FOODIES

The Danes love quality food, which is why this small country is the 5th leading exporter of food in the world.  True foodies.  Grocery stores, who know their customers, carry an astounding assortment of meat, cheese, veggies and fruit. And wine. Exotic and local.   Food from around the world.  Around a holiday, you can hardly get down the aisles in any grocery because food is the focus of most celebrations, and everyone stocks up.  Danes also eat out a lot.  There are multiple restaurants on every street.  We have 5 just within a block of us. Always full.  When you dine out, you literally book your table for the evening.  You are not to rush. In fact, you have to find the waiter to get your bill, and you feel almost apologetic having to ask for it.  Danes love to entertain and cook for friends.  An evening dinner invitation is an EVENT.   Meals are leisurely with candles and flowers and lovely dinnerware.  One does not just show up, eat, and leave.  Nope.

Typical dinner at the Warnsdorf's, an offfice couple.  Beautiful! Can  you see the spoon sitting horizontally above the plate?  That means DESSERT.  And, it is served immediately after the main meal.  Also, the knife is resting on a knife bridge.  To keep the table cloth clean.

Brother Knudsen, a Danish chef in our stake and a true foodie, cooks multiple meals every week for groups, just because he loves it.  He is thin as a rail, and rarely sits to eat with his guests, but he whips up wonderful, Danish meals in his tiny, galley kitchen.  His wife does zero cooking, but sets a beautiful table.  Last Tuesday was our monthly Senior Missionary dinner at his house, and  I am 100 percent sure you'll never guess the meat he cooked. One hundred percent.

K A N G A R O O

Yup.  You read it right.  Apparently one can buy ostrich in Denmark as well.  And both are available in the grocery store right below our office.  Who knew?  It tasted a lot like beef, and I would never have guessed.  Elder Ottley was sure Brother Knudsen was kidding us, and Elder Brookes declined to taste it at all. But, the rest of us tucked right in. Our chef also makes wonderful desserts like the one below.  Large bowls of whipped cream are set on the table as a topping. They never sweeten their whipped cream, and it is so thick, it is almost butter. The Danes also love apple or berry trifles: layers of sweet, cooked and thickened fruit, whipped cream, and crumbled cookies.  Yum.

VISITORS, at last

The last two weeks have been hectic.  We started out with missionaries coming and going.  Bitter and sweet.  Most of the missionaries have been here much longer than we,  but it seems to take no time at all to get to know them and love them.   We are going to miss this group.

Sister Mann, Sister Soelberg., Elder Bateman, Elder Brady

Conference weekend was a nice change of pace.  Of course, we don't have any conference to watch until Saturday evening,  unless you want to kick start the whole thing with the women's conference. Sunday we can watch the Priesthood and the Saturday night sessions by satellite broadcast, and if you want to stay really late at the church,  the Sunday afternoon session, live.  We went to the stake center and watched the Saturday night session which was actually Sunday afternoon here. Confusing, I know.  We fed the missionaries around 2 and then stayed to watch.  I finally finished listening to all the sessions just yesterday.  Loved Elder Holland's talk especially.  I enjoy conference, but sometimes I feel a  little discouraged thinking of all the things I didn't do so well, then and now.  So, his talk was the perfect closer.  "So keep loving.  Keep trying.  Keep trusting.  Keep believing.  Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow and forever."

We had our first two visitors here in Denmark last week.  Both showed up unexpectedly at the same time.  What are the odds?  We plotted and planned our time to squeeze in the best sights for them.  I must say, they were real troopers.  Our biggest day out was chilly and quite windy and we had a hard time getting some good pictures.  One of our visitors is pretty thin and the wind really tugged him around. To introduce our visitors, I took a picture with the Elders, who were quite willing to help us out.

Elder Nielsen, and Elder Fairbanks (The hat?  Don't ask.)

Introducing Flat Stanley and Felix the Rabbit  ( uh, not the elders).  Both arrived the same day.  Flat Stanley came from Hooper, Utah and Felix from Ft. Collins, Colorado.  Both are travel projects - 2 grandaughter's school assignments.  Both seemed a little frazzled by their long flight,  so we took them downstairs for some Danish pastry to perk them up.  It worked.

Flat Stanley was all over those strawberry tarts and it was all over him.  Messy little guy.

We took both of them into the center of Copenhagen to see statues and steeples.  Common sights everywhere.  The green color has something to do with copper and oxidization, I think...........

We thought we would introduce them to the queen, but she was not available, so they had to settle for the Queen's Palace with her guards, and her church (it is called the Marble Church).

The inside is fabulous and you can actually go up into the dome on certain days.  On our list.

Even when Flat Stanley and Felix pulled faces at the guard, he would not move or talk. Good man.

The guys loved the inside of the churches, especially those with the ships hanging from the ceiling.The only trouble was they both wanted to climb in.  Good thing they were too high.  Kids!

There are actually many canals in Copenhagen.  The building is the background is the Danish Stock Exchange.  Built in the  17th century, it has an  unusual spire, the tails of four dragons twined together.  

Last stop, Nyhavn, the most famous street in all of Copenhagen.  A big tourist draw.  Why?  Haven't yet figured it out.  

We said good-bye to Flat Stanley and Felix, and dropped Flat Stanley in a big, red post box to head home.  Felix is staying and is taped to the door with our collection of cards and letters.  

It's like a game.  Where's Felix?

We are so excited to have more visitors soon.  If you have any travel/tourist questions, just call the boys.