Vejby, Denmark, 1999

Hurricane Winds

December 6-7, 1999

We again had berths in a sleeping car on the train from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, and were happy that we were scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen at 10 am—we figured, we would have a nice chance to catch up on our sleep.

However, we were awakened at 6 AM, at the Danish border: It seems that hurricane force winds the previous day, had managed to topple houses, tear off roofs, and even shut down the country's rail service. We were herded onto buses for the remainder of the journey. Since it was dark for almost all of the trip, we weren't able to really see any more, and so attempted to catch a few more zees.

Fortunately, Michael's nephew, Chris, who was to pick us up at the train station, knew of the problem and was able to find out when we would really arrive. Sure enough, there he was as we stepped off the bus, ready to drive us to his home in Vejby (pronounced, more or less, "Wie-buuh").

Vejby is a delightful little village, both Michael and I had been there before; so this wasn't really a sightseeing day. It was a chance to relax and catch up with Chris and his delightful family.

Chris' home is a compact, two-story place with the living room and Chris and his wife, Anita's, bedroom on the second floor, and the kitchen, bathroom, and kids' bedrooms on the ground floor.

Chris' son, Allan, is a delightful fifteen-year-old who had grown remarkably taller in the few months since I had last seen him.

In fact, he had grown taller than Michael!

Allan's sister, Karina, is two years younger and becoming a beautiful young lady.

The above picture was taken in front of Chris' impressive wood pile. He works for the community, and gets first pick of fallen wood. He is very proud that his home has been heated for free with this wood since they moved in!

Chris and his wife, Anita, are a darling couple. The whole family speaks English; the children speak it best because they are currently studying it in school. However, the adults took it when they were in school, too; so we had no trouble communicating with them.

Chris and Anita are both excellent cooks; however, Michael convinced them to let him cook dinner one night…partly to redeem us Americans as chefs, after the catastrophic dinner I prepared on my previous visit.

Finally, after a delightful day and night, Chris drove us back to the train station—where the rails were again running—and we boarded for our next destination: Switzerland!