ROUND TOWER

Great news this week!  Kendell and Ruth have purchased tickets to come see us in September! Anissa, Courtney and Jackson, and Kenzie are coming in May!  Wahoo! We have great plans for you all. Can't wait. We have been in Denmark now nearly 7 months and are ready to see some family.  Or friends.  Or both. We are praying for safe travel and mild weather.

March is Relief Society Birthday season, and our little branch celebrated last week.  Ours was very low key - no fighting for an open night at the church, no practicing and decorating and  kitchen duty or major clean-up.   Nope.  Just Relief Society history and dessert.  We started with stories of some past General Relief Society Presidents, then moved on to favorite Relief Society memories.  The memories were as varied as the ages.  This is a small, but close knit group from 19 years to 80.  Some members told of being introduced to Relief Society as children watching their mothers help each other soon after World War II, and some are converts with memories still to be made.  No matter.   They love to get together and chat, just as Relief Society sisters have done for over 100 years.   Our testimonies and membership in the church spans the continents and years and unites us as sisters in the gospel.   But, one thing.  I'm pretty sure they never made bunches of glass grapes or bottled pineapple zucchini here.

After our little program, we had dessert.  My assignment was rolls, butter and jam.  To go along with the layer cakes, of course.  I am serious.  For dessert, first you have a dinner roll, buttered and jammed.  And then you have the cake.  In Denmark you can buy very thin (about 3/8 inch) yellow cake rounds. You layer four or five of these with fillings.  The fillings are cream based (real cream) and flavored.  One cake had a nut crust on the bottom, then 4 layers of cake alternated with fillings. Each different:  lemon cream, licorice cream (really!)  then white chocolate cream  and topped with more licorice cream.  All in the same cake.  I N T E R E S T I N G.  The Danes are crazy over their salty, black licorice.  Bleh....  But I was assured that this filling was not made with the salty, black stuff.  You just use a little liquid licorice flavoring and whipped cream. Viola. Licorice cream.   Apparently these cakes are a big tradition for the Relief Society Birthday.  I steered toward the lemon, white chocolate and strawberry cream cake. Overall,  I quite enjoyed the simplicity of the whole evening.  Clean-up time:  10 minutes flat.

We try to do a little sight seeing each weekend.  Last Saturday we visited the Round Tower, a popular spot located in the heart of Copenhagen.  An old medieval watch tower.  Fancy entry, included.

This old tower was originally built in 1642 and rises 209 meters in 7 tight spirals inside, to the top. One big ramp.  All made of brick with gothic windows on each level. The ramp floor is old, uneven brick and the inside walls are white-washed.  Apparently, this watch tower was built so that soldiers could fly down the ramp on horses to deliver news of invading enemies seen from the heights. Well, that is the story.

At the top of the ramp are shallow steps which lead to a narrow, 1-person spiral staircase ending on an observation ledge giving a 360 degree panoramic view of Copenhagen.  I love this view:  acres of red-tile  roofs, blocks of apartments, green, copper domes and modern skyscrapers all in a miss-mash of colors and shapes.  Little penciled drawings tacked to the observation fence, outline the roof-scape. with names of land-mark buildings  penciled in, so you can get your bearings in any direction.

Far below, people stream down the street, bunching and knotting, then flowing on out of sight.  It's an almost spring day with music floating up from a small park below, and little, bell-shaped flowers sprouting everywhere on the ground.

The pulpit is perched there on the left.  It is always on the side, not in the front.   The priest enters from the back. through a little archway.

Oh, and a bonus:  a little golden chapel juts from the tower out the back.  Trinitatus.  Complete with filigree- encased, gothic arches, and choirs of cherubs and angels adorning the pulpit and organ loft.  Gated wooden pews march down the center and sides, and a marble gate protects the way to the altar. Not to mention the chandeliers.  Wow.  For our visitors:  put this on your list. Something you need to see in person.