It is Easter Saturday and after a morning flight to Copenhagen we pick up a car and start out 4 hour journey north to the gorgeous town of Sæby where we will be able to catch up with Alice.
Even though it is the Easter weekend, traffic is very manageable and the road system is amazing. Maximum speed 130km on the big highways, so the distance clicks off comfortably. We arrive in historical Saeby still before sunset so we get to see the beautiful restored and immaculately maintained houses. Saeby has been a very important town even as far back as the 1500’s when a famous Bishop used to run an active trade and had an important Carmelite monastery built. Alice lives just on the edge of the harbour and has created a lovely , colorful nest of a home. It feels so vibrant with the colours she has chosen and so alive.
We have a deliscious winter vegetable bake with beetroot and other root vegetables and settle is to her cozy bed and breakfast space. In the morning we are ready to explore the town and start with a nice walk from the Harbour. As it is Easter Sunday there is a lot of activity around the historical church in the morning.
The sculpture at the entrance to the harbour was a real community project and is adorned by individual tiles created by kids from the local schools. It will be a real time capsule for those that got their tile incorporated. The siren has a face that looks towards the church which is somber and one facing the harbour which is welcoming.
We continue to the local forest and this is carpeted with white spring flowers called ” anemone” here in Denmark.
The local community is close knit and very active with cultural events through the year. Alice is a stronghold of contacts of poets, artists, singers and musicians and organizes a very busy schedule of summer activities. When we go to the local restaurant to book dinner on what will be a very busy night the owner says ” for you Alice there is always a table” we get to ride on her coat tails with that:)
We get to explore the local area and even though it is raining at times our spirits are not dampened. We visit a local castle where Alice gives tours in summer and has the kids enthralled with stories of the wicked owner who used to dispense with hunters better than himself by pressing on a loose floor brick which would send the culprit down into the dungeon.
It has been a wonderful visit, Alice is inspirational in her approach to life . We leave taking the slow road via Aarhus a large cultural, coastal centre to visit the local art gallery, this is housing a huge installation by an artist from Portugal commissioned by the gallery.
Despite the end of the Easter weekend we make it back to Copenhagen by early evening taking the 18km long ocean bridge connecting two separate land masses of Denmark. It is quite an amazing structure and is also lined with wind generating power turbines. Denmark gets almost all its power from clean, wind energy collected around the country.
Beautiful =)