Oops it has been a while since my last post! August and September have flown by with family visits and my sister-in-law’s beautiful, fun and magical wedding on the island of North Haven, Maine. With the cool climate, the crisp blue fall sky and the charming clapboard houses it felt like being, maybe not in Denmark, but on the rocky coast of Sweden or Norway – and that is close enough for me 😉 I will let the photos speak for themselves – they are that beautiful. In the pictures below I am trying to capture the beautiful arrival scene by ferry from Rockland to North Haven, Maine.   I can’t decide if Maine is more beautiful in rain or shine. As you can see on the photos below we had a stormy and windy ferry ride back home from the island. But after having safely arrived on land, that rocking rainy boat ride almost struck me as more full atmosphere than in the bright sun light. As if rain and storm is just right …

    We just spent a week in Cape Cod and it was overwhelmingly beautiful with all the cute Cape houses, abundance of flowers and beaches everywhere you go! It is a lot like Denmark where you are never more than two hours (which is very rare) away from nice sandy beaches. The beaches have dunes with wild vegetation and only a few summer houses can be spotted along the shoreline. On the Danish as well as the Cape beaches everything is neat, cute and natural. I saw lots of pink wild roses with a scent that brings me right back to the Danish summer by the sea. Hydrangeas are the predominant flower in Cape Cod and people grow them in large rows in front of their houses or along the road as the impressive flower bed in the photo (above and below). They really know how to make things look pretty up there in the Cape! Luckily, this weekend my husband and I discovered a Danish nursery “Sun Nurseries” in Woodbine, MD. The owners …

You can’t really write about Denmark without mentioning the Scandinavian crime shows and novels… I just found the Danish TV show “Dicte” on Netflix. It offers a “hyggeligt”/”cozy” trip to Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus, which the New York Times has nominated as number 17 of the best places to travel to in 2016! Read about Aarhus here The show stars a lot of great Danish actors, like Iben Hjejle who is the main character crime reporter Dicte. It is based on Elsebeth Egholm’s thriller books about Dicte. You can read about Dicte here This show is great for someone like me who isn’t into scary stuff (I steer far away from the Swedish ones!) as this one is more on the cozy side. It is not too scary and revolves a lot around personal issues such as love, divorce and friendships – the Danish way;) So for me it is great taste of Danish culture. But if you are really into Scandinavian crime shows “Forbrydelsen”/”The Killing” is probably the best and has been made …

  Nyons, that’s where we lived and that’s the town to be in. They have local markets – with everything from the classic Provence baskets to locally made sausages, French nougat and rose wine – twice every week. And, a farmers cooperative in a beautiful modern building where they sell local wine, specialties and all-natural beauty products etc. Smart way of giving local businesses a better chance to market their products. France really has a lot to do with eating lots of delicious food and drinking wine from surrounding wine castles… Nyons also has a local olive mill which is now a store with all those local specialties – olive and lavender soap, French nougat, olive oil and what not. We actually stayed in a Danish-owned architect designed apartment near downtown. With it belonged a beautiful olive field, gazebo and veranda overlooking the olive field with mountains in the background. This place was such a perfect mix of classic Danish interior design and the beautiful landscape of Provence.         I have to …

We just came back from a family wedding in Paris and vacation in Provence. It was so exciting and beautiful that I have to write about it even though this blog was supposed to be about Denmark only. But France is Europe…and it was great to be back! Not really sure where to begin so lets just start with some pretty pictures from the trip…   Paris is beautiful and so is Provence. No surprise there. I am in love with the Tuileries garden, Louvre and the area around the Eiffel Tower – we stayed in hotels both places. And, I want olive trees and lavenders in my backyard ala Provence:)   Also, there is absolutely no going back to buying bread from supermarkets anymore. Any little French town seems to have at least one “boulangerie” (bakery) and I just have to learn to make bread like that! More to come about Paris and the town where we stayed in Provence…

What is so special about that Danish happiness that the news media has been talking about over the last few weeks? Here are my suggestions to what makes Danes so happy – besides a welfare system that leaves everyone pretty safe and secure. This guideline should be taken with a grain of salt and I hope you will view it just as some ideas on what that Danish happiness is all about. I am not saying Danes are better than other people and we can definitely learn a lot from the world around us. But who knows – maybe you can use a few of these suggestions to add a little of that unique Danish happiness to your life. As a Dane in America I use it as a checklist whenever I need to get back to my cultural roots. Guideline to Danish Happiness “Hygge” – this is the unique Danish term that combines coziness with togetherness. Danes often do this by enjoying relaxing and fun times with family and friends. So bring out the …

I am a little late on this news but this March the UN’s “World Happiness Report 2016 Update” came out and had the Danes back as the number one most happy people in the World. For a few years Denmark was behind a two other countries but here we are…the happiest again! So what makes the Danes so happy and how do you become Happy as a Dane? I am currently working on a guideline to be posted here on this blog to help you and me become a little more like a happy Dane every day.    

  It almost looks like a Danish beach – but it is not! It is South Yarmouth Beach on Cape Cod where we went to visit my in-laws last week. The kids insisted on bringing sand toys to the beach. They just couldn’t imagine going to the beach without shovels and buckets and it took us a while to convince my daughter not to bring her swimsuit… They built castles without caring about chilly winds, sand everywhere (like inside the diaper!) and whatever we grown-ups like to care about. We even found a beach with a playground where children can swing while overlooking the beautiful sea! And for me and my Danish mother-in-law it was so refreshing to see the ocean again. I am not sure why but I found many glimpses of Denmark in Cope Cod – probably because of the cooler weather and the nearness of the water everywhere you go. So refreshing and free relaxation for the mind. Shells! My daughter collected two bags of pretty shells for her jewelry collection.   …