There’s a yellow farm building that I use as a marker to make the turn off of the local road, Nødebovejen, to return to the house in Hald.

It’s a poultry farm, something I have an affinity for, having worked at one for a year to earn money to put myself through college years ago. The one I worked at caged all the laying hens and I always thought that was a pretty cruel, though undoubtedly efficient, way of treating the birds. At the local poultry farm, here, however, the birds are free-range,…

…able to make their way in and out of the hen house as they desire. These hens are very sociable; they came flooding out to investigate when they heard us outside.

Bob and Johnna get their eggs here and left us some which we’ve enjoyed the last two days for breakfast. These eggs have a much better taste than the eggs we get back in the USA.

Whatever the Danes have given up in efficiency for treating their laying hens humanely, they’ve gotten back through technology in the way they retail their eggs. Behold, the egg automat; insert coins, retrieve egg carton:

So, while I’m on foodstuffs, I’ve decided to make this my epicurean post. Over in Hundested Havn there are a couple seafood restaurants where we’ve had the Danish equivalent of Fish & Chips; quite good.

But our favorite meal so far was at the the Halsnæs Bryghus, the local mini-brewery. We ate there Tuesday night (using the term “night” loosely; it now stays light until 11:00 p.m.), sampling the beer and traditional Danish cuisine.

In addition to the excellent, cream-based fish soup, we also had the cold seafood plate of cured Hellefisk (Halibut) and Laks (Salmon), with a heaping helping of rejer (shrimp). We could eat seafood here for every meal. Hot or cold, it’s all delicious.

Earlier in the week, we had been invited by Johnna’s brother and his wife to their house in nearby Lynæs for Coffee on Wednesday. It was a nice day, so we decided to ride bikes there, passing through Hundested on the way.

“Coffee” consisted of champagne, followed by coffee and real Danish:

These pastries are really incredible (sorry, Kelly, we didn’t get the recipe). They put our “danish” to shame.

We had a wonderful 2 hour visit with Vagn and Anne-Marie, learning about Denmark from real Danish folks and getting pointers on our further travels to other parts of the realm. Like Bob and Johnna, they were super friendly and terrific hosts.

And, so, since the weather forecast today is for 24 hours of rain, we’re going to pack the car and make an all-day drive to Jutland, bound for Skagen on the far, northernmost tip of Denmark.