Hi, Seguin here...

[seguin]

I forgot to introduce myself when I joined the forum.
I´m 55 years old and from Denmark. I´ve always been interested in stuff like the Alamo, Davy Crokett, Bowie, the wild west, cowboys, indians etc. since I was a kid. This interest was re-kindled (?) when I read Jackson´s "Los Tejanos" and later saw the 2004 Alamo movie (I bought it on dvd of course, now I´m looking for a dvd with Wayne´s Alamo movie). Some years ago I taped an Alamo docu from the Discovery channel. I don´t remember the name of the docu (I have it somewhere in my video tape collection) but it was pretty good. Some Alamo expert was the host and he talked a lot about the military facts, the De La Pena account and demonstrated how to use a Bowie knife ( you hold it with the edge up, not down, in order to slash an enemy open by first using a thrust and then slice/slash upwards) etc. So it seems like the Alamo keeps popping up in my life every few years It´s a great forum you got here! Lots of interesting info and some great Alamo buffs too! I noticed that a lot of you also posts at Alamo Sentry, so I have Created an account there as well. I´m looking forward to participate in your discussions...

[Greg C.]

Nice to meet you Seguin! We hope you'll be a part of our discussions for a long time.

[RebAl]

Hi seguin

Glad to see you are a member of the forum I guess you could say we are neighbours as I live just the other side of the North Sea at South Shields, plenty of your countrymen & women come across to Newcastle Upon Tyne to do their shopping on the King of Scandanavia ship.

[seguin]

Thanks for the welcome, guys! Yes rebAL, you could say that we´re kind of neighbours. England is less than an hour away by plane or you can take the ship. I did´nt know that many danes take shopping trips to Newcastle, (I thought most of them went to London) but we have quite a lot of english people living here. I´ve met many englishmen here in my snooker club (I´m a bit of a snooker buff too)...

[seguin]

rebAL, is the ship really called King of Scandinavia? - That´s a funny name because Scandinavia is three countries, Denmark, Sweden and Norway (and when you talk about the Nordic countries it includes Finland and Iceland too), so it´s hard to imagine a king of Scandinavia...

[Greg C.]

seguin said:

rebAL, is the ship really called King of Scandinavia? - That´s a funny name because Scandinavia is three countries, Denmark, Sweden and Norway (and when you talk about the Nordic countries it includes Finland and Iceland too), so it´s hard to imagine a king of Scandinavia...

Back in the time of the Vikings, there was probably only one king when the land was overcome by Goths, Vandals, and other Barbarian Hordes.

[RebAl]

seguin said:

rebAL, is the ship really called King of Scandinavia? - That´s a funny name because Scandinavia is three countries, Denmark, Sweden and Norway (and when you talk about the Nordic countries it includes Finland and Iceland too), so it´s hard to imagine a king of Scandinavia...

Check out this link

www.dfds.co.uk/DSW/EN/OnBoard/

[Rick]

How do you guys stand those northern winters? You must have extra-thick blood to handle those kinds of temperatures.

Here in West Texas, we start shivering when it dips into the 30s. Of course, our summers are lovely -- hot, humid, major sweat city.

In June 1994 when I lived in New Mexico, a heat wave hit the whole Southwest, and one day, it hit 113 in the town I lived in. The water in my swamp cooler evaporated before it could wet down the cooler pads, and I had to climb up on the roof a few times, put on gloves to remove the skin-searing AC panels, then hose down the pads to get 'em wet.

A few miles south of us, another town recorded a new state-record high for New Mexico -- 117 degrees.

I've long wanted to visit Scandinavia and England and be a tourista for a few weeks. How early do the leaves start to change there?

[seguin]

Davy: I´m no expert on viking history but as far as I recollect Denmark and Norway had their own viking kings. However well after the viking age Denmark and Norway were united in the Kalmar Union, each country with their own king (1397-1524). And from 1536-1814 Norway was a part of the danish kingom together with Greenland, Faroe Islands and Iceland (Iceland got their independence in 1945 but Greenland and Faroe Islands are still danish). As for various "barbaric" tribes, none of them ever invaded Denmark. They did however invade the Roman Empire - or tried to.

rebAL: Thanks for the link! I still think it´s a funny name because Scandinavia (Denmark,Sweden and Norway) never had a common king, although Denmark and Norway had in certain historic periods. But of course, a ships name does´nt have to be founded in history. They can have all sorts of funny names...

Rick: How we stand the northern winters? How do you stand the summers in the southern states? ;D - Well, when it gets too cold we just shoot some of the polar bears who are roaming the streets and put on their fur ;D No really, there´s 7-8 years between real cold winters in Denmark. This winter was very warm. We never had any minus degrees except for some nights. It was so warm that nature got confused and flowers and plants started to grow buds in december! There was a lot of talk about the green house effect because of that. Of course this winter was abnormal. Usually there are periods in the winter where we get into minus degrees, but not extremely so. Maybe 5-10 degrees celcius at the most (I think you have to multiply by 3.5 approx. to get the degrees in Fahrenheit). Most of the time it´s 0-5 degrees celcius in the daytime in winter. If you want real cold winters you´ll have to travel to nothern Norway or northern Sweden. Denmark is too far south for that - thank God.
When the leaves start to change? they start to change in March - April. So April-May would be a good time to visit Denmark, unless you prefer the summer time. When it´s real hot in the summer it´s about 25-28 degrees celcius. I think that´s about 75-95 degrees Fahrenheit. Personally I prefer 20-22 C. (68-75F.). I just hate when it´s so hot you´re sweating all the time.