Mostly Spain - Birthday In Copenhagen. What Is Divisible By 11 and 22?

 Answer to the question - What is #3's age on this birthday?

There were not big celebrations. She felt coming up was a treat. We were happy to do so and get to see the whole #3 clan again. 

After the stress of our flight to Copenhagen, we wanted to be pretty chill for the most part. On Saturday, we went for a leisurely walk along the waterfront. Copenhagen and Denmark have a strong connection with the sea. It was an interesting contrast with the sea front in El Campello, From what I could tell in Copenhagen, there is an aggressive attitude toward the sea. By that I mean, people, of all ages are getting out and doing things on the water. And they are doing them with an expression of vigor. Maybe it is because for so many months of the year it is too cold to do anything so the activity is more frenetic when the weather allows it.

In El Campello, there was this languid attitude. Most of the activity was people walking by the sea, enjoying the ambiance, eating, relaxing. There were those occasional times folks went out for activity, but nothing like what we saw in Copenhagen. Am I a victim to classic stereotypes between north and south Europeans? Maybe.

A group of elders head out to kayak

Serious Sailing

Way across the strait is Sweden, Malmoe!

Don't punish us if we don't get you to Sweden this time de-I

More physical sailing

#3 Contemplates whether a classic yacht is the right choice for her image.

AGGGH Cruise Ships!

Clouds

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

Looking for Romance?

The Sparks Will Fly Here!

Man Hunting Allowed Here

Keep the Hell Out of our Wavy Lines, Damn It!

Mostly Spain - But Not Completely - On to Copenhagen, Denmark Where MUPGT Intervenes

 It was not logistically possible to get the #3 family to visit us in Spain, and financially it was actually less expensive for us to fly to Denmark. Hence one of the reasons this is a 'mostly Spain trip. 

On Friday, we flew from Alicante to Copenhagen. It reminded us of our deep, deep love of the travel experience. 

Our flight was not terribly early in the morning but we needed to drop our rental car off and were going to an unknown airport. Plus we wanted time to get some breakfast. Our getting out of the apartment went smooth but as soon as we started our current GPS provider, Apple Maps (you will remember we've been changing them to find one that will give verbal instructions suddenly stopped talking.

Crap.

I mostly knew the way and was following the map display only when, I missed a turn because it had the exit number wrong. I am watching the display and it is not rerouting. I get off the highway, and find a place to stop. I realize Apple Maps is not connected at all to signal. I try Google Maps. Not signal either (the phone has plenty of signal and I have internet connection). I try Waze. No signal. Screwed! I have a paper map. It's not very detailed. But I can see we got off way before we should have. I think the GPS' last gasp was sending us to downtown Alicante, not the airport. One can hear the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel laughing her equine ass off.

I jump back in the car. Wife says she's getting signal. I try Waze and it connects. And it talks! We make it to the airport. We are running way later than expected. I don't have time to find a gas station. We will have to turn it in low on gas and take the hit on the exorbitant price of fuel from the rental car company. (In fact due to EEU regulations, we pay pretty much the same as if we bought it at the gas station!) We arrive at the rental car company just before 8am. No one is there. It doesn't open until 8am! I have to park in this tiny space and leave the key in the drop box. 

On to the main airport. Schlepping our bags we find we are at the total opposite end of where our airline checks in. Thankfully, it's line is very short. The airport is much larger than I thought and very crowded (it is the beginning of the season). The line for security, which is way back at where we started. It is very long. But it goes quickly. From this point on, things start going smoother. There are no problems to speak of until we arrive in Copenhagen. 

We get a taxi driver who seems to have no idea where #3 lives. It takes a long time to get to her apartment but essentially, it was not a hose job as far as cost. We were pretty tired when we arrived but so happy to be with #3, 3A, 3.1 and 3.2 again.

Not Sweden

 I am still catching up on the events during our stay in Copenhagen. Last Saturday, we had made a plan to go to Malmo, Sweden. It is easily reachable from Copenhagen by train in less than hour. In fact, one can catch the a train that goes right to Malmo not that far from where the #3's live. It is an advantage that it is essentially almost the first stop on the line which then heads into the heart of Copenhagen, then out to the airport before crossing the straight on to Sweden and Malmo. 

Our guide - "Of course we will go to Sweden. Easy-peasy.

We got off to a late start. Arriving the train station, we had just missed the Malmo direct train. the next would not be for 45 minutes. But we could take one sooner bringing us into town where we could catch an earlier connection to Malmo. 

Our train was mostly occupied by bikes...not bikers...bikes.

Off we get and catch our next train. Ah. On to Sweden. Another new country. Another pin in the map.

After about 20 minutes of travel, we are paying attention (finally) to the stops being shown on the train information display. None say anything about Malmo. There is this sudden realization. We have caught the wrong train and heading deep into the heart of Denmark not to Sweden. 

By now, it is around 1:30 in the afternoon. All of us are hungry and crabby. We must get off at the next stop. We will grab whatever the station has to offer to eat, catch the next train back to Copenhagen, then transfer to a Malmo train.

The next station arrives and we get off to find...

Nothing

No food. No toilets

Nothing

Child One - "Isn't exciting having a travel guide Mum?"

Child Two - "No"

The next return train is not for a half hour. When it comes, it is (of course) packed with barely a seat available. It is close to 2:30 by the time we reach Copenhagen. We decide we are bailing. 3A has done a bit of research. He has found a highly rated Chinese restaurant only blocks from Copenhagen's central station. In a hunger crabs induced haze, we make for it as soon as we can only stopping at a 7-11 to grab a snack to tide us over. To our amazement, the food is EXCELLENT (more in a foodie post coming up). We are sure we have over ordered because of our famished state. We eat EVERYTHING! I think we brought some rice back home.

We walk around a bit of downtown Wife and I have not yet seen but are pretty tired and decide to take the train back home. When we arrive our home station, I am surprised to see a bit of history in the station parking lot.

A Citroen Deux Chevaux (which means Two Horses)!

The Deux Chevaux was like the original Volkswagen Bug, a cheap car for the masses. Made in the 1950's and 60's, it had a two cylinder engine and was absolutely minimal in every aspect. And cheap! It had this weird gear shifting lever coming right out of its dashboard.

And so Malmo was not achieved. But fear not. Certainly we will get another opportunity on Sunday.

Into the City - A Copenhagen Pictorial

 On our second day with the 3's, we actually went into central Copenhagen.

We went into town on the train. Upon arrival we were reminded that this, like Amsterdam, is a very bike oriented culture.

We meet up with our guides. One was quite pleasant. The other had this sort of 'Amsterdam attitude' toward service.

We headed off to a Royal Castle (any building over the last three centuries that had a royal even stop over is pretty much a castle here)

In the royal garden

Agh, our creepy guide again.

What does is this person contemplating

Our guide tells us it is where she left her shoes

In every city there are unique aspects

For example, I don't know of another city where a country's consulate would share its location with a Thai massage place?

And I am not sure where else we tout the virtues of organic beef with gasoline fired grills

A large, very important church

Statues of important people in weird poses outside the church

I sneer therefore I am

Less big, less important but still very nice church

AGGGHHH CRUISE SHIP GROUP

On to the harbor

Tall ship

Very quaint looking harbor front with colored buildings that are representative of nothing else we've seen in Copenhagen

With traditional Danish full building burger advertisement

I really do want to know why 'welfare chicken' is so desirable. I am suspecting the translation did not exactly come out.

I am thinking it is more like we raise the chicken with their welfare in mind...Until we kill and eat them.

Miscellaneous

It is a little known fact that before every Viking invasion back in the Dark Ages there had to be a system for getting the Vikings from their towns and farms to the harbor.

A complete guide to coffee

A complete guide to eliminating coffee

Signs of the World

Good WiFi Signal Forbidden