"I expect your view of the Vikings was of all the raping and stealing they were supposed to do?" said a woman's voice beside me as I looked, in awe, at the contents of the museum case. I had been studying a small exquisite gold and silver broach made during the Viking Era in Denmark. I turned to look at the woman beside me.
She was about 35, slim, smartly dressed in a short sleeved fine wool sweater of a pale peachy colour, which was exactly matched, by her lipstick. Her skirt was a camel colour and reached her mid calf. She carried a black leather brief case. Stylish, her blond hair was swept up into a pleat and she wore thin gold framed glasses. Her face was lightly tanned and she looked as if she spent quite a bit of her time in outdoor pursuits, like many Scandinavians.
She went on to explain, "I expect your British history taught you about the raids and epic voyages but left out mentioning what skilled craftsmen the Vikings were?"
There was an amused hostility in her voice.
"Well, yes there was quite a bit about the invasions. I did know about their wonderful stone carving but I had never seen this sort of delicate work," I replied.
I had genuinely been impressed by the cases of silver and gold work I had seen in the museum that morning. She asked if this was my first visit to Denmark. I explained that I was spending a few days with some Danish friends of my parents in Copenhagen. Sadly my hosts had had to travel to Jutland to attend a family funeral for a couple of days. They had taken me round to see some of Copenhagen over the last couple of days and had now made some suggestions of things I might like to visit on my own while they were away.
We had a brief chat beside the display case. It turned out that the lady was from Sweden and she had a one-year lectureship in art history at one of the Art Colleges near Copenhagen. She was killing time before a meeting with one of the curators in this museum.
She checked her watch. "Look, I am planning to have lunch here. There is a good cheap café/bar on the second floor. Please come and join me, if you would like to. Say around 1.00pm."
She smiled at the look of surprise that must have been obvious on my face.
"I would be delighted to," I replied.
She half turned and added, "My name is Anna, by the way."
"Jim." I said as I rather stupid held out my hand. She smiled that little half smile again and shook it, before turning away and walking out of the gallery.
***
Just after 1.00 I found the café and there was Anna sitting at a small table with an older man in a dark blue jacket.
"Ah Jim, come and meet Dr Hooghenholst. Jim is a student from England and is exploring the Viking silver work."
Dr Hooghenholst pulled another chair up to the table and motioned for me to sit with them.
"I'll just go and get a bit to eat and join you in minute if I may," I said.
As I returned with my tray Dr Hooghenholst got up to leave, said goodbye to Anna and rather pointedly ignored me.
"How did the morning go?" I asked.
He had helped her find some of the reference material she needed and had made some useful suggestions for her to follow up.
"Look, I am sorry if I arrived too early. I got the impression that Dr Hooghenholst was not very pleased to see me!"
"He may not have been, but I was! He has been trying to get into my knickers for about a year now. Oh! perhaps I should not have said that quite like that!" and we both laughed. I must admit that it was a bit of a shock to hear her speak like that. Somehow it didn't quite fit the cool sophisticated image she created.
We went on to talk about our backgrounds. She came from mid Sweden and after studying at Art College there she had done some freelance interior design and photography before getting a lecturing job in Stockholm before coming to Denmark. She told me in such a way that further discussion on the subject was blocked that she was not married . I told her about the University engineering course I had just finished, and how I had just been dumped by my girl friend of three years. And that was why this trip was a voyage into new territory and fresh horizons.
About an hour later she began to gather things together.
"Look, what are you planning for tonight?" Anna asked. "If your hosts are away, why not come round to supper?"
"Really? That would be great but only if it is no trouble." I was a bit overwhelmed but I enthusiastically accepted.
"I eat simply and often on my own" she explained, "But I am sure we could enjoy ourselves." Again her little half smile seemed to indicate something else.
She gave me instructions of how to get to her place. It was only a couple of stops on the green metro line and a short walk from where I was staying.
The rest of the afternoon was a bit of blur. The museum had somehow lost its hold, window-shopping was a bore but I did enjoy just sitting in a café on the side of a waterway wondering about what might happen during our supper date.
***
I rang her doorbell having been back home to change from my jeans and T-shirt into my only decent shirt and chinos. As she opened the door I gave the little bunch of flowers I had bought at the metro. It was clearly the right thing as she stood back in mock amazement and then kissed me lightly on the cheek. I followed her up the stairs to her flat.
She was wearing a short sleeved pale blue wrap around cardigan with a tie at the waist, like the ballet dancers wear. Her hair was held in a dark blue scrunch and she had a full ankle length dark blue cotton skirt with a motif of small white flowers. Her hair swung as she climbed the stairs.
"Do come in and make yourself at home. Did you have any trouble finding me? What would you like to drink? I am having a German white wine. I find it is enough to relax me and sharpen my appetite with out being too heavy and sleep inducing like those French reds."
She seemed as nervous I felt. I reassured her that her instructions had been perfect and I would love to try the same wine even though I longed for something warming and comforting. She indicated an armchair for me while she went into the galley kitchen to get the drinks.
The flat was like Anna, cool and a simple with rather bare beech furniture and a couple of brightly coloured rugs of some ethnic origin. There were a number of large black and white photographs on the walls. On the far wall was a lake scene with some large rocks in the foreground. Near where I was sitting in an armchair was a beautiful birch woodland glade with a female nude partly hidden by trees. The only colour photo was a rather surrealistic image in greens and blues but from where I was sitting I could not make out what the objects were.
Anna passed me a glass and our fingers touched as I took it. That contact seemed much more erotic than the simple kiss she had given me earlier.
"What interesting photos you have. Did you take them?" I asked.
"Oh no! They are far too good for me! They are by a fellow art student when we were in college. She is brilliant isn't she? It was a delight for me to be her model." She quietly admitted.
Looking at the woodland scene again I said in an almost unbelieving voice, "Oh so that is you coming out of the trees?"
She laughed, "Yes, it is me. I was younger then. But what makes you think I am coming out from behind the trees and not going into them?"
It was a good question and I got up to look more closely at the picture. The nude was holding onto the tree with her right hand, which had slightly raised her right breast. She was standing with her left knee slightly forward but not enough to cover her pubic hair. Her head was turned looking at something in the trees to her right. I hadn't noticed another figure lying on the ground almost obscured by the trees. I could not make out whether it was male or female. I told Anna it was very strange to be looking so closely at a nude photograph of the lady in front of me!
"We have a different attitude to being naked than you, I think?" she laughed. "Haven't you had your photo taken without your clothes on?"
