Sunday afternoon, 31 May

ll aboard please, says Louis, we are leaving in 5 minutes.

At first we drive along the fjord for a while then turn towards Randers, where we get to visit the rainforests under these domes.

There are an acquarium and three different rainforests from different parts of the world. The weather has become quite hot by now, but inside the rainforest it is almost unbearable.

It is very beautiful, however, and we get to meet some cute residents.

Luckily they also sell ice cream in there so we can all recover a little before we go outside again. We find, that the weather has not cooled down at all and we just about drag ourselves when a guide takes us to the nearby wetlands. The area used to be all reclaimed for farming but is now mostly given back to nature.

According to the guide, an enthusiastic young man who just wants to save the world, a lot more work needs to be done. The area is to be expanded as well.

Lots of birds, particularly water birds and also migratory birds have now discovered the new wetlands and are beginning to make use of it.

The most interesting part about this national park is the fact that some farming is to be left within it. Also some older species of domestic animals as well as some introduced plant species are to be left.

This novel way of making a new national park creates a very diversified, harmonious 'feel-good' atmosphere, a landscape where push bikes and dogs are welcome, rather than just a wilderness.

After all, who is to say that it really was a wilderness once and what species did live there.

Incidentally, dogs are allowed everywhere in Denmark, including in some Hotels/Motels etc. A very friendly land indeed!

After the visit to the wetlands we walk up town for dinner at the masonic lodge where the Randers Rotarians meet.

As we traipse through the little streets we understand why we are not taken there by bus.

Dinner is roast pork, new potatoes and red cabbage prepared in that special European way.

We are handed some songbooks with songs in three languages and are encouraged to not only sing ourselves but to sing along with the Danes.

So much fun and so much hygge. Hygge is a frequently used expression in Danish that can be translated to 'Gemuetlichkeit' in German but not into English at all. It takes a couple of English words to describe it: fun, cosyness, togetherness.... something like that.

We can't be sure how much fun Louis thinks it is having to drive us all the way back to Grenaa.