Aarhus and our last week in Denmark

Our vacation time ended today.  We spent the day at Aarhus University meeting with Jens-Christian Svenning's biodiversity group.  Ingrid and I gave back to back talks - Ingrid about our joint work on phylogenetic effects on pathogen spillover (our Nature paper from earlier this year) and then I gave a talk on the Fungal Dimension work from Panama.  It was a good group of ecologists interested in species interactions, tropical and temperate systems, and broadly trying to make predictive sense about what will happen ecologically as climate changes.  It was good to be back talking and thinking about science, and the discussions after the talks were stimulating.  Learned about some good new tools from BIEN that are just about to be released that will make much of my phylogenetic work easier, as well.  UCSC has some close Anthropocene connections through the AURA project with Ana Tsing, and we spent the afternoon talking with her associate Elaine Gan, an artist working on tree-fungal connections in post-mining areas in Denmark.  Many good connections in this visit.

Now we are on a long ferry ride from Aarhus to Odden, and then to Klemens' summer house for the night.  Tomorrow we drive to Copenhagen, pack up, and head to Sevilla on Wednesday morning!  I can't wait to be back in a land where I speak the language. 

This last visit to Denmark has been good.  We've rented a car to drive to Lolland (Ingrid's family's ancestral home) to spend some wonderful days with Hanne's high school friend Bodil.  She has a wicked wit, showed her love by feeding us to bursting, and gave us a different perspective on the social changes in Denmark.  She lives in Rødby, a small, dying town where most of the stores have closed, people have fled to the city, and the economic struggles of Lolland are clear.  Down the road in Maribo, where Ingrid's mother grew up, they have been working hard to make it tourist friendly, and it is more quaint and thriving than I remembered.  We took the boat tour around the Maribosø, and got to see a number of the white-tailed eagles that have come back to the lake after a long absence.  We also rented bikes and did the 25km (flat) circuit around the lake - by far my longest bike ride since the onset of Bartonella over a year ago, so that was great, if a bit of a stretch.  But it was made more of an adventure by one flat tire and Eli's chain repeatedly falling off.  But it was a great was to see Lolland in a more Danish way.  

Elias and Bodil on his 13th birthday

Eli made a special request that we spent his 13th birthday with "family", and Bodil offered to make an amazing cake, and Ingrid and I made chicken and pasta.  The two of them went early in the morning for Eli to pick out the kinds of pastries to get for breakfast.  A great time was had by all.  

Lego version of Copenhagen waterfront

En route to Aarhus we took a car ferry from Lolland to Fyn, then stopped for a visit in Odense at the H.C. Anderson house, and then on to a day at Legoland!  It was much more interesting and fun than I expected -- much less Disney and much more creativity and quite a lot of education about energy and transportation snuck in.  And good softice.  

We also made a quick visit to the Jelling Stones -- two rune boulders erected by Harald Bluetooth in the 10th century in honor of his father Gorm, the first King of Denmark and his conversion of the country to Christianity.  It is a world heritage site, and last year they opened a museum, which was spectacular in its artistic presentation, information, and creativity.  Primarily done as a maze of black "chalkboards" with some static and many changing, projected, chalk "drawings".  Most images were interactive in some way, and nearly all in just black and white.  Captivating, beautiful, and effective.  

The most brilliant installation, and the most gruesome, was a black-and-white drawing of a dead Viking on a knee-high platform, with numerous weapons sticking out of it -- an axe in the leg, a spear in the chest, a knife in the neck, etc.  When you grabbed onto any of the weapons, red "blood" poured out of the wound as well as useful information about how long it would take for that kind of a wound to kill the victim, and what exactly he would die of (e.g., sword cut on the hand could take a week from blood poisoning, cutting off a leg 2h from blood loss, knife stab in the neck 2 min from blood loss, etc.  I don't think they could have made a more intriguing installation for a 13 year old boy.  

In Aarhus we spend a couple days with our Santa Cruz neighbors from years ago, Jacob, Luise, Liv, and Alberte.  We went to the beach (for a brisk, brief, and refreshing dip in the Kattegat (North Sea between Denmark and Sweden), and visited the reconstructed old town.  On our walks (and in their garden) we ate tons of rose hips, cherries, plums, raspberries, grapes, and more.  We harvested some "beach kale" (Crambe maritima) and took it home for dinner.  Sautéed, spiced with soy sauce and vinegar, it was pleasantly salty and cabbagy.  But we also learned that it was rather methanogenic.  They had just been to visit Santa Cruz the days before we left for Europe, so we got to see them twice in a short time, which was great. 

Now to focus on the transition to Spain.  All should be ready, we just need to make the drive to Copenhagen, repack and balance bags, then fly to Sevilla through Barcelona.  On to Pagés del Corro!