An entry in The TFS Travel Journal
Scandanavia — what a great place — everyone speaks a quite foreign language so one feels like one is definitely travelling, but everyone also speaks very good english!
Didn’t even wake up ’till 9:50am, then Milton ran down to the fast-closing breakfast buffet to snarf some fruit. Cabbed to the car rental pick up office and processed the paperwork to take delivery of the Vectra. Were tempted by the Mercedes 320 convertible, but passed on it and its extra $1,600 price. We love our Vectra, though.
Drove up to Rungsted without incident (quite a welcome change from our last driving experience in the U.K.) meandering along the “Danish Riviera” (hah!) Meandering due to slow traffic as the summer only lasts about 5 weeks, apparently, but we’ve caught some great weather so far. Finally found Karen Blixen’s (Out of Africa and, evidently, other well-known works) house, and learned her history, her love for flower arrangements, and saw some of her paintings. Saw a moderately interesting exhibit in the refurbished upstairs of photographs and snippets of various writers’ homes and work. (most interesting — Vita Sackville-West whose marriage lasted for years despite both parties homosexual affairs)
Had lovely lunch in their cafe of tuna salad (too much mayo!) and a ham sandwich (not enough ham — this ain’t no Carnegie Deli!), and then continued up to Louisiana — the hyper-post-modern museum. One of the most beautiful settings, with a small lake, plenty of land and a tremendous view of the Oresund (the body of water between Denmark and Sweden) and Sweden (and an accessable beach that was certainly being enjoyed). A wide variety of modern art and sculpture (indoor and outdoor) in the permanent collection and a temp. exhibit of Sunshine and Noir - art from L.A. in the ’60s. Nice to see it all, but way too modern for us. . .
Then we drove up to Helsingor, saw Kronberg (Hamlet’s) Castle from the outside only, (but even then it was damn impressive!) since we were done with sightseeing for the day, and despite it being light until after 10, everything closes at 5! Besides, we’ll be back here for the ferry to Sweden on Friday, so, we instead just walked around the town and saw the plentiful crates and cases and casks of various alchohol awaiting all the Swedes off the boats to beat the tariff. Wendy bought her nail-polish-remover, and Milton bought lots of fruit, including some delicious snap peas,(which Wendy picked out) that we had to enjoy on the spot. Seems to be a nice port town, with the usual tourist bustle, but comfortably small. We then climbed back into the Vectra, just in time to avoid the daily downpour. Everyone here must be used to it, though, since they all walk around in the rain without umbrellas.
Drove down to the Strandmollekroen restaurant for their renowned seafood platter. Clearly service in this country has a different meaning than we’re used to, or maybe dining out is mutually acknowledged to be the entire night’s activity, but they were in no hurry tonight. We sat outdoors, though, and dined with the aforementioned Oresund view and it was truly lovely in the perpetual twilight, with some wave-runners and wind-surfers for our entertainment. The lobster, prawns and Greenland shrimp were pretty good, (hand-peeled fresh shrimp taste even better when it’s your hand doing the peeling) but the salad was about 3 pieces of lettuce and a head’s worth of dressing, and the grilled scallops had drowned in butter. (We ate them all, though)
Drove back to Copenhagen -such a quiet town after business hours, and parked after buying a ticket from the machine on the street that actually tells you when on the next day your time is up (since street parking is free from 8pm to 8am) and you then leave the ticket on the dashboard.