Hearing Handel in the Sheldonian

We haven't posted for a little while, partly because less has happened this past week as far as travel plans go, but also because I've spent the past few days doing a fresh install on my computer. What that means is I basically start from scratch, loading the OS (Operating System - Windows XP Pro in my case), and then all the various programs and applications. All along the way tweaking this and that making sure things work together, or even simply work. It is not my favourite thing to spend my time doing, however having a computer that has greater stability and works much smoother and quicker makes all this effort worthwhile. So while I was rebuilding my computer I couldn't spend any time on trip planning or Blog writing.

Now I can get back to thinking about the trip and all the wonderful experiences we have to look forward to. One of the cultural experiences that is going to happen for sure (by that I mean we have already purchased our tickets) is hearing a concert at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford (see picture above). Harry Maier, my friend who attended Oxford as a student, told us about the Sheldonian Theatre, especially its connection with George Frideric Handel who performed concerts there, including the premier of his oratorio Athalia.

It just so happened that there is a concert in the Sheldonian on one of the days we are in Oxford, and appropriately Handel is on the program! The concert features the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir (also known as the Danish Boys Choir) with the Oxford Philomusica (the resident orchestra in Oxford). Also on the program are selections by Haydn and Purcell. Somehow hearing a Danish choir, singing music by a German composer who was Italian trained and later became an English citizen seemed appropriate for our particular pilgrimage.

One final bit of trivia - the Sheldonian Theatre was one of the first buildings ever designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the famous British architect (most famous for designing St. Paul's Cathedral in London). Wren's design for the Sheldonian features an ingenious roof construction that made it possible to not utilize posts for support (which would block the view of the performers). It was so strong that for many years Oxford University Press stored its books on the upper level of the theatre.

So Beth and I look forward to seeing this famous building, and hearing some beautiful music at the same time. Talk about soaking in cultural history!

Capturing Memories

Our trip is sure to be filled with much that we will want to remember, to savour as we look back on our pilgrimage in months and years to come. In order to keep our memories fresh and accurate we are planning to do a few things as we travel. First, and foremost, is this Blog. If we are able to post to this blog often while in Europe that will create a nice travel diary, with details noted shortly after they take place while they are still fresh in our memory. I plan to keep a written journal as well, since we won't always know when we will next have access to the internet to post, thus my written journal will be a place to jot my memories down before transferring them to this blog.

Of course we will be taking lots of pictures. Beth will have her digital camera, and I will be lugging along my old film camera (along with 20 rolls of slide film!) We figure we can get the best of both worlds this way. Using her digital camera Beth will be able to check right away to see if her camera captured a good image, and she will be able to take lots of pictures, deleting unwanted ones later. I will be taking pictures with a camera system I am familiar with and one which has the ability for a lot of artistic control, including different types of lens and filters. However I will not know for sure how my pictures turn out until after we get back and get the slides developed. Important for both of us is keeping a log of our pictures, so we don't end up saying "Which church (or castle, or harbour view, etc.) is this one? We saw the Sali twins do this diligently on the trip to Whitehorse, Yukon last year (for the Canadian Lutheran Youth Gathering) so they have inspired us to try and be as faithful with our photo logs.

Then there will be some souvenirs: programs from concerts, guide books for tourist attractions, and other such things that will help us remember. Sometimes a guide book, or postcard, is the only way to get a picture of a certain place. I still have postcards from my other trip to Europe 29 years ago!

Finally I also intend to record audio memories of our trip. Today I was excited to have my friend Jay Harman (from B Sharp Music) email me to say my Yamaha Pocketrak CX was in. This device is a little digital recorder that has built in stereo microphones, and everything else required to make CD quality recordings on location - and it really does fit in a pocket! (see picture above) I plan to record all kinds of things while in Europe - general ambiance of places, worship services, relatives talking, music, the sound of trains and ferries, surf on the shore, and whatever else I think I might want to hear later. I even have some partially formulated ideas of how to incorporate such collected sounds into some of my music recording projects.

So we hope to bring back words, images, objects and sounds from our journey. Hopefully this will allow us to remember well, and to share what we experienced with others more fully and accurately.

Nothing Ventured - Nothing Gained

Initially I was going to write about something else today, but then an email arrived this morning that changed my focus. First a little preface: The first jazz record I ever bought (while still in High School) was a recording on the ECM label called "Crystal Silence" by Chick Corea and Gary Burton. Shortly afterwards I purchased my second jazz LP called "Waves" by the Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal, also on the ECM label (pictured above). To tell you the truth I was first attracted to these LPs because of their cover graphics which featured very moody landscape photographs. I had heard of Chick Corea and Gary Burton before, but not Terje Rypdal. Both records were great and have remained some of my favourites for all these years. These recordings were very different from each other, the first being a duet album with piano and vibes, the second being an album filled with new sounding electronics (at least for its time) and four piece band led by the guitarist. What the two records had in common was a certain sound, something that suggested both closeness and spaciousness at the same time. This sound, I later learned, was known as the "ECM Sound" and it is found on most recordings on the ECM label. Both of these first jazz records had something else in common - both were recorded in Oslo, and both were engineered by Jan Erik Kongshaug. Over the decades it is Jan Erik Kongshaug more than anyone else who has been responsible for the ECM sound. He has personally engineered the majority of ECM releases, and we are talking 100's of recordings by this point. Many of these recordings were made at Rainbow Studio in Oslo, which is Mr. Kongshaug's own studio. Over the years as I added more ECM recordings to my collection, and once again discovered in the liner notes that the engineer was Jan Erik Kongshaug and the studio was Rainbow Studio in Oslo, I found myself saying "If I ever get back to Norway I would love to see this Studio and meet this person".

A little internet searching and I found a website for Rainbow Studio, including an email address. I've actually known about this for a while, but I have been hesitating to write with a request to visit the studio for fear that I would be disappointed (either by hearing nothing back, or worse being told that would be impossible). But yesterday I decided that I would stand a better chance of this happening if I asked in advance, rather than just showing up on the doorstep one day. So I sent an email explaining about my appreciation of the music that has come from this studio and my desire to see the place and perhaps meet the master engineer. So I sent the email off. In talking about this at supper Beth said "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." I had to agree, now it was wait and see what happens.

I didn't have to wait long, this morning waiting for me was an email from Jan Erik Kongshaug himself! He indicated that a visit to the studio would be possible and that I should contact him closer to the date we would be there to arrange a suitable time. Wow! This little email made my day. Now I am looking forward to the time when I will be able to see where some of my favourite musicians have recorded, people like Tord Gustavsen (mentioned in an earlier post), Pat Metheney, Terje Rypdal, Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber, Ralph Towner, Mike Nock, Peter Erskine, John Abercrombie and Keith Jarrett. Actually I might not see the same building since Rainbow Studio moved to a new location a few years ago, and prior to Rainbow Studio being built another Oslo studio called Talent Studio was used. However, I will be meeting the man responsible for capturing these musician's performances on tape (or disc) and making them sound so good. In a way this too is like a pilgrimage, but for the recording producer/musician side of me.

One final side note about all this. A number of years ago I joined a community band in Regina called the Band-its. I did this so I could practice and improve my saxophone playing which I was just learning at that time. Through this band I became involved in the Jazz big band known as The Jazz Band-its. The director of both these groups was Joe Hary at the time. I have gotten to know Joe, and his wife Dale, quite well over the years and was delighted when they joined Christ Lutheran Church last year. I found out not that long ago that Joe had been Gary Burton's band teacher in High School! The same Gary Burton who was featured on the first jazz recording I ever purchased - it truly is a small world. So now in a few months I will meet the man from Oslo who recorded the man from Indiana who was taught by the man now from Regina who is one of my parishioners - makes your head spin, in a delightful way.

P.S. If you're interested in reading more about the ECM Sound I came across an article translated from a French recording magazine that talks about this very thing. The English is a little off in places, but there is lots of good information here: http://fernould.club.fr/ecmvo.html

My turn

Every six or seven entries, Dennis tells me it's my turn (I tell him not to worry, I'll do my fair share when we're in Europe). Anyway, here are my thoughts for today. We were in Saskatoon briefly on the weekend to celebrate a milestone birthday for my sister and I used this opportunity to pump Mom and Dad for information about different sites in Norway and Sweden that we should take in. It's a little harder on my side because the family connections are more diluted. There is the daughter of a cousin of my Mom's Dad who lives in Kolbu, Norway (I think that's the relationship; I'm sure I'll be corrected if need be) and so we looked at pictures of her, her family, her mother, etc. from the trip Mom & Dad took with Grandpa Torgunrud in the 70's. It was fun to hear their reminiscences and see the farm where my ancestors came from. I had tried to establish email contact with Kari but had no luck - I decided I'll try once more, using the correct type of o in her last name. I also got an oldish email for her son. If neither of these work, I will have to resort to snail mail and ask her to respond to me via email. I also saw pictures of Hestra, near Boras in Sweden which had been the home of my Dad's father and his family. There's no more family there anymore but I'm still hoping to be able to see it. It turns out that there is some family (Erickson's) in Sweden on my Mom's mother's side. Mom never even knew they existed until a couple of years ago. My grandmother's father died when she was eight so she may not even have known a lot about his family. I've come away armed with a few names and email addresses so we'll have to see what comes from this.

Other than family locations, I've been given a few recommendations of things that would be interesting to check out - Viking graves near Stockholm, a Stave kirke at Trondheim, Grieg's house. I'd be interested in seeing where my sister Gina spent a year as an exchange student - Lulea - but it's pretty far north so that might not happen. As an aside, when I was expressing concern about my propensity to motion sickness, Gina told me that she's heard that it helps to eat Granny Smith apples, the greener the better. I may have to try it out, there's always Gravol as a backup.

Environmental Guilt

To be truthful, there is a small part of me that says we really shouldn't be making this trip at all - for environmental reasons. I have heard from a number of sources that air travel is the most harmful to the earth's atmosphere of any human activity, and it certainly uses up large amounts of fuel resources. We have just started a new group at our church called Stewards of Creation which has as its focus to become better caretakers of God's Creation. So for us to take this trip at this time seems a bit hypocritical. However my environmental guilt has not been so strong as to make us cancel our plans, and there have been some choices made about how we travel in Europe that were partially based on environmental considerations. We have decided that we would mainly use public transport while in Europe - meaning trains, buses and ferries. Because Europe has a much better public transport infrastructure than here, we are not really hampered by limiting ourselves in this way at all. So far we are able to get to pretty much everywhere we want to using those three forms of transportation. The only exception may be in northern Denmark, where we may have to rent a car to visit Bindslev, the ancestral home of my Grandmother's family.

We were given the option of flying from England to Norway or Denmark, but Beth and I chose to take a ferry instead (the one pictured above). One consideration was cost as it is somewhat cheaper to take the ferry. Another consideration was that by taking a berth on the ferry we are actually combining costs of both transportation and accommodation - basically it is costing us pretty well the same price to take the ferry to Denmark as it would to stay in a hotel (even a budget priced hotel) in London. So for the same price, not only to we get a place to stay the night, but we get from one place to another. We are planning to do a similar thing when going to Iona - we will travel to this part of Scotland on the Caledonian Sleeper, leaving London in the evening and arriving in Glasgow in the early morning - once again getting both travel and accommodation for about the same price as a hotel room in London. The trade off is time of travel - it takes much longer to travel by ferry or train than to fly. On the other hand, we will see more from the windows of the train, or the deck of a ferry, than flying high above the clouds. So when all these considerations are combined with understanding that travelling by train, ferry and bus is less harmful to the environment - then it becomes an obvious choice to use those forms of transportation while in Europe.

The means of travel we will be using while in Europe is quite varied: Trains, both standard and high speed versions, including taking a train through the Chunnel from France to England; Ferries, both big and small; Buses, mostly while on our package tour; Cars, mostly while travelling with relatives in Norway; Subways, while sight-seeing in the larger centres; and walking, lots of walking. We are picking hotels, hostels, and Bed & Breakfasts with an eye on how close to the train station they are. So far we shouldn't have to call a taxi once for getting to and from the Train Stations. Recently I've been trying to do regular time on the treadmill to get in shape for all this trekking around on foot we hope to be doing. I'd rather be going for walks outside, but the weather has not been cooperating!

Beth's passport came today, so we were able to book our ferry trip from England to Denmark. So now more of our itinerary gets set in place. We also managed to use some Air Miles to book a hotel in Milan. We are arriving in Italy a few days before the package tour starts, this was so we could take in an opera. After doing much looking around we decided on an opera at one of the most famous Opera Houses in the world - La Scala in Milan. We'll write about that in more detail one day, but for now I'm just glad that we have a place to stay while in that city. Believe it or not, Milan was not on the itinerary of our package tour, so making this side trip will be covering an area we would have missed otherwise.

So I feel better now that I've confessed my environmental guilt. I also remind myself that this is a once in a lifetime trip, and there is a good chance we will never travel to Europe like this again. Thus I will enjoy the trip, and put my environmental concerns to work around here, giving me the impetus to change the ways I regularly impact the environment. In the end that will have a much bigger impact any ways.

The Giant Jigsaw Puzzle

On my computer sits a grid with all the days of our Europe trip laid out in calendar form. Each box in the grid is slowly getting filled in with details that are colour coded. Text in black is stuff that has been booked and confirmed, the things set in stone. Text in blue are details that have been worked out quite specifically, but aren't booked and confirmed yet - this is mostly because some of our travel plans, such as rail travel, can't be booked more than 3 months in advance. Text in red are tentative plans that need to be firmed up, but some of this is dependant on travel plans being confirmed. What we are finding is that in order for us to fit one piece of the journey together, another piece needs to be in place. If transportation or accommodation problems change the grid in one place, it has a ripple effect throughout the whole picture. So the past week there has been a lot of moving things around. Let me give you an example.

Beth already mentioned that accommodation on Iona has been a bit problematic, our first choices not being available at all, and our second choice only being available for two days (instead of the three we were originally planning for). So after talking about this situation we decided that two days on Iona would be fine, but now this meant finding out if Glengorm Castle on the Isle of Mull could take us a day earlier, and figuring out all the ferry, bus and train schedules to see if they could all fit together. Yesterday it became apparent that the current bus schedule on the Isle of Mull would not give us much time at Glengorm, that would be a waste of that opportunity. So I began to look at alternative transportation possibilities.

There aren't really a lot of options, this is a fairly remote part of Scotland that is sparsely populated (for example there are only 120 full time residents on Iona). In my searching for the answer to the transportation part of this jigsaw puzzle I found a small aircraft service with regular flights from Tobermory to Glasgow. According to the schedule on the Airlines' web page, this option would be perfect, and while being quite a bit more money than the bus, ferry and train combination, it would also be a great experience. We were excited! So I sent an email to the little airline called Loch Lomond Seaplanes, only to get a reply today stating that they've already sold their quota of one-way tickets. So that puzzle piece gets removed and we start over. Fortunately I also got an email this morning from the bus company on Mull, and the summer schedule for the bus includes more options than currently indicated on their website. So things might work out with the bus after all - but we have to wait for two or more weeks until the summer schedule is finalized and published (either that or hope that the airline opens up some more one-way tickets).

At this point our first three weeks in Europe are now mostly indicated with black text on our Travel Calendar, there is still a bit of blue and red, but things are coming together nicely. We are also at a point where planning, for the most part, has to be put on hold, at least until Beth's new passport arrives. The next big question is if we can book a ferry from England to Denmark on a certain day, but they require both our passport numbers. Hopefully the passport will arrive sometime next week.

In the meantime we will keep working away at some of the details we can figure out. This planning process has been mostly fun and exciting, but also at times frustrating and patience-testing. I can't imagine how people did this before the era of the internet - probably a lot more package tours, or relying on relatives in Europe, or simply seeing how it worked out once there. I suppose if one had lots of time and money that last option would be the least stressful and perhaps the most fun, but we have limited time and financial resources so the Giant Jigsaw Puzzle will continue to be the method for us.

P.S. I was going to create an image of the travel calendar I've created to post on this Blog so folks could see what I was talking about. I thought I should update a few things before I did that including putting Flight Numbers on... then I discovered the problem! On the Air Miles Itinerary page, showing our travel information there were two flights listed to Toronto. One was for the time we had chosen (it was marked 'Unconfirmed'), one was for earlier in the day (this one was marked 'Confirmed'). This confused me, so a call to Air Miles was in order. Good thing I did! It turns out that Air Canada no longer has the flight that would have left at 1:55 PM, and thus the only option left for us is the flight that leaves at 11:00 AM. This is not ideal because it means we will have to miss the Luther College Baccalaureate Service, but there's not much we can do about it at this point. Thus the Giant Jigsaw Puzzle gets reworked a bit more!

Vicarious Pilgrimage

Today I mentioned our Europe trip and this Blog in my sermon. A number of folks asked for the Blog address, so next week I'm going to publicize this in the bulletin. We have also discovered that many folks have already found their way to this Blog through friends and associates and many of them have already commented on how they are enjoying reading about our planning process, and how they are looking forward to reports about the trip when the time comes. Many people wished us well in our travels, and at least two couples came up to me today after the service to tell me that they also had taken a European Vacation as part of their 25th Wedding Anniversary celebration... so I guess we're not the first people to come up with this idea.

Also today I met with the Mysterium Planning Team, a group of folks who plan and present our monthly alternative worship service at Christ Lutheran Church called Mysterium. Every month we have a theme and the theme chosen for June this year is the Mystery of Travel. When we realized that this theme coincided with Beth and my travels in Europe the Planning Team all thought I should either Blog a message that would be read especially for the folks who gather at Mysterium that month, or maybe even Skype a sermon! However the reality is that with the time difference Beth and I will be on the Caledonian Sleeper heading from London to Glasgow, hopefully sleeping at that time (which for us will be after 2 AM U.K. time). I will try to Blog something especially for Mysterium earlier that day, and that way I will connect with the folks at that worship gathering. By the way if you are curious about this Mysterium thing you can check it out at this website: http://www.mysterium.ca/

So we are finding it amazing how many folks are taking this journey with us vicariously. The fact that you are reading this post right now means you might be one of them! We hope you find our Blog, and eventually our actual trip, interesting and informative, humorous and helpful, enjoyable and enlightening. We're glad to have you along!

Patience, Persistence and Flexibility

Okay, so not quite three P's in the title but it's the best I can come up with right now. These are the three things that I've learned today. First of all, I need to have patience because communication with those across the pond is not as instant as I would like, partly because of the time difference but I think also partly because of the way of life. Therein enters the persistence part of the equation - we (and by we, I really mean Dennis) has had to send multiple emails before we get responses. Which in turn sometimes leads to flexibility. Our first choice of accommodation on Iona was booked up for the days we wanted to be there. Dennis emailed our second choice and the response came back that there was an opening but only for the first two nights. We had always planned to spend three nights on Iona. After discussion we realized that we had come up with the magic number of three because some B and B's required a minimum three day stay. Anyway, we have now sent an email to Glengorm (the castle on Mull) seeing if we can come a night earlier than first planned. The up-side of all of this is that since the hotel in Oxford is already booked, we will spend a little longer in the day at Glengorm (if that works out) and then go as far as Glasgow before heading to Oxford as scheduled. This means we get to see some of what Glasgow has to offer, only spend 5 hours travelling the next day and get to Oxford earlier than our original 10:00 p.m.

I have been pondering the question of shoes, which and how many pairs to take. I expect it to be hot in Italy so I really want to have my sandals along. I was thinking I would have to bring my runners for the serious walking (hiking?) portions of the second and third legs of the trip. My runners are kind of bulky though and today I got an email advertising Trekker shoes. They look pretty comfortable but sturdy at the same time. Any feedback about that? I thought they could maybe replace my sandals and runners. I'm going to bring dressy sandals for when we go to the opera - they tell you right on the website that you're expected to dress for the occasion - so maybe if I start off with only 2 pair of shoes that would leave a little corner of my suitcase free for Italian shoes!

Dealing with Disappointment

Today was a day of mixed news. First we received an email stating that the St. Columba Hotel on the island of Iona, Scotland was totally booked up for the time we are planning to be there. This left us with a bit of a defeated feeling. We had very carefully looked at all our options (and on Iona that's not lots) and we got most excited about the St. Columba Hotel, for many reasons. I keep being astounded when I discover time and time again that booking things like flights, hotels and such 4 months prior is not enough time to avoid being shut out. The irony of this is that some places such as some Bed and Breakfasts establishments and the Rail Companies don't allow booking more than 3 months in advance! This is making our planning a bit more difficult, but we press on.

The first two weeks of our time in Europe will be with an organised Tour. We did this at the recommendation of some friends and our travel agent, and it seemed to make sense to us that we use a tour in the area where we felt least capable, namely Italy and France. We also heard that Tours get into certain tourist destinations easier than folks off the street (for example being shown in a side door at the Vatican, rather than waiting in line for four hours at the main entrance). As it is, that first 11 days we are part of an organized tour is costing us a significant amount, but at least we don't need to worry about arranging accommodation, and most meals. So other than this package tour (Italy, Switzerland, France and ending in London), Beth and I are doing all of our accommodation and transportation arranging. Much of this planning has actually been fun, but when our plans fall through, as in the news that St. Columba Hotel is already booked to capacity, some of the fun is knocked out of the process.

On the other hand, later today we got the news that our accommodation in Oxford, England has been reserved and confirmed. We will be staying in a little 7 room 17th Century Guesthouse in the heart of Oxford, the Tower House Hotel. Here's a link to their website: http://www.towerhouseoxford.co.uk/ This is really more like a Bed and Breakfast by my way of understanding, but what I'm discovering by all this internet research into accommodations in Europe is that many European Hotels are small, family run operations. So now that our time in Oxford has been set we turn our attention to other parts of the trip.

One of the best parts of the internet for travellers is having access to reviews written by average folks just like us. A site like Trip Advisor ( http://www.tripadvisor.com/ ) has been very helpful in identifying both places to consider and potential problems to avoid. I decided today that I would make a point of writing my own reviews for the places we stay on our trip. Maybe I can help someone down the road who is planning their own pilgrimage of sorts.

Preparations

I've been thinking about the planning process - at times I find it overwhelming - there are so many options and so many choices; so many places I would love to go and things I would love to see. I have to keep reminding myself that we really are just getting a taste of Europe and our heritage at this point. Maybe someday we'll go back to a few more specific places. I also find myself wondering how people planned trips without the benefit of the internet. It's exciting to take virtual tours of the islands of Iona and Mull in Scotland and see pictures of the castle we're hopefully going to spend a night at. On the other hand, without the internet there would probably be less decisions to make and the anticipation would be heightened and possibly, expectations would be more open-ended.

My other burning issue is - how does one pack for 6 weeks? How do I limit my shoes? What's most important to bring? Last night I kept waking up with recurring dreams in which my new suitcase just kept getting smaller and smaller with less and less packing room. My version of a nightmare, I guess.

I'm focussing on leaving my prairie perspective of distance behind me. It's hard to fathom a country where it will take an hour to travel twenty miles. The bus we're planning on taking on Mull will take us that long - twenty miles on a single-lane track with pull-outs for oncoming traffic. (Needless to say I wasn't really interested in renting a car for that jaunt.) No wonder Europeans marvel at the vast distances we will travel just to attend a specific event or visit for a short while. It's a different way of life. I wonder if they live at a more relaxed pace of life because of it. It'll be interesting to see.

Going to the Font

The Hendricksen family originally came from Denmark, where the original spelling of the name had no d or c - thus Henriksen. My Grandfather Harry was born in 1908 in a village called Finderup, close to the western coast of Jutland in Denmark. Before he was a year old the Henriksen family immigrated to the United States, specifically Nebraska. In 1930 the family moved north to Canada, to farm by Tilley, Alberta. This is where my father was born and raised, and later myself (in the nearby town of Brooks).

A few years ago the Hendricksen family had a reunion, and my Aunt Kathy put together a wonderful book titled Recalled to Life: The Story of Chris and Trina Hendricksen. From this book I learned the interesting history of my ancestors on my father’s side. I pulled the book out again as Beth and I began planning our trip, and I found myself drawn to the idea of visiting Finderup. I started doing research on the internet, looking at train schedules and ferry routes, figuring out how we could get to this region of Denmark. Increasingly it became important to me to visit the place where my Grandfather Harry was born and baptised.

Though the family lived in Finderup, my Grandfather’s baptismal certificate is from the Hanning Church. There was a church in Finderup, thus I wondered why he wasn’t baptised there. The mystery was solved when I found the construction date of the church in Finderup - it wasn’t completed until 1909, after my Grandfather was born. My Great-Grandfather Chris was a professional brick-layer in Denmark, and there is a good chance he, along with his brothers, worked on the construction of the Finderup church before he left for America.

Through the wonders of the internet I was able to find out more about the churches in both Finderup and Hanning (these two villages are about 4 kilometres apart). I also found the email for the pastor currently serving both churches. I have been able to contact him and he has generously agreed to tour Beth and myself through these churches when we arrive in June. I checked with my Dad and it is quite possible that I will be the first Hendricksen connected with the Chris Hendricksen branch of the family tree to be back in Finderup for 100 years! (It may be possible that one or two of my Grandfather’s sisters visited Finderup at one point many years ago, but that is uncertain).

On the website for the Hanning Kirke (Kirke is Danish for Church) there is a picture of the baptismal font (shown above). I found myself thinking: This may well be the font my Grandfather was baptised in - I have to see this, to put my hands in the bowl that held the water which was splashed on my Grandfather’s head as an infant. Suddenly the desire to be there, in that exact spot connected with my family’s history became very strong. Somehow this has become important for my spiritual journey and I feel like returning to the font of my Grandfather’s baptism has become a quest. I’m not sure what I think I will gain by being there. I don’t think anything mystical, or supernatural will happen, but at the same time I find myself drawn to this place. It is something that stirs deep within me. I am truly looking forward to the time that Pastor Jens Holmgaard ushers Beth and I into that sacred space.

New Luggage

I begin this post with a true story. I first travelled to Europe as part of the Camrose Lutheran College Choir Tour in the summer of 1980. I took everything I needed in one large brown fake leather type of suitcase. This piece of luggage got heavier and heavier as we went along because along with my clothes and personal items I was constantly adding souvenirs and gifts to bring back to Canada. These included a (fake) wood carving of the Last Supper, 15 LP records (this was before CDs) and, unbelievably over 10 pounds (5 Kilograms) of Norwegian goat cheese (Gjetost - somehow they let me bring that into Canada when I came back)! Near the end of my time in Europe I found myself lugging this heavy suitcase over a kilometre or two from the train station to a hostel in Copenhagen. This was so awkward and difficult that I decided to spend the rest of my money the next morning on a cab fare back to the train station. The cabbie grabbed the suitcase to heave it into the trunk of his taxi, and when he lifted it off the ground the handle broke! So now I had to struggle with this over-stuffed, heavy, handleless suitcase the rest of the way home. It was not fun.

So not wanting to repeat such a circumstance this trip to Europe Beth and I went out and purchased some new luggage yesterday. We went to a local luggage store (where one of the members of our church works) and after a little investigation came home with two new suitcases. But these aren’t your regular suitcases - they can be transported by three different means. First they have wheels and an extendable handle on them (like most luggage these days). They also have handles on the side so they can be carried like a standard suitcase. But the coolest feature is that they can be also used as backpacks, with straps and padding built right in! So we should be able to move our luggage around regardless of whatever circumstances we might encounter. Now we simply have to figure out how to pack enough clothes and other items in these two suitcases to get us through all 6 weeks in Europe. It’s a good thing we still have a lot of time to figure that out.

P.S. I’m not even considering bringing Gjetost back with me this time.

Passport Ordeal

I've been putting off renewing my passport for a while now (about 6 months). It finally came to the point where it was impeding our progress with booking things so the time for procrastination was totally over. I went yesterday to one place, which shall remain nameless, to get a quick photo taken. After waiting 20+ minutes for service, I was told that they were short-staffed and couldn't take a picture until much, much later. I fumed back out to the van and drove to a second place where I had a totally different customer service experience. They were able to take my photo right away and it would be ready in 10 minutes. However, according to regulations I had to take my glasses off and heaven forbid I should try to smile, even a little. Needless to say the photo I ended up with is not one I would display anywhere. Who devises such torture? That's the rant for today, just don't ever ask to see my passport picture!