Friday, September 17, 2004

Our first day in Nykobing was wonderful. 
We started with a tour of Skaldyrcentre, a center financed by the Danish government to develop and promote farming of blue mussels and oysters. 
Pictured is Peg and Pete sampling the mussels. The mussels are fed a nutritious diet of algae. 
Pictured is Ali beside the algae sample – or is that syrup flavors for snowballs?   

We then went next door to the Limfjords company that processes mussels for canning. 
We toured the plant seeing how the mussels are first cleaned, cooked and packaged. 
Because this is a food processing plant, we had to gown up, pictured is Pete in his white coat and cap.

We then boarded a fishing boat and headed out into the Limfjord for an afternoon of dredging for mussels and oysters. 
The catch was full of baby crabs, a few fish, various shell fish and oysters. 
Pete was the only team member eager to eat a few raw oysters. 
Following are a few photos showing what a wonderful time we had on this sailing vessel. 
It was certainly a highlight of our stay in Nykobing.

Thursday, September 16, 2004

This morning we visited two businesses in Pandrup. 
The first was M-Tech. Svend Mousten Hansen, Managing Directing and a Rotarian, started the company in 1996. 
Today, in addition to  two assembly functions, the company is developing prototypes for ‘road pricing’ projects. Road pricing refers to changing the method of collecting road taxes, such as by charging taxes based on kilometers/miles driven or time of day driven or day of week driven or when driving in the city v. driving in rural areas. 
The prototype equipment being developed by M-Tech would be placed in a car, and using a GPS system to identify where and when a vehicle is in use, the information would be logged in a box in the vehicle. 
That logged information would later be used to determine taxes due and this could replace other means of establishing road taxes, such as taxes assessed when purchasing a car. 
Another experimental piece of equipment is called Intelligent Speed Equipment. 
This equipment also utilizes GPS to identify where the vehicle is located, and along with knowing the posted speed limit, verbally informs the driver when he/she has exceeded the speed limit. 
We finished up our meeting by taking The Road Test. 
This test was a miniature race car on a track where we controlled the speed and if the speed was exceeded, we were verbally informed. 
The person with the best score won a bottle of champagne. 
Who in our team was the best driver? 
Congratulations go to Pete for winning the champagne. 
Pictured is Svend explaining the circuit board process and also pictured is Peg taking her turn at The Road Test.

Our drive from M-Tech to Rohde & Schwarz was brief and in one car. We all piled in and Kathryn rode in the back.

Our second stop was at Rohe & Schwartz, where Managing Director and Rotarian, Ole Krog Larsen, explained the business. 
This German company was started in 1933. Today there are 5,946 employees worldwide, in 70 countries. This location in Pandrup was started in 2001 by Ole and employs 40 employees to develop and manufacture mobile radio communication equipment.

We finished out our stay in Pandrup with a Rotary meeting where we gave our Presentation. Following the meeting, we met our new host families from Nykobing and moved on to our new town.

What I learned

·        In shipping days, the front window display two procelin dogs. If the dogs faced in the fisherman was at home and if out he was at sea.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Today was a vocational day for the team. 
Each of us headed in our own direction, meeting with companies and organizations where we could share our work experiences and learn how our professions are performed in Denmark. 
In mid-afternoon we gathered back together and had a pleasant visit with Anne and Claus Bonderup. 
They are a charming couple who live in a uniquely decorated home surrounded by massive gardens where one could get lost. 
Anne is a professional painter of flowers who designed the gardens and Claus is an architect who designed their home. 
The time we spent in the gardens and in the home, chatting with both Anne and Claus, was fun and amazing to the eye.

Following dinner we had an entertaining evening of bowling with our host families. 
It was obvious that none of us are going to quit our day jobs to go on the bowling tour!! 
Pictured is Ali wondering what Kathryn is doing with her bowling ball. 
And Jen is wishing she could bowl as well as the person who just got a strike, while Pete is checking out the scores of the competition.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

We were picked up at the Summer House by our host families from the Pandrup Club. 
Pictured is the Team with our Pandrup hosts at breakfast.

Our first stop was a visit to the Mayor of Pandrup, Flemming Jansen. 
Following introductions and a general exchange of information, the Mayor showed an interesting film on Pandrup that explored the values of living in the area. 
Pictured is the Team with Mayor Jansen outside of the city building.

We then proceeded to two churches (kirker) in the town of Pandrup. 
At Jetsmark, Father Michael Berg gave a very informative talk regarding the churche’s history and art work. The original church was built in 1100 of granite stone. 
All over Denmark in the 1400s, traveling painters, or craftsman not artists, painted the church murals. 
The people told the painters what stories they wanted depicted; the paintings were completed quickly and the painters moved on to the next church. 
Red, green, yellow and black were the colors that could be made locally. 
Father Berg pointed out that the good people are painted with pleasant faces and bad people have ugly faces. Additionally, the paintings at the altar were painted by better artists; they are of a finer quality. 
In 1536, the Lutheran Reformation required that all Catholic priests become Lutheran priests and that all nuns leave the country and the Catholic churches become Lutheran churches (Church of Denmark). 
In 1913, the paintings, that had been painted over during the 1770s, were found. 
We also made a short stop at the Saltrum church. 
You can see from the photo how beautiful is the inside of Jetsmark Church.

Our next stop was the Borglum Monastery. 
This complex is one of three privately owned Lutheran churches in Denmark. 
The church was mentioned in King Knud’s log from 1018. 
Through the centuries, the Catholic monastery became a Lutheran church and in recent time has been sold to a private family; today it functions as both a church and a museum open to the public.

After a traditional Danish lunch, we traveled to Skagen. 
We had spent a previous day at this most northern point in Denmark, but did not have time for the art museums. 
Today we visited the Skagen Museum where we learned that between 1870 and 1906 famous Danish impressionist and naturalist painters called Skagen home.  
One reason that painters do not make a living as scenic and real life painters today is because of photography. 
Photography can capture what these painters placed on canvas. And while not as beautiful, a photograph is considerably less expensive. 
We also stopped at the Michael and Anna Ancher’s House, famous painters from this era.

We returned to our host families for an evening meal and a chance to know each other in our first night in Pandrup.

Things I learned:

• Additional information on the cemeteries, the purchase price and the length of years is based on the type of coffin – decomposition of the body – 20 to 50 years, typically 20-30 years. 

Saturday to Monday September 11^th and 13^TH 2004

Pictured is the team arriving at the District Conference on Saturday, September 11^th.  
It was fun to great our past host families and to spend additional time with them. 
The highlight of the evening was the Governor’s dinner.  
The food was great, there was dancing to American favorites, and the last team member to head off to bed at 1:30 AM was Peg. 
Pictured is Peg with District Governor Gunnar Dahl Pedersen. 
Also pictured is the Team, along with Finn Munk (District 1440 GSE Chair), Connie Spark (District 7390 GSE Chair), Jens Holm Jensen (Connie’s escort and a member of the Medical Mission team), Nina Hylkjaer (GSE team to Pennsylvania 1995), along with Exchange Student Chair Klaus and his wife Ulla.  

The morning session was for international services, including a skit by the exchange students and an update on the upcoming medical mission to Brazil. We were first on the agenda. 
Our power point presentation was well received and many Rotarians were flattering in their comments about the presentation’s content and about our delivery. 
Pictured is the team, along with District Governor Gunnar, Connie, and Finn, as the team presented a Pennsylvania flag to the Governor.

After the District Conference we headed to the Summer House for some rest and relaxation.

We drove for approximately one hour through farmland with an occasional house and occasional dairy cows. Summer House is located along the North Sea in a land of sand dunes, grasses and wild roses. 
Up until today the weather has been incredibly beautiful, but today is rainy. 
At the beach it was raining heavy and the wind, at a minimum, was 50 miles per hour. 
Ali, Kathryn, and Peg went for a walk over the dunes and to the beach. 
As pictured, the wind was so strong we could hardly walk and Peg was blown over on the return trip. 
We laughed all the way. On the way back to our cottage we found a large frog and brought him back to the house to scare Jen; we were successful. 
The day was fun and the team needed an opportunity to enjoy each other.   
Pictured is a beautiful sunset, in spite of the rain.

Monday dawned with less rain and a small amount of sun. 
Three of us spent the day being laze and doing laundry. 
Because of the rain, laundry was hung by the fire. 
Pete enjoyed the solitude of the out of doors in spite of the weather and Jen and Ali went horseback riding along the beach and had a great time.