THE GREAT TRIP cont. #3

Sunday, September 20

Today we got up early and went to buy pastries, (they were out of them yesterday and we had promised my mom we would bring her back some) and then we went to church. It was such a sweet little church. We got there on time and Sister Klitgaard was waiting for us saving us part of a bench. She was so happy to see Chrissy and hugged her and then she hugged Jaremy and me and welcomed us. We went to all 3 meetings. Sacrament was first and the young men did the program. Brother Klitgaard translated for us. Brother Klitgaard and another older man blessed the sacrament and the way they spoke the sacrament prayers in the Danish language was so tender it made me get tears in my eyes. It was a great meeting. The young men were so sincere.
Sunday school was about the pioneers, (Brother Klitgaard translated again), and I’m not sure what Relief Society was about but everyone was so nice. Sister Klitgaard went home after sacrament meeting. We talked to the couple missionaries who were from California. They seemed very cheerful to see us and chat with some fellow Americans. Then we talked to the sister missionaries too, who were both from Utah and very friendly.
Then we drove Brother Klitgaard to his home where they had dinner waiting. It was wonderful. They were so welcoming. I gave Sister Klitgaard the Willow Tree “Angel of Prayer” and told her how I had wanted to bring them something to show my gratitude to them for all they had done for Chrissy when she was there in Denmark. I told her that she and her family had been an answer to our prayers for helping Chrissy. She got tears in her eyes and hugged me so tight. She said it would be a treasure to her.
We talked a lot during dinner with Brother and Sister Klitgaard and Lenny their son, (he is quite the character). We also met the part black lab part Newfoundland, Beorn, whom we got along with splendidly! After dinner we sat and talked some more and then we had dessert. Then we watched an LDS DVD with them that made us laugh and laugh because it made them laugh so much. I wonder what we would think of it if we watched it again by ourselves? They are a wonderful family, so kind to us. I think we are really friends. We all talked so easily to each other. They all speak English very well. I think I had better get learning a new language. I feel really behind most of the world with that.
At 4:00 we decided that we had better go. That was another sad good-by and we were on our way back to Billund for our last night in Denmark. The driving in Denmark has been much less stressful than in England. The scenery was so beautiful too. Jaremy kept saying how impressed he was with Denmark.
We got to our hotel and then went to do our laundry. The hotel had a laundry that they let us use. It took us hours to do it however. Only one machine would work, (which we discovered through trial and error) and the instructions were in Danish and we had to get help and then the dryer wouldn’t work until Jaremy finally figured out to take the side part off and then I had to scatter the clothes all over our room so they could finish drying. Anyway, I think they finally got done around midnight. It will be so nice to have my own washer and dryer again! What a spoiled American I am!

Monday, September 21

This morning we had a Danish buffet breakfast, the only one we were to have, sadly. So here you go, THE DANISH BREAKFAST!

Choice of dry cereals with milk
Beautiful bowls of different fruits
So many different kinds of wonderful, chewy crust breads with butter and cream cheese and jelly patties
Many different kinds of gorgeous cheeses
Juices
Scrambled eggs
Bacon
Sausage
Ham
Potatoes
Bowls of lovely cucumbers and little tomatoes
Yogurt
Pastries

What can I say except that it was perfectly heavenly!

Then we left for the airport and turned in our rental car. (This time it was an Opal, I forgot to mention before, not as cute as the Peugeot, but quite nice.) When we went to get our boarding passes, (here we pause for ominous music) we encountered our fist and only major problem. We found our tickets to Paris had been booked on the wrong day!! They were for the 22nd not the 21st! So what to do? There was no way they would let us change the tickets, they were unchangeable! We could not stay in Denmark because we had no place to stay and no way to get around! Also, we had our reservation in Paris and our Paris passes were all paid for!!
So we ended up having to buy new tickets for the same flight. They would not refund the original tickets and we had to pay quite a bit more for the new ones. Oh well, we all felt kind of sick about it, but it was all we could do. The plane was small, (propeller) and we didn’t even get a gate to walk through, we just walked out on the tarmac up to the plane. There were a lot of empty seats on the plane, so it seems like it should have been easy to transfer the tickets. Like I said before, “Oh well!”
So we left Denmark and arrived in Paris. I got the window seat this time and I had fun looking out the window at the ocean (The North Sea). I could see islands and big ships way down there and it was very cool. It was a pretty short flight, just under 2 hours.
When we got to the Paris airport we took a taxi to our hotel and got settled in. Then we took off on the train for the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is amazing! I couldn’t believe how big it was. I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing the Eiffel Tower for myself! Then we went on the Paris cruise. It was on a boat going along the Seine River, with an audio tour guide commenting on all the things we passed and all the bridges we went under. Paris has lots of lovely bridges. It took about an hour and it was so much fun. It was sunset and the sky was a particular powder blue touched with pink from the setting sun with white, fluffy clouds. It was so romantic looking. Paris really is a beautiful city. We ate at a little outdoor eating place after the cruise, (cheese sandwiches), and then walked along the Champ d' Mars and watched the Tower light up. Champ d' Mars means Field of March, (I looked it up in our French-English book). There were so many people! Then we took the train back to our hotel.
Riding the trains here is not as easy as in London. Things are not as clear and organized. They also say nothing about “minding the gap”. I expect they don’t mind if you fall into the gap or maybe they think you already know about that. Also things like the train itself are so dirty and with graffiti all over the place. That is one thing I have really noticed about Paris, there is a lot of graffiti on everything! I did learn that “sortie” is their word for “exit”, a good thing to know. When we were waiting on the platform for our train we saw a family trying to figure out the train schedule like us. I started talking to them and discovered they were from Utah. It was fun talking to them. We found out that they would be on our same flight going home, so we would be seeing them again.
When we got on the train a couple sitting across from us asked where we were from. It kind of sounded like the man had some kind of English accent so I said we were from Utah in the United States and he smiled and said, “I know where that is. We are from Boston!” They were really friendly people and it was fun talking to them too. They said we need to come to Boston on our next vacation and hey, I think that would be great!
I decided that it is so nice finding other Americans when you are traveling in another country. You get so used to hearing everyone speaking in foreign languages all around you, it is really nice to hear English and American English is almost heavenly! I love being in the midst of all this diversity but it is comforting to find Americans to relate to when you are in a foreign place.
Well, we made it back to our hotel once again and tomorrow it is on to Versailles!