Hamburgin'

Don and I are fairly well recovered from our 3-day scoot to Hamburg. What an excellent city! We stayed in, apparently, a district bursting with drugs (no worries, Mom), but all of the purported dealers were super nice and welcoming. In a few words, Hamburg was clean, easy to get around, quiet, diverse, cozy, not overwhelming and...CHEAP. (After Denmark, ANYTHING is cheap.) (Okay...not CHEAP cheap...just CRAZY AFFORDABLE.)

Highlights: One mind-blowing Italian dinner next to the Musikhalle (didn't see the concert, though...DRAT); incredibly efficient underground (we bought a 3-day pass, then noticed that we ONCE saw anyone purchasing a ticket, and no one checked for them...?); a boat tour of the harbor narrated by a fellow who enjoyed repeating most English phrases four or five times in a row; St. Michael's church (up the tower in the elevator, down the tower via stairs to check out the clock and bells inside...THEY BIG); St. Nikolai's church (destroyed by bombs, the shell has been left as a monument for victims of war around the world); stumbling upon a heavenly Mongolian quartet in front of Town Hall (the Rathaus); the fabulous tap water (I KNOW!!); scrumptious falafel from a streetside kiosk; giving up the vegetarian ghost with a brat, a beer and french fries on a chilly afternoon...

Lowlights: 24/7 cigarette smoke (like having a full ashtray duct-taped to your chin); the worst tapas dinner EVER wherein the primary ingredient was tepid boiled potatoes; German "ketchup" (thin curry-flavored tomato-water); the Kunsthalle (art museum) where 2/3 of the exhibits were closed; choosing to wear boots with 4" heels for a full day and evening of walking...

We took a very comfy bus to Flensburg, Germany, and then a train to Hamburg...

(Apologies for the photo wonkiness. Terribly confusing. Click on any shot and it'll expand/zoom nicely.)

Rainy cycle

As my dear friend (and Don's sister), Deanna, congratulated me recently, I have learned how to ride a bike in Danish. And it feels GOOD.

It rains a lot in southern Denmark. Sad, but a true, true fact. I guess it makes me feel at home. ('Twould feel even homier with a Starbucks on every other corner along with the occasional aftershock, but I digress.) On Saturday afternoon, I felt a streak of confidence that I could beat the rain and gamble on a break in the incessant downpour. So, I hopped on my bike to do a wee bit of 'splorin', and this is what I saw.



These are from a bike path that I discovered while trying to take shelter from the rain, about 10 minutes from our apartment. There are TONS of paths like this, all sparkling clean and well-kept, meandering about the edge of town. I did not see any happy children in clogs and lederhosen with blond braids singing joyfully, but I know they're out there.



If you have not yet experienced Danish cheese -- blue or feta -- do not even shut down your computer but take your wallet and GO TO THE STORE RIGHT NOW AND BUY SOME AND PUT IT ALL IN YOUR MOUTH AT ONCE. You will thank me. And the cows. (I think they invented dairy here.)



It's super old-fashioned here. Like, all stoney and castley and stuff.



They sure don't call it SonderBEAUTIFUL for nothing!

Concert #3

Don's orchestra is currently playing "A Soldier's Tale" (Stravinsky), and I went to see them play the night before last. The concert was in a modern art museum in a small town about an hour and a half away. The piece is narrated, telling the story of a soldier returning home from war who meets the devil and is swindled out of his violin. The musicians did an excellent job, as did the narrator, a very well-known Danish opera singer. (But the trombone playing was the best.)

Sunshine on my rooftops looks so lovely...

And now for something pretty:






We had a tremendous thunderstorm last week, and then the sun blew it all away. The red rooftops were glowing. It was specTACK!!

Cleanliness is next to pizzaness

These pizza guys have their marketing angle DOWN.



I don't care what it tastes like or costs, just make sure it's absolutely sanitary and hygienic, please.

Matt 'n Meredith, Reeg 'n Kel, Birgitte 'n Jesper

I've been enjoying my morgenmad (breakfast) with these two nutballs who host "God Morgen, Danmark!", our version of the Today Show. They do the whole flip-through-newspapers-and-comment-cheekily thing, too, just like Reeg and Kelly!



There's something here in Denmark called "hyggelig" (HOO-guh-lee), which translates into "cozy." People are cuckoocrazy for candles, a criticial component for achieving hyggelig, and they're lit morning, afternoon and evening, in every shop, restaurant, gas station and hardware store. See them on the newsdesk/table here? They're never NOT lit. From what I can tell, the GMD set is situated within the main Copenhagen train station so there's always a ton of action going on in the background. I don't necessarily think Matt, Meredith, Al and the Gang could take all that distracting commotion, and I *know* Kelly Ripa would fold in an ADHD minute. These cats are pros, I tell you...

We were experiencing technical difficulties. Thanks for standing by.

WE'RE BACK!! HA HAAA!

After eleven days, six phone calls, two trips to the post office and innumerable HARRUMPHS, we are online. On the net. In cyberspace. Totally teched. Plugged in. Wired.

And this little baby made it all possible...



Here in Denmark, the phone company, TDC, handles most internet stuff, and so Don and I (well, Don...with me badgering him about it every 20 minutes) have called and called and called and called and called them, wondering when our magical thing (we didn't really even know what it was, but we knew it was SOMETHING) was going to arrive in the mail to get us up and running. It was a little like Christmas morning every morning for days, with the sad faces to go with it when we realized it was actually December 23rd, not the 25th, AGAIN. Empty mailboxes SUCK. Especially when your neighbors have festive, technical-looking boxes waiting for them at the mailbox. I only picked up one box and shook it and wished to Santa it was mine.