The Hamiltons are here!

Two weeks ago (Friday, March 30), I picked up Mom & Dad Hamilton from the Aalborg airport. It's hard to put into words how nice it is to greet someone at the airport - every time we get a visitor, I'm so happy that I'm almost crying. It's a strange thing to live so far away from family and friends, knowing only a few people in Aalborg (or Denmark or Europe, even). This visit has been particularly wonderful, as we've gotten two full weeks with family!

On their first full day in Denmark, we rented a car and took Wally and Marie for a drive around Nordjylland (that's Northern Jutland, or the northern part of Denmark where we live), stopping at the viking graveyard nearby first (a favorite place to take visitors...) and then hitting the coast. We drove on the beach from Blokhus to Løkken and were almost washed out to sea when Andrew drove our miniscule car over a seemingly-tiny streamlet. (It was not actually that tiny.) If that wasn't exciting enough, a few minutes later we got stuck in the sand and had to push the car out. What a morning!

Continuing around the coast, we stopped at an old lighthouse which we climbed up to in the midst of a veritable sandstorm. After stopping for a hotdog and some ice cream (both are must-haves on a trip to Denmark), we stopped at an old windmill and a beautiful church on our route to Skagen, where we walked out on the beach at sunset.

The rest of the week was spent in Aalborg, exploring and shopping, and getting ready to leave on our great train-trip. More pictures on our flickr page!