At least it's not raini...

I know I've been absent for the past several days, but things have been pretty nice here. I dare say this has been the most spring/warm-like weather we've experienced since I've been over. I'm making an effort not to stay cooped up inside when this happens and thus I'm usually tired at night and not much in a posting mood. The problem with that though, is that I'm often out doing post-worthy activities, so eventually something's gotta give. I'll do a short one tonight because I have a long day tomorrow and want to get some good rest for it. My Under 16 team has a game in Slagelse at 15:00 tomorrow. Just so everyone's on the same page, Slagelse is actually Danish for "on the other side of the country" (okay, not exactly). Anywhere else, I'm sure this would be a rather ominous task, but here, it really only amounts to about three hours of drive time. Weather looks like it's going to hold up too, so it should be a good time.

On this subject, I decided to do some exploring on the bike today. My first week here, Peter showed me a beach at Moesgård, about ten kilometres South of the city center. I thought today might be a nice opportunity to check it out, seeing as how it's no longer the middle of March. According to the forecast on my phone also, today was the pick of the week, with temperatures in the low seventies. So, after a visit to the gym, I picked up a sandwich, packed a lunch and saddled up for a pleasant beach outing.

Before leaving Århus, I rode by a park that was very crowded and thought about skipping the beach. I really wanted to take a dip though (even if the water was New Hampshire-cold) and thus I continued on my way. I then came to the road that would lead to Moesgård (MOSE-go-ahd), which actually hugs the harbor and surveyed the area to see if there were any people on the 'beaches' (artificial stretches of sand no more than forty feet wide). Since no one was down around that area, I figured they weren't being used now and opted to head to the nice beach I'd seen about two months ago.

I actually came across a bike path that follows the coastline and enjoyed a very scenic trip South. At times, I even scooted off this path down on to walking trails that appeared more treacherous and really put the Manitou Shocks on the bike to work. Along the way, I passed by the Deer Park, which is like a cross-between a nature trail and a petting zoo. As the name would suggest, deer are rather abundant in the park, however, they are not the only fauna for you to observe. There are other KINDS of deer. And birds. Oh, and of course, wild boar. The locals have told me about this and I figured these guys probably just skulked around in the undergrowth, rooting about in solitude, save the occasional straggler that might wander out in the open. How wrong I was. While biking alongside the perimeter fence of the park, I stopped immediately when I came across a pack of hogs doing exactly what I expected in plain sight. I was a bit too far away to snap a decent photo and actually did manage to take a short video, but the lazy bum was camera shy and didn't too much on film. No sooner did I put my phone away when the largest male (probably four-and-a-half feet long and close to 300 pounds) rose up on his hind legs and snatched a low-hanging branch down to snack on. These things were freakin' huge and were certainly the wildest boar I've ever seen (make that the ONLY ones I've ever seen, in the wild at least). Very cool. The little piglets were just as much fun as the bigguns; a rambunctious lot that scurried about on their short little legs, snorting and squealing all the way. I'll have to go back and take some better video; these guys were too much.

Well, I ended up distracting myself on more trails after that and eventually showed up to Moesgård a little later than I planned. I didn't think much of this though, because the forecast still looked good and it doesn't really get dark much these days (more about this in the coming weeks). I put my feet in the water, set my towel and sat down to enjoy the sandwich that got a little crushed in my trusty DonJoy bag after I was done playing Lance Armstrong. No sooner did I do this when I looked to my left and saw what I should have assumed was coming:


Of course. Ten minutes later, this was followed by thunder, lightning, strong winds and a very, very soggy ride home. The real kicker of the whole thing though, is that at the precise moment I pulled up to my front door, the sun shined brighter than it had earlier in the day. For those out there keeping score:

Danish Weather - 10,835
Me - 4

Oh well, it was nice to see that I could bike to a nice beach in about thirty-five minutes. After all my trail riding, backtracking and exploring, I must have gone close to forty or fifty kilometres on the day. Things did perk up after showering at home, as Bager invited me to a BBQ at his place and I enjoyed a tasty dinner. Grilled meatsies cure all. With that, I'm going to call it a night. I've got more fun things to share soon. Until then...