Monday, August 31, 2015

1. Aug 13-17: Departure and arrival in Copenhagen


Introduction:  This blog covers our 30th Anniversary cruise -- that was the occasion for the trip.  The best part of it for me was the quality of the time we had together.  

Important photo viewing note:  clicking on a photo will open it your photo viewer app or otherwise make it larger.  Then, rotating the scroll knob will cycle you through the pictures in that particular blog post. 

Additional note:  The posting dates given for each segment are arbitrary:  They needed to be dated in descending order by date, so that each would appear sequentially from first day to last in the list of posts, since this site orders posts from most recent posting date to earliest, just backwards from how I wanted them to appear.

Aug 13-14-15


Nan resting easy in British Airways business class a.k.a World Club, up on the upper deck of the 747-400.  She had storage places next to her, below the window.  On her right, a sliding window in a wall, and beyond it, me - facing the other way (forward).
Peculiar arrangement, because she had to stand up and climb over the feet/footrest of the person sitting just beyond her footrest.  While it did mean that we could talk to each other easily, I think we might've preferred side-by-side seats.





Note the old guy, below, turned into an ecstatic little boy in the copilot's seat of the 747!
What a thrill!
We got aboard, discovered that our upper deck seats were just aft of the cockpit, saw the door open, and I went to talk to the captain and crew.  I was agog, and they invited me to have a seat.
OMG!  
When I was in second grade, our class one time made a plane out of paper in the classroom -- this would've been back in 1940 -- and I got to be the pilot.  And now here I sit!  Realization of the child's dream!

Ten hour flight from SFO to Heathrow, where for some inexplicable reason we had to deplane, walk to another section of the terminal we were already in, go through Security again, and then get back to where our connecting flight would leave for Copenhagen, which was about a 1.5-2 hour flight.
Arrived in Copenhagen at about 5:30pm on Aug. 14th, caught a cab to the Skt. Petri Hotel in the Latin(University) quarter, right across from a really old Univ. library, had dinner in hotel. Very nice – smoked mackerel and beef carpaccio. Slept fitfully – nice breakfast buffet in hotel – decaf coffee treated with disdain in C'hagen. Only instant in hotel.

Hotel lobby and interior quite attractive. Former department store, interesting beams showing up in rooms. 


Beams and a pillar, presumably kept from original building.
Unusual and visually interesting, moreso than the usual hotel ceiling!





 
Entrance to Tivoli Gardens

Aug. 15th:  
Walked to HOHO (Hop On Hop Off Bus) – went to Tivoli Gardens – 2 hrs walking around – lots of eateries, shops, amusement park rides – gardened areas quite lovely. I had expected more gardens and not so much of the other stuff mentioned above. But overall, I enjoyed being there, since it's existed in my mind as a fabled place up to now. And an amazing place to exist within a city.
Moorish Palace/Nimb Hotel&Restaurant in Tivoli


Univ. Library across street from Skt. Petri Hotel




Got on HOHO, and discovered that it was SOSO (Sound On Sound Off). Some malfunction with the narration piped to the seats for earbuds. Henceforth to be referred to as HOHOSOSO.

Shots from Aug. 16th in Copenhagen below.

Rosenborg Castle:




 Crown jewels are in a cellar behind a massive vault door.
Note the toy soldiers, left.  Solid gold, no less.
Nice toys for royal little boys.



Counterclockwise Spiral tower





Famed Little Mermaid









  






Fountain and front of building - Royal Library, within which is the Danish Jewish Museum, where photography was prohibited, alas.



Old Town Copenhagen


Stock Exchange









Aug. 17th:  We board the ship in the afternoon and head out - next stop:  Gdansk, Poland (formerly Danzig).



Final street scene from Copenhagen.
Lovely city - we could easily come back and spend more time exploring.

Bridge from Copenhagen to Malmö, Sweden, part of which is, in fact, a tunnel.  Very  impressive. 

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