Settled In

And now for the long haul...we've settled in to a daily and weekly routine: daily bike commutes rain or shine (which, so far, has been lass rain than Seattle in autumn), dinner hours before our European roommates, and making sure we go to the store on Saturday because everything is closed on Sunday. Things are becoming more familiar around town, so we usually don't take our camera with us.

This was a shame last Sunday, because we ended up at a medieval encampment downtown, in the garden of the artillery museum in the wings of Christianborg Castle. There was alot of smithing going on, as well as archery, mead tasting, and, of course medieval candied apples. Brooke of course got one. At 15 kroner (about $2.75), it is one of the things we find cheaper over here than back home. According to Brooke, it was the best candy apple she's ever had. I had a bite or two, and I must admit, the combination of Danish apple that wasn't a Red Delicious, plus the coating of what I assume was real sugar (not corn syrup), without artificial dye, melted in a copper pot over an open fire...well, it was pretty darn tasty. We also took in the jousting show. It was a fairly raucous event, with lots of raunchy medival humor that seemed very believable, especially due to the real cabbage, apples, and bread rolls that were being thrown by the actors and the crowd. Yep, nothin' says the middle ages like throwing food in public. Brooke enjoyed seeing the knights' horses perform, while I enjoyed seeing everyone dressed like Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Last Saturday, however, we did bring our camera on a nice jaunt around northwest Sjælland (Zealand, the island Copenhagen is on). This was a nice trip on a somewhat rainy day with two of my colleagues from the National Museum. We went to arctic explorer Knud Rassmussen's house
(obviously a point of interest for us Arctic researchers), then to a number of Late Neolithic and Bronze Age burial chambers, as well as a 12th century church. We finished with a look at the landscape west of Roskilde, which is a glacial moraine from the last ice age. I think Brooke had fun, even though the tour may or may not have catered to the three archaeologists in the car.


The mound to the left might be the Cave of Caerbannog...


In other news, my research is going well, or at least I think it is. I am studying the remains of my third Eskimo house from about A.D. 500. I have 5 more to go to reach my target, but further archival research may lead me to more artifacts that I want to study. We'll see how that goes, but as long as I get all 8 houses, I'll be happy.

Last, but not least, is my "food blog" picture, both for Colby and Dad. For Colby, because he wants me to keep a food blog, and for Dad because the one on the left is liver pate. Homemade liver pate. We stopped for lunch at a smørrebrød shop. Jens ordered the leverpostej, so I thought I should too. I can't say I need to order it again, but you never know.

for some more pictures of our adventures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/freebs429/DanmarkOct#