Road to Denmark
For Eva Robinson, a trip to Denmark is a visit home.
Born in Denmark, Robinson moved with her family to Pennsylvania in 1957, when she was a small child.
She still visits her homeland every few years, most recently for two weeks in July and August.
Robinson, who lives in Butler, feels a special connection to Denmark, and this time, she shared the experience with a dozen relatives.
"My mom definitely did a lot of work," said Robinson's daughter Jennifer Mowry of Butler. "She came up with a nice itinerary to meet the needs of all of us and meet our interests."
Few are better qualified to serve as a guide, Mowry added.
Since 2007, Robinson has served as the honorary Danish consul, representing the nation in the Pittsburgh area. Robinson and two of her five siblings were born in Denmark, but she is the only one who speaks the language.
The group flew from Pittsburgh to Newark, N.J., where it boarded a direct flight to Copenhagen.After arriving in Denmark, one of the first stops was to visit the house where Robinson's maternal grandmother once lived.Robinson's uncle coordinated the tour.The group spent the next several days exploring castles and churches."Those are just things we don't have here in the states," Mowry said. "Our history doesn't date back as far back as the history of Europe, so it's neat for me to see things like that."One of the most famous places they visited was the Roskilde Domkirke, a Lutheran cathedral on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. About 95 percent of Denmark's population belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran faith, according to the CIA World Factbook.Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, it was Scandinavia's first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick, which encouraged the spread of this style throughout northern Europe.Next came Frederiksborg Palace, the largest Renaissance palace in Scandinavia.They also visited Rosenborg Castle in the heart of Copenhagen."It's where the crown jewels are stored," Robinson said, explaining that the items sit under glass for public viewing.Since the family members were interested in visiting neighboring areas, a side trip to Germany was included.Denmark shares a border of about 48 miles with Germany to the south and is otherwise surrounded by more than 4,500 miles of coastline."The whole country of Denmark is about half the size of Pennsylvania, so (traveling to Germany) would be like us traveling to Ohio or Maryland," Mowry said.Robinson made reservations at youth hostels in Berlin and Hamburg for the two-night stay."They were comfortable and very clean," she said. "It's more like a dorm room than a hotel."Because their ferry had broken down, the group arrived late in Berlin and spent more time there than in Hamburg.The next day, they boarded a tour bus and drove through the city, where they saw pieces of the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gates.
When they returned to Denmark, they headed for Sønderborg, where Robinson's mother had spent time as a child."We knew our mother had been a small girl growing up in those towns, and we imagined her walking those streets, and that was very touching," said Lisa Cope of Mars, Robinson's sister.Next, they went to the city of Åbenrå, which Robinson said is "the heart of where my family is from."People in this region speak a dialect called Sønderjysk, which most Danes cannot understand, Robinson said.There, she visited her mother's cousin, who is quite knowledgeable about their family history."It's amazing. We have the same pictures hanging up," she said.They also learned more about Jørgen Bruhn, a distant relative famous in Denmark for building ships."One of the things that was so valuable was that one of my mother's cousins took us to see actual history that was made as a result of one of our ancestors," Cope said.Bruhn's ship, Cimber, launched in 1857 and became the record holder for the fastest voyage ever done by a sailing ship from Liverpool to San Francisco, making the trip in 103 days.The group next visited Legoland, a Lego-themed amusement park outside Copenhagen.The displays included dramatically detailed replicas of famous scenes, including the brightly painted buildings near Copenhagen Harbor."They had little windmills that actually power some of Legoland," Robinson added.Denmark is extremely energy efficient, and wind power provided about 19 percent of the country's electricity production in 2008, according to the Danish Energy Agency.Afterward, they drove back through Sønderborg to reach Ærø, one of the Danish Baltic Sea islands.On the island, the picturesque town of Ærøskøbing includes small, cheerful houses that look like something out of a movie, Robinson said."I read somewhere that if it wasn't there, Walt Disney would have invented it," Robinson said.Soon after, the group had a free day in Copenhagen to shop and sightsee.Many of the relatives visited Tivoli Gardens, which at more than 160 years old is one of the world's oldest amusement parks.Møn Island in southeastern Denmark was the next destination visited. The island is famous for its steep chalk cliffs.A path along the top of the cliffs allows visitors to look down, and a 500-step staircase leads down to the shore."For me, that's more beautiful than the jewels," Mowry said. "It's a gorgeous view."
The family next took a day trip to Sweden, which is just a brief ferry ride from Denmark.They visited Kronborg Castle, located on the northeastern tip of the island of Zealand, at the narrowest point of the Øresund, the sound between Denmark and Sweden.Kronborg is known by many also as Elsinore, the setting of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.They also visited Sofiero Castle, which was one of the Swedish royal family's country mansions, before returning to Copenhagen to tour the royal palace.Since Robinson's first cousin serves as executive secretary to the crown prince of Denmark, the family was given an insider's tour.Though the building is being remodeled, it is still impressive, Mowry said."Each room was getting painted differently, so some were more modern and others were old-fashioned," Mowry said. "It was neat to see the style of the current princess."Later that day, they toured the self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood of Christiania, which is regarded as a large commune.The trip concluded with a large family party hosted by one of Robinson's cousins.The gathering brought together many relatives who had not seen each other in some time, she said.There was really no language barrier since their relatives and most other people spoke English, said Michael Fort of Butler, Robinson's brother."The people there are very polite. The country's very clean; they all speak English very well," Fort said.The family and their Danish relatives have kept in touch through letters and the Internet, and those bonds help them appreciate their heritage all the more, Cope said."My mother carried that heritage with her, and we always knew what that meant," said Cope, who especially valued sharing the trip with her children. "It was wonderful to show them how beautiful it is, how much the people love it and how special they are having that wonderful heritage."Staying with Danish relatives made the trip more authentic, Mowry said."It's so nice to have family over there," Mowry said. "We got to see how the Danes lived, not just be tourists in the country."
Sharing her snapshots is Eva Robinson of Butler. Robinson traveled with her husband Tom and their daughter Jennifer Mowry. Others inthe group included Robinson's brother Michael Fort of Butler with his wife Diane and daughter Shannon; Robinson's sister Annette Phillips of Butler and her daughters Jaime Phillips of Indianapolis, Ind., and Natalie Booher of Virginia; and Robinson's sister Lisa Cope of Mars with her husband Howard and their daughters Morgan and Audrey. Robinson, Fort and Phillips were born in Denmark. Cope and two other siblings were born in the United States. For much of their stay, the travelers adhered to a structured itinerary and stayed with various relatives.
