Another new thing

One more Danish post. First here are more of the usual beautiful pictures.

near the cathedral

path to water in Bognæs

view of fjord

The new thing was something I had heard about when lived there but I had been too intimidated to try it on my own. This time our host family said they were doing it and I was happy to join in.

From their description, "A white running T-shirt with a panting balding gentleman who is about to be passed by a few slender herring and the slogan "Take care of yourself - ran for their lives." It is characterized for members of Roskilde running club Running for Life, which has existed since 1992. Race for Life is behind the monthly jogging in the People's Park. There is a trophy in the club, which every six months transferred to the member who has improved his personal maturity most of the past season. In addition, the club organizes joint training sessions and participates in many jogging around Zealand - from five km.-relay races for marathon. The tradition offers to club members and their families gather after the race for burger buns with glazed ham and salad."

The organizers have created a 1.667 km loop that is undulating and on a variety of surfaces. There is no preregistration and the cost is 10 DKK ($1.50). People are invited to do any distance between 1.7 and 8 km and prizes are given at random. Now that I have done it once I wish I could do it again!

One more new thing was paying for A. to use the train since it was our first visit since he was over the age of eleven. Turns out he is the same price as taking a dog on the train!

Full day

Some weekends time just melts away, but yesterday was a full day.

A.'s school has its Festa Major/Major Festival. We had no idea what that meant, but 

we figured out that A. had to go to a couple events and the awards ceremony,

where he received a medal for fair play. Afterward he tried some free samples from the sponsors. That was it for him. Parents were allowed to attend, but mostly the primary kids had parents there.

In the morning, when the older kids were doing their activities, there was a fund raising bike ride.

The people in yellow helped clear the route, which was definitely necessary given the route and the cycling ability of the participants. Here you can check out a video of a small bit of the event. The road they are on is several blocks long and usually has traffic in both directions. Good thing the city was a co-sponsor of the event!

A. and a friend traipsed around Barcelona for several hours. At a bee festival
near the Arc de Triomf they watched while the artist created this with spray paint!

We met up in the evening and were amazed by the variety of
fidget spinners that are already in the tourist stores. 

Night of the Museums had more participants than we could ever take
advantage of, but we picked a few out to try since the price was right.

It was amazing to see giants that have been in continuous use for over 100 years!

Many of these giants had stories about being hidden
away only to be discovered many decades later.

From the sign, "In bygone times, carasses were heads of Arabian donning long beards, which were installed under the organs of some churches. Around Christmas, they threw sweets out to the children in the crowd. The city has recovered this tradition by way of the Carassa de Barcelona, or Carassa de Nadal, an entertaining and parading figure that throws out candy during the Santa Llúcia Fair."

The sign for this one described the turtle body, humanized cat head,
and split personality, sometimes spitting fire and sometimes giving out sweets. 

A picture of a picture of it in action.

A picture of a picture of the hobby horses in action. 

We were very happy with our choice of museums and I encourage you check out historic pictures and more current ones. After leaving we headed off to the chocolate museum, but sometimes free means paying with time and we were not willing to wait in a line that we could not even see the front of!

We caught a bus and headed to a one-hallway museum.

The entire museum was in Catalan, but we enjoyed looking at the pictures.

Sant Cugat had a few activities, too, including a lot of concerts in surprising places (e.g., a cappella across from the bakery). A. snapped this picture, which I thought might have been part of the adult percussion event (adult as in grown ups, not adult as in X-rated), but I am not sure.

Just trying to squeeze it all in before we leave!

Something new

Part of the joy of returning to Denmark is the familiarity, the nostalgia of visiting favorite places.

Sheep on the way to the grocery store.

View of the cathedral from the Viking Museum.

Field of rapeseed

It is also great to find new things.

As you go downhill from the cathedral through the city park (Byparken)
you come across a little creek, at least at this time of year.

Near the center of the park the creek flows into a play area!

It then continues out the other side, to a pond, and then to the fjord.

Another find in the park was the Danish public toilet.

We were lucky to be able to go back to make new memories!

Entertainment

It was only three years ago that I first paid attention to Eurovision, but that was all it took to hook me. Wind machines, fireworks, smoke machines, and topless male dances (or topless male dancers in wading pools, like this year) - who could ask for anything more?

There is always plenty of controversy, including the selection of Spain's entry (they came in last) and the fact that the Russian entrant entered Crimea without going through Ukranian border controls (she was banned but can perform next year).  A future issue will be whether Israel will continue participating, which is based on whether the new broadcaster will apply for membership in the European Broadcasting Union. You can follow all the juicy news here.

I give my Danish friend credit for making the two semi-finals and grand final fun events to watch. She is on facebook the whole time, commenting on the action as it happens. Her friends are there, too, and we all chime in. Annual parties with themes and costumes were the highlights of our visit to Denmark.

Celebrating diversity was the theme this year and the Portuguese winner certainly was not like anyone else since all he did was sing, not even half-naked! There was also the Croatian singer who sang in a deep voice and then turned to face where he had been standing and sang in a falsetto. Also entertaining were the yodeling singers from Romania, the guy in the gorilla costume from Italy, and of course the guys on treadmills from Sweden. If you go to eurovision.tv you can read the history, the rules, and, "Everything you always wanted to know about the inner workings of the Eurovision Song Contest."

A Ukranian fan with an Australian flag added to the entertainment
while last year's winner performed at the end of the show.

Of course there are more serious issues here and in the world, it is nice to take a break sometimes.

Another one

I added another library to my list, not that I have a list yet, but I should.

Here is the library's video.
som = we are

They had a good selection of English novels, including an Agatha Christie novel
that A. had not read. I wish the libraries also had non-fiction books in English.

The reading rooms had a lot of light.

The children's room was enormous. I have yet to see a children's
librarian at the library when I go during the school day.

Taking the bus to the library was a

little scenic tour.

Some of my favorite things.

What is your favorite thing about Barcelona, I was asked. My favorite thing is the variety. I love the variety of the porches, the architecture, and the little things I see when I am out and about like art at the train stations.

This is not art but I like the idea of selling books in the train station

to raise money for solidarity.

This article writes about a lot of the art so it seems that I have more exploring to do.

More fire

When life is full there is so much to blog about and not as much time to share. 

Here is a little post about the first day of the festival, which

seemed like a big production until I saw the next day.

As always we are amazed by the amount of meat for sale.

The words for food truck in Catalan are food truck.

And the word for bagel in Catalan is bagel.

The activities for little kids included a bounce house and this one-of-a-kind
merry-go-round powered by a person on a stationary bicycle!

There were also craft projects and and a play area.

We arrived in time to see a bit of dancing before

the goat's fire crackers were lit.

There was fire dancing and later fire twirling, too.

I thought my pictures did an adequate job capturing the evening until saw the video put together by the local magazine. I almost posted just this, but felt like I should make a least a small effort to write something up.

The merry-go-round is near the beginning - adorable! The video also shows a drumming session that we missed and some fire jump roping!