Nostalgic for Lille Danmark

Writing about my aunt yesterday brought up so many warm memories of my visits to “lille Danmark” as we expat Danes fondly call our native land. I visited Denmark in 1971, 1974, 1990, 2007, 2008 and 2015 –6 times and I wish I had been able to travel more frequently but life, as they say, gets in the way.

Because all my extended family lives in Denmark I always had a free bunk anywhere I went but of course I really only went where the family was and they, lovely aunts, uncles and cousins, would drive me over all of Denmark. The nice thing is that Denmark really is little when it comes to going to the high spots all over the country.

I was born in Nørresundby which is now almost (if not in reality) a suburb of Aalborg (third largest city in Denmark and of course so beloved of me that I have to say, the best). It’s on the good side (north) of the Limfjord and what that means we are of the Cimbri tribe. (More on tribes in another blog).

Since Denmark’s official religion is Lutheran the churches are maintained through taxes (but one can opt out of the tax if they declare themselves atheist or of another religion, or so I understand). One of the interesting things about Danish churches is that many of them will have a ship of some kind suspended from the ceiling and hanging over the main aisle in tribute to their seafaring heritage I suppose. I was christened in Nørresundby Kirke and confirmed in Aabybrø Kirke. As I have written before I have a real interest in graveyards around the world and I always come back to Denmark as the country (that I have been to) which maintains their graveyards like you cannot believe. They are beautiful, tranquil gardens where the whole plot is outlined, not just a gravestone stuck in grass that anyone can walk over (I am still so deeply shocked by my first visit to the cemetery in Nanton, standing on an infant’s grave). At the same time the Danes are very pragmatic about their limited access to land so unless you pay for the grave to remain after 25 years the grave is turned over to the next corpse. That kind of freaked me out when I first learned of it but despite feeling somewhat sad about it I can certainly understand the practical side for the small country that Denmark is.

I was christened in Nørresundby Kirke and I was confirmed in Aabybrø Kirke and I also have an affinity for Budolfi Kirke in Aalborg since it has a long history of performing Christian services for many of my ancestors, not to mention by brother-in-law giving us a tour of the basement of the monastery where nuns were said to be cemented up in the aches! His father was the cantor (I believe that is the term used for doing all the registering of births, marriages and deaths, among other duties) of Budolfi Kirke and they lived in the converted monastery part of it.

Here are some pictures of my churches Nørresundby first and Aabybrø second! The blue in the map shows the outline of the Limfjørd, the strait that separates the mainland. I forgot to mention that there has been an underground tunnel there since before 1971 when I first visited but not sure of the date. Danish engineers are some of the best in the world and I think the City of Calgary could use a few of them for the long term city planning (if they ever get around to having such a section!)