We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Spending a day with our soon to be guest writer, Lars Kimer of Denmark was remarkable and led to his willingness to share some Christmas spirit with our readers this Holiday Season.
Mette , Lars, Magnus and Mathilde Kimer
Smørrebrød is delicious.
In the next three weeks, Lars Kimer will be sharing articles about Christmas in Denmark. Lars lives in Gundsømagle, Denmark, which is a small village about 25 miles east of Copenhagen. For the past 15 years, he has been a journalist for the Dagbladet Roskilde in Roskilde, Denmark which is about the size of Great Falls.
When we were there this past summer, my sister and I went with Lars on a Saturday to events he was covering for the newspaper.
Lars is married to Mette and they have two children, Magnus and Mathilde along with three Cocker Spaniels. Just as an American family, they are very busy with work and their children's activities.
Magnus likes video games, is a boy scout, plays the drums and enjoys scuba diving. Mathilde loves animals, takes horseback riding lessons, is in gymnastics, and is very artistic. Mette is a financial officer at UN City in Copenhagen. Mette was my exchange student twenty eight years ago while I was a teacher at Centerville. We have remained very close and consider each other family.
Denmark is the smallest Scandinavian Country with a population of 5.6 million people. It has 443 islands and only 76 are inhabited. Actually Montana is ten times bigger than Denmark. 11% of the land is woods and 65% is farmland. The cheese is delicious and they have the sweetest strawberries ever. And Danes love ice cream and lots of it.
Denmark is a constitutional monarchy just like Sweden and Norway. Their royalty is not nearly as formal as England. For the past 46 years their queen has been Margrethe II. The palace is located in Copenhagen with the guards just as in England. The Danes really admire their royalty. This summer was the Crown Prince's 50th birthday and it was a major event.
Even though Denmark is very small, they do have much fame to claim. Lego's were invented in Denmark and their headquarters and Lego Land are located there.
Hans Christian Anderson is a Dane famous for his many fairy tales including the Little Mermaid. The statue sits in the harbor in Copenhagen and is very small.
Tivoli is located in the heart of Copenhagen. It opened in 1843 and is the second oldest operating amusement park in the world. Tivoli not only has amusement park rides but it has beautiful gardens and lots of green space. It truly is a magical place.
Denmark's biggest treasure is the people. Danes are very friendly and joyful people. They like to spend lots of time outdoors enjoying nature. Most of the cafes have outdoor eating space with a basket of blankets in case it is chilly.
The food is fantastic as well. Our favorites are the pastry and the open faced sandwiches called smørrebrød. Danes think it is funny that we call one of our pastries Danish. The majority of Danes speaks fluent English and welcome Americans to visit their country. After all Denmark is the happiest country in the world.
So glad that the crazy Dane, Lars Kimer, has agreed to do a few articles for all of us to enjoy. His first article will be published next week. It is called Danish Christmas-How it can be done.
