In which we almost meet the Queen

We were thrilled that Marisa and Dave decided to vacation in the British Isles in June. We met them in London for their first weekend, and then they finished their trip with some time in Belfast before we all went down to Dublin and they flew home.

We met for dinner on Friday night and, after a quick jaunt through the Tate Modern, found our beds. They were ready to go again relatively early on Saturday morning (only God knows how) and we went to the Borough Street Market and stuffed ourselves first off. From there we moved on to the major sights: Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey to name a few.

No trip to London is complete without a visit to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard, but we, completely and utterly oblivious, bumped into the Queen. The Brits sure do love their queen; apparently if her birthday doesn't fall in the summer (it's in April), then she gets a summer birthday party nonetheless. It's officially called Trooping the Colour. Long story short, we went to see the guards move around a little bit, and within an hour we were about 20 feet from the Queen Mother, Kate, and Prince Hotty. I mean Harry. Not a bad morning's work.

In Dublin we checked out the Book of Kells at Trinity College and did the Guinness tour one more time. Andrew and I also found the smallest bar in Dublin. Not kidding. It really is the smallest bar in Dublin. It felt like we were in someone's basement in the '80s with a terrible home bar. Obviously the best part of this visit was getting to see Marisa and Dave (and you can see more of the trip on flickr).

A barnedåb for two

We made a triumphant return to Aalborg at the end of May. Our second visit, in fact, since we moved two and a half years ago. I honestly can't believe it's been that long, but when you think about it, little Finley was born as we were leaving and he's now about 2.5. Finley, big brother to our two newest little godchildren (ish). A few months back, Owen & Anne-Marie asked us to come to Aalborg for a barnedåb and serve as fadderbrev to the twins, Eluf and Harald. The word translates more roughly to "sponsor" than godparent, but we stood on an altar at a church and agreed to something of the sort (it was in Danish). We couldn't believe they would ask us, but it is such an honor.

  

By sheer chance (and kismet), this was the same weekend as Karnival. Karnival being the huge city-wide, party/parade that Aalborg hosts every year in May. Karnival being the very same party/parade that woke us up on our first morning in Aalborg in 2011. It was such an amazing weekend to come back, full of great memories. We walked around town and reminisced, ate some ristet pølser from our favorite wagon, visited some of our old haunts, ate some more ristet pølser from our favorite wagon, checked out what was new since we had moved, and then ate some ristet pølser from our favorite wagon again. We also went to our old grocery store to see if they still had the cheese we used to get and considered bringing some back. (We decided we couldn't.) Not surprisingly, we also found time to eat some amazing Danish pastry, too. All the sights and more photos are on flickr.

Denmark may just be my favorite country to visit. I'm looking forward to our next one, which is coming up shortly. See you in July, Copenhagen!