Habitat For Humanity (HFH)

Many of you wonder just what it is I do with my time (well, maybe 1 or 2 of you wonder, possibly, when you haven't had a bakery update in a while), and here is proof that most of the time I am wondering how to disentangle myself from the trials and tribulations of everyday life.

Here I am doing one of the many executive level (OK, higher level) HFH jobs, figuring out how to get the hose from the compressor to connect up to the nail gun that is somewhere up on the scaffolding near where I am standing. Unfortunately, I seemed to be having such fun figuring out how to do this particular task that one of my co-workers surreptitiously took my picture. Maybe he thought these might be the last shots ever taken of me at HFH before somehow there was a serious accident and it was not going to be a pretty meeting of the hose, the gun, the scaffolding and my neck or hands.

I can't tell you how rewarding this type of endeavor is, you will have to experience for yourself. If you're interested, let me know and I'll "hook you up" as a volunteer.

THB

Day 15 (and 16) - Emeryville

Day 15
- (Repeat) Quotes (expanded) of the day
- In Transit
- Our Danes being themselves
- One more quote

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken.

Broken bottles, broken plates,
Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts.
Broken words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is broken.

Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground
Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',
Everything is broken.

Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face
Broken hands on broken ploughs,
Broken treaties, broken vows,
Broken pipes, broken tools,
People bending broken rules.
Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,
Everything is broken.

Head to the airport, the fare is a 20 kroners more than when we arrived. DB exchanges remainder of money, with the exchange fees taken out we might as well have thrown half of the kroners in the canal before we left and donated the other half to the Visa Signature Orphans of Denmark fund.

Wait in a line for 40 minutes just to check our bags, SAS tops United’s SFO record. Plane is then delayed as one of the passenger’s visa is not valid (different kind of visa? Maybe not, this is Denmark after all) and his/her baggage needs to be taken off the plane. We’re in the exit row with tons of leg room and a 20 kilo door to be thrown off the wing in case of an emergency. I take the window seat just in case.

Arrive at London for our 3 hour layover (shortened slightly due to bad visa), or so we think. It takes 45 minutes to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 where the United check-in is located and we have to go through security again, another 20 minutes (slowwwwwwww). We have already checked in and got our SFO boarding passes in Copenhagen for the London-SFO flight, and thus once again have encountered the “tear up the existing boarding pass and replace it with a very fresh, new, looks a lot like the last one and functions exactly the same way” board pass. We now find out that Wagamama is in Terminal 5 and it is another 30-35 minutes each way between Terminal 1 and Terminal 5. Sartre’s No Exit is starting to seem the appropriate stand-in-line read.

Believing we don't have enough time to get to Wagamama, we eat a truly horrible meal at Giraffe, in Terminal 1, because DB remembers the truly horrible meal she ate at the pub in Terminal 1 and won’t eat there again. If this keeps up, we will start booking 14 hour layovers (as we did on way to India) to ensure we get a good meal in London, anywhere outside Terminal 1. The restaurant takes Visa, it works with one simple swipe, and we know we are getting ever closer to the land of easy credit again.

Finish up and head to the gate, get there exactly 1 hour and 5 minutes before our flight departs because Heathrow doesn’t assign gates to flights much before departure, so you are stuck out in the generic shopping district longer (oh, and provides the airport flexibility of assigning gates, sort of, within a range of gates since United can’t be anywhere but within a few gates of each other in Terminal 1).

At exactly 55 minutes before the flight is supposed to leave there is an announcement that the flight status will now be announced at 3pm (about 2 hours from now) at the earliest (and 50 minutes after departure), due to mechanical troubles. Oh, and they move us out of the gate area because Air NZ needs it.

In our new waiting spot down a few gates, we now get someone giving shouted announcements. And, of course, the delay means that we had enough time to get to Wagamama for lunch. No, that was not the announcement, that was just the thoughts running through my head!

Our new fear: we will be able to eat there for dinner (so maybe Wagamama is on after all). The shouted announcement is that they have had a computer malfunction and are reinstalling it and it should only take 20 minutes (for those of you old enough to remember this, DB and I immediately think the same thing: is the quote in computer room time or real time, they are definitely NOT same-same, they are same-same BUT different).

And, why does the plane need it a computer, it is just back-up to all those that are really flying the plane by leaning the opposite way when the plane takes a turn, pedaling faster through turbulence, and using telepathy to tell the pilots how to handle the controls. Strictly backup…

We finally board (they had to bus us three gates down because we're not allowed to cross through Air NZ gate space anymore, we might contaminate them), and we have the best premium economy seats ever, we’re in the two seats behind where the crew gets to relax and their seats can fully recline so the ones right behind them have massive leg room. Damn! We leave a little over two hours late, Katie picks up at the airport and we are eating Arizmendi pizza by mid Saturday night. End of the story, thanks all for reading along with the blog.

OOOPS, not the end of the story! The next night we get an e-mail from our Danish exchangers, they got in late after many hours traveling (gosh, wonder if they had the same exact experience we did in London? No, their similar amount of travel has put them in even worse shape, they feel things so much stronger than we do, like the weather) and they report we have ruined their $10,000 leather chair. How could we do that? We knew it was precious to them. What do we propose to do?

What a bookend, they have managed to put us in a tizzy at the beginning of the exchange AND at the end. Pretty impressive!

After much discussion amongst ourselves and with a few friends, we draft a reply that basically says: if you don’t want someone to sit on your furniture, you need to either tell them explicitly or put the stuff away. Normal use is basically what happens on an exchange (although during this drama I loved the story about the people that parked their motorcycle in the middle of the living room…guess nobody suggested NOT to do that).

Best advice we got: don’t send anything back right away, wait another 12 hours. We go to sleep, and lo and behold, here comes another e-mail, we are so sorry, our neighbors (the ones we got motorboated by and treated to lunch) have come to our defense and said the damage existed before we go to Denmark and we were the sort of people that would not abuse furniture.

Maybe karma does work, though I sure believed eating a ton and half of Danish pastry in all its myriad forms would have inured us from all this in the first place.

Thus, the story ends.

One last (I promise!) (repeat) quote:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? — To die, to sleep

Copenhagen (and Berlin) Wrapen-upenen

Wrapen-upenen
- Final Quotes
- Copenhagen Final Quiz
- Book Reviews
- Copenhagen Observations
- Copenhagen vs. Berlin

This is I, Hamlet the Dane!

Now, he's hell-bent for destruction, he's afraid and confused,
And his brain has been mismanaged with great skill.
All he believes are his eyes
And his eyes, they just tell him lies.


Copenhagen Final Quiz:
THB commends all those that managed to not submit their scores for the final Berlin quiz (that being everyone), and makes the same recommendation for this quiz: that you not try for too high a score, that might put you in running for the prize.
1. Did DB sleep through the TV going off at 11:45? Five points
2. If you have 385 euros on you, enter Denmark and get 2250 kroner from an ATM, find a loose $500 bill in your wallet, and decide to visit Noma for dinner, how much money do you have left at the end of the evening? Ten points for coming within 5,000,000 rupees.
3. How many days did it rain in two weeks:
a. 4
b. 8
c. 12
d. 16
e. 20
Five points for correct answer
4. If you buy a ten ride metro pass for $26 and you take two rides, how much does it cost per ride? 1 point, and minus five points for an incorrect answer, and minus ten points for skipping this question
5. Which night did we get a good bottle of Chilean wine? Which night did we get to drink bad Chilean wine? Ten points
6. What day did they come around on some sort of people-crane and wash the windows? Was it raining? Ten points for right day, zero points for answering correctly to “was it raining?”.
7. Would you pay $17 per person to just stroll around Tivoli Gardens? Five points
8. If there is one artist THB does not want to see an art gallery, who might that be? Five points and a picture of skull encrusted with diamonds signed by someone who is paid by someone who may or may not know the artist
9. If the access to the computers is up a steep flight of narrow-rung stairs, which person checked their e-mail more often: DB or THB? Which person checked the Dow level more often: DB or THB? Which looked at the baseball scores on ESPN more: THB or THB? Five points for each correct answer
10. How many times did THB buy something at Lagkagehuset? Ten points for correct answer, and a bonus of 10 points if you can correctly translate Lagkagehuset (into Lithuanian Spanish)
11. Is it easier to find somewhere if you have already been there? Five points for correct answer and additional five points if you correctly state the number of maps THB consulted during bike rides
12. Name the one appliance you should go out and purchase right this minute? Five points, and an additional five points if you pronounced it arrow-chino when reading it to yourself, and fifty points if you pronounced it that way when telling someone else to go out and buy one
13. What makes mail carriers stand out in Denmark, five points:
a. They ride bikes to make their deliveries
b. They ride three wheeler bikes with a big yellow box on the front
c. They wear striped shirts with the cuffs unbuttoned and maybe rolled up
d. They wear shorts, regardless of the weather
e. It takes some getting used to recognizing these casual types as having some well defined purpose in life
f. All of the above
14. If a Dane says “please” what can you discern from this? Twenty points
15. If you visit a restaurant in Fyn and see a dish being served and the waitress tells you it is an omelet yet looks like a soufflé with potatoes and vegetables piled on top, and later you ask a waiter outside a café in Copenhagen if they have that dish and he laughs wickedly and says in perfect English: There is no special omelet dish in Denmark, whom do you believe? Five points
16. If the flower pots needed watering, would you contort yourself over the edge of the lip of the canal and try and insert a key into a lock, turn on the water and then pull out a 20 foot hose now full of water, or would you fill up a small pitcher and make numerous runs from the kitchen to the backyard? Ten points for identifying which method THB used and which DB used, and twenty points for correctly identifying which one DB suggested THB try after her own attempted method
17. How much money (in kroners) do you need to keep in your bank account if the only method of payment other than cash is a debit card, ten points
a. 5000
b. 10000
c. 20000
d. 30000
e. 80000
f. More
18. Is it better to do the “easy” house exchange first or second? Ten points
19. Metaphysical question, award yourself as many points as you like for your answer: if Ikea is a Danish company that makes extremely well-made low cost furniture and furnishings, how is that Denmark is the most expensive city in the world? If you realize that Denmark is a country, then give yourself at least a few metaphysical points and a few more if you believe Ikea is a Danish company
20. Will you think of Bob Dylan the next time you hear anything having to do with William Shakespeare? One thousand points for correct answer
21. Twenty points for correctly Identifying any of the pictures, 100 points for figuring out the theme of the pictures

The person replying with the most number of points within 5 days of this posting is entitled to one Emeryville Arizmendi t-shirt; please send your size with your answer. Oh, and you must “post” your answer as a comment on the blog, so please make sure to identify yourself with your point total if you post anonymously; e-mail answers not allowed (except with special dispensation, so make your plea sound better than the others who respond via e-mail or posted their answer via blog comments)

Book Reviews:
• Gertrude and Claudius, John Updike: The love affair between Hamlet’s mother and her brother-in-law, the future king, while the King was still alive. Quite good (best thing I ever read of Updike’s, I am not a big fan) and a fast read (not read on this trip). Available in Kindle edition.
• Spiral Jetta, Erin Hogan. A trip through the southwest to visit the great earthwork art projects or, in one case, to attempt to visit the great earthwork art projects, plus a visit to Marfa for the Judd experience. This book definitely reads like a travel blog, though shorter and easier to read than some you may be familiar with. It is informative, includes a bit of art history and recent commentary from Kimmelman, Tompkins and a few other contemporary profilers of the artists. The title is a play on words, the author drives a Jetta and her first stop is Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Available in Kindle edition
• The World Is What It Is: Patrick French. Biography of V.S. Naipaul. To paraphrase Naipaul himself: He is NOT a nice man, HE is not a nice man, he is not a nice MAN, and he is (really) not a NICE man (the guy had a verbal tic of repeating himself, emphasizing different words in the sentence each time). However, he did enable French, giving him free and unlimited access to archives and friends, and did not retain any rights of censorship on the book (he couldn’t have!). The book itself is reasonably well written, not too wordy when it comes to the books written by Naipaul, and a great look at a man in his time since Naipaul was more journalist than novelist. I have read several of Naipaul’s books (fiction and non-fiction) and the books do not really reflect at all what he is like in real life, not a clue. If you want to read a book that exposes a well-known guy as a truly, completely arrogant asshole, in his own words and those of his first wife (through her journals), this is the book for you. I couldn’t stop reading! Available in Kindle edition
• Beginner’s Greek: James Collins. A novel about a 25-30 year old guy that has a chance encounter on a plane with a young woman, falls in love with her on the flight, loses contact and then re-encounters her when she has hooked up with his best friend. A well-written fluff piece with a Hollywood ending. Probably submitted as an ironic movie script. Available in Kindle edition
• Cloud Atlas: David Mitchell, takes me 30 pages to realize I have already read this book, and at that can't remember finishing it. NOT recommended

Observations:
• The Danes dress very casually, and seem to realize that they live in a very expensive country with good social services provided in exchange for very high taxes. Much friendlier in person, and everyone we met here seemed for the most part interested in helping out once they “knew” us
• Hey, it rains a lot here in summer, day after day, and is a lot less humid than Berlin, a lot less
• Once you get used to it, getting around via bikes is terrific, until you realize it rains a lot here in summer and that it must be really brutal in winter. Good to know that the public transportation is also quite extensive (except in the newer housing development south of Copenhagen, which was a very expensive ghost town)
• Danes are even more rule followers than what we saw in Berlin; best example was early on Sunday morning where a jogger was waiting patiently for the light to turn green and as best we could tell there was not a car coming anywhere near the intersection she needed to cross, it was clear for miles (other than us, and we weren’t crossing in front of her).
• Countryside is full of wheat fields, not too many animals (we saw more horses than cows or sheep)
• They don’t eat a lot of leafy green vegetables, and most vegetables come in some sort of sauce, and they do love their new potatoes
• Driving was pretty easy and most things are very well marked until it comes to reading the street signs with their long complicated names and changing every few blocks to another long complicated name
• Ice cream here is overrated, though heavily indulged in; a six scooper waffle cone was on every open air menu and we saw plenty of people order them. Somehow with all the great pastry and ice cream eaten, they look in great shape: lots of people exercising and plenty of bike riding instead of getting around in cars
• There’s smoking here, and maybe it is about what you would see in the US give or take a few percent, and way less than Germany
• DB felt that the famed Danish design was somewhat limited and you saw the same items over and over again. I thought the best store we found was Moomentstore and it turned out to have not a lot of items, many of which were from Japan, US or Germany (sometimes done in collaboration with Danish designers)


Berlin vs Copenhagen: 5 points awarded for each category won
Accommodations: Berlin, mostly because everything was so easy and accessible, though the swimming in the canal right outside our back door was a huge plus for Copenhagen. Sleeping separately and climbing the stairway to computer heaven huge drawbacks in Copenhagen
Art: Berlin even if the galleries in Copenhagen had been open. Though Louisiana makes it a pretty tight category, the museum in Leipzig was even more of a wonder
Bath tub: Copenhagen had one and Berlin did not
Cars: Copenhagen by default, though on second thought, the cost of gas and bridge tolls gives this one to Berlin (and the train to and from Spinnerei was driven by someone else and required no navigation)
Cost: DUH! If you don’t get this one right, you stopped reading after we left Berlin
Dress: Both towns are extremely casual, to the extent that anyone wearing what we would call business casual really stood out. The Danish women seem to be in one uniform, combinations of black and white, black and grey, black and black, and black and anything else. They definitely looked good in their uniforms! Copenhagen
Drinking: Beer and wine better in Berlin
Entertainment: Then we take Berlin, Leonard Cohen in a landslide over five days of Metallica
Exchangers: We know the Danes were disappointed at the beginning of their beach stay, so Berlin for now (they come next August)
Food (unprepared): The best bakery in Europe and good produce in Copenhagen overcomes the much better prices in the Berlin stores
Neighbors: Gerry the Indian aficionado vs. Helle and Jergen, category winner is Copenhagen; though Gerry was wonderful, he didn’t mortorboat us
Outdoor cafes: Berlin, available all day long and the city is basically one large sidewalk café that never ends.
Reading: I had read one book that took place in Copenhagen, The Exception by Christian Jurgersen (translated, available in Kindle edition), which is a very good psychoanalytic thriller. However, I had trouble finding other recent releases dealing with Denmark. Berlin was not a problem, three books all read while in town. Sounds likes Berlin, except the quotes of the day were from some obscure work that takes place in the north of Zealand. Toss-up
Restaurants: Berlin, on overall quality and price, though we think we had a few better meals in Copenhagen, we also had some real duds
Smoking: Copenhagen, with about 40% fewer of the population lighting up at all times of the day
Sports: Wimbledon vs. Tour de France, Copenhagen, because we were biking all over town while Contador was leading Astana to the yellow jersey (and we don’t play tennis), even with great show by Williams sisters and Roger achieving 15 slams
Touring: Interesting comparison, Leipzig and the infamous trip to Spinnerei vs. Fyn and the Funish group. Bad food in both, better scenery in Fyn, great art in Leipzig gives points to Berlin
Transportation: Bikes vs. the S- and U-Bahns. Toss-up, both great
Water: the water in Copenhagen was much nicer, we actually felt like our hair was clean after shampooing, and we were actually able to get tap water with a meal in Copenhagen, impossible in Berlin
Weather: Copenhagen, even with all its rain, over the humidity of Berlin
Overall: Berlin, by a small margin

Day 14 - Copenhagen

Day 14
- Quotes of the day
- Lunch with the three pigs
- THB is bitter, how bitter? Very bitter!
- BBQ in the hood

The rest is silence.

Senor, senor, let's disconnect these cables,
Overturn these tables.
This place don't make sense to me no more.
Can you tell me what we're waiting for, senor?

We begin our last full day in Copenhagen with a E-ville Friday tradition: we walk to the bakery for breakfast, and buy a giant half of a cinnamon bun done up as a circle. Mighty sweet!

Organize the packing, do a bit of cleaning, revel in the fact that stock market is higher than we left, then do a bit of touring our area on bikes. Notice that they kill the weeds on the sidewalks and meridians by burning them, they carry a stick and tank like you might see when pesticide is sprayed on the weeds, except this stick has a flame coming out of it! Take in the Foster-Partners architecture museum (I guess it is a museum, maybe it is just a branch office recouping costs). Kind of a novel idea, put up a bunch of big pictures and text illustrating your major projects, some of which will never be done (and not Terminal 3 in Beijing Airport), and charge admission. We are pensioners so only pay $5 each. There are actually other people there. Hmmmmmm...

We get on the bikes for the final ride, head across town past Lele’s to Les Trois Cochons. Order moules med frites and hunks of bread, glass of wine and one good (gourmentbyrgghery) beer. Excellent meal and the waiter throws in the frites for free (not sure why). They aren’t busy, so of course we chat him up a bit. He is Danish, speaks English to the Canadian chef (from Toronto), and the chef also speaks Icelandic in order to speak with his girlfriend. Nobody appears to speak French, though the menu is in Danish and French, meaning we can read it! The waiter’s a nice guy, gives us a $40 gift certificate to use at Cochons or one of Cochons’ sister restaurants, problem is they can’t take us tonight on our last night so we are passing it along to our exchangers.

Why is THB bitter? The total for lunch is $60 (hey, this is a bargain, and the $40 gift certificate comes along too, THB is NOT bitter at all about that). The Visa machine is broken! Gosh, really? Yep, since yesterday. THB is trying to manage the last of the kroner so that we don’t get stuck with a bunch upon leaving. Pay in cash (the only option).

As we are touring the neighborhood after lunch, we spot an item that would be perfect for the nice person picking us up at Bart, and the store doesn’t take Visa unless you use a pin. We don’t have enough cash to pay for item and cab to airport tomorrow. Better to use ATM, because we can pay store and recoup dollars for rest of stay.

Off THB goes down the block to the nearest branch, and the bank rejects his ATM card. Back to the store to use the ATM card there with pin code. Store Visa rejects THB’s Visa and ATM card. Two rejections, one broken machine, and one “we don’t take Visa with signature,” all in the space of 20 minutes or so. Gosh, maybe THB is wrong, this is really a third world country masquerading as a first world country. Store clerk tries her Visa debit card and after a long wait, it works. THB tries his Visa debit card (using pin) again and after a long wait, it works. Then THB goes to an ATM (at a different bank) and it works. By now, you are bitter that THB is taking up a lot of room in the blog with his bitterness. It’s bitter out there, very bitter.

Dinner tonight at the place we ate our first meal out in Copenhagen, BBQ. Wanna bet if Visa works this time? DB makes a reservation and confirms they take Visa (again).

Back to house to rest up, time for a dip, and it is awesome! Bright blue sky, warmth of the sun, water is refreshing, the perfect temperature. THB feels the bitterness sliding off him into the Baltic. Take advantage of the weather to sunbathe, which lasts maybe another ten minutes when the next (brief) storm arrives. Hey, another day with rain! That’s novel, too.

Walk to dinner, first we take in a pretty weak art opening for Lyst, a gay organization that is timed to coincide with the Out Games taking place this upcoming week. Not much art, everyone buying a beer for $3.

Dinner at Bastionen and Loven, first course is “pocket” off the grill of goat cheese, yellow beets, olives and sliced almonds, and is very good. Help-yourself to green salad and tomatoes and mozzarella salad, then a choice of salmon, lamb or chicken cooked on the grill, with sides off the buffet of corn on the cob (surprisingly good) and new potatoes (NO surprise). The lamb and salmon are perfect, and we talk ourselves into asking for seconds on the salmon, which they give us for free. With three glasses of wine, $120. And, yes, Visa works and the bitterness is somewhere out near the middle of the Baltics. However, THB forgets to pay partly in kroner, so DB is now faced with spending the extra $40 or so in the Copenhagen airport, I am sure she will manage somehow.

And, in true Copenhagen style, we see lightning in the distance as we are settling up, and it starts to rain on the walk home. Gonna really miss the rain, I sure am.

Day 13 - Copenhagen

Day 13
- Quotes of the day
- Rain, thunder, and lightning
- Roskilde
- Dinner in the hood

Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed

We are seeing an amazing number of kids under 5 and lots of pregnant women (even very pregnant women on bikes).

We get a brief note from our exchangers, they have managed to hang on at the beach long enough that the sun came out for a few days (and there was fog all around them, north and south). Here, we are having torrential storms. Seems pretty clear that we are locked into some zero sum weather pattern with them.

Lunch is sandwiches from Lagkagehuset, tuna and chicken, eating in today. We both notice they don’t quite get the filling all the way down the baguette, hmmmmm…$23 including some crackers I can’t resist.

As we drive out for Roskilde, we decide to head west through Copenhagen. This gives us our first (and only) opportunity to personally activate the lowering of the bollard for us to cross over from Holmen the short way out. Down goes the bollard, green goes the light, over we go, nervously. All is fine, we decide to come back via freeway and the back route, so that is why it’s our only experience with lowering bollards (demeaning bollards, cutting down bollards, putting bollards six feet under?).


Then with the weather clearing to just overcast, we complete the 40 kilometer drive and head for the Viking ship museum and a tour on the fiord. The museum has pieces of real ships sunk a thousand years ago (see pics). They also have replicas floating in the water outside; you can even book a trip on them. We go to pay the museum fee ($20 each) and one of the Visa devices is broken and the other will not accept our card (debit only). This causes a bit of friction between us, I think that three museums in a row (prime tourist spots) that don’t take an international credit card sinks the country to second world status (overstated, I admit), and of course DB is telling me I have it wrong. Other than Germany, where tourist spots did take Visa, it was only the restaurants that didn’t and they didn’t pretend to take only certain types of Visa cards, I haven’t been anywhere including China and India and Argentina where they are this adamant about not taking Visa. Doubt this is part of the financial crisis, it sure doesn’t make all that much sense to me in a country that is so damn expensive.

The other semi-plausible possibility is that since they charge a 2.5 - 4% fee to use Visa, nobody does and the staff doing the ringing up has grown so rusty they can't remember how to use the machine when signature is required. That does happen, shouldn't at places with as high Visa traffic as tourist museums.

We head over to the boat ride on the fiord, they are sold out for the 3pm tour, the only time other than Noma something has been booked full and we can’t get in. We decide not to wait for the 7pm cruise, tour the town on foot (KB: check out the pics of the Danish Fat Boy recliner), clearly this is not the chi-chi area of Copenhagen we are used to, more like Modesto than SF. The other two pics: famous cathedral (massive, brick, done over different eras) and a nini-model of Roskilde.

Then head back to our place to once again find the Tour de France at just the right spot with top contenders on the time trial course, and another spurt of heavy rain. Lance climbs back on the podium, Alberto is golden.


It is still raining lightly, we decide for dinner to ride our bikes over to the local spot where we had brunch on Sunday, Yes, you read correctly, we rode our bikes in the rain to dinner. Einor unenes Copenhagenerens. Rhetorical question: they do this in winter?

Frederiks Bastion (or is it Christians Bastion? Maybe next year they change the name?) for dinner. We are two of the only five diners tonight. And, the food is extraordinary, a first course of potato and onion soup topped with burnt onion salt (rich and extremely good, made to be shared) and four small (very small) fresh Icelandic shrimp with 4 small elderberries (I think) and some other exotic local seasoning and herbs, served on a plate of ice, with dry ice underneath so the dish comes in its own fog. We eat these with our fingers, almost too delicate and beautiful to eat with forks. Too small to share and too good not to, we each get two exquisite mouthfuls. UNBELIEVABLE! This guy could be a top sushi chef just on presentation alone.

Main courses: one of chicken, the other of rooster, both excellent, one with beets done three different ways, the other with fresh carrots, and of course the bowl of new potatoes. Then we share a dense small (phew!) slice of chocolate cake (sort of like a decadence, though I think there is some flour) and served on shregr (my spelling), which is a tart yogurt made by the restaurant. Bottle of sauvignon blanc/viognier blend, total is $180.

We chat up the chef over dessert, not hard as his night of cooking is over. He’s local, spent two years cooking in Oslo. His food is very impressive and he is really working hard to get the natural flavors of the ingredients to shine through and enhance what you’re eating, not overwhelm the food, my kind of guy!

Ride back, it isn’t raining, thankfully. We hear from our exchange partners that things have looked up at the beach, they’ve been roaming up and down the coast and even playing tennis and sitting by the pool (on other hand, my dips have come to an end with the eternal overcast and intermittent rain).

Day 12 - Copenhagen

Day 12
- Quotes of the day
- Breakfast from the bakery
- Climbing Mt Everest
- Lunch at Le Cheval, er, LeLe’s
- Contador and a nap
- Dinner at home

But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore
you may not see me tomorrow

Department of amplification: the pic of a clock sitting on the windshield is the way Danes tell the meter maids when they got into their parking spot. It can't be fudged because if you set it to a time that is before the mm shows up, it is pretty obvious you were trying to get some extra time. Clever way to easily allow everyone to be honest about how long they've been a free parking spot (ie, a two hour zone, you would set the clock to your arrival time). Appears every car in Denmark has one of these, and now we do too, got an extra to bring home! Hmmmmmmmm, now to hope that the all the meter maids that meet our car are Danish.

Another sloggy start after our late night out, at least semi-enhanced by five different pastries from the best bakery east of Lakeshore. DB does seem to sum it up: they use a lot of butter! $12


Off after 11 to visit the spiral church and for $5 each we start our way up the narrow inside staircase. There are many fellow climbers on their way back down, so there is much halting as we hit various landings to let the steady downward flow go by. 400 steps later, we have spiraled our way to heaven, though because the weather today is overcast we don’t get the vistas of yesterday. It is still one impressive sight, a 360 of Copenhagen. See pics of church and view from the church.

Continue our walk and after much back and forth discussion of where to eat, DB remembers the Vietnamese restaurant on our list of recommendations, and we trudge out (we decide to be walkers today) past centrum to LeLe’s, It is your typical spot as you would find in any major California city. One bowl of noodles with spring rolls, one of grilled pork, two limonades (terrific, and only $8 each), total $55. Oh, guess it is not exactly the typical spot, since the same meal in Oakland would be almost less than half that!

Stroll back and find the best design store in Copenhagen, Moomentstore (extra o intentional on their part). They don’t have that many items, most are from outside Denmark. We chat up the young couple that own the place (gee, they are wearing black, what a shock) and they have those small wooden beginner bikes from Berlin. We are soooooo au courant!

Somehow, today the men are all wearing black t-shirts; the daily dress code memo appears to not have been delivered to our residence. And, we do a very sloppy analysis of the bike riders and helmets, and decide very few men wear them, maybe 10-20% of women do, and a lot of the kids are wearing helmets.

Pick up our afternoon treat of soft ices med toppings.

As it starts to drizzle, we semi-hustle back to our place, stopping at the second best bakery in the world for dinner rolls. THB caught holding the bag. Nearing the house, it starts to rain. Nap to another stage where Contador solidifies the yellow jersey. Quiet dinner in, tortellini and salad.

Day 11 - Copenhagen

Day 11
- Quotes of the day
- Visiting the ghost of the Quote of the day
- Art done right
- Dinner with friends

O! what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?

It is glorious out: clear, breezy and cool (it stays that way all day, clarity of air matches Patagonia!). Decide to walk to the church near us with a famous spiral staircase on the outside of the spire. Get there a bit after nine, and along with three Brits, find out that access to the spiral isn’t until 11am. See graffiti being cleaned off store sign (see pic of truck) Walk back to house and decide to take bike ride to see some unusual buildings near the beach near us. Ride over, the main street we want to take is under construction, they are building bike lanes. Take the detour, can’t find the buildings we’re looking for, bike back using a shortcut we learned about while driving out of our hood.

Lunch is top shelf, and then we drive off to look at a Scandinavian furniture store, Paustian, not easy to find as it is behind some other buildings on a wharf just north of city centrum. After overshooting once, we find it (and the pic of a sign saying don’t let your car fall into the canal, something our exchangers would not treasure). Walk through the store, DB will have to eventually report, didn’t seem all that special to me.

Aside: DB is not reading the blog before or after publishing, guess she doesn’t want to taint or mislead the author with details that match reality, after all this is a strange and not-so-true adventure story. Or is it just a (very) long sad tale? She’ll catch up when we are back in E-ville.

We continue north to meet up with Soren, whom we met with his son Simon (Simone, as in Nina, in Danish) while we were touring Viet Nam, on two different stops. Drive up, and get a tour of his townhouse. He and his wife Michala got married within 4 weeks of our date in 1969. They also lived in a large house (which Michala designed, we see it later after dinner and it is very nice and a bit different than a lot of the traditional houses), and decided to downsize a few years ago.

Michala is out golfing (she’s a jock, Soren is not and he was in a serious accident 6 or 7 years ago and has residual back problems as well). Off the three of us go (see pic of THB and Soren) to visit:

• Frederiksborg Slot (see pic) (a royal castle in a spectacular setting basically in middle of a town, HIllerod, north of Copenhagen We tour the church and the large main room, full of crests made up for visiting royalty and personages of fame. Three levels of crests, the elephant ones are for royalty, ranking ahead of crests with crosses, wonder if the third level is a pastry and if so, is that ahead or behind the elephants?
• Soren shows us the beautiful plot of land that his father owned, on a lake and now mostly fields of wheat (used to have orchards also). Soren sold it shortly after they were married because he had to make a choice of being a farmer and a fruit broker (like his father) or just a fruit broker. Now you can see the makings of a fabulous summer place just a short car ride from where they live now.
• Fredensborg Palace Gardens, where Soren sweet talks us in for free because we are just looking at the gardens and not taking a tour (in Danish) of the Palace. Note the similarity in names and what a great job THB has done in notating them 100% accurately. Since the kings have alternated being called Frederick and Christian for the last 20 generations (they have a Queen now, and I am pretty sure she doesn’t go by either Fred or Chris, is it Marguerite?), saying the name of the place is something like Frederick-whatever or Christian-whatever gives you a 50% chance of being damn close).


• On to Helsingor (ell-senor, with a lilde over the n), the (faked) ancestral home of the lead character and name-sake of the greatest play ever written. Some guy with the name tag of Fortinbras makes sure that we have a handicapped card before allowing us through the main gate in Soren’s car. Just across the water is Helsingborg, Sweden. Back in the 1400s, ell-senor was a fortress and there was a duplicate fortress on the now-Sweden side that could, with cannons, command the entire strait and thus collect taxes before allowing any boat to pass. Every other year a British theater comes and performs one of Willy’s finest, though not always Hamlet, on the inner courtyard. DB and THB pay appropriate homage and have picture taken.



• Then to Louisiana (Loo-ees-ee-anna, maybe that didn’t help, the stress is on Loo), a tremendous art museum. They don’t break any rules: well lit, art well-attributed, no Hirst. Like Berlin’s Modern Art Museum, they also have a room with photographs of famous painters. The art looks great, sculpture outside is terrific, overall effect is stunning. They have a great Oppenheim puppet piece, see pic. The building itself is very well designed and the vistas over the water towards Sweden are magnificent. Soren leaves us alone while we tour the first half, then we join him for a mid-game snack, and the three of us finish touring. One of the better museum shops (not that THB has any clue as to what is a good shop vs. a bad shop other than a place with wide aisles and no people is a good shop), they have so much stuff the store is on two levels.

We tour the coastline south to a restaurant where we meet up with Michala and Simon. Very easy conversation, food is very good: three men have 3 course menu, with first course cold salmon (with a lot of flavor), venison and veggies (and of course, nye potatoes) and strawberries with ice cream. Michala has soup, DB skips first course to share with THB, and they both have red fish over noodles, also quite good. GOOD Chilean sauvignon blanc, and Soren graciously picks up the check. Lovely all around.

Back to Soren and Michala’s place, where we get an intimate tour of the bathroom so we can discuss Michala’s design (she did the interiors here, the exteriors are untouchable because of the local architecture board designating it so), particularly the bathroom, then coffee and biscuits (British cookies?) and we drive back in what passes for darkness here.

The part I have left out: last November, Soren, Simon and daughter/sister Katrina (yes, they have a daughter with same name as Katie), were on a S.American tour, first Quito, then Amazon for boat tour, then Quito, Galapagos, and back to Quito and Machu Pichu. (I doubt I have this sequence right). They get to Galapagos, do a bit of sightseeing, then get on boat for touring. First night on boat, a few of the tour members stay up chatting, and then decide to take a dip. Katrina dives in, feels something, and then realizes she has been bitten by a shark, near her calf and ankle.

She is flown to Quito where for 17 days the hospital puts her back together including transferring a bit of her thigh to her calf. Soren goes back to Copenhagen after a few days, Simon stays for duration. Katrina is in and out of anesthetics every day as they handle the repairs. Hospital care is terrific, Simon is communicating regularly via Skype and e-mailing pictures (we see a subset, not pretty yet fascinating because it is someone you know (of)). Katrina is very lucky and has made a full recovery, though she still has signs and scars of the attack.

We drive back without consulting maps (hey, it seems dark out), when we get close to centrum we follow our bike route, works perfectly.