Arriving in Copenhagen

Hi everyone,


Arrived in Copenhagen after nearly 52 hours since 'take off' in Tullamarine - the longest journey ever. The extended time was all due to the flight engineers strike in Australia, which caused the flight to be two hours delayed, of course missing the connecting flight in Hong Kong. However Qantas did the right thing by the passengers, giving everyone a room in the Regal Airport Hotel, including breakfast. At least it gave me an opportunity to have a nice hot shower and sleep for a couple of hours before catching my new connecting flight with Finair, now traveling via Helsiki in Finland to Copenhagen. I was thrilled to have been in Finland and I read an excellent article in the inflight magazine on the Finnish school system and the reason why it has come out on top during the last decade. Easy - I will just forward it to the Minister of Education and whoops - Australia will be right up there with the best.

Let me tell you a little of my travel companions on my flight. Andrew from Duneden was my first side-kick and it turned out that he and his wife had walked the Camino three years ago, so guess what our conversation was all about? I have to say that he was very envious so I took that as a positive as I face the next six weeks ordeal. My next companion was a Spaniard from Barcelona and as Spain was to be playing Germany in the European Cup Final the very next evening, guess what we talked about?

Finally arriving in Copenhagen almost 10hrs late it took an eternity to get the baggage as it was the first day of the summer school holidays in Denmark and every man and his dog was travelling in and out of Kastrup Airport. However, lucky at last, my backpack arrived together with some other bits and pieces. Coming from Helsinki, I walked straight through the EU exit, with no passport control and a custom officer half asleep. Welcome home to the old motherland!

However, my dear sister, Birgith and Brother in Law Josep (also a Spaniard) were waiting to meet me (they had already been there 12 hours earlier) and great hugs were exchanged. We rushed home to Valby, I had a quick shower and off we went to Lisa's (my niece) birthday to meet the rest of rest of the family - Angelina (my youngest niece) and her husband Kenneth and her two children, Emilie and Helene. It is the changes in the children from one visit to the next which surprises me more than anything and it makes you realise just how much you are missing when living 20,000 kilometers apart. The adults don't seem to change that much, but it is a thrill to see them all every time I come back. Lisa made a wonderful dinner -a real Spanish feast - I am sure to help my digestive system ready for the next 6 week's onslaught. I am proud to say that I kept awake until 11pm, finally nodding off in the car on the way home.

Sunday morning, believe it or not, I woke at 6am - sent a quick *I have arrived safely* text message to Laine, Karina and Steen, after which I went back to sleep again, only to awakened by the most Danish of Danish sounds - the church bells ringing for the 10am service. Wow! I am back in the old country - it wasn't a dream after all.

No rest as we all are travelling to the forest north of Copenhagen called Dyrehaven - a wonderful forest established and kept by the Royal family for many years, when they fancied shooting a few deer. The forest also was the place of a wondrous 'healing spring' attracting people from the 1550's - don't ask me how they got out there without cars or trains, however they got there. Of course, in the old Denmark there are many ways one can be healed and so right back in those early days entertainers, circus acts of various kinds and of course a little drink (for the pain) became a common sight and since grew to a great and famous (infamous at times) fun and entertaining park called Bakken - where especially drunk Swedes feel at home. It this week celebrated its 450th birthday and had recreated a number of the 'old attractions' which were fun to look at. Pierrot on the picture is a pantomime figure loved by all children.
Sunday night at the very pleasant time of 8.30pm we then watched Spain finally win something in soccer and everyone across Europe sang Y Viva Espania.

Monday- back to serious work as I walked for a full four hours with a full backpack. It was hard work and I certainly could feel it on arriving home. However it all went well and I had no blisters on my feet. I might be fitting in another long walk before I depart for Madrid on Friday.

As you can see from the picture I even had my Nordic Walking Poles with me - I found them great to walk with.
In Europe, walking with these poles are very popular and you meet people with them everywhere.

This picture is from one of my favorite places in the forest - a place I especially enjoyed in the winter when snow had just fallen. I use to live quite close to the forest and I often would walk out there in the middle of the night, after returning from cooking at Hotel D'Angleterre. So many great memories are surfacing when visiting these places from my youth and it is wonderful opportunity to re-visit and recall so many great experiences.

The week in Copenhagen continued with a wonderful day spent with my dear sister Birgith playing tourists. Looking at 'Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen' from a tourist point of view, is quite interesting as one re-visits many old places with heaps of memories, not just from my own childhood and youth but now also able to understand and maybe appreciate the rich history of the place more. Copenhagen celebrated a few years ago its 800th birthday as a merchant city (name translated) and has over the years been able to keep and protect many of its old latin quarters. However since my last visit the city has now a brand new Opera House as well as Theater complex, leaving the old Royal Theater as a home for the famous danish ballet. Of course the day was not only filled with cultural pursuit and we did have our lunch at one of the famous danish sausage stands and a half of litre of cold draft Carlsberg beer as well. No bad I have to tell you.

Thursday (where is the week going) I visited my very good and old friends Verner and Zanne, who live in a wonderful wooded part of Zeeland, (the island I am sitting on at the moment) north of Copenhagen. Verner picked my up and I was there all day, sharing breakfast with danish wienerbrød - eat your heart out - lovely lunch with herrings and the odd snaps or akvavit direct from the ice and delicious salmon for dinner. What I did just now is definitly a danish trait - outlining in great detail what one has been given as a meal - I guess once a dane always a dane!

And today Friday, an almost perfect summers day, we ventured to the beautiful Tivili Gardens, samck bang in the middle of the city. This oase of beauty, tranqulity, fun and plenty of great food, one never grows tired of. I have decided that it has changed a little and maybe has become a little more comercial during the last 10 or so years. But it is still one of my very favorite places in the world. Unfortunately we couldn't stay ontil dark, where the whole place transforms into a fairyland of lights, due to my early departure tomorrow - commencing my second leg of my journey - two days in Madrid, which you will hear about in my next instalment. I have to admit a few nerves are about but I guess that's part of my journey as well.

Special thanks to all of you who have written comments - keep them coming as they are all very special coming from you special friends. The time is now almost 10.30pm and the sky is colored a beautiful red as the suns set - these light evenings is something you never get tired of.