Wednesday, July 22, 2009

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.

3 comments:

  1. this trip sounds wonderful. one day i will relax in scandanavia, but i will wait for the economy to get better first :)

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  2. Hello Ralph, followed your India blog and am enjoying Scandanavia as well....as we are in winter down under, am envious of your northern hemisphere travels...although early days sound a bit hot for sightseeing....Regards,Kate McWiggins

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  3. KB: Relaxing here in Denmark is the best way to save money, everything else requires additional kroner!

    Kate: just thinking of you, we haven't quite got our plan for NZ toegether, almost had an exchange set up for late this year. We'll make it one of these days (and you will make the THB blog!)

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