Travel According to Us

Travel is one of our great loves. In the past we have been fortunate enough to visit some amazing places, but our ability to do as much travelling as we would like has obviously diminished since having children. This lead to our eagerness to experience travel in a slightly different way - by living abroad to experience different lifestyles and cultures instead, and to endeavour to explore as much of a country and the surrounding areas as possible in the given timeframe.


This photograph was taken at Heathrow on the morning of our departure from England. We had said our goodbyes, and all of our earthly possessions had already begun their journey ahead of us! It's funny looking back at that strange morning. None of us knew what lay ahead, and whether we had done the right thing by uprooting the children and leaving our comfortable British life behind (they look really tiny and a bit non-plussed about it all, and my son's hair is hilarious!)! It's hard to believe that two years has almost passed, and we will soon be at another airport about to embark on another country and another chapter of our version of travelling. Gulp.

Silent Sunday

The Dansk Design Centre

On a rainy day recently, of which we have had quite a few (incidentally, I note that the Design Centre has also had to temporarily close for a few days after the flooding), I paid a visit to the Dansk Design Centre almost by accident if I'm honest, because it's one of the few attractions open on a Monday in Copenhagen. On HC Andersens Boulevard, it sits behind Tivoli and is also in close proximity to the Glyptotek (the Design Centre is not huge, so you might be grateful of something else nearby!), so it's very easy to find. Upon arrival, I must have spent quite a lengthy part of my visit in the shop. Here you will the most beautiful art and design books possible, gorgeous designer household goods, and other curiosities such as strange miniature versions of designer chairs (that I am not sure I really understand the point of, unless they are meant for well-heeled Barbies!), and a range of travel items that you didn't know existed but absolutely need to have, such as interlocking cutlery and fabulously shaped bento boxes.

It consists of everchanging exhibition areas, the ground floor is currently home to two exhibitions, Challenge Society, and Challenge Innovation. One exhibition explores how design innovation is helping change ideas in the Public welfare system, and the other explores how design can help contribute answers to some of the World's problems. There were a few interesting ideas here on how design can help change things for the better, especially in a medical environment, but a few of the message boards expressed such obvious messages that I couldn't help but imagine a class of bored design students brainstorming ideas and thinking, "yep, that'll do, let's go to the pub"...Maybe that's quite cyncial of me, perhaps it's a good idea to spell things out to some people?...


More thought provoking stuff was to be found upstairs in Challenge Waste, an exhibition on how design can solve many of today's waste challenges, and what we can do collectively as a society, and individually. As a country that produces vast amounts of waste compared to other EU countries (as also clearly stated on the exhibition website), it's good to see someone here taking note of this. There were some interesting ideas here, such as furniture made out of recycled bottles, but I felt the entire thing could have have been expanded upon much more. I found the final part of the exhibition, encouraging people not to chuck waste from their cars entirely depressing, and the fact that they need to explain this to people means that it obviously still happens... Are we still in the seventies here or something?

Last but not least I paid a visit to the Design Centre's long-term exhibition Denmark by Design, which follows Danish Design from 1945 onwards. Of course Arne Jacobsen's beautiful Egg chair takes pride of place (padlocked of course, although I would love to see someone trying to smuggle that out unnoticed!), alongside other Danish design icons such as Lego and Bodum, and Normann of Copenhagen. This is the stuff I had expected to see, and wasn't disappointed by.

If you are interested in design, then it's definitely worth a visit and you should gain something from it. If not, then it has a great shop, with a nice cafe serving good cake.

The Big Reveal

So, that song I was talking about, the one that I can't stop singing???

We move to San Jose, California at the beginning of October (so although I don't currently know the way, I guess we will be experts on that soon enough!). A bit of a change from Scandinavia I guess! As much as we are going to miss it here, we are all looking forward to a new challenge, my husband as he starts a brand new job, and myself as we start a brand new country! It will hopefully be a great experience for another year or three, and if I start a new blog, I hope you will follow me on the next chapter!?

In the meantime we are looking forward to spending the summer here, and packing as much in as we possibly can...

Norwegian Would

I haven't stopped singing Norwegian Wood all week, one of the few Beatles songs I actually like. I get earworms like this wherever we visit in the world, in Key West it was the awful Phil Collins version of Acapulco (because of Key Largo in it), Berlin was Lou Reed, New York was obviously Frank Sinatra, and South Africa was that song by Toto, you get the picture (you will laugh when you hear where we are moving too. I haven't stopped singing that for ages!)! Anyway, as earworms go, Norwegian Wood's not that bad I suppose, and Norway as a country was definitely not that bad, it's an exceptionally beautiful place. Yes, it's expensive (extortionately so at times), but the people are friendly and are all armed with ready smiles, plus their English is perfect and they don't expect you to speak Norwegian (both things I am not perhaps that used to in this part of Scandinavia!)! The outdoor life is unbelievable, and at the risk of repeating myself, some of the countryside is absolutely breathtaking.

We stayed near the little fishing town of Risør, famous for its white wooden buildings, where we had a fantastic week exploring beautiful little towns such as the gorgeous Tvedestrand and the strangely named Grimstad. The time was spent swimming in the fjords, exploring the forests, sailing, fishing, crabbing and generally lazing about. All of us loved it there, and for someone who spent most of the week outside, and who for the first time in years had time to indulge in a spot of fly-fishing, my other half was seduced enough to even say we should consider living there one day... All I can say is I definitely (Norwegian) would! I will leave you with a few pics of our week. My only complaint was that the Elk (elg!) were hiding!

Silent Sunday

Success!

We have found out why we've never caught any crabs in Denmark..., because quite obviously they are all in Norway! Armed with the mighty crabbing rods (complete with their highly intricate snaring system - a peg), a pot of sild (not actually seal after all - it works like a dream by the way), we got a bite almost immediately, and our buckets were soon overflowing!


No crabs were harmed in the making of this post (apart from lunch, but we didn't catch him!). They were all gently placed back in the water after close inspection, and a free herring dinner (except for this one, a rather plucky individual who made a run for it by itself, just in case!)!...

Not actually one we caught earlier!