A Visitor (and a trip to Viborg)

Last weekend we entertained our third ever guest: our friend, Paul. He's in Germany for about a month for work and (since we're so close here in Aalborg...) decided to come for a visit while in Europe. He arrived late Friday night, and after we got home we treated him to some traditional pickled herring with all the fixings: rogbrod, pickled onions, a curry egg salad, and some Aalborg akvavit (Aalborg is famous for its potent shnapps - it's disgusting, but you need it to mask the taste of pickled herring!). Andrew and Paul partook in the herring feast - I've tried it once, and I'm not having any more!

We spent Saturday morning out at the nearby viking graveyard, and this time we went in the museum, which was pretty cool. Lots of old remnants of viking civilization from the area, as well as plenty of information on the time period. Also, we got to try on some viking helmets, which is always fun:

We went to a beer tasting on Saturday afternoon, which was very fun but took over four hours! I was glad I wasn't doing any of the tasting, as I'm sure I would've been under the table. On Sunday, we took Paul around Aalborg. The weather was absolutely amazing (mid 60s, which is a heatwave here) and it seemed like everyone in Aalborg was out eating ice cream and sitting by the Limfjord.

All in all, it was a really wonderful weekend, thanks in most part to our visitor. Yesterday, on Monday, I had to go to Viborg (a town about an hour and a half away) to see the doctor, so Andrew and I made a day of it. It's a very charming town, but the main feature is the cathedral, which is supposedly the largest granite cathedral of its kind in Scandinavia.

More pictures of our fantastic weekend and our daytrip to Viborg are on our flickr page. Our next visitors (Mom and Dad Hamilton) arrive this Friday (yay!) and then we're off on a train adventure through Europe next week (Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Paris)!

A Gent in Ghent (Belgium)

Andrew got to go to Ghent, Belgium last week for work (he gets to go all the nice places!), while I held down the fort here in Aalborg. Just a short trip - only one full day - it really wasn't worth me going, but it sure did look like a nice place to be, if only for a day:

Not to be left out of all of the fun, my sweet husband brought me back some delicious Belgian chocolate (most of which is already gone...):

Beet it!

Every Wednesday and Saturday morning there is a small farmer's market near our apartment. I stopped last Wednesday while I was out and about, lured in by some beautiful beets (Andrew's favorite)! Still not used to seeing items in kg instead of pounds (at this point, I don't think I'll ever get used to the conversion), I over-ordered and we've been eating various beet dishes for almost a week now. I just roasted up the last of them today, but I'll have to freeze them to use later, because I don't think Andrew and I can eat beets any time soon!

my hand (even after several scrubbings)

beet chips

dark chocolate beet cake!

raw beet salad