Off the kitchen is the Dining Room with seating for 8.
Located about 30 minutes North of downtown Copenhagen, the suburb of Virum is the home for the Larsen family. Henrik, Brit, Martin, Keven and Ruby. And the last two, dogs of course. Their home is more traditional, by American standards. It's a single-story, ranch-style design.
There are three bedrooms, with Martin having the largest.
The kitchen is a bit smaller than those we are accustomed to. And, as in Germany, the refrigerator is much smaller. You see, Europeans go to the corner market almost daily for fresh meats, vegetables, cheeses and of course fresh-baked bread and rolls.
Next to the dining room,
is a home-office where Henrik can work. In
this room is the computer, which they use to communicate with Martin while he is
in the States and now, Martin uses it to keep in contact with me with an almost
daily e-mail.
The living room is a large room,
on one end, the TV and a couple of couches, the other is mostly open with
a table and chairs. Large
glass windows open to the outside and a sliding glass door leads to the patio
and back yard.
The Larsen's also have a
Summer House on the northwest coast of the Island. The house was a recent purchase with
plans to retire there in the next few years.
We went up there for a single night.
Long days of sitting in the sunroom or on the patio would be just about
anybody's retirement cup of tea. Long
walks on the beach, or swimming in you own private ocean cove would be the envy
of any city dweller, but here it is, ready for the using.
This house has all the
necessities as well as some things that go with the leisure lifestyle everyone
hopes for in retirement. At this
time, there is not even a phone, but a cell phone is handy. A satellite dish brings in all the
television that can't be received from Danmark or Sweden using an outside
antenna.
From the deck, you can see Sweden off on the horizon to the north some 20 miles. Due to the haze at the time this picture was taken, it is just a very light gray color starting at the edge of the cliff going about halfway across the water.
A Danish island some 20 miles off
shore is just barely visible to the left side of the sunset as is a sail boat.
Speaking of sunset, this picture was made about 11:00pm. It finally gets dark around 1:00am, and
starts to get light around 4:00am. More of Danmark, on the left
side, as it juts out into the sea 15-20 miles South. On the high seas many tankers,
freighters, pleasure cruisers and sailboats dot the seascape.
Looking down from the back yard of the Summer House, you can see the private beach some 150' down below. A newly constructed stair gives easier access to the sand and surf. The water depth between the rock breakwater barriers is about 3-4'. From there, it drops off a bit faster. On the day I was there, the air and water temperature were about the same. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15°C or 60°F, a bit too cool for me to dive in. However, several people were swimming all up and down the beach.
(This section added June, 2001)
Visti came for a visit in June 2001. He brought pictures of his parents new house on the East shore of Denmark and faces Sweden across the water. The house is located near the residences for the American and Australian Ambassadors. He brought along a couple of pictures that I thought I would share with my readers.
This is from the front porch looking at the street
From the gate area toward the front door
Looking toward the ocean
(yes, it's the light blue color above the bushes)
Looking across the pool from the ocean side
Visti also brought a couple of pictures of the "older and wiser" Ruby Duce. I thought I would share one here.
I understand that Ruby is now TRI-lingual.
She gets her little butt chewed out in English, Danish and Keven (the older
German Shepard).
