush to a pump and set up tubes and try to hit some targets with water. Very good entertainment before we headed back to Prague.
I’m looking forward to spending the summer in and around Prague. Still so much to see and do. This weekend a couple from Cambridge and I’m a tour guide in Prague.
Ferie villa i Sydfrankrig (DK)
Jeg bliver lige nødt til at nævne det sidste projekt jeg har været involveret i. Ejerne af galleriet AndersenArt i Espergærde har bygget en lækker villa på en bjergside i Frankrig og bad os om at lave deres hjemmeside.
Huset er fordelt over tre planer med fire værelser, to køkkener og tre stuer. Hvad jeg synes er mest cool er terrassen med en fed pool og udsigt ud over Middelhavet, Saint Jeannet og Baou bjerget. Derudover har de en fyldt vinkælder, internetadgang på storskærm og et musikanlæg hvor man bare sætter sin iPod til.
Ud over at jeg har kigget misundelig på de billeder Peter har sendt mig dernede fra har det været rigtig inspirerende at arbejde sammen med Peter og Terese.
En dag når firmaet går flyvende, må jeg ned og og prøve at bo i deres Saint Jeannet villa. Det er ved at være en del år siden jeg var med cykelklubben nede og cykle i området, det er et rigtig lækkert område omkring Cannes, Nice og Monaco, hvor der er rigtig meget at se og opleve.
Men tag selv et kig på det lækre feriehus 🙂