This is the house Hans Christian Andersen was born in.

I was told I could find work in Funen (pronounced fyoon) so I traveled to Odense, which had much more charm than Copenhagen. Odense is a beautiful city and home of Hans Christian Andersen. If you want to come to Denmark, Odense is the third largest city but it is the city to see. All the charm expected of Denmark can be found here. However, things are ridiculously expensive in the Scandinavian countries. A single regular cake donut costs about $2.50. Everything is about 2 to 5 times more expensive than America (other than entertainment). The people are very nice though and I’m happy I keep running into the best people in the world. From Rotterdam on (except for Germany) people would come up and talk to me, instead of my having to start the conversation.

This is a quaint little area depicting the old style village Odense once was.

I went into a museum and ran into Ingrid, a very kind elderly woman who teaches at the university and she was such a wonderful woman full of smiles that I couldn’t help but talk with her for a couple hours. We ended up chatting in the café where she bought me a hot chocolate and a chicken and bacon sandwich on walnut bread that was excellent. I really enjoyed our conversation and wished I could do more for her.

You can't have a city with Hans Christian Anderson without a giant table and chairs.

I went to McDonald’s but my computer was conflicting with their internet connection so the manager let me connect through her own personal phone. Is that amazing or what? I don’t usually buy anything at McDonald’s but I did this time. When I bought my burger I asked for bbq sauce and it was more than the change I had and the girl said it was okay, just put what I had in the charity box and she would give me one. What a great bunch of people here. I did run into one problem in McDonald’s… I needed to use the bathroom and you had to pay so I put the 2 krones in then had a choice to open either the door with the D or the H. I didn’t know which was male and female so I figured Dave and Hannah and chose Dave but it must have been Donna because there were no urinals. I hurried and got out before I was spotted though.

One of the charming things about Denmark that I am tired of is the cobblestone streets. They are everywhere and they look cool but walking on them with a heavy pack hurts the feet. Another amazing discovery was all the very tall people. Many of the women are six foot or better. Never have I looked at women’s shoes so much in my life. When I talk to a woman looking down to me, I look at her shoes and when they are flat I have to say within me… DANG!!!

Too bad a picture cannot capture all I see in every country. I would so like to record this but it is something you have to experience to appreciate. Right now I’m sitting here alongside the river with a park in the background and along the river there is a dozen posts lining a separation in the water and I’m watching the seagulls play king of the hill on the posts. It’s funny to watch once come soaring up behind one and knock him off the post and into the water. There are also many ducks and swans (brown and white) swimming along in front of me and I love watching them come in skidding across the water as they land.

Check out the cool rock entry ways. This is actually in real rock.

I’ve often wondered if I could have lived in the old days where you claim a piece of land, cut down a few trees to build your house, clear a piece of land to grow your garden, go hunting for meat and live off the land. Now I know that I could. My addition to TV is gone having not watched it for four months. Spending only two to three hours per day on your garden and hunting to take care of your needs, and maybe building a water mill for electricity to help heat the place and have some of the conveniences of modern day… yes, I could enjoy of life like that. I doubt I could find a woman that would want to share such a life though J.

I don't know the significance of this statue but it is all over the tourist information info. I found her in a park but not in a majorly trafficked area. I like the accidental light effect my camera put on it.

This is the statue of Hans Christian Andersen.

This is a very weird depiction of Christ on the cross I found in the Odense Cathedral where I believe Hans is buried.

This is different for a Catholic Cathedral. It is all white inside. This is the same one where Hans is buried.

There was another building with similar designs but in multiple colors, which I loved, but there was a bunch of construction junk in front of it so I had to settle on this one.

This was the nicest scene for me in Copenhagen. It was a fort turned into a park.

On my last leg to Copenhagen I met a guy named Rob Smith who invited me to stay in his hotel room for the night. He was quite a good bloke from Manchester England. Really enjoyed chatting with him and he helped me out with some food and gave me the money to get a new tent so hopefully I will find something that won’t leak. Met his friends too and they also were very friendly and wanted to help as well. There are some very good people out there in the world regardless of what the people have to say about them. Rob told me about Mormon’s before he knew I was one but he allowed me to straiten out a few of the things he had been told about them like they have to give one third of their income to the church. I explained that a tithe is one tenth. I would like to remain near to be a friend to him but I do have to continue on trying to find some work shortly.

This was about the only old town looking area I came across.

Copenhagen was a disappointment for me. I guess my expectations of a charming place to visit was dashed when I observed just another big European city but without any character of its own. The buildings were flat and strait with no balconies, shutters, fancy doors or anything that would make them unique. The only thing reminiscent of its former culture was older buildings painted in different colours and even that was difficult to find. The people were nice I felt my tenure there a waste of time. The first day it rained all day long so I spent the majority of the time either in the tourist office or in the train station so my gear wouldn’t get soaked again. The next day I followed the tourist map several kilometres through Copenhagen where it was recommended to see all the sites. Other than a few unique buskers, it wasn’t worth the walk to me.

This was a rather unique Catholic church in that it was round.

I slept on a park bench next to a church but when I woke up and looked around I saw this sign. I don't know what a Slutspurt is but I'm glad I wasn't slimmed by one while I slept. I saw this again in Odense so it must have some specific meaning for them.

My tent is the little speck of orange just right of the center of the picture.

Hamburg was a bust. It rained constantly the entire time I was there. I still walked around but it is not much of a tourist town. The highlight was that I stayed in a tent city with the Occupy group. They are the last one in Germany. They had tents set up in the city center and one was a big black tent with a hole in the top so they had a fire and everyone sat around the fire at night and chatted. They had to move their city about 100 yards/meters away because next week they will be setting up for a Christmas display.

I found out my waterproofing only lasts about 2 hours and then my tent started to rain again. Everything was soaked by the time I left.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

This is taken from the other side of the church that was blown up during the war and is left as a memorial to those who died in WWII

Here is the bottom of the church. What you are seeing is the view from what used to be the inside of the church.

This is what the church used to look like before it was blown up.

Outside of St. Micheal's Cathedral.

The inside of St. Micheal's Cathedral which I believe is a Lutheran church because of the statue of Martin Luther outside. It was very beautiful inside but I couldn't capture the sides which were very cool actually. 

This was the end of all I took from Hamburg.

From Lubeck to Kiel Germany, there are several little lakeshore towns that were so picturesque that I wanted to stop at all of them but couldn’t. That is the life I want except with mountains around. If I found the people nice and could speak English, it wouldn’t be hard for them to convince me to live there when I was done with my pilgrimage.

This message was part of the Rotterdam post below. Missed

My next stop was Rotterdam. What a beautiful city. Hardly any graffiti, it was clean, the people were very friendly and spoke to me without me speaking first. I loved Beritz, France for the character of the buildings and the beauty of the city. Rotterdam ranks right up there with Beritz. However, in Rotterdam, their modern buildings are what grabs the eye. They have so many cool shapes, colours and twists in their skyscrapers that you just walk through the city looking up. I had to take several pictures and there were many more worth taking pictures of but I already have too many blisters on my feet that I couldn’t walk to the other side of the river. I have already been to Amsterdam so I skipped it on this trip to try and get to Denmark to find work before the season is over.

I don't know what black Santa was holding but this just looked odd to me.

This sculpture is huge and made out of chocolate.

Unfortunately, they would not let me take a pic from inside the galore so the pic is not very good but a very high end French artist made a pair of these chairs and the pair is on sale for only $50,000.00. They were awesome but I can't fit them in my backpack.

From Paris I went to Brussels, Belgium. That was a very cool city. When I served as a missionary in Ireland, about 28 years ago, I had a companion from Belgium and he told me the main tourist attraction was a little statue called the Manneken Pis so I had to see it. It was a very small statue but there were many tourist versions all over the city. When I was in Lourdes, France, the entire city was filled with Catholic souvenirs and that stood to reason. In Brussels it was chocolate. There are chocolate stores everywhere… and boy is it good!!! I think they have the best chocolate but it is a close call between theirs and the Swiss. I loved the city and it is one well worth visiting. In the main market area there were so many tours for tourists, I didn’t have to go on one to learn all the history (yes they were speaking mostly English there).

This was a cool set of old style building I happened to come across.

This building is huge and but hard to capture because it is part of the next few pictures which are situated in a huge market square.

This building was built to commemorate the discovery of Australia in 1699. The world apparently only knew of 4 continents before this time.

If you didn't like Belgian waffles before, you will now. Have some ideas on what you can do with them. ||The next pic also.

I had a bit of a struggle getting out of Bordeaux but I made it as far as Rennes. I arrived about 11:00 pm so I slept on a marble slab used for sitting. It was cold but not too bad as my sleeping pad provided some insulation. However, about 4:30 am the cleaning crew came through on their little sweeping machines and they sprayed water on me. They did it just to be funny because they weren’t spraying anywhere else.

I made it to Saint Malo, which was a nice little old fort city. The interesting thing here was that there are several little rock islands around the city and most of them have little forts on them. I read a memorial that said 80% of this town was destroyed during the world wars so it had to be restored.

I don't know what this statue was all about but it was in the entrance of a school in Saint Malo.

Arch of Triumph at night.

My son told me about another cool place to go but after talking to the locals, they said I would be hard pressed getting a ride out of there so I went to Paris instead. I arrived at night so I only have evening pictures but I did the tourist thing and walked several miles through Paris to see all the tourist sites. I slept in a little grassy area near the Eiffel Tower along the river. It rained quite a while and I am happy to report that the waterproofing  spray I used worked and I woke up dry.

Eiffel Town at night.

Louvre Museum at night.

Arch outside the Louvre

The Paris Obelisk

My son Zach standing in a hollowed shrine.

I arrived in Bordeaux and found a place to put up my tent. I know my son and his in-laws were due to arrive on the 24th from England so I figured I would give them a day to relax before I showed up. However, on the morning of the 25th it rained. Not just a little, this was a long soaking rain and the first I have experienced with my tent. Having put a tarp in the tent for the ground water, I thought I was okay. But, I didn’t know my tent was not waterproof and it was raining inside my tent. I had a puddle of water where my feet were so my sleeping bag and much of my bag was soaked or damp. Anything that touched the tent walls was wet, including me.

My son and his wife modestly clad in their fig leaves.

I haven’t seen my son in 3 years so it was great finally being able to spend some time with him. Unfortunately we spent much of the time shopping for a new tent or for other items needed by myself or his in-laws. We still enjoyed our time together and discussing matters of interest.

On Saturday the 29th Denis took us all to a Blaye Citadelle Chateau and Le Porge beach. I really enjoyed it because the family took their time and looked at everything in great detail and not just rushing to get to the next place. The architect of this fort created a new strategy. It was built in basically 3 triangles that would lure the enemies into areas where they could be attacked from an elevated position on three sides. Quite ingenious really.

My son and Chelsea (his new sister-in-law) in the out door bathroom. If you look at the feet, they had imprints of where your feet go while you are sitting. My son is demonstrating.

This is the remains of the actual castle. Not much left, it was small but interesting.

Zach and his wife kissing in a more private toilet.

My son and his in-laws.

This is the town inside the fort.

At the beach it was a bit too windy to enjoy it much. It was cold and the sand was pelting your legs like a sand blaster but I love seeing a beautiful beach unadulterated by human feet. I also enjoyed seeing all the wind surfers doing their tricks.

This reminded me of Pismo Beach.

No footprints. It was beautiful seeing a fresh beach, seemingly untouched.

After church today I will continue my pilgrimage to give them some time alone because Zach and his wife will be heading back to Utah early Tuesday morning.

This was Briancon, a small Italian town in the wrong direction but loved the town.

I started my journey back to Bordeaux to visit my son but after 2 months of no hiking and losing so much weight I was a bit weaker and my bag was a bit heavier due to Antonella giving me a few extra T-shirts and food as well as Timothy and Mary Claude giving me extra food as well. Because of this I felt like the first day of my pilgrimage, my feet were blistered, my shoulders and back were bruised and sore and the pack and I were wobbling as I put it on and walked around. I did gain back most of the weight I lost from the hospital so I went from 78 kg or 172 lbs (near my weight in high school) to 82 kg or 181 lbs, so my strength is improving. Trekking around, I don’t know if I will lose weight again but I do still feel very skinny. I’ve also had a few people tell me I am too skinny and they never saw me before so I know it would be better for me to gain weight but my diet of peanuts, carrots, a little meat and some kind of sweet bread, may not cater to weight gain.

The night before leaving we spent with Dominiquo, Mariangela and their family at dinner with the missionaries. Their mother made an excellent Italian dinner and I enjoyed the conversation very much. They have a beautiful house and they are very pleasant to talk with. I had to tell Dominiquo that he was not Italian because he was the most soft-spoken Italian I had ever met. They are such a great family, I wish I could stay there to get to know them even more. I sat next to Ralph (their dad) and we tried to communicate but it was difficult. He would speak to me in broken English and I would reply in broken Italian but we still enjoyed the conversation.

I’ve only been gone three days but I already miss Antonella. She was so much fun and such a great person I wish I could have her in my life for good (she would say I could if I would stay in Turin J). I don’t know if I could keep up with her though, she is always on the go. I’ve never seen a person with so much energy over 50.

So to begin my trip I got my first lift (ride) from a guy heading out of Turin but after a couple of miles down the road I saw a sign for a city heading south. I asked the guy again where he was going and he was heading for Milan so I told him to stop because he was heading the opposite direction that I needed to go. He dropped me off at a service exit where I tried to auto stop (hitchhike) but nobody would give me a lift so I started hiking back. I left around 9 or 10:00 in the morning and at 5:30 pm I found myself back in the middle of Turin with blisters on my feet. Not a good start. I did end the day in Bardonecchia Italy where the 2006 Winter Olympics were held and the city is near the tree line so the mountains were very high but not very beautiful because there were few trees. The tree colours were starting to change but they were too scattered to make a good picture. It was cold there so it was the first time I was able to test drive my new slippers at night and they worked. It was the coldest air I had slept it but my feet never froze and I never woke up from the pain of cold feet. I did wake up from a pine cone in the ribs but not cold feet.

 On the way, an old man gave me a lift to the town of Plampinet that was very small (about 20 buildings total) and I had to take a picture of this very old little church. The man told me he was a hunter and showed me where the best hunting was on the mountain. I asked him how he gets up there and he said by hiking. I asked him if he was part billy goat because the area he was pointing to was almost nothing but cliffs and only a few sparse areas where even trees were able to grow. He just laughed and said, yes he hike there.

These trailer cabins were cool. Maybe my next house. They were in a little trailer park near the boarder of Italy and France.

This is a tomato spider behind Timothy's shop. It's body is about half the length of my little finger but about the same girth.

I know it has been a while since my last update but I have been mostly working for the last three weeks making wallpaper with Timothy (the son of Roberto and Mary Claude). Timothy has been great to work with and feeds me very well for lunch. We usually have a sandwich made with nice meat and soft cheese or salmon marinated in lemon juice with crackers. We then have gelato (ice cream) and finish it off with fennel, which I have never had before but it is a vegetable with the consistency of celery and tastes like liquorish.

My body is finally used to the work and I pretty much have it down but it is time for me to leave. I have been told by Mary Claude that Timothy tells her I work too hard and he gets a lot done with me compared to others he’s had work for him. I told him in the beginning that I may have been a businessman sitting behind a desk most of my life but I do know how to work, so I’m glad I was able to live up to what I said and help him out. I will continue helping him change his business model and marketing via email and hopefully help his business start making money as he has been floundering for four years now.

Antonella invited Dominiquo, Mariangela, their parents and aunt over Sunday with the missionaries and we had a great time with them and it is good to see Dominiquo on the mend from his intestinal surgeries. They have invited us to dinner at their house tonight before I leave tomorrow morning for Bordeaux, France to visit with my son and his in-laws for a few days following the marriage of their son in England.

 For the really great news, Sjlvia Macchi, a professional translator in our church here in Italy, has translated my book (The Opportunity In Every Problem) into Italian. I can’t thank her enough and hope it will be distributed throughout Italy (eventually) to help people find opportunities here.

This is the second piece of junk solar batter sent to me from China. The batteries are bulged and don’t work and this is a brand new unit. The first one had batteries but wouldn’t charge. This one charges but has no batteries so it charges for about 3 minutes then stops. This is after I told them I am traveling and can’t wait around for shipping from China so please test the unit before you send the second one. They assured me they would and would also send me a European plug. Instead they send me another piece of junk that if they tested, would find right away that it didn’t work; and of course they sent me an American plug. This has been such a waste of time and money as I have to keep paying shipping to send it back and forth. I will demand my money back but I doubt they will because I opened it but I will let people on ebay know my experience with them.

For comparison: The batter in my hand is what it is supposed to look like. The Pillows are bad batteries. Remember, this is the brand new replacement for the first brand new piece of junk they sent me.

This is from the haiguang-store so if you ever buy electronics on ebay, be sure it is not from this store.