Scandinavia - Friday, September 4, 2015

Another traveling day. They seem to come so frequently, yet we are now staying multiple days in our cities. Up at 6:00 and packed and down to breakfast at 8:15. Our taxi to the airport arrives at 9:30 and we are off to the Stockholm airport for our flight to Copenhagen. Our taxi driver turned out to be an Iraq national, living in Sweden, with Swedish and Iraqi citizenship.  He attended Ohio State and lived in the U.S. for over 10 years, earning a degree in engineering.

When we check in for our flight, we find that we are all four in "1st class," i.e., the first row of the plane and offered free drinks and food.  We have a bottle of wine after our 11:40 take off and are truly amazed at the smooth and quick flight.  We are into the Copenhagen airport and waiting for our luggage by 1:00 PM.

Onto another taxi to our hotel, the Square.  This taxi was less expensive and a shorter ride than Stockholm.  Our rooms are significantly more spacious than the closets we occupied in Stockholm. A very modern hotel in a very central part of downtown Copenhagen.

After securing our rooms and dropping our luggage, we head directly to Tivoli Gardens, a block from the hotel. Tivoli Gardens is hard to explain if you have never seen it.  It is a combination of Disneyland, a county fair midway, and gardens.  It is over two city blocks (large) in the center of downtown Copenhagen.  Although originally on the outskirts of the city, it is now totally surrounded. Founded in 1843, it is in private hands and is the 4th most attended amusement park in the world, following Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and one other. The gardens, flowers  and plants are magnificent.

We had a late lunch at one of the restaurants.  Danish meatballs, a chicken mayonnaise salad, and smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on top.  Beers and wines were served.  Although the food was good and the surroundings enjoyable, the real highlight was our wait staff. First, a young man (who claimed to be 44 years old,) talked in a perfect American accent.  He was born in Portugal, his mother moved him to Denmark in his teens, and he spent over 10 years in New York.  Next we met our main server, a lovely young girl who turns out to have completed a master's degree in mideast history, is a dual national of Israel and Denmark, served in the Israeli army for two years, as is required, and is leaving in a month or two for training in the French Alps to become a ski instructor.  She also has traveled extensively in the U.S. and speaks excellent English.

The weather turned against us during this afternoon, rain, off and on, and blustery.  There were not a lot of inside spaces available; Deb and I found refuge in an arcade hall while Howie and Lee took in a Hans Christian Andersen ride, similar to "It's a Small World," but, according to them, much better and enjoyable, although over priced for a ride.

Leaving Tivoli around 7:00, we headed back to the hotel in the rain.  We found along the way a pizza restaurant (Pontius Vesuvius) across from the hotel and stopped in to share a couple of pizzas, some beer and wine.  We then retired to our rooms for the balance of the evening, reading, watching television, and generally resting up for the next day's adventures.