We had a relaxed morning in our little “Peace and Love” urban camper van. It came equipped with a phonograph in a little case and some vinyl records from the 60’s, so we had breakfast while listening to the beautiful voice of Miriam Makeba. We still had plenty of time to pack up and make our way to the station for our train to Denmark.

Alas, friends, travel does not always go smoothly as planned. Do you notice the slight curve in the tracks in the photo above? It didn’t seem important to us at the time. We were waiting near where our previous train had dropped us off, and there were others waiting also on the benches around us. The train seemed to be a little bit late, but we’re told that’s not unusual for Germany these days… Yet why was it no longer showing up on the information boards? Nothing ever passed by us on the track, so as best we can tell our train slipped into the station from the north, left again in the same direction, and was too short for us to see around the bend of the track. Another lesson in travel for us! Fortunately the trains in Europe run frequently, and we were able to take another one that left an hour later. With mostly blue skies, we had lovely views of the German and Danish countryside along the way.

We are here to visit Susannah’s good friend Christina and her husband Thomas. They live on Zealand outside of Copenhagen, but came to meet us in Aarhus. We’ll join them for a few days in a vacation summer cottage in the northern part of Jutland. We had a little time to wander the streets of Aarhus before heading to dinner.

For this evening, Christina had planned a special dinner at a restaurant called Det Glade Vanvid (The Happy Madness). It’s the sort of place you need to make reservations months in advance, so she booked it for us as soon as our travel plans were firmed up. They serve fancy “New Nordic” cuisine, exquisite creations of foam and culinary magic. Yet they keep prices affordable by serving all guests the same menu in a single sitting. The meal was incredible, and our table was right by the window with a clear view of the water.