Siri Wigdel

The romantic hut in the sanddunes was suddenly not so romantic in the middle of the night, when temperatures outside dropped into the minus. Even though I am a Scandinavian thoroughbred, even I have never quite understood the double-bed that is made up of two single beds, with two single duvets, which is neither romantic nor condusive for retaining heat. Mr. Jones complained at 7am that he was freezing and that he hadn’t slept for three hours. Here we go, I thought, as I listened to his chesty cough starting, not yet being able to work out if he was putting it on for sympathy (which never works with me anyway, so I don’t know why he does it?) or whether it in fact was for real? I was trying to remember what ‘cough medicine’ was in Danish! I got up and put the electric panel heater on (which Mr. Jones had insisted we should keep on all night, but I had refused, saying we’d wake up with dry throats and no voice). Yes, the heater under the window, under the flimsy curtains. I got Mr.Jones a pair of thick socks and a sweatshirt to put on top of his pyjamas, went back to bed, snuggled closer and put the two single duvets on top of each other. I gave up at 8am and got up. I felt remarkably awake, and alive on this cold Danish morning, so decided to take a walk on the beach, as a good start to the day. There is something about nordic air, it’s kind of sharp and thin, as if you could slice it with a knife. I found shards of ice on the puddles on the beach. I met Mr.Jones (remarkably showered and free of nasty chest cough?) back at the hotel for a hearty Danish breakfast at 9am. It consisted of the usual four to five different types of bread (no grey bread this time, see Day 2 of the blog), and about six to seven different cheeses, and a perfect boiled egg, where the yoke was still soft (not like in Germany, where the inside was almost green, sorry Germany, but a good boiled egg is one of life’s little pleasures). Now waiting for the Color Line boarding, I would say the day has greatly improved since 7am. The sun is shining from a clear blue sky and we are promised a good smooth sailing across the sea of Kattegat. I still have memories of rough crossings and seasickness from years ago.