COPENHAGEN AND CRUISES

After suffering from desynchronosis for the past week, I have decided that the time has finally come to start my entries in my blog about our trip on the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia.

Ruth Turpin, our travel agent who owns Cruises, Etc., had made arrangements for a car service to pick us up and the chauffeur arrived at our door at 2:30 in the afternoon. Once we had finished packing our bags, we didn't have to touch them again until we got to our room in Copenhagen. It was wonderful.
We were fortunate enough to be able to fly Business Class. Since we had a 2 1/2 hour layover in London at Heathrow before we went on to Denmark, there was a wheelchair waiting for me when we got off the plane because the walk from the plane to the Admiral's Club was what seemed like a million miles long. We walked, (I rode) for nearly 30 minutes before arriving at the club. Heathrow is a HUGE airport with 7 equally large terminals in all. It is the 3rd largest and busiest airport in the world.

We used to fly in and out of Gatwick when we would visit London, but now American has discontinued their service there and only use Heathrow. It's like a city unto itself, not only in size but with all the different stores inside, not to mention the number of people! The entire world is represented there.
There are a few advantages with being old and crippled in that when you're either using a cane or in a wheelchair, they take you to the front of all the lines and you just scoot right through without any questions of any wait. It's really quite nice and Frank gets to take advantage of this geriatric perk since he's with me ;-)
We arrived at the Scandic Hotel,

had a little drink and then took a 2 hour nap. We had seats that made into beds so we had both slept quite a bit on the plane, but thought we'd still better rest up a bit since we had been traveling nearly 16 hours. There's nothing more satisfying after a long flight than slipping into a bed with cool, crisp sheets and actually stretching out completely.

When we awakened from our nap, we went down to the hotel restaurant, had a light supper and were back in bed by 9:00. I might add that food in Denmark is unbelievably expensive. Since we weren't very hungry we each had a cup of soup and split a hamburger and the bill was $86 American dollars. Glad we weren't real hungry!
We have friends that we met on the China trip last year who will be joining us tomorrow in Copenhagen. Their names are Jack and Helen Lassley and they live in Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

When we awakened the next morning, I looked out the window and saw this wonderful sight. Here we are in a very contemporary hotel and just across the street bathed in the morning sunlight, these lovely old sun drenched buildings greeted us.

Our hotel is centrally located and we are very close to Tivoli Gardens which is a famous amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The park opened on August 15, 1843 and, except for Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Klampenborg, it is the oldest amusement park which has survived intact to the present day.

We went down to the dining room for breakfast the next morning and there was a lovely buffet breakfast waiting for us. I think most everyone at the hotel was going on a cruise of one sort or another. I had pate with mustard and cornichones on a hard roll along with a sweet roll for my breakfast "dessert". That was my kind of breakfast! One of the reasons that food here is so expensive is that they have a VAT tax, plus a MOM tax plus the service charge which is automatically added in, so the tax alone is 45-60% and that doesn't include an expected tip! I don't think I'd have to worry about my weight if I lived here.
Just as we were finishing our breakfast, the Lassley's came in so we sat with them while they had their breakfast. We decided to take a city bus tour since we only had a day and a half left here.

That seemed to be the best way to get an overview of the city.
Our tour didn't begin until 1:30, so Frank and I strolled across the street to a lovely park and watched the swans that were on the lake.

It was not quite as big a production as the ballet, Swan Lake, but the birds were as graceful as the dancers that grace the stage in that lovely ballet.

There was a family with 2 baby swans and they swam all the way across the little lake to get a closer look at us.

I'm so sorry that we didn't have anything to feed them because I'm sure that was what they were expecting!
As we left the hotel for our tour it began to rain. We all had brought umbrellas and the necessary apparel for inclimate weather, so we were prepared. We walked about 12 blocks to get to the place where the tour bus would pick us up.

We had a good bus tour but when we got to the place where we were to transfer to a boat for a tour of the canals, the bottom literally fell out and there was a torrential downpour!

We were given headsets at the beginning of the tour to be able to hear our guide. Poor Frank has always had trouble with the little "ear buds" that come with electronic devices. When I saw him with his on the bus, I now understand why!

When we continued on our way, it was raining so hard that we didn't even get to see the Little Mermaid but there was a replica of her at our hotel, so that was better than nothing.

The original statue of The Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the Copenhagen harbour at Langelinie. This small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction. The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre and asked the primaballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue.

The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. The statue’s head was modelled after Price, but as the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor’s wife Eline Eriksen was used for the body.
It was now nearly 3:00 so we opted to skip the part of the tour that would have taken us down the canals and have a bite of lunch.

When we finally found a place that was suitable, we discovered that we didn't have the right currency and their credit card machine was down. We had this adorable waiter, so I asked him if I could take his photograph.

After I had totally embarrassed the poor boy, we put all of our money on the table and asked him to work it out and see what we could get for that amount. We didn't have any of the local currency since we were leaving the next day and the exchange rate to turn it in is dreadful. at any rate, Frank and I had a lovely lunch of Filet of Plaice with tiny shrimp and onions on top.

Plaice is sometimes used as the fish in fish and chips, in countries where the dish is popular. In North German and Danish cuisine plaice is one of the most commonly eaten fishes. Filleted, battered and pan-fried plaice is popular hot or cold as an open sandwich or served alone with remoulade sauce and lemon slices. We were first introduced to it by a British friend of ours the first time we were in London. It's delicious. If you ever see it on a menu, I would encourage you to order it. You won't be disappointed.
After lunch we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel and the Lassley's decided to walk. It was still raining but not nearly as hard. We walked back through this wonderful plaza while we were trying to find a taxi and the water on the sidewalks made it look magical.

When we returned, we talked to the Concierge and he recommended a restaurant for our evening meal that was only a few blocks from the hotel called Il Pecatto

and it was charming. The food was delectable and we enjoyed every bite. Frank had cockles and pasta in a garlic butter sauce.

Cockle is the common name for edible bivalve mollusks of the family Cardiidae. Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world. I'm not much for that kind of seafood but the presentation was very tempting.

I love oysters, but other than that I don't care for clams or muscles, so I had some Lasagna and played it safe. He said that the cockles were delicious and ate every one of them. Helen had the most beautiful scampi that I have ever seen.

We shared Tiramasu for our dessert. It was a great closure to a wonderful meal and a wonderful stay in Copenhagen.

We're off to the port tomorrow to embark on our Baltic sea cruise and wonderful places in this magical land. beginning with a visit to Estonia. Stay tuned!!!

XOXO, Pcasso