The first part of our trip was spent in England and the Fakatou family had taken such good care of us. Now we were on our own and it seemed that everything went south!

My mother’s family are from Denmark. Her mother is Ruth Zina Anderson and her father is Harold Christensen.

We landed in Copenhagen, Denmark late in the evening, and by then there were only two rental car offices open. Isi had been trying very hard to get in contact with Alamo because we had made a reservation and paid, but they needed his signature and he had not had success. So, we went to the first car rental office. They said that because

of the Ukraine situation, their computers had been down all day. That was not very encouraging. So, we went to the next one and they said they were fully booked, but had only one BMW available for $300 for the night. We didn’t have much of a choice. The only thing we had going for us is that in Denmark they drive on the same side of the road as we do in America. And, who wouldn’t want to drive a BMW?? Our timeshare was about an hour to the north and I volunteered to drive.

It was a fun drive to our home for the week. So, why did we choose to go to Denmark? It turns out that I am more Danish than any other nationality. My mother’s parents come from Moroni, Utah. Their grandparents on both sides were born in Denmark and followed the saints to Utah and settled in Moroni, Utah. I am named after my maternal grandmother Ruth Zina Christensen. Towns in Denmark like Viborg, Skanderborg, Hjooring, Vejle came up on Family Search familysearch.org on both Grandma and Grandpa Christensen’s side. We had the privilege of taking my father to Scotland where many of his ancestors are from, but I was curious about my mother’s side and where they had come from.

As we drove to a new world, there was a beautiful sunset. We finally made our way to Rageleje Klit http://www.raageleje-klit.dk (feriecenter). We had called ahead to tell them that we would be arriving late because of our flight and they had literally left our place unlocked with the key in the door for us (very trusting)??

We were glad to have made it to our destination and soon found out that the outlets in our place were not the same as those in England where we had just come from. That meant that one of us would not be able to sleep with the right equipment, so I volunteered. There was only one electrical outlet in each room with no extension cords. So we had to deal with it. The apartment was adequate. No extras. It was what I considered to be minimalistic – absent of any color or style (or is that a style) except for a blue couch? The ocean was literally across the street from us. You could walk 50 steps forward from our glass sliding window and be on the beach. This was definitely not the South Pacific, because it was cold!! But, beautiful nonetheless.

My longtime girlfriend, Debbie Clawson hooked me up when we went to Idaho and it seems she is my new travel agent since she told me she had a brother who lived in Denmark. We had been in contact with Steve for some time now. We arrived on Saturday evening and had made arrangements to meet him at his ward the next morning at 10:00 in Copenhagen, which I thought was a long shot, but ‘Isi of course was very optimistic. After getting up quite early, then getting lost, we arrived in his area an hour later.

Steve had sent his sweet wife Marion to flag us down on the crisp clear morning. She gladly showed us where to park so we didn’t get a ticket and escorted us into Sunday School class. Isi raised his hand and participated in the lesson just as he did in any other Sunday School class. The Copenhagen Temple President and matron were there and we got to meet them. It was hard to identify the temple because of all the tall buildings in the area. We got to see the temple. We were told that the steeple with Moroni on it could not be any higher than The Church of Our Lady.

Steve and Marion took us to their lovely home in the heart of Copenhagen. We had to take a tiny elevator to get there. Marion had prepared a yummy dinner for us which included three kinds of meat, small round potatoes (she said that is the way Danish eat them), vegetables, and delicious homemade gravy. We had earlier suggested that we would take them out for lunch, but they said they didn’t do that on Sunday. They were very gracious. Then Marion sat down with me and my genealogy and looked up all the little towns in a book her father had given her.

After dinner, Steve took us to see the original Christus (also known as Christus Consolator) which is a 19th-century Carrara marble statue of the resurrected Jesus by Bertel Thorvaldsen. It is located in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark‘s Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, for which it was commissioned as part of a larger group, which includes the apostles. It was so beautiful and awe-inspiring.

Afterward, we went with Steve to take back our expensive BMW and get the car we had reserved. By that time, jet lag hit, and I was ready to go “home” and rest. Steve was just getting started and wanted to show us all of Copenhagen, but my battery had run out.

I attended Rootstech 2022 and met some of my Danish cousins online. I also had been in contact with a few of them that lived in Denmark. They gave me some suggestions of what towns I ought to visit while in Denmark. We tried to map out our journey to hit those places. Monday we tried to just rest and get laundry done from England, which took most of the day since the washer and dryer were half the size of what we were used to.

We had a little downtime so we went to a close fishing village looking for – fish and chips. It did not disappoint.

Tuesday we had planned to go to the city of Viborg where some of our ancestors were from before they migrated to the United States, ending up in Moroni, Utah. Now, the story about our GPS journey – don’t always trust your GPS! We set our GPS for the town of Viborg and started our “road trip” over hills of yellow canola flowers or mustard plants. It was very beautiful mixed in with the greens and occasional chives and wildflowers.

There were some old windmills and some modern metal windmills along the way. The countryside was spacious and went on for miles (or kilometers in this case).

One thing we had failed to take into consideration was that Denmark is made up of many islands. After we had gone a long distance, we came to the end of the land and could only see water with nowhere else to drive. What we did see was a huge ferry with many vehicles lining up to get on it. There were buses, motorbikes, bicycles, cars, trucks, and the like and we looked at each other and decided we better get in line.

We paid the fee which was about 30 USD (not bad) and drove up a ramp at the tail end of the line. We had just made it on time. We finally looked at a map (duh) and could see where we were on it. Imagine yourself somewhere between Copenhagen and the city Aarhus and you will see whole lotta water. Our GPS was just trying to take us the shortest way to where we were headed which was over the water.

We asked the porter if we could stay in our car and sleep and he said that was not allowed. So, Up the stairs, we went with all the rest of the gang. This was a pretty short stretch and once again we were back in our car, but then a few hundred kilometers later we approached a much larger and more expensive ferry (barge).

It was really huge! I was quite alarmed. It was like a whole city up there with restaurants including fast food and fine dining, places to sit and lie down, restrooms, and such. We each took our turn getting some goodies and then I took a bit of a nap until we heard the whistle and disembarked with the population. Gives a whole new meaning to the song, “On the Road Again”.

I am sure we would have spent about as much driving the distance to go down around the bodies of water to get to where we were going. We planned to drive on land all the way back to our place on our return trip.

I noticed how many Danish painted their homes black and was curious about it. Also, many have what look like grass or hay on top of their roof. Some even have gardens growing on their roofs. I found this: https://www.klimatilpasning.dk/media/631048/green_roofs_copenhagen.pdf

We finally made it to Viborg which was such a beautiful city. Our destination was the Golf Hotel so (yet again) we trusted our GPS and ended up at a Golf Club. There were several men with their golf paraphernalia looking at us and we decided we were in the wrong place (Déjà vu). I had made the reservation so I felt responsible. We looked around the town and finally found the Golf Hotel.

This place had a bit of style. Too bad we had it for only one night. We decided to make the most of it. After the long drive and two ferry rides, we were tired but ventured around the place. It was well taken care of and immaculate. The trees were all trimmed sharply. There was a cathedral that seemed to be the center of the town and then everything was built around it. Cobblestone roads with no traffic allowed and shops you could only walk to. Where were the people, you might ask? We only saw a few people walking about. Denmark has provided steady figures throughout its history and although the population growth is slow and sometimes negative from year to year, it is normally steady and fairly reliable.

Isi asked where the best restaurant was and he was referred to a place called ROD. Without reservation, we took our chance and were escorted and seated at a table. Tom was our waiter and he was very congenial. We ordered the special and found it to be very much like what we had been served at Steve and Marion’s on Sunday. The dessert was the kicker! It was made of a base of caramel with two small scoops of sorbet with a small carrot, small tomato, and two blueberries on top. I had never had vegetables as part of a dessert before, but it wasn’t bad. Then a trip to the water closet (bathroom) before returning back to our hotel.

I longed for a hot bath after a cold day. Unfortunately, I could never really figure out Danish plumbing. The one in this hotel was particularly confusing. It had several faucets, nothing to keep the water in the vicinity, and no directions, so after a very frustrating attempt at getting relief from the chill of the day, I screamed every time the cold water hit me. Look at the picture of the shower area – no bath, and you might understand what I mean (more like a spacecraft)!

If you are still with me, you are either my family, close friend, Danish or a martyr! I plan to finish this today or bust!!

After a good sleep, the next morning we decided to drive to a place called Vejle where some of our ancestors had lived. I often thought about them and what the circumstances were like when they decided to leave their homes to go to Zion with the saints, most of them ending up in the tiny little town of Moroni, Utah. They must have had a very strong testimony of the Gospel to give up their homes and possessions to follow the prophet and apostles. This is just one example of my ancestors who were born in Denmark and ended up in Moroni, Utah.

When we arrived in Vejle, we found a gravesite and I was impressed by how well they took care of the graves. They made hedges around them and even grew bushes and flowers on them. There was a very loud alarm unlike any I had heard before which made me think there was an emergency of some kind. I was scared because of the issue with Ukraine. It would go off for a minute and then back on again. I asked some people in the cemetery if they knew what it was and they said they do it from time to time like our warning system in America – but this one was very loud and eerie.

We made it to a place called Traedballe on May 4th at 12:43 pm. and soon afterward crossed a suspension bridge to get over the great waters of the North Sea. We had been so lucky to have had near-perfect weather during our trip so far. It was not until we got to Chicago on our way home that we had freezing cold rainy weather and I got a bad cold. It seems like a dream, but I know it all happened. I have a greater appreciation for my Danish ancestors and feel a great love for them. The great thing about our church is that you can do the work for your ancestors in the temple where you reside wherever they come from. Farvel (Farewell)!