Frederiksborg Slot was our one "touristy" stop on Sunday. The rest of the day was devoted to visiting with Katherine's host family. They were going to be meeting us at their house, which is not a very far walk from the castle. Luckily, when we emerged from the castle, the rain had let up. Thank goodness! We made a quick stop at the local bakery to pick up some cakes for dessert, and then we walked about 10 minutes to Katherine's "home" this semester.
I have been looking forward to writing about Katherine's host family. They are delightfully warm, gracious and friendly. The parents are Steen and Charlotte. Steen is a financial auditor and works with pension plans. Charlotte is a designer of all sorts of interesting things (like wedding dresses, jewelry showcases, and advertisement spreads). They have two daughters. Sophie is the eldest and is about to graduate from their equivalent of our high school. She is 18 or 19. Caroline, the youngest, is 15 or 16 and a tournament badminton player. Both the girls are very pretty and fair-haired. And they are very tall (like their dad who I think is at least 6'5").
Katherine is the fifth DIS student whom they have hosted, and she is so very fortunate to have been paired with them. They are just wonderful people and I thoroughly enjoyed our day together.
Steen and Charlotte met us at their house and then drove us about 30 minutes (maybe 25 miles) further north to the coast of Eckland where, last year, they built a summer home. They showed off their lovely home to us, and it struck me as classically Danish -- simple and clean. On the inside, everything is white and glass. The house has one central living space that houses a large family room, the kitchen and a dining room with a huge rectangular table. And there is a deck that wraps around the back and both sides of the house. The house is quite beautiful and very comfortable.
When we first arrived (following our house tour), we enjoyed a late afternoon snack consisting of tea, coffee and a wonderful coconut coffee cake that Charlotte had made. I must get her recipe. It was very tasty!
We then walked to the beach. It was only about a 10 minute walk. We approached from a very high cliff and walked down a staircase of maybe 50 or more stairs. The beach, in this particular area, was a bit rocky, but further along there are sandy areas where people lie out in the warm summer months. We enjoyed our walk along the beach and came upon a group of families who were tossing dyed eggs for their young children to chase after. It struck me as a rather odd custom, but the kids were having a great time -- as were their parents.
Finally, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Steen, Charlotte, their daughters, and their family friends, Inge and Bent. Dinner was lasagna, but it was made differently. It was more like a layered beef stroganoff, and it was very good. It had no tomato sauce in it, but many at the table made up for that by liberally applying a great deal of Heinz ketchup! [Katherine tells me they put ketchup on everything.] I passed on the ketchup, but I thoroughly enjoyed Charlotte's version of lasagna.
We had a wonderful evening, and then we were treated with a ride back into the city by Bent and Inge. This was an hour-long drive, and it was extremely kind of them to do this. It was very late, and it would probably have been a 90 minute t0 2 hour trip for us on the bus and the train.
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