Aren't we cosmopolitan ...

I've counted and I think I've now been to fourteen countries, because we spent last weekend in Denmark. I've always longed to nonchalantly mention, when someone asks how my weekend was, something like 'Oh, great, just hopped over to Denmark for a few days.' There are so many cool places to go in Europe that all seem really close. This flight was only one hour and forty minutes. However, what with getting to and from airports, security lineups, train delays, etc., it actually took almost ten hours door to door, which has us rethinking weekend escapes.

Denmark is lovely. It's incredibly flat, which I somehow hadn't expected, and mostly farmland and fishing. There are windmills everywhere, because the country gets 15% of its energy that way (and exports the technology around the world). They drive on the right side of the road, and their highways are perfectly sensible (there truly is no excuse for British roads). There's only one river in the country, but the fjords go quite a long ways inland. Danish people have great taste in decor and never use nasty wall-to-wall carpeting. They have an odd penchant for salty candy, but make fantastic chocolate. They call danishes 'wienerbrod' or 'Viennese bread'. (Will no-one admit responsibility for those things?) Babies always take their afternoon naps outside bundled in their prams, even in cold weather. There is little fear of theft, doors are open, neighbours pop round to chat, the food is simple and healthy. It felt like one of the most liveable places I've ever been.

The street we stayed on, in Mariager.

Look, a fjord!

Lego is Danish. Here's what it looked like in the 1940s.

But the best part about visiting Denmark, that made the travel time worth it ten times over, was seeing Rikke again. I met her in Edinburgh, when we were both exchange students at the university. Back then we giggled over hot chocolates, marvelled at the miniscule size of her windowless bedroom (it was the boxroom in the flat she shared), and spent a blustery day in St Andrews. This past weekend Jeff and I met her husband, Villy, and her adorable (and incredibly energetic!) one-year-old daughter, Sofie. We stayed in their lovely home, ate apples straight off the tree in their backyard, and enjoyed their company enormously. It was like escaping into some sort of idyllic storybook land ...