Two Years in Denmark!

Can you believe it?! We've been here two whole years. In some ways, it feels like just yesterday we were driving away from our house in Post Falls, and in other ways, it feels like we've been here forever.

Our actual 2-year anniversary of living in Denmark was Monday, 04 August. Khloe and Harrison were at home, Zac and I were at work, and Kaden was in Germany at a baseball tournament, so there was no big celebration like last year. Honestly, last year felt like more of an achievement, anyway.

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Since Harrison and Khloe were still in the country with us, we decided to celebrate a day early by checking another thing off of our Places to Go list: Stevns Klint!

Stevns Klint is a UNESCO World Heritage Site about an hour south of where we live.

Its main feature is a large cliff face that extends along the sea. The bottom of the cliff face is composed of chalk, and the upper layer of the cliff is limestone. Between the layers is a thin, dark gray layer called "the fish clay." The fish clay layer is super rich in iridium, which is generally only found in asteroids in such large quantities. In fact, in the '80s, it was where Walter Alvarez found evidence supporting his then-wild theory that maybe an asteroid was responsible for the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period! No one thought it was crazy when they finally found the impact zone off the Yucatan Peninsula in the early '90s. Now, it's common knowledge that an asteroid was responsible for significantly killing off most extant species from the face of the earth, but it was just a hypothesis when I was in school. Science!

Stevns Klint is one of the best places in the world to observe the K-T boundary, that thin geological marker signifying the end of the age of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Freaking crazy!

It's hard to get a pic. Enjoy the one from GeoTwinn's Facebook page instead.

There are a lot of great things to see along the 21 km trail along, above, and below the cliffside, but we couldn't do it all in just a day trip (especially with kids), so we tried to hit the coolest places.

We went to the Højerup Kirke, a partially ruined church built in 1250. It has been slowly crumbling as the sea erodes the cliff that supports it. There were actually some weddings taking place in the church that day, so we had to wait and duck in between events.

A lot of restoration efforts have been made to preserve what's left of the church, but they have built a little perch you can walk out onto from the inside of the church to look up and down the coastline at the cliff face.

We hiked down to the edge of the sea below the church to goof off and look at rocks for a little bit while we waited to be able to go in the church.

Harrison trying to get the hang of a hand lens

The steep-ass staircase we climbed up and down to get to the beach

We also drove up to the Holtug Kridtbrud, or the old chalk quarry. There are supposed to be some really cool salamanders and snakes and legless lizards in the area, but we didn't see any. We did experience the strange feeling of the chalky ground, the oddly colored pools of water, and the heath-like vegetation.

We did get pretty wet and dirty traipsing around and looking for fossils in the fallen bits of rock from the cliffside. You aren't allowed to pick or chip off the cliff, but if pieces have fallen to the beach, you're more than welcome to play paleontologist. We got a couple of fossilized bivalves and an echinoid out of our fossil hunting adventure.

There is a trail that meanders down through the chalk quarry and out to the beach, which is how we got down there, but I had heard there was a rope so you could rappel down the steep, direct path. We found it from the bottom and then used it to climb up and down again. It was fun, and the rain made it slippery and extra challenging.

It was a fun day, and I hope we go back to explore again soon. Two years in, but many adventures still await!

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As promised, we had a family discussion when Kaden returned from Germany about whether we should continue living in Denmark or return to the U.S.

Han and Marabel voted to stay. They dig Danish summertime.

Khloe voted to stay. She misses her friends and family in the U.S., but also understands that if we were to move back, it would not be back to north Idaho, and she is happy here.

Harrison voted to go back to the U.S. because he wants to see his friends and family. We said we could see them when we go visit, but he says he hates flying and doesn't want to fly back just for a visit. If he's going to make the airline trip, he wants it to be for good. After we explained that some of his friends have moved and we would not be back in north Idaho if we moved back, he, too, agreed we should stay here.

Zac voted to stay. He loves his colleagues and being in close proximity to so many good bands. He likes not feeling anxious, and he appreciates that there are no intolerant assholes yelling at his kids on their way to school here. He says he's living a much healthier lifestyle here, and even though he really hates how difficult it is to see family and he hates how hard it is for us to save money right now, he knows we are making the right choice being here.

I voted to stay, too. Probably not surprising, huh? I absolutely love it here. There have been some difficult things to figure out, and I'm sure that will continue since we aren't naturalized citizens at this point, but people are really helpful and I sort of feel like there's nothing we can't work through. I enjoy my work, people have been so good to us, and I'm feeling more confident that we will all, eventually, learn to speak Danish. I love the plants, (most of) the insects, and the culture. I love how relaxed I feel here. (And oh my GOD, have you eaten the bread?!) I think it will be easier and easier as time goes on and we get more access to government perks, but I'm spending a lot of my time just being grateful for every day in this little paradise.

And now, the final Barber, Kaden. I was expecting him to vote for moving back to the U.S. based on the many, many times he said that would be his vote, but instead, he voted to stay! He humbly admitted that "everything is better here except the cars."

Photo credit: Kaspar

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I know there are a lot of you secretly (or maybe not-so-secretly) hoping we would eventually head back to the U.S. after we got Denmark out of our system, but the last two years have been incredible, and it's where we want to be. Nothing would make us happier than to share it with you, though, so please come visit as often as you can, and we will try to make it back for a visit as a family soon.

❤️  We love you all!  ❤️