Nothing is Rotten In Denmark

Pescara

Our journey to Scandinavia started at the Molina train station. I had bought our tickets online, but somehow the time schedule was not the same as when I purchased the tickets. Luckily our friend Noel likes to get places early so we had only been there about 5 minutes when we were able to step on to our train. Someone had started a wild fire and we could see it burning on the hills above the station, but it was quickly left behind. 

The trip to Pescara was fun and easy. I think we are going to try it again to go to the beach. It is way cheaper than driving. Many people sneer at the Pescaro beaches, but to us they seem pretty ok. We hung out at the beach a while, but did not go swimming, had a gelato and at precisely 4:30pm caught a bus to be at our Airbnb place at 5. 

Buses in Pascara at the Train Station

Amazingly we found it. The area is a bit of a mix of tall apartment buildings and industrial wasteland and urban gardens. We were a little confused and by the time we set out for to find a place for dinner it was clear that we had made a grave mistake if food was what we wanted. We roamed aimlessly asking the few people we saw if there was anywhere to eat. They were discouraging to say the least. Finally there was a, and I do mean “a”, light in the darkness. It was a hip restaurant run by hip guys. We were so happy. We had a delicious meal of arrostacini and roasted potatoes and, perhaps, best of all we found our way back to the Airbnb.

View from the window of our Airbnb

The restaurant that saved our lives!

 The next morning we got up early to go to Pescara airport. If our host had not driven us we would never have found it. 

The trip to Denmark was only 2 hours and our Danish friends that we met in Castelvecchio picked us up, took us to their house for snacks and then on to an incredible smorgasbord lunch in the heart of Copenhagen in a genuinely old tavern, not a “Ye Olde” knockoff. 

Here is the restaurant in case you go to Copenhagen.

On each table there was a stand with tray covered in food.

 We ordered four dishes between us: a roast pork with crispy edges, roast beef and a chicken salad. These were all on the tray along with different breads and condiments for each dish. Each person got a piece of bread and built a sandwich with the correct meats and condiments. It was pretty great and delicious! Everyone was obviously having a great time. This was enhanced by the huge beers that almost everyone was drinking. 

Copenhagen seemed so busy and so crowded compared to life in backwater Italy. There were many walking streets lined with elegant buildings and shops.

View of New Harbor which I think is actually the old harbor with a new name.
We took a fabulous canal ride around Copenhagen.

Hans Christian Anderson lived on this canal.

This is an art exhibit of the life jackets used by refugees who came to Denmark.
 Evidently you cannot use them again once they have been soaked in water.
It looked like a giant fire from a distance.

Jim and Danes on the Canal Boat.

A picture of a famous church. In my picture you cannot see the tree that is the most photographed
tree in Denmark. It even has its own Facebook page. People do not take the shot of the church fast enough
and they get a picture of the tree. (not me)

 Dan is a firefighter in Copenhagen and knows the city well. 

We were lucky to be able to park in fire station parking lots and get in to Tivoli Gardens for free based on his connections. 

Tivoli Gardens is one of the places I have heard of in Denmark. Now a days it is more amusement park than gardens, but when we found the gardens that are left they were beautiful. We were there at dusk and the air was filled with the magic of fairy lights and early evening. 

Copenhagen is beautiful and is filled with bicycles. There are great bike roads everywhere, not just small lanes right next to cars. There are so many ordinary people biking in their ordinary work clothes. People of all ages are biking. It does help that it is the flattest country in the world. 

We totally loved our friend’s home and have decided to make our new house totally Danish Modern. Their home is about the same size as our new one so I think we can do it. 

Copenhagen Day 2

Our friends took us to do so much stuff in Denmark that I would swear we were there a week, but it was really just over 24 hours. In the morning Dan took us to see Christiania . Christiania was an abandoned military base that was taken over by hippie types in the 60’s and declared a free state. It remains so today. 

Here is a small assortment of interesting things I saw in Christiania.

One of the gates to Christiania.

Pusher Street

The great thing is that there has been no richie development on this enclave in the heart of Copenhagen. It is a little like a Bread & Puppet town with much evidence of creativity and vibrance, but then there is the “pusher street” where drug dealers are selling pot, illegal in Copenhagen, and people are totally stoned at 9 a.m. The buildings do not have to conform to any building codes of the city and no one pays taxes. However the firefighters of Copenhagen have to go and put out the fires caused by poor electrical systems for people that do not pay for this service like the rest of the citizens. Very special bikes are made in Cristiania and they cost about as much as a car. There are too many contradictions for me to figure out, but if you get a chance to go and see it, I think you should. It is a very interesting experiment that has survived for 50 years. 

Dan by Giacometti

Louisiana Sculpture Garden

From there we went on to another amazing cultural experience: The Louisiana Modern Art Museum. I love these little museums that we visited in Denmark and Sweden. All the ones we visited had started with a house and had light and airy additions. The views out the windows were as amazing as the artwork especially at the Louisiana, who’s sculpture garden over looks the ocean. Although we did not eat there, the food looked great and throngs of people were picnicking among the sculptures. 

Only one last thing remained to do in Denmark and that was to eat a hotdog. We did that in a large square that seemed to be devoted to hotdog and beer venders. Our friends told us that most of the people were actually Swedish. Beer is MUCH cheaper in Denmark and that makes it worth while for Swedes to take the 20 minute ferry ride over with their handcarts and buy cases of beer. While in Denmark…why not have a couple of beers and a hotdog? Luckily Swedes have much cheaper candy so it all works out. 

As we pulled away from Denmark on the ferry we could see the castle that belonged to Hamlet. Pretty cool….but we found nothing rotten in Denmark. Our job on the ferry ride to Sweden was to score a case of beer, but it must be purchased in the first 10 minutes of the ride while we were still in Danish waters. It was a lot of pressure, because we were not the only ones that wanted to buy beer, but we were successful and departed the ferry with beer and luggage and boarded a train to Halmstad where we were met by Josefin and went home to dinner and a lovely night’s sleep.