We had a real white winter on the first week of March 2005 with thick snow (the
last time was 20 years ago) and the temperature reached down to minus 25
degrees Celcius at night. Since it was our cousin's wedding on the 5th of
March and we had promised to be there for family support, we had to fight with the storm and heavy winter on the way to Denmark.

4 March 2005 Friday
We started the journey at 9.00pm and since the road was not safe to drive,
we drove slowly about 50km/h. Thank God everything was fine and upon
reaching Germany, the road was getting better so we could drive as fast as
150 km/h in certain places.

5 March 2005, Saturday
We finally reached Odense in Denmark, less than 30 minutes before the wedding ceremony was to start. Reached the hotel, changed and drove to the City Hall. What a nightmare! We had to park but we had no Danish Kröner for the ticket. Thank heavens somebody was nice enough to Danish Kröner. By the time we reached the City Hall, uncle James said, "You were late."; NO! We were NOT but the ceremony took only about 3-5 minutes and then they were married. In Holland, it is done longer, introductions, how they met etc etc and finally signing the wedding book. Well! Anyway, we managed to be there and took several photos with them.

After the group photos, we went outside and the newly-wedded couple were thrown rice by us. It was a nice moment to see them out of the City Hall.

Outside the City Hall. It was very cold but we were so lucky we had at least the sunshine shining on that special day. After the photo, Mercy and Thomas went with their professional photographer to make memorable photos.

Here's a bit of our Mercy: Mercy JL is my second cousin from my father's side (and her father). She is from the Wong Loong clan as am I. Her civil marriage which took place in the City Hall of Odense, in Denmark had been attended mostly by family, relatives and friends of the groom, Dr Thomas Storr-Paulsen. Mercy's family/relatives who came to witness her wedding were her father's brother, i.e. Uncle (Datuk) James Ligunjang all the way from Malaysia and Wim and I from Holland. Due to certain problems back home, her parents and family did not manage to come over. The wedding reception was held at Thomas' mother with about 30+ guests. 

While they were making photos, the rest of Thomas' friends, uncle James, Wim and me went to have a bit of tour by Jacob. Photo shown is the house of the infamous author H C Anderson. And the rest are Thomas' good friends.

Then we went to a French café and took lunch and had drinks.

After a while, Mercy and Thomas came and joined us.

 
The happy Ligunjang clan ~ Jenn, Mercy and Datuk James Ligunjang

These are the photos taken as remembrance on our first visit to Odense

The invitation of the wedding reception was at 5.00pm but we reached Thomas' mother's house earlier.

Both the couple looked beautiful and happy.

The living room has been decorated and just nice for more than 30 people.

Dinner, cakes, all were prepared/cooked/baked by Thomas' mom and on that special evening, she had 2 ladies helping her out with preparing and serving to all the guests.

In between dinner, we were entertained by speeches and of course Uncle James was also invited to give his speech on behalf of Mercy's family. He used to be a politician back home and now a great businessman so he's good at giving speeches. Thomas' mom, dad, uncle, half siblings and good friends also had their own entertaining speeches and everyone really had fun. Except the one by his half siblings, the rest were all in English.

Then, after dinner, we had to leave our table and they re-arranged they tables so that we could mix up with other people while having coffee and cakes after the cutting of the cakes by the couple.

Then it was the dance by the couple.

Everyone clapped around them and then surrounded the couple. Suddenly the groom was carried and the guys took off his shoes and cut his socks with scissors.

It was really nice Danish's tradition.

Later that night, we went back to the hotel and ready for tomorrow´s journey back to Holland.

6 March 2005, Sunday

We checked out from Ansgar Hotel at about 9.30 am and drove to Thomas' mom's house to say goodbye. I was feeling dizzy and sick with fever so Thomas' mom gave me paracetamol for on the way. Then saying goodbye to Mercy was not easy especially we reminded of her family back home. But we enjoyed the wedding and thanked her for having us. Then we started our journey at about 11am to Germany. Uncle James followed us to Holland.

We informed Flores that we were dropping by at her place but she told me that they would only be home at 4.30pm. So we went to Hamburg city for the "sightseeing" and then we drove back to Wedel to Jonuschat family's residence. Flores is an internet friend but also a friend from back home in Penampang. Fortunately both Flores and Uncle James' families have been living near to each other's village in Penampang, so it's not difficult to introduce themselves. As usual whenever we visit them, we are always served with nice dinner. So, that evening we had cheese cake with coffee/tea then rice, bamboo shoot, veges, prawn cooked in our Kadazan way. It was delicious! And we had a bottle of white wine each given by Hans.

On the way to Holland, we stopped over at several places and see what they guys found. A
betting machine. So, there they were. We had a good laugh looking back at this photo.

7 March 2005, Monday
Both Wim and I were still off, so we brought uncle James to see a bit of
Rotterdam.

8 March 2005, Tuesday

I was down with fever and influenza (it was the epidemic in Holland at that
time) and took a day or two off. Both uncle James and myself just stayed at
home to rest. It was good for uncle too since he had been travelling without
taking any rest. So, we had a nice talk in the afternoon together. In the evening,
we had a nice "gourmet" style dinner, BBQ inside the house. (Photo shown in our old appartment.)

Uncle James left Holland on the 8 March and flew to UK and then to Malaysia.
We had such a great time in Denmark and during his stay in Netherlands.

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