The European Adventures of G & A

A brief update -

We wrote the Denmark update a few days ago in the Copenhagen airport, but couldn't find a WiFi hotspot in Prague until today, hence the delay in posting.............

Greetings from the land of Vikings

We are now in the Copenhagen Airport, waiting for our flight to Prague. After 6 days of wonderful Indian summer weather here in CPH it is now raining (and it feels like 100% humidity.)

Copenhagen has been absolutely wonderful. Our hotel was much better than Paris (aka Le Shithole) – the room was big, clean, and had a nice bathroom. Breakfast (which we forgot to take a picture of) was served every day in a large dining area, and had all sorts of lovely Danish breads and weird meats (rullepulse), cheese (big wheels of Brie), yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and fruit (canned). And of course, real danishes, and lots of Nutella. Oh, and lots of Danish coffee.

We did a bunch of stuff and spent a lot of time walking around outside because the weather was so beautiful. And, we spent a lot of money because this is just about the most expensive place we’ver ever been. A big bottle of water was about $4 in some places, and most glasses of beer (1/2 liter) were about $8.

Speaking of beer, we had some really good stuff here. The ligher pilsners and lagers that taste so bad in the US are actually very enjoyable. We took a tour of the Carlsberg Brewery, and at the end you get two glasses of beer from their very nice and fancy tasting bar – very nice indeed. We also went to Charlie’s Beer Bar one night – a small hole in the ground with a lot of different local beers from Copenhagen and a bunch from the UK. There were also a bunch of local drunk Danes, who immediately took a liking to Gretchen. We’ve been invited back to stay with Arne – a boisterous and very nice Danish engineer who lives about 20 miles south of Copenhagen. He would have had us over during our stay here, but he was off to Turkey the next morning for some type of very important trip.

We also did the “Dine with the Danes” thing that Gretchen had read about in TripAdvisor. We took a train about 50 km (~ 1hour) to a small town west of Copenhagen and had dinner with a nice couple and their 3 kids. Ulrich and Suzanne were exceedingly nice, and made us some typical Danish food – curried vegetable soup, ground pork patties breaded and fried, peas, boiled carrots, cauliflower with cheese, boiled potatoes and a very nice dark brown gravy/sauce. The desert, however, was a major disappointment. We had been hoping for some type of chocolately-decadent-sweet type of treat. Our hopes were raised when Suzanne asked if we were ready for coffee and cake. Then instead of cake, desert was some canned peaches with fake whipped cream and a plate of licorice. Needless to say, we almost got up and left at that point, even if we had to walk the 50km back to Copenhagen. Major major major disappointment, and it really tested our faith in the Danes and nearly broke our skills in international diplomacy.

Let’s see – other highlights –

We took a train across the sea to Malmo, Sweeden, and spent the afternoon wandering around. We stopped for a meal and Gretchen ordered a mooseburger – real moose meat ground up with juniper berries. Actually very tastey, particularly when washed down with some cold beer. The waitress was very nice, and made sure to tell us that we had to eat the burger with a knife and fork if we didn’t want to look like stupid American tourists. For that matter, all of the people here have been exceedingly nice and helpful (except for one particulary surly guy – Claus – at the hotel desk). Pictures of the mooseburger to follow.

Had some excellent Smorebrod at Ida Davidsens, a very well know and fancy restaurant in the City Center. Smorebrod is a traditional Danish lunch meal, consisting of a thin piece of bread with simple toppings on it (shrimp, salmon, hard boiled egg, etc.) You may want to call it an open faced sandwhich, but we were threatened with a severe beating with a herring every time we said that, so don’t call it an open faced sandwhich – it’s Smorebrod, damnit. Anyway, Ida has taken Smorebrod to a new level, and makes wonderful creations – there were some with salsa, and some other not-so traditional toppings. We stuck with the traditional ones – scrimps with egg and mayo, roast beef with curried mayo and dill, smoked salmon with caviar and a creamy sauce (don’t ask how much that one cost), and gorgonzola cheese with raw egg yolk and radishes (for Ms. Rootes). No desert because we were stuffed by the end of the meal.

Also took a trip to Lingby (a suburb about 20 minutes north of the City by train), where my family lived about 35 years ago. A nice taxi driver helped us find our old house, and waited for us while we took some pictures and looked around a bit. I recognized the driveway and the street, but the house was not at all familiar. We took a walk around downtown Lingby for a while – it has become very upscale (think Mill Valley), but still is very traditionally Danish. We had a picnic Smorebrod lunch with beer in a small park, and then took the train back to Copenhagen.

Tivoli, a very old amusement park, was essentially next door to our Hotel. We went to the last night of the season and had dinner and watched the final fireworks show. I remember going to Tivoli as a child, but none of what we saw was familiar.

Yesterday, we went to an area of Copenhagen called Christiania. It’s an old military area that was taken over by squatters sometime in the 1970s (I think), and has since remained a counterculture haven that does not adhere to Danish law. A large number of people have colonized the area, and it’s similar to the Haight, but on a much larger scale. Drug sales used to be commonplace, but the Danish police have agressively tried to stop it with good results. It is an interesting place, but we described it to each other as a bunch of hippie-drop outs who smell and are freeloading on the Danish government. For some reason, they don’t want any pictures taken, so we have none to show you.

We were going to rent bicycles for a ride around town, but decided that we liked walking better. Everyone here rides bicycles for every possible purpose – we saw parents carting their kids around, a woman moving a large comfy chair, and everyone with their shopping and groceries. Some of the bicycle parking areas are so crowded that they have double decked parking structures for them. And many of the women ride their bikes in high heeled shoes, which was very impressive to Ms. Rootes.

And, we both agreed that the Danes are very attractive and intelligent people, and we would just like to note that we were both mistaken for Danes on several different occasions.

Love to you all

Adam and Gretchen

Photos from an outing in Paris. Aren't we sophisticated-looking travellers?

Hello Everyone,

We are enjoying our second day in Copenhagen, but must first tell you about our time in Paris. There must be a chinese proverb somewhere that says, "if the journey begins with sorrow, it will end in joy". Well, we are not going to China, so screw that. I wouldn't call it sorrow, but we did have a bit of a rough start. After an uneventful flight we landed in Paris at about 10 am on Tuesday morning. Somehow between the airport and our hotel my credit card was already gone. I had put my credit card case in a small cosmetic bag and was holding it in the front pocket of my jeans so that it would be easily accesible and I thought, safe. Thankfully my passport and ATM card were in my bag. It is possible that I was pickpocketed. More likely though,the bag fell out of my pocket when I got smashed in between the doors of the train while getting off the metro. I was literally being squished in two as the charachteristically indifferent French failed to notice and Adam, who was in back of me looked on with a combination of concern and the fear that he was about to laugh so hard he would pee his pants.

It was quite an ordeal to notify the credit card company of the loss due to communication issues and being unable to use an international phone to dial an 800 number. By the time we had ironed it all out, the jerk(s) had charged $12,000 to my account, with $950 to a perfumerie. We are looking forward to spending more time in Paris at the end of our trip, as we didn't see much in the 2 days we were there, related to our sleep patterns, which have still not normalized. We did however have some highlights. We stayed in a really great neighborhood near the Place De Republique in the 11th arrondissement. Our impression of the neighborhood was that it was much more typically Parisian than the other districts that are constantly filled with tourists. We enjoyed walking around that evening, getting the lay of the land and eating delicious sandwhiches of fresh french bread and brie. It was warm and humid, and we didn't even need a jacket at night.

Our hotel was, let me see if I can remember how to say this in French... Le shithole. The lobby was nice (we will never be fooled by a lobby again!), and the staff were helpful, but the room itself was really crappy. The paint in the bathroom was peeling, the TV didn't work, the tub didn't drain, the carpet bore little resemblence to a carpet and the room was tiny (maybe the size of the bathroom in my apartment on 7th avenue). We had to leave the window open because of the humididty. The guy in the room next to us was watching TV all night in French and hysterically laughing. He sounded exactly like Arnold Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter", which made us crack up too. Adam thinks he was watching Jerry Lewis, I'm pretty sure it was one of my stand up tapes. Our room was next to the elevator, which was very old and felt like an earthquake every time it passed. It may have also been used variously as the honeymoon suite or a brothel. I'm just glad "Arnold Horshack" took the stairs.

We both found the French that we encountered to be very friendly. We especially liked our server at Restaurant L'Occitane, a little bistro where we had an amazing dinner of cassoulet, salad with smoked pork, pate and lots of red wine. The dinner was our first splurge, and very appreciated after a long day of sight seeing. We saw on our walks, Notre Dame, The Latin Quarter, The Pompidou Center, The Hotel Deville, and several views of the city from the bridges overlooking the Seine.

The Parisians are remarkably stylish, and many of the women stunning. Everyone is wearing boots. With shorts, dresses, skirts...everything. And, skinny jeans are back, on both the men and the women. We are noticing these trends as well in CPH, and will write soon to tell you about our time here. We are off to get dinner now and walk around.

We hope that everyone is doing well, and we are keeping you in our thoughts.

Love,
Gretchen and Adam

Hey Everybody!

Adam and I are off to Europe early Monday morning the 18th of September. In order to keep you all up to date on our travels I will be writing a travel diary on this site that you can check periodically. We will be able to keep in touch through email during our trip and look forward to hearing how everyone is doing. We will not have our cell phones. We will be back on the 22nd of October.

Our first stop is Paris (that's in France).

We can't wait!!!

Love, Gretchen (and Adam)