a greeting from Denmark

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linne
Posts: 1161
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 4:25 pm
Location: Denmark

a greeting from Denmark

Post by linne »

I have send a greeting in the travel forum but think, that my answer perhaps more belongs to the off topic forum.

The 100 years jubilee
As I told, you will meet many Danes on the Island just now including the Danish prime minister, who visited Mr. Trump yesterday, and many other dignitaries. Our neighbors at home are also visiting STT today.

In Denmark there is not much knowledge about the Danish ownership of VI, even though we have been present on the islands for nearly 250 years, before we sold them. Perhaps no one wants to talk about it, because we are ashamed of the way, we treated the slaves.

But because of the jubilee there have been much talk about this period and many discussions, if we should give an excuse or not, or if we perhaps should give a compensation to the islands. So people are excited to hear what our prime minister will say today.

I have written a summary task about the sale of the islands and have read many books about the time we owned the islands. I have also read books about our colony in Africa, from where we brought the slaves. And it’s awful to read about! You never should treat human beings in the way, we did. But as far as I can see, we were not worse or better than other European countries at that time. So I don’t know, if it isn’t too late to excuse. I’m not sure.

What surprised me in the story was to find out that the slaves were caught by other Africans, who sold them to us with payment in weapons etc., and that it was common that the Africans took slaves from each other. But it isn’t any excuse for our behavior during the transportation, which was indescribable bad.

Perhaps a sort of compensation to the islands will be that more and more Danish Tourist will visit the place in the future, now they know more about the story.

Not more about that time, but it’s an interesting story, and it was my interest in it, which brought us to Virgin Island.


Answers to the replies in the travel forum:

Agent99:
I don’t think we have met each other in “real life”, only in the topics. Perhaps it’s Maggi, the Swedish girl, you have met.

Coconuts:
Thank you for telling what’s happens on the island during the jubilee. Glad that you know that it probably is Danish people your daughter had met.
And you are right about one of the reasons selling the islands to USA.
Concerning Sankt Gertruds Kloster I have never been there, but hubby has, so I know that it’s a fantastic place but with high prices. Funny that they had map on the wall from VI. It’s not common.

RickG, Sunflower, Silverheels,GidgetPicklebrain, shoemak38, jimg20:
Thank you for your greetings. Glad that I’m remembered.

I can tell that we sold our house in Spain last year. A difficult decision because we loved the place and our life there. But we had to be realistic. The house needed a renovation with a new floor, new doors, windows etc. . We were not allowed to build it bigger, so our family couldn’t’ stay there. Also we felt that the needed changes in the house would make it to another house that the simple one, which we like. And we are not young anymore, so one day it had to be sold. So we decided to put it for sale knowing that it could take a long time to find a buyer, because it’s difficult to sell houses in Spain just now. But to our surprise, the house was sold after about 4 month. The new owners send us pictures of the renovation, it’s nice changes they make, but the house is more practical now than charming.

But I have to admit that I cried all the way to the airport, when we left.

We so much enjoy our beach house. Hubby has stopped working, and we spend much time there. We also have bought a motorboat which is lying in the harbor there, so it’s easily to go fishing or bathing. Our grandchildren love to jump in the sea from the boat. And about grandchildren, yes, the boys are grown up now, and we have been so lucky to have a girl too, she is now 6 years old.

Concerning travelling and returning to STJ. When we left, I was sure that we would return, but now I’m unsecure. I don’t like long flights anymore, and it’s a long flight to STT, so perhaps we will return, perhaps not. But since VI we have had another exiting experience. We visited Dubai a few years ago. Not because of a big wish of visiting Dubai, but because we wished to visit different places in Oman after Dubai. But Dubai showed up to be an interesting place with the biggest of nearly everything. We had only a few days there, but we can recommend it for a vacation. In Oman we had a long row of experiences. We stayed in a dessert in a camp without any electricity. the toilet was a hole in the ground, the food was made over fire, but you are in beautiful surroundings, and it was worth it A camel ride was also a part of it.
In another place, we saw turtles laying their eggs in the evening and the next morning we saw some of babies trying to reach the sea before the seagulls took them. We also stayed up in the mountains and later we were out snorkeling in another part of Oman and saw a lot of dolphins. But it was strenuous trip, we had to find way ourselves etc., and it was not always so easy.

Since Oman we have only been on short trips, although we celebrated our Golden Wedding last year with the family on our first real cruise. It was only 5 days from Barcelona visiting Rome and Napoli, but we were with the biggest ship, Harmony of the Sea, and our grandchildren just loved it.

The last vacations we have had, has been with our boat to different beautiful harbors in Denmark. We have folding bicycles on board, and we enjoy to see other sights than you normally do from a car.

As usual it always is a long story, if I begin to tell. But it’s fine for me to try to write English, so that I don’t forget it.

Hope some of it have your interest.

Linne
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hoosierdaddy
Posts: 920
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:53 am
Location: Indiana

Re: a greeting from Denmark

Post by hoosierdaddy »

Linne, thanks for all of the information. We are on St. John this week and other than the block party on Monday night we have note noticed anything else about the celebration. Maybe there is more happening on St. Thomas. I am surprised. I thought there may be some signs hanging around town or some souvenir items in the shops.

Your thoughts on the slave trade are interesting. It seems like ther is a lot of blame to go around. I have never understood how a person can treat another individual as less than human. It was a sad time in our world.
User avatar
linne
Posts: 1161
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 4:25 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: a greeting from Denmark

Post by linne »

Yes, I think i'ts mostly in STT things are happening, but we saw in TV that Sct. Croix have had a celebration Thursday.

I also read that our prime minister didn't say the word excuse in his speech Friday on STT, but he said that what's happened at that time was unforgivable- he said the same in his New Year speech- so it was close to an excuse. He also offered 10 young from VI a paid scolarship in Denmark. Not much, but perhaps fine for the 10 students.

Linne
PA Girl
Posts: 4485
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:55 am

Re: a greeting from Denmark

Post by PA Girl »

Hello Linne!

What an unexpected pleasure to see you name pop up. Glad to hear you and your family is well and enjoying different adventures. I referenced your posts about the house in Spain and the beach house many times for design and construction inspiration when we renovated a vacation cottage.

To add to your information about the African slave trade, the Night of the Silent Drums is a fascinating book (and extremely disturbing) about how the African tribes conducted the slave trade and the slave rebellion came about on STJ due to the fact that chiefs organized the revolt.
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linne
Posts: 1161
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 4:25 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: a greeting from Denmark

Post by linne »

Thank you for your greeting PA girl. I'm glad to see that you remember me, and what I have told about our houses. I also remember that you have told about your cottage,
and I hope that you and your family still enjoy it.

Also thank you for the recommendation of the book. I will see, if I can find it. It sounds interestering, allthough I have to admit that I normally don't read many books in English. Sometimes there are too many words, I don't know.

Just now we have Easter vacation in our beach house. We enjoy springtime and love to see the anemones and the small daffodils between our trees.

Easter greeting to all from Linne
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