Velkommen Ven Til Danmark!

Velkommen Ven Til Danmark! "Welcome to Denmark!"

My biggest challenge has been interpreting the Danish language since their alphabet consists of o's with slashes through them pronounced as a short u sound. There are the a's with dots on the top of the letter. It is interesting to hear Danes speak because they seem to talk straight from the bottom of the throat. I thought rolling my "r's" were difficult in Spanish, so I know there is is no way to even attempt to learn Danish. Even though the Danes have their own language, most of them are fluent in English. This might be due to the fact that the children in Denmark learn English early in school. Maybe an idea for the Americans to start with our students with other languages?

Our morning started early traveling to Riso, National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy. Our presenters, Stephanie Ropenus and Leif Sonderberg gave us background information of Denmark's conscientious efforts to conserve energy from the last sixty years. My father would have been excited to hear about Niels Bohr, the famous Danish scientist who was known as the father of nuclear energy. We concluded our visit to an open field to study the windmills.---a valuable source of energy for Denmark.













The windmill turbine extends to 40 meters-much larger than it looks in the sky!



We ate lunch and headed back to the Copenhagen Energy and Waterworks Place. This was an innovative science center for children to learn more about science through hands-on activities. The director of this incredible place was Jesper Steenberg, and some of us referred to him as Willy Wonka due his creativity and excitement for his area of expertise.




What better way to teach children about the importance of our septic/sewer systems than letting them actually go down into the sewer first by the toilet and see what lies below. We even had to put our hands in dark holes to pull out things that are not acceptable to throw down the toilet---interesting. Rats were among us via a web camera from a real sewer. Okay, yuck is right but we will always remember that lesson!


















After being in the "sewer" we climbed to the top of the roof where students experiment with solar power and hydrogen to produce energy.

After these learning experiences, we reflected as a group to really question if different was always better. We discussed how it was easy for the Danish to conserve energy together since they are a smaller country (5.6 million people) than the United States. However, we challenged ourselves to think of ways this could work for America.

Since this was my first full day in the city, I was anxious to explore Copenhagen. I honestly pictured this city to be much more quaint, similar to the movies I have seen where there are small shops with a few people on the streets. Wow, I was wrong! This was a New York City, just with cobblestone streets and 400-year old buildings. I spent the entire evening learning more about this city and just about the Danish people in general. Bill Ferriter, our education leader for this trip, served as our tour guide since he had been on this trip two years ago.

Pay attention to the speed limit sign---why doesn't it say mph? Remember the entire world uses the metric system while the US has customary measurement!






The train station---very similar to the New York Subway system, except much easier!







Hans Christian Andersen overlooks the heart of his hometown city. He is the world famous author who wrote The Ugly Duckling, The Matchbox Girl, and the Little Mermaid.











There is a bike lane on every street, another way the Danish sustain energy and stay skinny!












We climbed to the top of the Observatory to view the entire city. Peter the Great used to ride his horse up this round building. They have a bike race every year to remember this historical happening.

We had dinner along this beautiful canal, another
incredible experience.



















Tivoli is one of the world's oldest amusement parks. Walt Disney even visited here several times before Disneyland. You could hear kids screaming a mile away from the exciting rides.























Niels Bohr and the Martin Luther statues were photographed for Daddy and Will.
















Lesson Learned:
It takes me several minutes to convert DKK (Danish Kroner) to American money, so I hope that I am not spending too much money because everything is expensive here. I tried the soft ice (basically soft serve ice cream that tastes like fluffy icing) and it cost $4.00 or 22 DKK.