June 23 Day 10 Copenhagen

Happy Midsummer or Summer Solstice time! Throughout Europe there are many fine and wonderful celebrations at this time when the days are long and the nights are short. Indeed, it’s a little disconcerting that it still is very bright light out at around 10 in the evening, and the sun rises around 4:00am.

The day included finishing laundry which we need to do before heading off on our cruise and also having some lovely time together with Lars and Julie.

The bright blue sunny sky just called for us to join Lars and Julie at their local Copenhagen Zoo. This zoo is just a couple blocks from their house, but has a world-class collection of animals. 

Most exciting is the recent addition of two pandas on loan from China. Dick and Patti are very familiar with pandas from our own home zoo in San Diego, where our pandas were recently returned to China. Only a few rare zoos around the world are granted the right to have pandas. We have seen them in Mexico City, San Diego, and Dick has seen them in Washington DC, and Beijing China, and now in Copenhagen.

The zoo is very modern with lovely large enclosures. We especially enjoyed the polar bears, kangaroos, elephants and giraffes. It was a picture-perfect day to be together with cousins and enjoying the animals.

We were so pleased to be invited along to a Midsummer party with their friends. This included lots of amazing food and drink, and music and a bonfire which was highly important to the event. We had been disappointed that we were missing the Midsummer celebration in Barcelona, but thrilled that we would be able to enjoy it with family in Copenhagen. These were some of Lars' oldest friends (and also Julie’s friends for many years), and were delightful, funny, great cooks and were so welcoming to us. Lots of English was spoken to include us Americans. The bonfire was impressive, in honor of St. John the Baptist ‘s birthday. The festival in Denmark  is called “Sankt Hans”. 

Lars and Henrick played in their sax and keyboard, and Patti got into the act with a version of the traditional American story “Who’s Got My Golden Arm?”

Here is a bit of a description of a Midsummer celebration in Denmark.

https://www.scandikitchen.co.uk/midsummer-the-danish-way/

The party went on until after 11:00, and as we drove home in the twilight, we thought, “We are much farther North than San Diego!” Happy Midsummer to you all.

June 22 Day 9 Fly to Copenhagen

Our final morning in Barcelona consisted of eating a nice breakfast, cleaning up our apartment after 6 days of settled in and living, hauling our trash and recyclables a couple blocks down the road to where they are collected, and getting to the airport. We have come to understand on this trip, getting to the airport is usually a multi-step process. First, making sure we did our final “stupid check” to make sure we had not left any belongings under the bed or in the shower. Next, making sure we had left the key on the right place on the table and hauled our stuff down the flight of stairs out to the street. Then, we walked a few blocks downhill this time hauling our heavy suitcases. We remembered how exhausted we were six days ago when we had arrived and were uncertain where we were going. We were very, very tired. Now, we were clear where we were going, and understood that going down into and out of the subway stations really involved a lot of steps. However, by now we had found the hidden elevators.  Yes! Getting down to the metro, and then taking the Aerobus to the airport, then going inside to check in to our flight, all went without incident. It’s time to say goodbye to Barcelona!

And then, a three-hour relatively fast flight brought us to Copenhagen or København as they prefer in Danish. 

We were met at the airport by our cousins Lars and Julie. We remembered how fun it was a couple years ago when we met them in LA. We were warmly greeted and whisked away to their lovely apartment. We had been there for a party five years before, but now this would be one of our homes away from home while in Denmark. We have only a couple of nights here before we head off on our cruise, but it was lovely to settle in with family who are also such good friends. Copenhagen looks fabulous and it’s nice to be returning.

Dinner was some traditional Danish food of Frikadeller (kind of a fried meatball), veggies and potatoes. Lars is such a great cook. And it is so nice to be back with Danish family again.

After dinner, we took a small walk around the neighborhood. They live in an old neighborhood where the Carlsbad beer company got its start. They live in an apartment building built in the 1880’s. We stopped at a circle of seats where traditionally the wise men in the community would gather to solve the community problems. Dick and Lars gave a try at looking wise. It is a neighborhood where many Danish movies are made. So nice to become acquainted better with this neighborhood where we will spend a lot of time while in Denmark.

Then off to bed as the first guests in Julie and Lars’s newly remodeled guest room. Ahh, we were ready for a good night’s sleep.

June 21 Day 8 Barcelona

The whole reason why we ended up in Barcelona at the beginning of this trip was Dick had the opportunity to present at a business conference. That conference happened today. He was up early and took the metro down near the harbor where he met up with old friends and new colleagues from around the world for an intense day of presentations of papers and research. In the morning,Dick presented work that he and a colleague back in San Diego had done. He also heard presentations from professors from various places in Europe from South Africa from. The 15 presentations were on the research completed by the participants. The research was on quite a variety of business topics that led to stimulating conversations throughout the day.  It was great to hear perspectives from around the world.  The conference included a delicious lunch. And many agreed a schedule of a siesta could have been good following local custom. Dick’s presentation was well received and they’ve been asked to submit the paper for publication. After the presentation day was over, Dick hopped on the metro and came back to our apartment.

Patti, although she had had higher aspirations, spent the day resting. It was truly nice to go off- duty and snooze and read the day away. Although we had thought about going out for paella, since we didn’t get to make it last night, Patti ended up settling by find some frozen paella at the local grocery store and heating it up in the oven, less delicious, but it was nice just settling in as we get ready to finish our time in Barcelona.