Lathams News: DAy 28 & 29 - FRIENDS COME TO VISIT AND THE SAND SCULPTURE FESTIVAL

After our full day at the Experimentarium yesterday, we definitely needed a day to recover today. Pete and Maria were enjoying their night away together and it was closer to lunch before they arrived home. Maria had the day off yesterday whilst we were away so had got in and done quite a bit of cleaning and cooking as they had friends from Copenhagen coming for lunch and to spend the afternoon with them. This couple lived in the apartment above them back in Copenhagen so this was the first chance they had to come and check out their new house..

Whilst Pete and Maria took their friends for a walk to the beach in the afternoon, Steve and I just had a chilled out time at home. His back although a lot better than what it was is still causing him some grief so we were happy to have a bit of a rest.

Sunday started off as a pretty chilled morning. Maria wanted to get out and get a bit of gardening done, so whilst Steve and Pete headed to the hardware store to pick up some supplies to fix the clothesline, Maria worked in the garden and I amused the children and kept them busy.

We watched a little Television until Maria fold us some bubble blowers and bubble solution and that kept the boys amused for quite some time.

A little TV watching together..

Lots of bubble fun...

Maria is really enjoying having her own garden and getting out and planting food that they are going to enjoy harvesting.

More planting..

Meanwhile I enjoyed checking out the new flowers in their garden. Spring is a wonderful time over here, each week there are different plants flowering, plants that we do not see back home because of our climate. We've had daffodils, tulips, Peonies, stock and a variety of other flower that I have not even heard of flowering since we have been here and I just love them all...

Garden weeks, but ever so pretty...

One of the flowers I have no idea what it is but when out in full bloom it is stunning

We had an early lunch and whilst having Lunch, Pete suggested that we should have a family afternoon out and go for a drive up to Hundested to visit the Sand Sculpture Festival which is held annually up here. Well they didn't have to ask us twice. we were pretty keen to go check it out..

An early lunch

Before heading to check out the sculptures, we stopped off at one of Pete and Maria’s favourite ice cream shops to indulge in a homemade Danish ice cream with their traditional Guf on top. This is like a raw meringue mix with a bit of strawberry topping to top it off.

Pete and Maria had been to this particular ice cream store before and confirmed that it was indeed a good one. We figured as much as it was really really busy with people lined up outside the store trying to get in.

Awesome ice cream in Hundested.

Definitely Spring time in Denmark...

A very popular ice cream palour in Hundested... They were lined up outside trying to get it...

They even paint rocks in Denmark and hide them..

Whilst walking to the ice cream store, I came across these painted rocks. They even paint them and hide them in Denmark. I think I need to do a few and bring them with me when we travel next time and hide them around Denmark..

One very happy little boy with his favourite treat...

Awesome Guf and strawberry sauce on each of our ice creams - truly Danish...

Pretty happy

Happy Chappy

Just check out that face....

From the ice cream store we headed down towards the harbour in Hundested to find the Sand Sculpture display...

Spring flowers are out everywhere..

Near the harbour there were quite a few cafe's and shops and even a mini golf. These seem pretty popular over here, we've seen quite a few now on our travels. The one at Hundested featured a big dinosaur which delighted the boys...

Quite a few mini golf courses in Denmark.

We had to walk past this really awesome playground on our way to the Festival. There was no way we were going to be able to walk past it without the boys having a bit of a play. I must admit, it did look pretty awesome and if I was a kid I would want to stop and have a bit of a play also...

Check these lobsters out... pretty awesome and all made from wood..

Elliot loved the wooden seals and wanted to pat them...

I love the playgrounds in Denmark, most of them are mainly made from wood, not the metal and plastic that we have back home...

We finally got the boys moving again and made our way to where the Sand Sculptures were.

The Sand Festival is an annual event in Hundested and attracts sand sculptors from around the world, where they create perishable works of art beyond ordinary in golden grains of sand. It is also quite interactive for children and childish grownups, where you can be a creative as you like with different activities with the sand.

The original lighthouse from Hundested...

The sand sculpture festival starts in May and runs through to October each year. If you are luckly enough to be there in May, you can actaully see the sculptors at work creating their masterpieces. The were most done by the time we came to view them, although there was one creation still under progress so we were able to watch the artist at work...

Annual Sand Sculpture Festival in Hundested...

The sculptors use special sand and compact it with heavy machines in wooden frames. Then the artists cut huge sculptures into the sand.

This year’s Fetival's topic was „Time Travel“, which was such a wide topic, that the variety of sculptures was very enjoyable.

A life size T-Rex head with a couple of chicken, depicts some of its distant modern time cousins.

A surprise chicken is suddenly face to face with her ancestor, the fearsome T-Rex. Although the two creatures share genetics, it is not certain whether the two parties will survive today's meeting...

For this piece the sculptor took inspiration from a group of local school students. In a time of climate crises and war, we must find hope amongst our young people. The students expressed "Humans are humans - Humans are happy". The students inspired the artist in belief in the future where AI, Artificial Intelligence and humanrobics help us solve the problems of the world...

This and the meditative one below were close to each other. I am not exactly sure if this is coincidence or if there is some deeper meaning or if it’s just a joke.

It was to see one of the sculptors at work. This was the only piece that wasn't finished, but it was great for us to see how they compact the sand and build it up in the wooden frames. I am pleased we came when most of it was done but yet we still got to see the process. Hopefully we will be able to go and see it again next year when we are over there....

We did find a sand sculpture that allowed us to have some interactive fun, by sticking our head through it and getting photographed. The back of it was pretty awesome also, in fact better than the front view...

One of these tourist-stick-your-head-through-a-wall-for-a-very-very-funny-holiday-picture …

… and its backside! How funny is that?

This was an interesting sculpture... "Lucy in the Sky", This piece represents that the ancient woman Lucy has travels through a portal to visit us. Much has changed, but have three million years of evolution made us better people? Has our basic needs changed? The sculptor leaves us wondering along with little Lucy who in her time measured just over a metre and weighed 31kg. Did you know that Lucy is named after the Beatles sone 'Lucy in the Sky with diamonds'. In fact the Beatles were to feature in another of the scultures located in the shed.

This next piece was very interesting and probably a little confronting. I am not sure how they can attach this year's theme to it...

The Sculptor responsible for this piece was from the USA. It's titled "Mother Robot" and is suppose to represent where she has traveled into the future where Mother Earth has transformed itself into Mother Robot. What happens when most of our limbs are replaced with machine prostheses? Do we end up as robots with artificial intellegence or do we hold onto our ancient brain? Still not sure that I would ever come up with this rationale from this piece of sculpture...

This piece was also interesting... The artist's notes on this piece says that it was a representation of how life can be seductively beautiful but it i inextricably linked with death in an eternal life cycle. The serpent from the Garden of Eden bites itself in the tail, while life grow out of the shadow of death. Life runs in circles no matter how we choose to tell the story. What I found most brilliant here was the woman’s smile. Stunning, that someone was able to shape this so accurately into a big block of compressed sand.

I really liked this piece entitled "Tentacles of Time". A giant octopus. One of its arms appeared in a neighbouring sculpture ground again.

The sculptor wants us to be amazed by the capabilities of the giant octopus. Not only does the DNA of this super intelligent species go back to the dawn of time, it controls it's own evolution and is able to change it's genetics according to the surrounding environment, Just observing the octopus is time traveling. You really just have to stand there and take a good look at the many faces of this amazing creature... It was a very impressive piece...

We continued to wander around and take it all in. There was so much to see, so much detail in all of the pieces.

An Indian with a hole in his forehead. And through the hole you can see the sculpture in the background:

I really loved the one below. The sculptors notes on this were that "Life is time travel". Death is just life ending and re-emerging in another form. When we are born we have life ahead of us and we are all busy living it. As we age, we have life behind us and tend to keep memories and people close. He ha pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one...

Whilst we were having a good look at all the sculptures, Maria took the boys over to the huge sandpit where they were able to doing some creating of their own.

Theo having a play in the big sandpit..

The sand they use to make these massive sculptures is not just the sand straight from the beach, It has to be specially prepared as these sculptures need to stand the weather for several months. We found out that the sand sculpture is made of sand from a gravel pit and contains approximately 10% clay. Water is added to the sand and compacted with 60 ton of preure in a wooden form to make a hard and compact mass. These forms are stacked to the right size and shape, then the sand is ready for the artists. Appartenly for the festival in 2021, 1000 tons of sand had been used and each year the sand is recycled from the year before. It took 16 artists 14 days to create all the sculpture. Nothing happens to the sand when it rains as the clay dries and creates a surface that resists the rain.

At the entrance to the big warehouse, there were several smaller sculptures as well as a couple of blocks just ready for someone to create another masterpiece.

Once inside the shed there was another shelf with a few more 20x30x30cm piece. Again very remarkable, how lovingly the artists have carved into the sand..

Once inside the shed there were some more beautiful works that were all lit up. The first was titled "A True Sailor Story" and was about a Hundested local.

The story was about Arne Asmussen and when at 14 years of age back in 1957, and how as a boy from Hundested he set off to earn his own living. All he ever dreamed of was to become a sailer and travel the world. In his early years, he sailed on small ships, where he and skipper carried potatoes, coal and coke. It was good lessons to learn about ailing, but Arne saw how the fishing boys at the harbour in Hundested made big money. Before long, Arne was aboard various fishing boats, and life was good. Time passed and Arne formed a family and was in the Navy - and wherever the sea led him, he bought a memory back home to Hundested. A small glass of sand. Friend and family also contributed to the collection that we see here today. During his 50 years as a sailer, Arne signed up for a job at the ferry sailing the route Grena/Hundeted until he grew tired of guiding trafic. He studied and became a mate in order to ail north of the equator. Arne ended his careet close to home a a mate on a ferry sailing the route Rovig/Hundested - and that is a true sailor story.

Some of the sand collected by Arne during his periods of travel.

This next sculptor was massive but so well done. A three-meter-high book in the style of old prints. This was also the only sculpture that showed some kind of coloring.

The creator of this masterpiece loves books, all kinds of books. As a child, he imagined that he became part of the amazing stories opening up to him in the universe of book. With virtual reality, we can already bring stories to life. Maybe in the future we don't know the difference between reality and fiction. Here the sculptor bring the story of Thumbelina to life - completely without technology but only with sand.

This next sculpture was pretty cool - the main part being a 2m big oblique panel scenery. The house looks absolutely cool. How can someone cut such a thing from pure sand? It is unbelievable to me.
(The figurine is made from plastic and pinned into the sand, rather than made from pure sand. ) The back side of the sculpture had a scene from in the house itself. These guys are pretty talented..

The notes from the artist on his creation states that this piece represents "Go on a time travel adventure". His aim is to take you on a time travel trip through childhood memories, where your imagination plays a trick. Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother has jumped into the red cloak, and there in the bed where the grandmother should have slept, now lie an alien. The naughty alien kidnaps grandmother and takes her to the moon. Fortunately, Tintin is alert and flies to the moon in his rocket to find grandmother and to catch the alien - but unfortunately too late. Suddenly it is midnight at the castle. On the stairs are....Grandma's shoes...

It never ceases to amaze me how these artists are given a theme for the year and all come up with such different and diverse works of art.

How many miles below the sea was that? 20,000 or so, isn’t it? Well it i rubbish, and it should read they traveled 20,000 french lieues, which is 80,000km and their maximum depth was 16km. Still an amazing work or art...

This next piece was probably my most favourite inside the shed...

This work of art was titled "Time Travel on two leg or?". One face divided into two. Is this the begining and the end of humanity? The Neanderthal are extinct, but what about the future? Will aliens take over the earth after us, homo sapiens? Who know if we'll walk on two, three or four legs in future? Still we are connected by the music through the times and he has used the Beatles as the symbol of the music through the ages as it as his daugher loves the Beatles.

This was another piece that really caught our attention. It wa titled "Travel into the 1930's".

In this piece, the artist has represented pressing the button in the time machine to trael into the 1930'when the modern art wa shaped, discovering endless possibilities of expression.

Modern art reflects the massive changes in society during the inter-war period. Pablo Picasso created his famous pianting "Guernica" as a reaction to the destruction of the Basque town by the fascist in 1937. The scuptor has reinterpreted the painting as a statement, like someone puhed the wrong button in the time machine..

We have really enjoyed our visit here and it was a great suggestion by Pete for a family afternoon out. It will be going on our lists of things to do and places to visit again when we next come back to Denmark.

Before leaving we all headed for a pit stop visit to the loos. Imagine our surprise when we came across thee little sculptures when leaving. Very simple made out of recycled bits of rubbish but quite effective all the same...

After checking out all the sand sculptures, we headed down to the wharf area. Pete and Maria had been here often before and knew there was a Feel and touch tank that they wanted to take the children too. There was an abundance of sea life that they could see and experience in this tank so we headed off to check this out...

Some street art we found down at the wharf...

Massive jelly fish in the water down here...

There was quite a bit of sea life in the water around the harbour and the boys loved checking if out.

Looking for fish...

Some big fish swimming around..

They even found a starfish

They really enjoyed watching it move around in the water..

We spent quite a bit of time checking out the sealife. Possibly way too much time, but the boys were really interested and really quite engrossed. It was getting pretty late in the afternoon and the boys were obviously going to have quite a late evening as we still needed to get them home, bathed, fed, read to and put to bed.

We started to head back to the car but of course on the way back to the car we once again had to walk pat the playground and both the boys wanted a play.