Passport check

Once we, at long last, had Ursula's complete name approved and registered by the Swedish authorities we could request a hard copy of her records from Skatteverket - a document we needed in order apply for a passport for her at the Danish embassy in Stockholm.

For this we also needed a passport photo which turned out to be a rather difficult thing to obtain. For starters the requirements for passport photos are quite strict and it can be difficult taking baby photos that meet all of these requirements. Adding to our difficulties were the fact that Swedish photographers have no experience taking photos that meet the requirements - when applying for a Swedish passport you do not have to bring a photo as the authorities insist on taking the picture themselves.

We started out by attempting to take a picture at home in the living room with our digital camera, but we weren't really happy with the results and we also worried that we might not be able to have such a photo printed according to the requirements.

Ekerö Centrum

So one Friday we made a little excursion from Bromma to Ekerö Centrum to have pictures taken at a professional photographer. This little excursion of course took most of our day since you can't take acceptable pictures of a baby while it is sleeping, sleepy, eating, hungry, bored or in need of a clean diaper. In the end we got a set of photos in which Ursula was sitting at an odd angle and the hands holding her up for the photographer were apparent. We were rather sceptical as to the acceptability of the photos - the photographer on the other hand was convinced that they were sufficiently good.

When we went to the Danish embassy in Stockholm on the following Monday it turned out - of course - that the pictures really were not good enough. So we hurried (well, as much as you can hurry considering the complications mentioned above for baby photographing) on over to Östermalm for some new ones. This photographer had newer equipment and seemed generally more in the loop and the pictures he took were a lot nicer than the first set - for one thing Ursula sat more straight in these - but a few fingers from the hands holding her were still visible. Also this photographer had confidence in the Danish authorities' tolerance for passport photos of babies.

House of Denmark - housing the Danish embassy in Stockholm

Tue ran back to the embassy before visiting hours ended - and was told that those fingers couldn't be accepted (or that the embassy staff would be really sorry to forward our application to the police in Denmark and have them reject the photos). Might it be possible to explain to the good photographer that the fingers were not allowed to be there? Tue was promised that he would be allowed to enter the embassy after normal visiting hours to hand in new pictures.

Back in Östermalm the photographer was surprised that the photos were not acceptable but did not mind photoshopping the fingers away - at no extra charge. The 'new' pictures were accepted and away the application went.

A little over a month later we could pick up the passport at the embassy and wonder about all the fuss over the fingers - that part of the photo had been cropped away anyway.

Also babies look like criminals in their passports

Family tour

When we moved to Stockholm in 2009 it was because Tue got a scholarship for doing a post-doc at Stockholm University. The scholarship was initially for 1 year, but it was expected easily to be extended to a second year (and indeed it was). Further extension is not an option. There are two primary reasons for this: for one thing one can only be a tax exempted researcher in Sweden for 2 years; secondly it is not legal in Sweden to hire someone temporarily for more than 2 years (i.e. if a person were to be hired by the university for more than 2 years this person would have all the legal rights of a permanent employee - and in Sweden it is not easy to fire permanent employees).

All in all this means that since shortly prior to Ursula's birth - for the first time since 1995 - Tue has been what is in this day and age known as employment seeking. It has be said, though, that employment hasn't been sought particularly intensively yet as parenting has been the top priority (well, we also moved again - it all takes time).

Obviously there are advantages to being two parents at home. Everyday live, to mention just one aspect, is more managable with an extra pair of hands around the house. Another advantage is that it is relatively unproblematic to go to Jutland for half a month visiting the extended family. In this way most of our relatives have now met Ursula even though we don't live close to any of them.

With one aunt

With another aunt

With her great grandmother
Generation gap - what generation gap?

And then we went to Danmark

That is the village of Danmark^[1] just outside Uppsala. Danmark is close to freeway E4 so even though we only recently learned that the village there is called Danmark we had previously noticed the church ('Church of Danmark').


^[1] Yes, Danmark is the name for Denmark in both Danish and Swedish.

Miscelaneous Mailboxes

In Copenhagen we saw the large mailbox pictured above. We understand they are becoming more widespread in Denmark these days. If we have got it right the idea is that you can pick up your parcels around the clock all days of the year - rather than being restricted to the opening hours of the post office.

Since we don't live in Denmark we haven't tried the system. But we would like to add here that in Sweden there are very few actual post offices. In stead the post service cooperates with some nationwide chains. Thus, one most often has to pick up (and send) mail at either Pressbyrån (kiosk) or ICA Nära (small grocery store).

And speaking of Sweden that is precisely where we found the little mailbox with the squirrel pictured on the right. To be more exact we found it on Lidingö along our new bike-way to and from work.

Lastly we want to mention a special kind of mailbox which we didn't actually see - we only saw the sign pictured below. We can inform those not proficient in French that we are talking about a special mailbox for motorists.

Punsch

In Sweden, as well as in Denmark, one can buy a cake - made of mix of crushed cookies, butter, cocoa, and liqueur - shaped like a small rod. In Denmark these are either coated with green marzipan or simply dipped in chocolate. The latter is probably the more sensible with regard to the Danish name: Træstammer = 'logs'. Until very recently we only saw the green variety in Sweden. They are sold under the name punschrullar = 'punsch-rolls', but for questionable reasons they are better known as dammsugare = 'vacuum cleaners'.

On the occasion of the many parties of the season (the National day, the wedding of the princess-heir, the many graduation parties ... or even midsummer!?) an alternate version in yellow and screeching blue is also available.


It might just be those of us who grew up with the green ones that find the blue-and-yellow ones to look significantly more poisonous - or.. ?

The centenary of the matriarch

On Friday, March 18^th 1910, the proprietor of Brændeskov Dairy in the southern part of the Danish Island of Funen got a daughter. This daughter who got the name Rigmor (and who - many years later - got a grandson called Tue) would prove to be made of sterner stuff than people are most. At first it might not sound like she ventured very far into the world when we tell you that a hundred years later one finds her living on her farm just outside the village Brudager, less than 3 miles from where she was born. But the number of people that showed up for the reception, and the abundance of flowers they gave, bears testimony of a life spent being active.

About one third of the flowers

Even though the number of centenarians in Denmark is increasing more rapidly than the population in general, one still receives a note of congratulation from the Royal Court - and Rigmor also made the front page of the county news paper. But when one of the Danish television channels called to ask if they could come by and ask a few questions she declined - she didn't have time for that on her birthday. We originally thought that she would take an afternoon nap after the reception and before the evening dinner with the more immediate family, but she was far too busy looking at the many flowers and the corresponding cards...

Tue and his maternal grandmother, Rigmor

We admittedly felt a little weak after the big dinner when we realised we had to give in and go to bed before the birthday girl - and it didn't help one bit that she was up and about earlier than the rest of the next morning.

Yule Post 2

Denmark can't just stand back and ignore Swedish and Finnish special Yule mailboxes - especially not in Varde, a town known as town of gnomes.

And with that we've come to the end of Christmas this time around. Which is quite fitting as we've been told that in Sweden Christmas is considered over today. That is: Christmas ends on the twentieth day after Christmas, a day known in Swedish as Tjugondag Knut. This also means that they will finally (from our point of view) be taking down the Christmas decorations.

St. Lucy's day

From growing up in Denmark, we are familiar with the tradition of celebrating St. Lucy's day, but the Swedes take it to the next level. This time of year the common cinnamon bun (kanelbulle) has been replaced by the saffron containing lussebulle (also known as a lussekatt).


Furthermore it is more or less impossible to avoid running into several St. Lucy processions. So far we have seen them in the old town (the picture), at university, in the metro, and ... in the supermarket - both in the clothing and in the produce sections (!).

Stadshuset

On the island Kungsholmen in central Stockholm one finds Stadshuset (Stockholm's city hall). Constructed in the years immediately after the inauguration of the city hall in Copenhagen, it is hardly coincidental that the tower of Stadshuset is one meter taller than the tower of the city hall in Copenhagen.

Stadshuset as seen from lake Mälaren (in June)

Stadshuset is perhaps most famously known for hosting the annual Nobel Prize banquet on December 10th, but also hosts a number of other receptions. In the beginning of October there was a welcoming reception for international students and scholars at universities in Stockholm. Tue was not one to decline the offer of a lunch from the city.

Stadshuset's blue hall

While the blue hall is not particularly blue (the story goes that it was originally intended to paint it blue, but once the architect saw the hall built in red bricks he decided to let it be as it was - without bothering to change the name) the golden hall does deliver what the name suggests: the walls are covered in mosaics with motives from important moments in the history of Stockholm and the background colour is indeed golden.

Stadshuset's golden hall

Spring in Solna I

It has to be realised that we moved further north - and thereby got an opportunity to experience spring 2-3 times this year (first in Geneva, a little in Copenhagen and then in Stockholm). Nybodagatan is close to a green area, Skytteholm park, and here it is particularly easy to observe the difference it made when spring came to Sweden shortly after we did.

Full bloom in Nørrebro

Before Lisbeth moves to Stockholm to start her new job, we had to exploit the fact that we had an apartment at our disposal in Nørrebro. So Tue came to Copenhagen for a weekend to visit Lisbeth. The aforementioned apartment is located very close to the assisting cemetery, so we walked through it a number of times. Apart from these trips amongst trees with an impressive coat of flowers the weekend also had time for a trip to the movies and a little shopping - Tue had promised to bring back some of the Danish red hot dog sausages for his new Polish/Scanian colleague who has been missing these in Stockholm.

Decadent dessert

In a fairly recent post on parallel imports we mentioned Danish chocolate turtles. Afterwards it occured to us that we hadn't had any for quite a while. So on her last trip to Copenhagen Lisbeth picked us up a pack of them.

Parallel import

The post on imported baking ingredients last week made us think about which other things we are having summoned from other parts of the world. Obviously certain products are not widely available and we feel nostalgic about them (TimTams from Australia, smoked rolled sausage from the butcher in Tue's hometown; Danish chocolate turtles) but we don't actually NEED them. But here we present some of the things where we haven't been able to find similar products or where the found substitutes just can't match the preferred items.

First the stuff we are having sent/bring back from Denmark:

Cheese strings - The Danish/Scandinavian cheese cutter isn't yet globally found so we have to send for spare strings when they snap. Luckily they don't take up much room and a packet of three strings lasts a long time.

Liquorice - because in contrast to all expectations it is almost impossible to buy liquorice here in Geneva. With the proximity to Northern Europe we had expected that it would be easy to find but actually it was easier in California where Trader Joe's carry Panda liquorice (connaisseurs will know what this is) as part of their regular assortment. In Geneva the best option is to go to IKEA but since it's both quite far and they only have a limited selection, we have build a little stock pile after several visits from and to Denmark.

Lypsyl lip balm - Despite the fact that our lip balms states an US address we never succeeded in finding this brand in Santa Barbara and neither here in Switzerland have we seen them. So we make sure to buy them when we're in Denmark because attempts with alternatives have not been successful. Since we also prefer the same type and they are rather small, it doesn't prove difficult.

Books - Both of us like a number of Danish and Scandinavian authors so in order to follow these authorships Danish books are often found on our wish lists. Before Lisbeth moved away from Copenhagen, she attempted to keep Tue up to date on the best new Danish movies but this is an area where we have given up now.

After our stay in the US we are also relatively dependent on certain non-Danish things:

Biotherm cleansing foam - Yes, it is possible to buy Biotherm in Switzerland but not the specific foaming soap that an insistent sales woman in Nordstrom, Seattle made Lisbeth try and then prefer. So on his recent visit to the Netherlands poor Drew had to bring several bottles across the Atlantic.

Gillette clear gel - It is not just Lisbeth who is particular about certain beauty products because when Tue on his arrival to Geneva realised that he couldn't buy the special Clear Gel version, he promptly imported 6 sticks from the UK. And since that's plenty for maybe another year Drew didn't have to go shopping on Tue's account.

Excedrin tension headache - Drew was however also delegated to bring Lisbeth more Excedrin since her stock ran out in November. But since he brought a huge jar (250 count - no, there is no reason to hide one's medicine consumption) she should be covered for a long time now.

American magazines - Desired British and American books are relatively easy to locate here in Geneva and if not, we are keen customers with Amazon but Lisbeth really misses Border's wide selection of magazines. Bon Appetit was one of the few favorite magazines which it was possible and affordable to sign up for an overseas subscription of so every month we test the efficiency of both the US and the Swiss postal systems (so far we have received 2 out of 3). Other magazines can be bought here in Geneva for astronomous amounts of Swiss francs which is why she is starting to do without...

We have no immediate expections for the need to import Swiss stuff when we move again but we guess we won't know until later just how dependent on Gruyère Salé we have become!

Three Mailboxes

Our readers on this blog may not be familiar with the standard mailbox of the Danish mail service (on the left in the image above), shown for comparison next to the Italian (middle) and Swiss (right) counterparts. While one might recognize the yellow colour of the Swiss mail service, the Italian and Danish boxes have strikingly similar shades of red. In Denmark it's known as "mailbox red", but I have no idea if this holds for Italy. The finer print on the Danish mailbox reminds the customers that letters must not contain cash. In Italy the customer is asked to stop and think: Is the letter for someone in this city - or is it going out in the world beyond?

Danish Mailboxes

As a special feature for our non-Danish readers (who may well never have been to Denmark) we present typical Danish mailboxes (click on the picture for enlarged view - the one on the far right is particularly widespread). As you can see variation and uniqueness are not priorities. The picture was taken in a residential area in Varde, Denmark - but it really could have been taken literally anywhere in Denmark.

Holiday in Denmark

View over the moor in mid-Jutland

After a sunny week in the Swiss mountains it was time for some weeks in the somewhat flatter Denmark. We spent the time visiting with friends and family around Denmark - mostly in Jutland, very briefly on Funen, and at last in the Capital region. Even though the weather wasn't as nice as we had hoped it was great to have time for seeing a lot of people at a relatively leisurely pace (as compared to Tue's quite hectic trips to Denmark in the previous years). Of course we still didn't manage to see everybody, but it was fabulous to see all those we did - our thankful thoughts for their hospitality.

Bækbygård Beach

View over the dunes towards inland Jutland

Even though Denmark was quite a bit more rainy than Switzerland we managed to swimming one time at 'Bækbygård' beach (in the North Sea). On the way home across the moorish landscape in Jutland we stopped at 'Tihøje' (Ten Hills) so we could collect lingonberries.

Erica (heath) on the moor at 'Tihøje' (Ten Hills)

Forest path at 'Tihøje' (Ten Hills)

Lingonberries and acorn