Cool Stuff

So, sorry I haven't been on here forever… there's so much to write about, I don't know really where to start.  Ben and I had an awesome opportunity to go on a Baltic cruise. (Can I just say it was HEAVEN?? not so much for the destinations, which were great and all, but just to be with Ben and spend quality time together alone.)  Ben's parents came out and watched the kids for us.  The cruise departed from Copenhagen and included stops in Warnemunde (Germany), Tallin (Estonia), St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm.  

We had an amazing time, but I wanted to share something cool from Copenhagen.  Ben's mom told us about a memorial in Copenhagen that was created by an LDS sculptor named Dennis Smith that honors the many Danish Mormon converts who emigrated from Denmark to the US at the end of the 19th century.  Ben has Danish ancestors, and of course, we have a great-grandfather who is Danish!  Hans Jensen emigrated when he was five years old with his parents, Niels and Anne.  Besides Papa being born in Canada, he is the closest foreign born ancestor we have.  

So, the memorial consisted of three parts… a sculpture of a young woman named Kristina (loosely based on Dennis Smith's grandmother) who is looking out over the harbor, the relentless Baltic wind blowing her hair (notice the horizontal pony tail), then there is a plaque that describes the memorial and the LDS immigrants, and then there are several cobblestones with LDS immigrants names engraved on them, with the town they were from and the date they immigrated to the US.  I guess there were like 40,000 Danish converts in fifty years of missionary work there.  

So, we found the memorial on the way home and it was way cool.  It is at the location where the LDS immigrants sailed from in Copenhagen.  It was cool to think that this was the location the Jensens left from.  Familysearch.org shows that the Jensens sailed from Copenhagen in 1882 to Liverpool London, from where they sailed to New York. I have to think this was the location.  I looked and looked for Hans Jensen's name… or his parents Anne Jensen and Niels Jensen, but didn't find them.  I guess you can contact Smith to see about getting your ancestor's name added to the memorial.  That would be really cool.  We did see a ton of Andersens, Nielsens, Jensens, Larsens, Madsens, and Christensens… basically all the Mormon names.

Me looking for Hans Jensen's name.  

Here is a Hans Jensen, but it can't be our Hans Jensen since he wasn't even born until 1877.

We did find Ben's ancestor though, Ole Nielsen.  Here is a pic of him in front of the cobblestone.

So, it was cool to be in Denmark and feel of our ancestors' spirits there.  We did a fun bike tour and learned some interesting tidbits about Copenhagen and Denmark.

*Denmark only has five million people… it's made up of 70 islands, 40 of which are inhabited.  Or something like that.  Don't quote me on these numbers, ok?
*The climate is miserable.  We were there on a beautiful day, 75 degrees… our guide said that is very unusual.  Usually there's a lot of wind and clouds and it's colder.
*Denmark is very vanilla… not much diversity.  Our guide referred to his fellow countrymen as "country bumpkins."  I thought this was particularly amusing since Oprah once did a special on Denmark as the happiest place on earth to live….touting their progressiveness, etc.
*Denmark has shrunk more in size than any other European country.  I guess they were once quite the force to be reckoned with.
*The Danes helped quite a few Jews escape to neutral Sweden during the Nazi occupation.
*We can thank the Danes for Legos
*And Neils Bohr, a Dane for figuring out the anatomy of the atom
*And Hans Christian Andersen for The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Snow Queen (Frozen), and a myriad of other fairytales, plays, poems, and novels
* The Martin Luther reformation had a huge impact on Denmark… most Danes are Lutheran.
*The port in Copenhagen is so clean you can swim naked in it.
*One in four wind turbines are made in Denmark
*Most people get around on bicycles… most places in town are more quickly accessible by bike than car
*It's a very liberal city… the first country to give same-sex unions the same rights as marriage (just short of calling it marriage), one of the first on woman's suffrage, and freedom of religion (hence all the Danish Mormon converts).
*There is a 30 km bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden
*The Danes love Obama… he has been there twice and loves to go there since he receives such a warm welcome.  Our guide says he goes to Denmark to boost his self-esteem after being dogged in the U.S.
*If you retire from the same company after working for 40 years, you get invited by the queen to the palace for a cup of tea.
*The Danes are nuts about their royal family, who are just figure heads and have no power whatsoever
*The largest 4th of July celebration outside of the U.S. is in Denmark… because of the close ties Danes have to America… so many immigrated to the states! 
*Kids don't start school until they're seven years old

And Wow!  I'm amazed I remembered so much from that tour!  Worth the $50 I suppose.

The Little Mermaid:

The Royal Palace

And this little guy celebrated his second birthday on the 2nd of July.  That chocolate nutella strawberry cream cake was TO DIE for.  I am making that on every birthday for now on!!