We had been on Interstate 80 after Interstate 84 divided in Wyoming. 80 goes all across a very very very flat part of the United States. As in no hills, not even slight inclines. So when were through Nebraska(and only Nebraskans know how wide Nebraska is!) we entered Iowa and saw a sign advertising a Danish windmill. As in a not flat structure that wasn’t a grain elevator. Such an anomalous site certainly deserved our visit, so we got off the freeway and went to Elkhorn, Iowa.

It was a very quirky place serving a Danish smörgåsbord for lunch. I didn’t realize that there was a Danish cuisine, and I’m not sure that a windmill in Iowa is the ideal location for encountering it for the first time. I remember pickled beets. Beyond that, nothing sticks in my memory.

They were very friendly which made up for the less than stellar food. The gift shop was all items imported from Denmark, and I bought a lovely tile to put hot dishes on at the table. It said (in Danish)

When I was using my handy Google Translate tool as I wrote this, I discovered that it is in Norwegian. But it turns out that the two languages are very similar. In case you don’t use it, Google Translate is free and is indispensable when reading blogs from around the world. Although the translations are very literal, and don’t work very well for poetry, they do allow me to read writers I would otherwise pass over.

As Google tells me “For dit helbred”, (to your health in Danish.)