17 june 2024

Books

I suddenly realized what I need to read during this travel: Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology. So I'm leaving The Left Hand of Darkness aside for the moment and I'll come back to it later.

Travel log

We travelled north today, and by that I mean that we went to the extreme tip of Denmark. The coastal geography makes it so that two different sea direction meet there, making for interesting waves and currents. It's also supposed to be the limit between the Northern Sea and the Baltic Sea, but where seas start and end is very fuzzy in my view.

Anyway, it was a good opportunity to walk on the beach and in the (not THAT cold) sea water, even if that meant a significant amount of slaloming around jellyfish.

We realized later than a lot of the people we saw there may have come from the MSC Virtuoso, a gigantic cruise ship that was docked in the nearby harbour. People were shuttled back and forth from the parking lot to the beach tip by a bus pulled by a tractor, pretty funny.

All in all, a very pleasant experience (weather helped! It was perfect.), better than we expected, actually (we didn't have much expectations :p) And I found postcards (but no stamps yet.)

We went a few kilometers down the coast, where there was an old lighthouse (oldest of Denmark!) and, for some reason, a large trebuchet. We tried going up the lighthouse but I gave up on the very narrow and steep stairs, I was afraid my knees would make going down awkward to impossible. A pity: there was a photo exhibition and the two pictures downstairs were very pretty - I would have liked to see the rest and the view!

We then drove to Pikkerbakken, a viewpoint over Frederikshavn (which we may or may not have called Friedrichshafen the whole day.) Also very nice, we had a bit of quieter time and a snack while looking at the town and its harbour.

To end the day, we decided to drive in the direction of Lindholm Høje, the historical site of an old Viking cemetery and settlement. The road there was scary, we got a bout of very heavy rain and I was really not serene. It receded quickly and it was mostly done when we arrived on site. Beautiful place, a lot of stones - and goats and kids roaming around! (And, evidently, the weather we had encountered had yielded hail there.) There was a museum too, but we arrived too late to consider visiting it.

Finally, we went back to the hotel. Had dinner (cod fillet and vegetables with a caper sauce, apple and almond macaron as a dessert) at the restaurant in front of the hotel, went to see the beach one more time, and came back to the hotel again. Sunset is in an hour and the weather still seems stable - we'll try to go see if we can get a sea sunset this evening!

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16 june 2024

Travel log

We left Billund for Blokhus in the northern part of Denmark. Our plan was to stop on the way to visit Aarhus - a plan that got almost foiled by the fact that we couldn't seem to reach the city center. Mystery solved: today was Aarhus semi-marathon :facepalm:

After some difficulty, we finally found a parking spot - the silver lining is that it made us go through the cemetery, which was a lovely place: not too dense, very well maintained, a lot of greenery.

We then went for a small walk along the docks and in the city center - which was nice, but nothing struck me as particularly notable. Well, the cathedral was impressive (and apparently it's the longest and highest one of the country), but we didn't even get to visit is as it was closed.

Back on the road, and we arrived in Blokhus in the middle of the afternoon. We checked in at the hotel, and went for a pastry as a snack and for a long walk on the beach (there's a reason why they're popular). Well, not that long, because my body is kind of complaining a lot that I make it walk too much these days! (Ow.)

I was Not Impressed by the amount of cars and campers on the beach, it was clearly designed that way but I disagree with this decision, there :) Apart from that we watched the waves. It was nice.

Coming back to the hotel, we sat for a while on a bench in the city square - and came back as the weather seemed to take a turn for the worse (which it didn't.)

Had dinner at the hotel's restaurant - we shared a starter of smoked tuna, then grilled turbot with asparagus, potatoes, shrimp and broccolini, and finally a rhubarb trifle. Also had a glass of Coteaux du Layon with dessert - I don't remember last time I had that wine (a long time ago for sure) but it was nice. Also had a very large fit of laughter (tears in my eyes and abs hurting!) at a joke Pierre made on the spot, which was a definite highlight.

We considered going on the beach for the sunset, but there's a thunderstorm!! So we're going to stay inside instead.

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15 june 2024

Books

Finished Humble Pie, by Matt Parker. Entertaining writing, but A Lot of these had more to do with computer data representation rather than what I'd expect in a book with the subtitle "A Comedy of Maths Errors." Probably I'm also simply not part of the audience of that book, because I knew quite a lot of these stories already!

Started The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin - well I read the first of three introductions (do you recognize a seminal work by the number of its introductions and prologues?)

Travel log

The main event of the day was the visit of the Lego House, which is... let's call that a Lego Experience.

There's a large lobby with a brick manufacturing machine, which actually makes bricks, and a set of six red 2x4 bricks is distributed to each visitor - along with a card containing a guaranteed unique combination of said bricks (they say they have enough for 3000 years :) ).

Downstairs, there's a museum with the history of Lego, and a number of artifacts. A kid was very excited to show us his own wooden duck, that he had brought especially from the UK to take a picture of it with the OG Lego wooden duck in the museum. It was great :D

Upstairs, many thematic zones where you could build various things, a lot of Lego bricks everywhere, and a lot of MOCs in exhibition areas. We had a really good time building fish and making fools of ourselves trying to build cascade-worthy vehicles :)

It also felt like they were Doing The Right Things™ when it comes to accessibility and inclusivity, and not in a way that feels performative (they do communicate on it, see for instance https://legohouse.com/en-gb/press-releases/inclusive-play/, but there's no back patting on site, just the useful information). I really liked that.

For late lunch, we went to the Lego House restaurant, which was quite gimmicky (you order with a set of Lego pieces, and your food is delivered to you by gigantic Lego robots) but the food was pretty good.

At the end of tte visit, we did another run at the Lego store and got the Lego architecture version of the Lego House :)

Since it was still pretty early in the afternoon, we went east to Veije. We had a first attempt at a walk in the woods, but we're discouraged by the heavy rain that started short after we did. We did a second, more successful attempt a bit later (weather changes really quickly here this week), and ended up in a deer park (where we saw, well, a lot of deer.) Really nice.

We continued toward the sea, walked on a dike advancing in the water (which was covered in small crab pieces - we want to blame that on the local seagulls maybe?), and strolled around. We also saw an aviary, including regent parrots - it reminded me of the bird we used to occasionally birdsit until it passed away earlier this year, so that was a bit sad.

Had dinner at the pub behind the Lego House - burger and a beer, perfectly cromulent. I appreciated the fact that the pub was pretty quiet despite being quite crowded! Also, since we were back next to the Lego House, I took the opportunity to take a selfie - had forgotten that this morning!

Went back to the hotel via the Billund sculpture garden - I'm not necessarily convinced by the art, but it was a nicer path than along the main road.

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14 june 2024

Travel log

Today was Legoland, and I'm consequently dead tired. It was a lot of fun - there's actually a significant amount of fairly hectic rides. Pierre probably enjoyed many of these even more than I did, which was very nice :) We alternated between faster and slower rides/breaks, which was a good move. The most impressive one was probably the Polar X-Plorer, which did have a VERTICAL DROP at the end of the ride. We did that twice, I screamed twice. But, as I was mentioning: theme park rides are one of the few places where it's socially acceptable to scream, and that's possibly a good thing :)

The other thing of note in Legoland is the Miniland, with all the buildings of different parts of the world. Very very nice - and impressive. We particularly enjoyed the Billund airport, as well as the Artemis ship, complete with liftoff!

I accidentally bought a red spaceman plushie - it's so cuuuute! We also spent a bit of time making minifigs - although to be completely honest I was expecting more variety in the pieces choice.

Dinner at the hotel was shrimp & asparagus, fish & root celery & wild garlic sauce, and "gâteau Marcel" (layered chocolate cake with chocolate mousse on top) with strawberries and strawberry ice cream - really good!

And we finished the evening watching videos and music videos on the couch at the hotel. Cozy and delightful <3

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13 june 2024

Travel log

• Nordic countries and proper blinds that actually cut the morning light: challenge (impossible). It was however not unpleasant to drift in and out of sleep for a few hours this morning (...and it's not even 8am as I type this), but now I'm kind of feeling it. Ow.
• The good piece of news, though, is that I was kind of terrified of having hurt my knee yesterday (bad torsion when getting out of the bus with our luggage) and this morning it seems completely fine. phew, and fingers crossed. (Right knee, if I ever grep knee in the next weeks.)
• Breakfast at the hotel was quite nice, again with a view of the sea! Fun thing: the bottle of schnaps and shot glasses between the coffee thermos and the sugar and milk :p
• Stroll in Stige, north of Odense, between the canal and the sea channel. Very pleasant, very empty. And very impressed by the amount and variety of bird songs!
• Saw some kind of deer on the road
• Visited Odense, very pretty town with a lot of bricks
• Also visited the Hans Christian Andersen museum - very impressive setup and building, and in general entertaining storytelling about the man and his works
• Went for a piece of cake and coffee in a café
• Strolled a bit more in the town before giving up when the rain started to get heavier (but it receded before we reached the car)
• On the way back to Middelfart, did a detour to Strib to go see the lighthouse. Pretty lighthouse, would recommend; also there's a view on the bridge to the next island. As we were walking along the shore, we saw a lot of jellyfish!
• Spent a couple of hours chilling, writing this and reading at the hotel room while Pierre was having a nap
• Had lovely dinner at the hotel, although some mistakes were made
  • First dish was cod and pickled strawberries with beurre blanc, delicious
  • Then oyster with yogurt and herb sauce, and toast of ham, also very good, and I typically don't eat oysters
  • Main course was pork, asparagus and bearnaise sauce, great
  • Then cheese, which was the double mistake of ordering cheese and eating all the cheese - it was great cheese, but that plate was more than generous!
  • And finally dessert, apple pie with honey ice cream and lemon sauce and crumbly bit of white chocolate. Very nice, but I wasn't in a state to fully enjoy it anymore!

An interesting article about "no, brains are not computers, they just don't work that way" - https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer

Holy shit, the French left parties announced they actually have an agreement, a common program and a list of candidates. They did it, and... hope seems not ridiculously out of grasp? Of course the current coalition is far from perfect, but nothing ever is in politics.

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