The king and his pawns
July 19th, 2001I defeated Max, one of the two Germans, at a game of chess before dinner.
OK, so I suppose I could write a little about some of the things we've been up to.
We visited Ribe, the oldest town in Scandinavia, and were greeted by its mayor in the town hall (approximately 500 years old, I think). Then some of us continued on to the cathedral, which was begun being built in the 12th century. We climbed to the top of the tower and had a good view over the town and surrounding marshes.
Someone visited the school we're staying at and told us a lot about the history of the town, in a slight Scottish accent, and later guided us on a “ghostwalk” through the streets, pointing out various places and retelling stories of events that took place there. We saw the site of the castle (which had been taken and used for house-building materials) and heard of kings' troubles, we saw where pirates' heads had set as a warning for other pirates, we heard of a woman (one of many) being accused and burnt as a witch…
Other than such things, we've been eating, singing and playing silly games. I'm in the kayaking class and we've been out kayaking quite a bit, though today we just watched a video.
Tonight, someone is arranging some kind of obstacle course. I don't know what the go with that is.