...but only after a wet, gray day. Even in the middle of the day the winter sky here is as dark as I have seen, thick and wooly. You've got to admire the Danes, though. They have stuck it out here for millenia - more than stuck it out; they have made a home for themselves, marked by their strength and their sensitivities, and a very artistic sense of how to live. Their antique buildings are grand but human in proportion and character, painted in the hopeful hues of apricot and peach and sunshine, roofed with terracotta, lovingly ornamented in stone and plaster, and topped by bronze statuary and soaring copper spires. These architectural gems seem to look out onto the cobbles and canals through their brightened windows, gazing thoughtfully at their people who throng the sidewalks and squares despite the spitting wind. Yes, the Danes have made a home for themselves here in the dark and cold, their shops strung with lights and their outdoor cafes boasting huge umbrellas, heaters, and a blankets hung on the back of every chair.
Even on the wide thoroughfares, overseen only by sharp-angled modern buildings, the Danes bicycle fearlessly into the wind, present-day Vikings astride the small spit of windswept land that guards the gentle Baltic from the cold North Sea.
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