April 4
Wow ! What a busy month this has been. First there was Easter. I made a lamb and it turned out delicious - if I may say so myself. I am now so sorry that I didn't take any pictures from that afternoon. You would have sworn that I made a leg of horse instead of leg of lamb. It was huge! We had guests that afternoon; John and Birthe and our little buddy, Andy. The evening went well and there was plenty to eat. You can read all about my Easter on the previous blog.
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April 5
The following day, which was April 5th, is called 2nd Easter Day. It's a holiday too and because I had to work, I got holiday pay as well. As it turns out, the 5th and the 6th were the only 2 days in the entire month of April that I had to be at work. My time off started at the end of my morning shift on Tuesday, March 30. On the 31st, I spent some of my free time at the market shopping for food because Thursday and Friday were holidays as well. Easter is always a 5 day holiday here but this year for me it started a day and a half before everyone else.
I know it sounds like a real dream to have an entire month off but I kept very very VERY busy with errands around the house, trying to keep it dolled up for potential buyers. Yes, we are still trying to unload this heap but it's still ours at the moment.
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April 6
When I got off of work on April 6th, I went home and took a nap. When I woke up, Jens and I made a quick dinner and then we headed off to a private tour of the city home of the up and coming king and queen. That would be Crown Prince Frederik and his wife from down under, Crown Princess Mary. They will be moving into one of the 4 palaces that make up what is known as Amalienborg Palace.
The construction of the first of the 4 palaces was started in 1750 and the last one was completed in 1760. The palaces were never intended for the royal family. At that time, the royal family lived on a little teeny tiny island called Slotsholmen. Slotsholmen is an island in the center of the city. The 4 palaces are really more like mansions but the name used is "palæ" sounding very much like the English word palace. But looking at the buildings themselves, you would say, "that's a mansion". Anyway... the buildings were originally built for Nobel men, where as the royal family lived just a 15 - 20 minute walk away on Slotsholmen.
The first Copenhagen castle on Slotsholmen was built in 1170. In the first 250 years of it's history, it was taken over by Hanseatic League (Who were the Hanseatic ? - remember my the short film on my Wurst Christmas Ever blog?). Eventually crumbling, it had to be knocked down and a new castle was built upon the old. It was built upon the old unstable original foundation in the 1730's. It wasn't long before this castle became a victim of fire in 1794 and then again after rebuilding in 1884. The only building to survive the fire was the church and it is still standing today along side of the new castle which was started in 1906 and completed in 1928. In the present castle, some of the wall is from the previous castles of the 1730's and 1880's. I'll have to find out just exactly which part of the wall(s) is from the old castles as I was not aware of this. Click here for more detailed infor with pix concerning the history of the castles on Slotholmen.
After the fire, the royal family was of course forced out and moved temporarily into the Amalienborg Palace. Upon completion of the latest Castle, known as Christianborgs Slot, the royal family decided that they liked the 4 palaces well enough to make it their home. The new castle was designed with 2 wings; one wing for the royal family and one wing of offices for the government. When the royal family found out that they were going to be neighbors to the government, they said, thanks - but no thanks and continued to live in the 4 palaces ever since.
So..... one of the 4 palaces is now coming to the end of a total renovation. It's being updated and modernized for the new home owners - Freddy and Mary. And since it is my tax money that is paying for this renovation, I have decided to take a private tour of the nearly completed home of the Crown Prince and Princess. Here you can read an enormous amount of info on the renovation, the history, and the new art work of the building. And here you can view a 6 minute video of the before, during and almost after renovation of the building (in Danish).
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April 10
It's horrible and tragic day in Polish history. A plane carrying the Polish president and dozens of the country’s top political and military leaders to the site of a Soviet massacre of Polish officers in World War II, crashed in western Russia on Saturday, killing everyone on board.
President Lech Kaczynski’s plane tried to land in a thick fog, missing the runway and snagging treetops about half a mile from the airport in Smolensk, scattering chunks of fuselage across a bare forest. The crash came as a stunning blow to Poland, wiping out a large portion of the country’s leadership in one fiery explosion. And in a chilling twist, it happened at the moment that Russia and Poland were beginning to come to terms with the killing of more than 20,000 members of Poland’s elite officer corps in the same place 70 years ago.
A top Russian military official said air traffic controllers at the Smolensk airport had several times ordered the crew of the plane not to land, warned that it was descending below the glide path and recommended it reroute to another airport. It tried to land 4 times. Jens told me that the Polish President was a very stubborn man and was always demanding whatever he wanted. Jens is guessing that the President probably demanded the pilot to "get this plane on the ground - now!" "Nevertheless, the crew continued the descent," said Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Alyoshin, the first deputy chief of the Russian Air Force Staff. "Unfortunately, the result was tragic."
Here is a photo that I think shows the sad and gruesome event.
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As I may have mentioned elsewhere, Jens suggested that I save my vacation time and overtime hours for the month of April so that we could easily move from our "sold" home to our "new" apartment without having to worry about not having time enough to make the move. It was a good idea. We just needed to get one small detail taken care of; to get the house sold. As we approached April, I could see that this small detail was not going to be happening as we had hoped for and crossed our fingers for. So as a back up plan, I thought I would use a few of my 33½ days off to do something special. Jens suggested that I take a little trip to Gran Canaria. And I really really REALLY wanted to do that BUT - as much as I love love LOVE GC and as much as I need need NEED the sun, I equally needed to see and experience something else.
Pisa and Madrid have always had high priority on my list of places to see. So I decided to check out what kind of deal I could get with my employee option to Madrid. $90 each way. Stand-by. Not bad, I thought. Just one problem; I could see that Madrid is a big travel destination in the month of April and I didn't want to have to deal with stand-by seating in a heavy travel period. So I checked out what kind of deal I could get to Rome and from there, take the train to Pisa. Same price; $90 each way + train transport. So that was a very good option although I had no idea what the price of the train would cost or how long it would take. Just for the fun of it, I thought I would check into Norwegian Air to see where their southern European destinations are and what they cost. I knew they were going to be twice the price but I'll just take a look anyway. What a surprise - Norwegian flies directly to Pisa and the airport is just a slow moving,10 minute train ride from the city. You could actually walk directly from the airport to the central station in about 15 to 20 minutes. But most surprisingly was the cost. $60 each way - cheaper than a company discount - and most importantly, no standing-by. SEX has nothing to do with this blog but the word will put on your skimming brakes.
I didn't want to travel alone so I asked my friend Anne if she want to go with me. She had to work and she and her mother were going to Mallorca the following week. So I asked my American friend Dan and his Swedish boyfriend Stefan if they wanted to go with me. Stefan jumped on the wagon immediately. I invited Dan and Stefan to come by for a drink and we could make travel plans. When I showed them the price on the Norwegian Air web site, I was shocked to see that the price had actually gone down $10. Normally the price goes up the later you book. Later that evening Stefan realized that he was not going to be able to get the time off. Dan wanted to go but would need to talk to his boss first. I said that I was going to book my ticket that night. I didn't want to take a chance that the flight would be fully booked or that the price would go up. It was 2 days later when Dan called me and asked if he could bring his friend Jørn. I had met Jørn 2 or 3 times at Dan's place and he seemed to be an easy going friendly guy - so I said, "Sure, bring him along, but you had better order those tickets before it's too late." He did and the price had now gone down yet another few dollars - unbelievable!
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April 14
Ka-Boom !
Days later, on April 14, it is reported on the news that the Whatchamacallit volcano sent up another big batch of ash into the air. The volcano has been active for.... forever probably.... probably ever since Adam ate his first slice of American pie made with Dutch apples. The following day we get word that airports all around the world are closed. Not realizing the seriousness of the situation, I shrugged my shoulders wondering why these things always happen on my days off - poor me.
Iceland, Europe's second largest island, is floating and exploding in the North Atlantic Ocean, east of Greenland and just south of the Arctic Circle. Way back in history, Iceland was under the Norwegian crown which was ruled together with Denmark as one huge large country with 2 identities. Or something weird like that. When Norway and Denmark became separate, independent countries, the Norwegians voted for the Danish Monarch to send its prince to be the new king of Norway. When the 2 countries became independent, Iceland remained under Danish rule and not Norwegian rule. bla bla bla - some more history - bla bla bla and bla. Then WWII came along but the Danish navy was just to small to protect Iceland. So the people of Iceland elected themselves free from Denmark and Denmark couldn't do anything about it. The Americans got permission from the new Icelandic government to build an airbase in Keflavik and from here it was easier to keep an eye out on the Russians. Now everybody is happy. The Danes know that the American will protect Iceland. The Icelandic people know they have a strong hand if they need it and the Americans get a "go card" to keep up the dirty work. Of course this doesn't go over well with the Russians.
Now independent, but they still speak Danish as a second language and still teach it in school. Interestingly, Iceland, a lowly country who depended mainly on fishing, became one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world. In 2007, it was ranked as the most developed country in the world by the United Nations' Human Development Index. But in 2008, the nation's banking system failed and caused the country to fall flat on its "ash".
The volcano, called Eyjafjallajökull, pronounced eblablabooblabeblablacool, is located on the southern part of the island, as well as on Google Earth. At 1,666 meters high or 5,466 ft, the volcano lays under an glacial ice cap - well at least it used to. Now it's all melted away and an estimated 110 million cubic meters or 140,000,000 cubic yards of ash and muck got shot up into the atmosphere (Does that mean anything to you? X number of cubic whatever? Just a single half filled ashtray makes me wanna gag.) All this ash has now made flying unsafe and flights over Europe have been closed.
Well..... there goes that Leaning Tower Pizzeria holiday.
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April 15
The following evening, there are reports on the news that 100's of flights are canceled. The entire country of Denmark is glued to their television sets. Not for the news of the boom-boom, puff-puff and lava flow, but for the pre-celebration television entertainment variety show in honor of the Queen Margrethe's 70th birthday. One of the last bits of entertainment had everybody laughing and rolling on the floor - including the queen. A fairly new stand-up comic with extremely dry humor, who's spiel is comedy with magic, did a card trick for the queen. But instead of using cards, he used slices of sandwich ham. (Danish ham is of course, a huge export, money maker for Denmark). This comedian spread out some slices of ham in his hand like you would with an ordinary deck of cards and asked the queen to "pick a ham, any ham".
Everybody laughed. Just to say this to the queen was totally nuts. 
Then the comic said, "OK - now look at it!... Remember it!", and this had everybody going crazy with laughter. He then asked the queen to write her name on the slice of ham and stick the ham back into the pile of ham slices. Then without any warning whatsoever, he handed the stack of ham to the Prime Minister sitting on the right hand side of the queen and asked him to shuffle the 
ham. The queen loved that one. It was soooo funny, that it was almost impossible to control ones bladder. Then the comic took off his shoe and added milk and flour to the inside of his shoe. Then he "baked" it with his cigarette lighter. It sparked and poofed. Then he reached inside of his shoe and pulled out a "freshly baked" danish roll. Everyone was amazed. But the trick wasn't over. He broke open the bread roll and inside was the slice of ham with the queens signature on it. It was such a huge laugh, people are still talking about it. See the entire trick here.
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April 16
The next day, April 16, was the Queens birthday. We got a late start but managed to steal a little tiny parking space that was over looked by a million other car drivers heading towards Amalienborg Palace. Here at the palace, the queen and her family come out onto the balcony to wave hello to all her subjects. You can click the commercial away by clicking on the X in the video picture box. We just managed to squeeze into the crowd to be able to catch a glimpse of the queen and the royal family. After the nine chants of Hurra!, the crowd started to dissipate after the family went back inside the palace. But the queen always comes out a second time so I knew to move closer to the balcony and not go back to the car just yet. Sure enough, this time I squeezed my way close enough to see just who it was that I was waving too. It was very exciting.
After it was clear that the family was done waving to the crowd, we walked back to the car and then headed out for cake and coffee with our friend Lars. His partner Nasko from Bulgarian, was at work that day. While we were having cake and coffee, the queen was out on a little ride through town waving hello to the little people. Lars lives, as he self describes it, in a post card. And it's true - take a look out of the window and you will see some of the best sites that Copenhagen has to offer. I
t had been a busy morning so we had to make our visit quick. We had to eat and run. Plus we only paid 5 dollars for 45 minutes of parking. After saying good-bye to Lars, we quickly and carefully hobbled down 5 crooked floors of stairs and back to our car, only to meet a parking meter reader who had just finished writing up our car for being 2 minutes over the limit - $100. This is why it's better to pay $10 for an hour and a half parking than to spend $100 trying to save $5. But Lars has curly L' Orèal hair, so he's worth it!
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Later that evening -
Now the ash in the sky is a television headline all day, every day. Dan, Jørn and I are trying to prepare ourselves for the day we have to cancel our trip. We want to cancel right away but if we do that, we will loose our money. You can only cancel the flight when you get the ok from the airline. And the airline is sending out cancellation notices on a day by day, last minute, on-line notice form. Departure is set for April 21 but as of April 19, flights are still being canceled and we have no idea what the airline will do with us.
I asked Dan to contact the hotel and let them know that we may not be arriving due to the ash. Hopefully the hotel will give us a break considering the circumstances. It turns out that we booked our room through a middle man and not directly with the hotel. The website rule was that we should have canceled by the 17th if we didn't want to be charged for the first night. But neither by the 17th and the 18th nor the 19th, did we have any clue whatsoever if we were going to get on board or not. Well.... if we have to pay for the first night, it would only be 40 bucks a head, so it's not a big loss. I had Dan contact that hotel since he was kind enough to book the room using his credit card. Dan reports back to us and hopes the guy who answered the phone understood him because his English skills were less than basic.
I'm checking out the airline website several times a day and updating Dan and Jørn by e-mail with web links both in English for Dan and in Danish for Jørn. The last mail I sent to Dan was with a message of how we are going to have to find an alternative to a later holiday. I still have the rest of the month off but that would eat into other plans that I already have. But by the time my mail got to Dan's computer, the link had been updated by the airline company and now it read that the flight to Pisa will be departing as planned. If Dan hadn't told this to me, I would have been ready to fill out the cancellation form. Instead, Dan informed me that we now have to get ready for take-off.
Meanwhile, Jørn's stomach has been in knots because of the uncertainty of not knowing whether we are going or not. Who was it that said to me - just be glad that you are not stuck in transit - as so many people around the world were. Their flights had come to an abrupt stop. At least we were safe and sound at home. I didn't realize that there were thousands of passengers who were stuck and stranded halfway and could go neither forward nor back to where they started from.
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April 21
I zip up my carry-on and toss it in the back of the car, avoiding Bounty's head. We drive around the corner and toot the horn, signaling our arrival to Dan. Bounty loves Dan and jumps all over him when I open the back of the car to put in Dan's bag. Bounty leaves a fury memory of herself all over Dan's pants. We zoom off to the airport just 10 minutes away. Jens sets us off and we hug each other good-bye. The airport has very easy to use check-in machines and in less than 3 minutes, we are on our way to be frisked by 
security. Belts and watches off. Tooth paste and shampoo exposed in plastic bags. No beeps or buzzing so we are clear for take off and I lead the boys to the Diners Lounge where a departure drink is waiting to be consumed.
"Hey!! Where's the booze?", I pouted to the quite and timid, 5 ft, Asian woman moving in slow-mo. "We don't put out the alcohol until 10:30", she whispered. It was just after 10 in the morning. But she did bring it out anyway saying that her boss said it was ok. I'm
thinking to myself - your damn right it's ok! - I'm about to fall out of the sky in ash land - I don't need A drink, I need a port-a-bar!!!
So I mix us a Bloody Mary and then another and then another and before you know it - we're a bloody mess. "OK! iss ten sirty - you can bring ow tha blooze now, lady!", I blunder with crossed eyes and a finger pointing in every which way to the Asian woman who wasn't even there.
" com'on guys... we bletter gig.... we bwetter gig glow..... less go!" I struggle to say. I was too sloshed to noticed, but Dan, or was it Jørn, who said, "Hey - look at the board! We're the only flight departing from this finger."
The airport has fingers A, B, C and D. Finger A splits and has 2 corridors. The part that we had to go to has 10 gates. The other
corridor has just as many or more gates of which some are used for both domestic and/or international flights. But of the at least 20 gates that are always busy, only gate A11 had a departure posted on the board and it was the only plane there. We were one of the first to depart since the big ashtray in the sky. This could of course mean only one thing - more booze to numb the body and help ease the pain if we should happen to fall out of the sky and hit the ground at 1000 mph / kph. " Hey that was fun! Let's go up again!", was what I hoped to say.
In just 1 hour and 50 minutes we were back on the ground - in Italy. Since we only had carry-on luggage, we were on the train to the city just minutes after we landed. The train departed the moment we got on board. The train pulled
into Pisa station just 10 minutes after it left the airport. Walking through town we were amazed how easy it all was. Now we were hoping that the hotel clerk was good enough at English to understand that, we might not be able to come is not the same as, we want to cancel our reservations.
Within 15 minutes we were at the door step of the hotel. We were crossing our fingers that the room for 4 people we saw on-line, was the room we would get. Sure enough, it was. But then Jørn asked if
there were any other rooms available. There was. A room higher up, at the top and in the back of the building with more space and a view. "We'll take it!", we said and it didn't cost us any extra.
Pisa was wonderful. What an experience. From hearing about it as a child and watching lots of footage on television of the leaning tower and hoping one day to see it before it falls over; now suddenly, here I was, not only looking at the tower but climbing the inside of it and snapping pictures from the top of it. It was sooooooo amazing. I will let the pictures speak for themselves as we all take a break from this endless text.
This is Jørn's 2nd time here. Before leaving home we realized that 4 days in Pisa was going to be over kill so I thought we would take a train ride to the first of the famous 5 terraces of Italy known as Cinque Terre. But Jørn had talked us into a quicker trip to Lucca instead. It's only a 40 minute train ride away from Pisa. We fell in love all over again with this new village that I had only ever heard of once I started investigating the city of Pisa on the net. If I had to do it again for the second time, I would go back and spend an hour walking along the Arno River and then spend 2 - 3 hours at the tower and church and then the rest of the time in Lucca. What a cute place this was. Check it out for yourself with the following pix.
4 days later I am home again in Copenhagen and luckily, live just 10 minutes from the airport too. And then I have to get ready for the rest of the month. First thing I did was try to get my computer going which discomboobulated while I was out. I couldn't do anything with it. I have a feeling that the little fan in the back sucked up too much ash. Trying to work on the damn thing sure was a pain in the ash. So instead of burning out my last few brain cells and since there is still 7 months left to go on the warranty, we drove off to the middle of this capital island to drop off the computer from where Santa bought it and have his little elves fix the funker.
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April 25
Late this afternoon we got on a bus and went to hear the Copenhagen Police Orchestra. Last year they gave a concert in Halifax, Canada and the year before that, they played down under in Tasmania, Australia. The concert was in the Tivoli concert hall and we sat up close to the front of the stage. Our seats were so good we had to wipe off trumpet spit from our foreheads. Some of the numbers were with an entertainer, singing and jumping around on stage in a tight shiny dress cut down to here. Trine Gadeberg sang to some of the melodies which included a Marilyn Monroe medley, Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, to which she messed up some of the text. She did a beautiful Danish national song called I Danmark Er Jeg Født ( I was born in Denmark) which brought tears to Jens's eyes and when I looked at him, I started to cry instantly too. She sang the very good but very depressing song, so I never really cared for it, All By Myself. She sang the big hit from Les Misérables On My Own. My favorite was the xylophone number which went at lightning speeds and played on 2 xylophones by 2 musicians. How they could bang on those notes at the exact same time was just amazing to watch and listen to.
I learned a new word that evening as a real slick guy in a tuxedo walked across the stage. "He's the konferencier", Jens said to me in his best French.
"The whah", I asked, in my best Hill Billy.
"The konferencier", he repeated, "Don't you speak French?" Jens asked me.
"I barely even par-lay voo Danish - what the hell is a kon-frenchie-ay?", I sassed.
"He's the guy who presents all the songs, singers, conductor and orchestra members", Jens answered.
"Oh... why didn't you just say he's the host?"
So now you know.... Konferencier = Host.
But in Danish, host means "cough".
Those dumb Danes.
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April 26
Restaurant Noma in Copenhagen is now fully booked following the announcement on Monday night that it has won the San Pellegrino Awards as the Number 1 restaurant of the world’s top 50 restaurants. Known as the Oscar of the gastronomic trade, the award is presented by the British Restaurant Magazine and places Noma’s 32-year old chef Rene Redzepi as the "primus inter pares" of global cooking - whatever that is.
“
There was a split second where I had a very special feeling in my body – a feeling you have once in your life and never again,” said Rene, describing his mood when he was announced as the winner at a ceremony at Guildhall in London. Had it been me, I don't think I would have described the evening in such a way that the judges could mistakenly take for a bad stomach. I mean, was that "special feeling in my body" botulism or salmonella? - could have been. Haven't you ever had to deposit a "special feeling in your body" directly into the restaurant toilet right after a tasty meal? - sure you have.
The panel of judges of leading gastronomic experts appointed the Danish restaurant, which has led a crusade to promote authentic Nordic foods, as the world’s best ahead of legends such as Spain’s El Bulli and Britain’s The Fat Duck. Last year Noma was third on the list, and at that time Redzepi won the title as the chefs’ own favorite, and it seemed unlikely that he would be able to reach any higher. Wrong!
If Noma experiences the same hype as El Bulli, which has held the title for the past four years, success seems to be guaranteed. There is a two year wait to get a table at El Bulli and guests flock to the restaurant from all over the world to taste the creations of Head Chef Ferran Adriá. But you can be sure there will be a few available tables now as the crowd moves to Copenhagen.
I'm guessing the head chef wanted that Manhattan SOHO sound to ring in your ear. SOHO. NOMA. Mr. Know-It-All, Jens Boesen, tells me that NOMA stands for NOrdic MAd. Mad (pronounced more like math) is the Danish word for food. Therefore I would have called the joint, NOFO. I think rolls a bit easier off the tong - don't you? SOHO... NOFO... Thank-you very much. Oscar please!
So if you want to feed your fat face with some tasty treats from Scandinavia, come on out to Gladiolusvej 4. Jens whips up some excellent Karbonader and Frikadeller. Once you read Noma's menu prices, you'll want to give us a call and book a broken teak bench on our backyard patio. When calling, please let us know if you prefer a crumbling brick wall view or a rotting wooden fence view. Pretty yellow dandy-lions abound no matter where you are seated.
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April 28
I'm not getting on another crowded, smelly bus and I'm not about to pay another $125 for parking. "This time we are taking the car", I told Jens after he suggested we take the bus to Tivoli. There is a parking structure just a 3 minute walk from the front gate of Tivoli. Tonight we are going to see a ballet. Not just any ballet. No no no no no. Tonight the Russian are coming!
Russia has been on official visits in Norway April 26 and 27 and in Denmark April 27 and 28. For nearly 40 years, the Norwegians and the Russian have disputed their boarders in the north Atlantic; an area that is considered rich in future oil drilling. But now they have come to an agreement and decided to get together to put a seal of good faith on their relations.
Not long ago Russia sent out a letter to the European Union inquiring if there was a country(s) that would be willing to be on the receiving end of the gas line that the Russians wants to build. Denmark was the first to jumped at the chance to have an opportunity to improve relations with Russia and open doors to new business adventures.
It has been a long time since any officials from Russia have been on a state visit to Denmark. The last official visit was back in 1964 when Nikita Khrushchev was president. Denmark and Russia used to have close relations with each other as the royal families of both countries were related. OK - hang onto your hat. This is a tricky one and it's just a smidget in royal history. There is this woman, see... She was born Princess Dagmar of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. This long hyphenated word is an area of old Denmark. These days, due to border changes, it is now Germany. Later she was simply known as Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She was born in 1847 as the second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. ((Dagmar's older sister was Alexandra and she became Queen Consort of King Edward VII of England. )) Princess Dagmar later married Russian Tsar Alexander III and took on a new name; Tsarina Maria Feodorovna.
In the early 1900's the Russian Tsar and his Romanov family were placed under house arrest. During the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks were getting strong and coming into power. By 1917 they had taken over and the Soviet Union was founded. It was the start of the Communist Party. Most of the Romanov family was murdered by the Bolsheviks. Maria Feodorovna managed to escape and flee back to Denmark. She died at age 80 in 1928 and was buried in Roskilde at the great Cathedral where all the Danish kings and queens are buried. In 2005, Queen Margarethe II - the now ruling queen of Denmark - and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, agreed that Tsarina Maria Feodorovna's remains should be returned to Saint Petersburg in accordance with her wish to be buried next to her husband Alexander III. At the end of September 2006, with a big to do and a lot of ceremonies, the Tsarina remains were sent to St. Petersburg where she now lies next to her husband, 78 years after her death.
Huh!! How's that for some serious royal history!?
On a lighter note - Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, born in 1762, was the cousin of 2 Swedish kings; one of which was married to the daughter of King Frederick V of Denmark and the other cousin was both the King of Sweden and the King of Norway at the same time - for a short number of years. Anyway... Catherine the Great was to receive a gift from King Christian VII of Denmark. The gift was a tableware produced from the Royal Porcelain Factory. But before the tableware was completed, Catherine the Great died. So the king kept the porcelain and used it on his birthday in January 1803 and I'm guessing for the Crown Prince's b-day too since they were both born in January. The king told the factory to stop production, probably due to the cost plus 1802 pieces were already made and how big of a table could the king possibly have? Of the original 1802 plates and SEX are you still skimming? bowls made and painted, 1530 pieces still exist and are spread out in different Danish castles and museums both in Denmark and outside of Denmark. The set was never completed because the plates are painted with drawings from a book called Flora Danica. The book itself was never completed because the book contains drawings of all the plant life in Denmark and with the borders changing all the time, including vast areas of what is now Sweden and Norway, the book just goes on and on and on. The porcelain dinner set is the most expensive and the most prestige set in the world. So much so that Queen Elisabeth wanted to buy it. The Danes said no but told her she was welcome to buy a copy set that is still being produced in the factory today.
Ok so now Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is giving a return dinner in Restaurant Nimb in Tivoli and after dinner he will provide entertainment.
While I was getting sea-sick going round and round up dilapidated stairs in the leaning tower, an e-mail popped up on screen while Jens was paying for my travel bills and expenses on-line. The e-mail was from Tivoli. It read: Hear Ye, Hear Ye. All Pee-ons are invited to spend gobs of mullah to see a Russian ballet in the concert hall at Tivoli. Jens instantly did a right click and paid our way to the first row, just 5th and 6th seats from the center.
Jens wanted to get there early and we would have but I ended up wasting 20 minutes in front of the mirror creating the most embarrassing knot in my tie. I finally got it right but had to keep my jacket on and buttoned up the entire evening as the bottom of the tie just barely reached to my navel. Then one of the main streets was closed due to the President and the Queen eating at Nimb which is just across the street from the central train station making it the perfect spot for someone to blow up the joint and make a quick exit on train. Ha Ha - what a laugh - the train is always always ALWAYS delayed. So I guess the Queen and the Prez were pretty safe after all. But traffic was jammed and though a retired policeman sitting on my right, suggested that I be patient and wait for the light, (uh, yeah, right) I cranked the wheel and stepped on the gas. I just went ahead and made an illegal left hand turn, crossing a double yellow, peeling rubber and zipped into an underground parking structure like I was being chased by the bad guys in the film Frantic with Harrison Ford.
OK - so I park our potato in the parking garage and in just minutes we are handing our ticket to the Tivoli entrance guard and continue on to the concert hall. At the half way point between Tivoli's main entrance and the concert hall, while I was extremely focused on the intense cobolt blue color of the 100's of hyacinth, in just one of the endless numbers of flower patches; in the corner of my eye I see some action that awakens me from my Oz flower power trance. Some old fart with horrible teeth, which look more like a set of cheap plastic stage teeth, shaking hands with Jens says, "Good to see you again". And now he is walking towards me with his hand extended as if he was just dying to say hello to me. My stare becomes stuck on his grayish-bluish buck teeth - Oh my god! I know this guy. Now his wife is actually walking towards me too and anxious to shake my hand. It should be me who is to keep my eyes humbly toward the ground and do a curtsy.
It was Count Ingolf of Rosenborg and his wife Countess Sussi that I was shaking hands with. I needed someone to whack me and awaken me from my royalty wonder.
Before Ingolf was Count, he was Prince Ingolf. He was almost Crown Prince Ingolf which would have made him King Ingolf later on BUT!.... now pay attention... King Frederik IX had 3 daughters and no sons. That means he had no heir to the throne after his death. In such a case, the king's brother's eldest son, Ingolf, would be heir to the throne, making him Crown Prince and then eventually King Ingolf. Ingolf and Margrethe are cousins and are about the same age. At the time when they were just kids, Denmark was way way WAY at the forefront of human rights and creating all things equal. So the people of Denmark voted for a new amendment to their constitution, adding even more freedom and equality. They voted that the kingdom can now be bestowed upon the kings eldest child - whether it be a boy OR a girl.
This meant 2 things: 1 - Margrethe, the eldest of the kings 3 daughters was now the Crown Princess. She became heir to the throne with the overwhelming vote of the people and 2 - Prince Ingolf was kicked into the real world. Marrying an ordinary civilian meant lowering his status from Prince to Count. Doomed forever more to shake hands with ordinary low life people like me at amusement parks.
I took my camera with me, hoping to snap and sneak a photo or two of the Russians. But now something really really REALLY big, REALLY HUGE was happening literally right in the palm of my hand. But I just couldn't bring myself to say to the Count; and how ironic it would be to say, OK - smile - say cheeze". It's a new camera but still I don't think the lens is high tech enough to capture all of that weird porcelain.
When I got to the concert hall and even before getting in line to be frisked, a security agent directed me to "go over there and check in your camera." We had about 15 minutes to buy a pre-entertainment cocktail but the line went completely around the theater and the price for 2 centiliters of alcohol was about 10 bucks. So I said to Jens that we should just forget it because we had already spent our allocated booze budget on parking citations.
Little did we know that there would have been plenty of time to get smashed as the Queen and President were a full hour late! I asked Jens if I could write to the Queen to have her reimburse me for the first hour of parking. Unlike me, down town parking is not cheap you know.
OK - the doors open and we proudly make our way to the first row and take our seats. We wait and wait and wait and wait. A full hour goes by and then suddenly.... Crown Prince Freddy and his down-under wife Mary, walk into the theater with Freddy's younger brother Jorkim and his oo la la frenchy poo wife, Maria - all looking better and more beautiful than anybody has the right too. The audience went, in a second, from being a noisy crowd to an instant hush. The only noise in the place was the muddle bang of the velvet theater seat pads swinging up against the back pads as everybody stood up in respect of the Royal Family. Then the biggies walk in: Queen Margrette and President Medvedev. She's a giant and he's the shortest man in the house with shoulders as square as the building. All eyes were huge and just about to fall out of their sockets as this huge amount of power glided into the hall and took their place.......IN THE 5th ROW !!
Good things come to those who are glued to the internet! 5th row royalty - ha!
We were able to look right up those tutu's making me forget all about that expensive parking.
Wow Wow WOW.... What an amazing performance! I swear you could actually feel the power and the strength of the dancers. One of the dancers took such huge flying leaps that Jens thought the dancer was going to jump right off of the stage and into the audience. I'm telling you it was just amazing! One of the woman's costumes was covered in pearls and diamonds and gold rings and trimmings. In a movement of fury, one of the diamonds popped off the dress and tingled to the edge of the stage. I reminded myself to pick up a free Russian souvenir just as soon as the final curtain went down.
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Wow ! What a busy month this has been. First there was Easter. I made a lamb and it turned out delicious - if I may say so myself. I am now so sorry that I didn't take any pictures from that afternoon. You would have sworn that I made a leg of horse instead of leg of lamb. It was huge! We had guests that afternoon; John and Birthe and our little buddy, Andy. The evening went well and there was plenty to eat. You can read all about my Easter on the previous blog.
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April 5
The following day, which was April 5th, is called 2nd Easter Day. It's a holiday too and because I had to work, I got holiday pay as well. As it turns out, the 5th and the 6th were the only 2 days in the entire month of April that I had to be at work. My time off started at the end of my morning shift on Tuesday, March 30. On the 31st, I spent some of my free time at the market shopping for food because Thursday and Friday were holidays as well. Easter is always a 5 day holiday here but this year for me it started a day and a half before everyone else.
I know it sounds like a real dream to have an entire month off but I kept very very VERY busy with errands around the house, trying to keep it dolled up for potential buyers. Yes, we are still trying to unload this heap but it's still ours at the moment.
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April 6
When I got off of work on April 6th, I went home and took a nap. When I woke up, Jens and I made a quick dinner and then we headed off to a private tour of the city home of the up and coming king and queen. That would be Crown Prince Frederik and his wife from down under, Crown Princess Mary. They will be moving into one of the 4 palaces that make up what is known as Amalienborg Palace.The construction of the first of the 4 palaces was started in 1750 and the last one was completed in 1760. The palaces were never intended for the royal family. At that time, the royal family lived on a little teeny tiny island called Slotsholmen. Slotsholmen is an island in the center of the city. The 4 palaces are really more like mansions but the name used is "palæ" sounding very much like the English word palace. But looking at the buildings themselves, you would say, "that's a mansion". Anyway... the buildings were originally built for Nobel men, where as the royal family lived just a 15 - 20 minute walk away on Slotsholmen.
The first Copenhagen castle on Slotsholmen was built in 1170. In the first 250 years of it's history, it was taken over by Hanseatic League (Who were the Hanseatic ? - remember my the short film on my Wurst Christmas Ever blog?). Eventually crumbling, it had to be knocked down and a new castle was built upon the old. It was built upon the old unstable original foundation in the 1730's. It wasn't long before this castle became a victim of fire in 1794 and then again after rebuilding in 1884. The only building to survive the fire was the church and it is still standing today along side of the new castle which was started in 1906 and completed in 1928. In the present castle, some of the wall is from the previous castles of the 1730's and 1880's. I'll have to find out just exactly which part of the wall(s) is from the old castles as I was not aware of this. Click here for more detailed infor with pix concerning the history of the castles on Slotholmen.
After the fire, the royal family was of course forced out and moved temporarily into the Amalienborg Palace. Upon completion of the latest Castle, known as Christianborgs Slot, the royal family decided that they liked the 4 palaces well enough to make it their home. The new castle was designed with 2 wings; one wing for the royal family and one wing of offices for the government. When the royal family found out that they were going to be neighbors to the government, they said, thanks - but no thanks and continued to live in the 4 palaces ever since.So..... one of the 4 palaces is now coming to the end of a total renovation. It's being updated and modernized for the new home owners - Freddy and Mary. And since it is my tax money that is paying for this renovation, I have decided to take a private tour of the nearly completed home of the Crown Prince and Princess. Here you can read an enormous amount of info on the renovation, the history, and the new art work of the building. And here you can view a 6 minute video of the before, during and almost after renovation of the building (in Danish).
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April 10
It's horrible and tragic day in Polish history. A plane carrying the Polish president and dozens of the country’s top political and military leaders to the site of a Soviet massacre of Polish officers in World War II, crashed in western Russia on Saturday, killing everyone on board.
President Lech Kaczynski’s plane tried to land in a thick fog, missing the runway and snagging treetops about half a mile from the airport in Smolensk, scattering chunks of fuselage across a bare forest. The crash came as a stunning blow to Poland, wiping out a large portion of the country’s leadership in one fiery explosion. And in a chilling twist, it happened at the moment that Russia and Poland were beginning to come to terms with the killing of more than 20,000 members of Poland’s elite officer corps in the same place 70 years ago.
A top Russian military official said air traffic controllers at the Smolensk airport had several times ordered the crew of the plane not to land, warned that it was descending below the glide path and recommended it reroute to another airport. It tried to land 4 times. Jens told me that the Polish President was a very stubborn man and was always demanding whatever he wanted. Jens is guessing that the President probably demanded the pilot to "get this plane on the ground - now!" "Nevertheless, the crew continued the descent," said Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Alyoshin, the first deputy chief of the Russian Air Force Staff. "Unfortunately, the result was tragic."
Here is a photo that I think shows the sad and gruesome event.
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As I may have mentioned elsewhere, Jens suggested that I save my vacation time and overtime hours for the month of April so that we could easily move from our "sold" home to our "new" apartment without having to worry about not having time enough to make the move. It was a good idea. We just needed to get one small detail taken care of; to get the house sold. As we approached April, I could see that this small detail was not going to be happening as we had hoped for and crossed our fingers for. So as a back up plan, I thought I would use a few of my 33½ days off to do something special. Jens suggested that I take a little trip to Gran Canaria. And I really really REALLY wanted to do that BUT - as much as I love love LOVE GC and as much as I need need NEED the sun, I equally needed to see and experience something else.
Pisa and Madrid have always had high priority on my list of places to see. So I decided to check out what kind of deal I could get with my employee option to Madrid. $90 each way. Stand-by. Not bad, I thought. Just one problem; I could see that Madrid is a big travel destination in the month of April and I didn't want to have to deal with stand-by seating in a heavy travel period. So I checked out what kind of deal I could get to Rome and from there, take the train to Pisa. Same price; $90 each way + train transport. So that was a very good option although I had no idea what the price of the train would cost or how long it would take. Just for the fun of it, I thought I would check into Norwegian Air to see where their southern European destinations are and what they cost. I knew they were going to be twice the price but I'll just take a look anyway. What a surprise - Norwegian flies directly to Pisa and the airport is just a slow moving,10 minute train ride from the city. You could actually walk directly from the airport to the central station in about 15 to 20 minutes. But most surprisingly was the cost. $60 each way - cheaper than a company discount - and most importantly, no standing-by. SEX has nothing to do with this blog but the word will put on your skimming brakes.
I didn't want to travel alone so I asked my friend Anne if she want to go with me. She had to work and she and her mother were going to Mallorca the following week. So I asked my American friend Dan and his Swedish boyfriend Stefan if they wanted to go with me. Stefan jumped on the wagon immediately. I invited Dan and Stefan to come by for a drink and we could make travel plans. When I showed them the price on the Norwegian Air web site, I was shocked to see that the price had actually gone down $10. Normally the price goes up the later you book. Later that evening Stefan realized that he was not going to be able to get the time off. Dan wanted to go but would need to talk to his boss first. I said that I was going to book my ticket that night. I didn't want to take a chance that the flight would be fully booked or that the price would go up. It was 2 days later when Dan called me and asked if he could bring his friend Jørn. I had met Jørn 2 or 3 times at Dan's place and he seemed to be an easy going friendly guy - so I said, "Sure, bring him along, but you had better order those tickets before it's too late." He did and the price had now gone down yet another few dollars - unbelievable!
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April 14
Ka-Boom !
Days later, on April 14, it is reported on the news that the Whatchamacallit volcano sent up another big batch of ash into the air. The volcano has been active for.... forever probably.... probably ever since Adam ate his first slice of American pie made with Dutch apples. The following day we get word that airports all around the world are closed. Not realizing the seriousness of the situation, I shrugged my shoulders wondering why these things always happen on my days off - poor me.
Iceland, Europe's second largest island, is floating and exploding in the North Atlantic Ocean, east of Greenland and just south of the Arctic Circle. Way back in history, Iceland was under the Norwegian crown which was ruled together with Denmark as one huge large country with 2 identities. Or something weird like that. When Norway and Denmark became separate, independent countries, the Norwegians voted for the Danish Monarch to send its prince to be the new king of Norway. When the 2 countries became independent, Iceland remained under Danish rule and not Norwegian rule. bla bla bla - some more history - bla bla bla and bla. Then WWII came along but the Danish navy was just to small to protect Iceland. So the people of Iceland elected themselves free from Denmark and Denmark couldn't do anything about it. The Americans got permission from the new Icelandic government to build an airbase in Keflavik and from here it was easier to keep an eye out on the Russians. Now everybody is happy. The Danes know that the American will protect Iceland. The Icelandic people know they have a strong hand if they need it and the Americans get a "go card" to keep up the dirty work. Of course this doesn't go over well with the Russians.Now independent, but they still speak Danish as a second language and still teach it in school. Interestingly, Iceland, a lowly country who depended mainly on fishing, became one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world. In 2007, it was ranked as the most developed country in the world by the United Nations' Human Development Index. But in 2008, the nation's banking system failed and caused the country to fall flat on its "ash".
The volcano, called Eyjafjallajökull, pronounced eblablabooblabeblablacool, is located on the southern part of the island, as well as on Google Earth. At 1,666 meters high or 5,466 ft, the volcano lays under an glacial ice cap - well at least it used to. Now it's all melted away and an estimated 110 million cubic meters or 140,000,000 cubic yards of ash and muck got shot up into the atmosphere (Does that mean anything to you? X number of cubic whatever? Just a single half filled ashtray makes me wanna gag.) All this ash has now made flying unsafe and flights over Europe have been closed.
Well..... there goes that Leaning Tower Pizzeria holiday.
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April 15
The following evening, there are reports on the news that 100's of flights are canceled. The entire country of Denmark is glued to their television sets. Not for the news of the boom-boom, puff-puff and lava flow, but for the pre-celebration television entertainment variety show in honor of the Queen Margrethe's 70th birthday. One of the last bits of entertainment had everybody laughing and rolling on the floor - including the queen. A fairly new stand-up comic with extremely dry humor, who's spiel is comedy with magic, did a card trick for the queen. But instead of using cards, he used slices of sandwich ham. (Danish ham is of course, a huge export, money maker for Denmark). This comedian spread out some slices of ham in his hand like you would with an ordinary deck of cards and asked the queen to "pick a ham, any ham".
Everybody laughed. Just to say this to the queen was totally nuts. Then the comic said, "OK - now look at it!... Remember it!", and this had everybody going crazy with laughter. He then asked the queen to write her name on the slice of ham and stick the ham back into the pile of ham slices. Then without any warning whatsoever, he handed the stack of ham to the Prime Minister sitting on the right hand side of the queen and asked him to shuffle the 
ham. The queen loved that one. It was soooo funny, that it was almost impossible to control ones bladder. Then the comic took off his shoe and added milk and flour to the inside of his shoe. Then he "baked" it with his cigarette lighter. It sparked and poofed. Then he reached inside of his shoe and pulled out a "freshly baked" danish roll. Everyone was amazed. But the trick wasn't over. He broke open the bread roll and inside was the slice of ham with the queens signature on it. It was such a huge laugh, people are still talking about it. See the entire trick here.---------------
April 16
The next day, April 16, was the Queens birthday. We got a late start but managed to steal a little tiny parking space that was over looked by a million other car drivers heading towards Amalienborg Palace. Here at the palace, the queen and her family come out onto the balcony to wave hello to all her subjects. You can click the commercial away by clicking on the X in the video picture box. We just managed to squeeze into the crowd to be able to catch a glimpse of the queen and the royal family. After the nine chants of Hurra!, the crowd started to dissipate after the family went back inside the palace. But the queen always comes out a second time so I knew to move closer to the balcony and not go back to the car just yet. Sure enough, this time I squeezed my way close enough to see just who it was that I was waving too. It was very exciting.
After it was clear that the family was done waving to the crowd, we walked back to the car and then headed out for cake and coffee with our friend Lars. His partner Nasko from Bulgarian, was at work that day. While we were having cake and coffee, the queen was out on a little ride through town waving hello to the little people. Lars lives, as he self describes it, in a post card. And it's true - take a look out of the window and you will see some of the best sites that Copenhagen has to offer. I
t had been a busy morning so we had to make our visit quick. We had to eat and run. Plus we only paid 5 dollars for 45 minutes of parking. After saying good-bye to Lars, we quickly and carefully hobbled down 5 crooked floors of stairs and back to our car, only to meet a parking meter reader who had just finished writing up our car for being 2 minutes over the limit - $100. This is why it's better to pay $10 for an hour and a half parking than to spend $100 trying to save $5. But Lars has curly L' Orèal hair, so he's worth it!---------------
Later that evening -
Now the ash in the sky is a television headline all day, every day. Dan, Jørn and I are trying to prepare ourselves for the day we have to cancel our trip. We want to cancel right away but if we do that, we will loose our money. You can only cancel the flight when you get the ok from the airline. And the airline is sending out cancellation notices on a day by day, last minute, on-line notice form. Departure is set for April 21 but as of April 19, flights are still being canceled and we have no idea what the airline will do with us.
I asked Dan to contact the hotel and let them know that we may not be arriving due to the ash. Hopefully the hotel will give us a break considering the circumstances. It turns out that we booked our room through a middle man and not directly with the hotel. The website rule was that we should have canceled by the 17th if we didn't want to be charged for the first night. But neither by the 17th and the 18th nor the 19th, did we have any clue whatsoever if we were going to get on board or not. Well.... if we have to pay for the first night, it would only be 40 bucks a head, so it's not a big loss. I had Dan contact that hotel since he was kind enough to book the room using his credit card. Dan reports back to us and hopes the guy who answered the phone understood him because his English skills were less than basic.
I'm checking out the airline website several times a day and updating Dan and Jørn by e-mail with web links both in English for Dan and in Danish for Jørn. The last mail I sent to Dan was with a message of how we are going to have to find an alternative to a later holiday. I still have the rest of the month off but that would eat into other plans that I already have. But by the time my mail got to Dan's computer, the link had been updated by the airline company and now it read that the flight to Pisa will be departing as planned. If Dan hadn't told this to me, I would have been ready to fill out the cancellation form. Instead, Dan informed me that we now have to get ready for take-off.
Meanwhile, Jørn's stomach has been in knots because of the uncertainty of not knowing whether we are going or not. Who was it that said to me - just be glad that you are not stuck in transit - as so many people around the world were. Their flights had come to an abrupt stop. At least we were safe and sound at home. I didn't realize that there were thousands of passengers who were stuck and stranded halfway and could go neither forward nor back to where they started from.
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April 21
I zip up my carry-on and toss it in the back of the car, avoiding Bounty's head. We drive around the corner and toot the horn, signaling our arrival to Dan. Bounty loves Dan and jumps all over him when I open the back of the car to put in Dan's bag. Bounty leaves a fury memory of herself all over Dan's pants. We zoom off to the airport just 10 minutes away. Jens sets us off and we hug each other good-bye. The airport has very easy to use check-in machines and in less than 3 minutes, we are on our way to be frisked by 
security. Belts and watches off. Tooth paste and shampoo exposed in plastic bags. No beeps or buzzing so we are clear for take off and I lead the boys to the Diners Lounge where a departure drink is waiting to be consumed."Hey!! Where's the booze?", I pouted to the quite and timid, 5 ft, Asian woman moving in slow-mo. "We don't put out the alcohol until 10:30", she whispered. It was just after 10 in the morning. But she did bring it out anyway saying that her boss said it was ok. I'm
thinking to myself - your damn right it's ok! - I'm about to fall out of the sky in ash land - I don't need A drink, I need a port-a-bar!!!So I mix us a Bloody Mary and then another and then another and before you know it - we're a bloody mess. "OK! iss ten sirty - you can bring ow tha blooze now, lady!", I blunder with crossed eyes and a finger pointing in every which way to the Asian woman who wasn't even there.
" com'on guys... we bletter gig.... we bwetter gig glow..... less go!" I struggle to say. I was too sloshed to noticed, but Dan, or was it Jørn, who said, "Hey - look at the board! We're the only flight departing from this finger."The airport has fingers A, B, C and D. Finger A splits and has 2 corridors. The part that we had to go to has 10 gates. The other
corridor has just as many or more gates of which some are used for both domestic and/or international flights. But of the at least 20 gates that are always busy, only gate A11 had a departure posted on the board and it was the only plane there. We were one of the first to depart since the big ashtray in the sky. This could of course mean only one thing - more booze to numb the body and help ease the pain if we should happen to fall out of the sky and hit the ground at 1000 mph / kph. " Hey that was fun! Let's go up again!", was what I hoped to say.In just 1 hour and 50 minutes we were back on the ground - in Italy. Since we only had carry-on luggage, we were on the train to the city just minutes after we landed. The train departed the moment we got on board. The train pulled
into Pisa station just 10 minutes after it left the airport. Walking through town we were amazed how easy it all was. Now we were hoping that the hotel clerk was good enough at English to understand that, we might not be able to come is not the same as, we want to cancel our reservations.Within 15 minutes we were at the door step of the hotel. We were crossing our fingers that the room for 4 people we saw on-line, was the room we would get. Sure enough, it was. But then Jørn asked if
there were any other rooms available. There was. A room higher up, at the top and in the back of the building with more space and a view. "We'll take it!", we said and it didn't cost us any extra.Pisa was wonderful. What an experience. From hearing about it as a child and watching lots of footage on television of the leaning tower and hoping one day to see it before it falls over; now suddenly, here I was, not only looking at the tower but climbing the inside of it and snapping pictures from the top of it. It was sooooooo amazing. I will let the pictures speak for themselves as we all take a break from this endless text.
This is Jørn's 2nd time here. Before leaving home we realized that 4 days in Pisa was going to be over kill so I thought we would take a train ride to the first of the famous 5 terraces of Italy known as Cinque Terre. But Jørn had talked us into a quicker trip to Lucca instead. It's only a 40 minute train ride away from Pisa. We fell in love all over again with this new village that I had only ever heard of once I started investigating the city of Pisa on the net. If I had to do it again for the second time, I would go back and spend an hour walking along the Arno River and then spend 2 - 3 hours at the tower and church and then the rest of the time in Lucca. What a cute place this was. Check it out for yourself with the following pix.
4 days later I am home again in Copenhagen and luckily, live just 10 minutes from the airport too. And then I have to get ready for the rest of the month. First thing I did was try to get my computer going which discomboobulated while I was out. I couldn't do anything with it. I have a feeling that the little fan in the back sucked up too much ash. Trying to work on the damn thing sure was a pain in the ash. So instead of burning out my last few brain cells and since there is still 7 months left to go on the warranty, we drove off to the middle of this capital island to drop off the computer from where Santa bought it and have his little elves fix the funker.
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April 25
Late this afternoon we got on a bus and went to hear the Copenhagen Police Orchestra. Last year they gave a concert in Halifax, Canada and the year before that, they played down under in Tasmania, Australia. The concert was in the Tivoli concert hall and we sat up close to the front of the stage. Our seats were so good we had to wipe off trumpet spit from our foreheads. Some of the numbers were with an entertainer, singing and jumping around on stage in a tight shiny dress cut down to here. Trine Gadeberg sang to some of the melodies which included a Marilyn Monroe medley, Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, to which she messed up some of the text. She did a beautiful Danish national song called I Danmark Er Jeg Født ( I was born in Denmark) which brought tears to Jens's eyes and when I looked at him, I started to cry instantly too. She sang the very good but very depressing song, so I never really cared for it, All By Myself. She sang the big hit from Les Misérables On My Own. My favorite was the xylophone number which went at lightning speeds and played on 2 xylophones by 2 musicians. How they could bang on those notes at the exact same time was just amazing to watch and listen to.I learned a new word that evening as a real slick guy in a tuxedo walked across the stage. "He's the konferencier", Jens said to me in his best French.
"The whah", I asked, in my best Hill Billy.
"The konferencier", he repeated, "Don't you speak French?" Jens asked me.
"I barely even par-lay voo Danish - what the hell is a kon-frenchie-ay?", I sassed.
"He's the guy who presents all the songs, singers, conductor and orchestra members", Jens answered.
"Oh... why didn't you just say he's the host?"
So now you know.... Konferencier = Host.
But in Danish, host means "cough".
Those dumb Danes.
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April 26
Restaurant Noma in Copenhagen is now fully booked following the announcement on Monday night that it has won the San Pellegrino Awards as the Number 1 restaurant of the world’s top 50 restaurants. Known as the Oscar of the gastronomic trade, the award is presented by the British Restaurant Magazine and places Noma’s 32-year old chef Rene Redzepi as the "primus inter pares" of global cooking - whatever that is.
“
There was a split second where I had a very special feeling in my body – a feeling you have once in your life and never again,” said Rene, describing his mood when he was announced as the winner at a ceremony at Guildhall in London. Had it been me, I don't think I would have described the evening in such a way that the judges could mistakenly take for a bad stomach. I mean, was that "special feeling in my body" botulism or salmonella? - could have been. Haven't you ever had to deposit a "special feeling in your body" directly into the restaurant toilet right after a tasty meal? - sure you have.The panel of judges of leading gastronomic experts appointed the Danish restaurant, which has led a crusade to promote authentic Nordic foods, as the world’s best ahead of legends such as Spain’s El Bulli and Britain’s The Fat Duck. Last year Noma was third on the list, and at that time Redzepi won the title as the chefs’ own favorite, and it seemed unlikely that he would be able to reach any higher. Wrong!
If Noma experiences the same hype as El Bulli, which has held the title for the past four years, success seems to be guaranteed. There is a two year wait to get a table at El Bulli and guests flock to the restaurant from all over the world to taste the creations of Head Chef Ferran Adriá. But you can be sure there will be a few available tables now as the crowd moves to Copenhagen.
I'm guessing the head chef wanted that Manhattan SOHO sound to ring in your ear. SOHO. NOMA. Mr. Know-It-All, Jens Boesen, tells me that NOMA stands for NOrdic MAd. Mad (pronounced more like math) is the Danish word for food. Therefore I would have called the joint, NOFO. I think rolls a bit easier off the tong - don't you? SOHO... NOFO... Thank-you very much. Oscar please!
So if you want to feed your fat face with some tasty treats from Scandinavia, come on out to Gladiolusvej 4. Jens whips up some excellent Karbonader and Frikadeller. Once you read Noma's menu prices, you'll want to give us a call and book a broken teak bench on our backyard patio. When calling, please let us know if you prefer a crumbling brick wall view or a rotting wooden fence view. Pretty yellow dandy-lions abound no matter where you are seated.
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April 28
I'm not getting on another crowded, smelly bus and I'm not about to pay another $125 for parking. "This time we are taking the car", I told Jens after he suggested we take the bus to Tivoli. There is a parking structure just a 3 minute walk from the front gate of Tivoli. Tonight we are going to see a ballet. Not just any ballet. No no no no no. Tonight the Russian are coming!
Russia has been on official visits in Norway April 26 and 27 and in Denmark April 27 and 28. For nearly 40 years, the Norwegians and the Russian have disputed their boarders in the north Atlantic; an area that is considered rich in future oil drilling. But now they have come to an agreement and decided to get together to put a seal of good faith on their relations.
Not long ago Russia sent out a letter to the European Union inquiring if there was a country(s) that would be willing to be on the receiving end of the gas line that the Russians wants to build. Denmark was the first to jumped at the chance to have an opportunity to improve relations with Russia and open doors to new business adventures.It has been a long time since any officials from Russia have been on a state visit to Denmark. The last official visit was back in 1964 when Nikita Khrushchev was president. Denmark and Russia used to have close relations with each other as the royal families of both countries were related. OK - hang onto your hat. This is a tricky one and it's just a smidget in royal history. There is this woman, see... She was born Princess Dagmar of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. This long hyphenated word is an area of old Denmark. These days, due to border changes, it is now Germany. Later she was simply known as Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She was born in 1847 as the second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. ((Dagmar's older sister was Alexandra and she became Queen Consort of King Edward VII of England. )) Princess Dagmar later married Russian Tsar Alexander III and took on a new name; Tsarina Maria Feodorovna.
In the early 1900's the Russian Tsar and his Romanov family were placed under house arrest. During the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks were getting strong and coming into power. By 1917 they had taken over and the Soviet Union was founded. It was the start of the Communist Party. Most of the Romanov family was murdered by the Bolsheviks. Maria Feodorovna managed to escape and flee back to Denmark. She died at age 80 in 1928 and was buried in Roskilde at the great Cathedral where all the Danish kings and queens are buried. In 2005, Queen Margarethe II - the now ruling queen of Denmark - and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, agreed that Tsarina Maria Feodorovna's remains should be returned to Saint Petersburg in accordance with her wish to be buried next to her husband Alexander III. At the end of September 2006, with a big to do and a lot of ceremonies, the Tsarina remains were sent to St. Petersburg where she now lies next to her husband, 78 years after her death.
Huh!! How's that for some serious royal history!?
On a lighter note - Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, born in 1762, was the cousin of 2 Swedish kings; one of which was married to the daughter of King Frederick V of Denmark and the other cousin was both the King of Sweden and the King of Norway at the same time - for a short number of years. Anyway... Catherine the Great was to receive a gift from King Christian VII of Denmark. The gift was a tableware produced from the Royal Porcelain Factory. But before the tableware was completed, Catherine the Great died. So the king kept the porcelain and used it on his birthday in January 1803 and I'm guessing for the Crown Prince's b-day too since they were both born in January. The king told the factory to stop production, probably due to the cost plus 1802 pieces were already made and how big of a table could the king possibly have? Of the original 1802 plates and SEX are you still skimming? bowls made and painted, 1530 pieces still exist and are spread out in different Danish castles and museums both in Denmark and outside of Denmark. The set was never completed because the plates are painted with drawings from a book called Flora Danica. The book itself was never completed because the book contains drawings of all the plant life in Denmark and with the borders changing all the time, including vast areas of what is now Sweden and Norway, the book just goes on and on and on. The porcelain dinner set is the most expensive and the most prestige set in the world. So much so that Queen Elisabeth wanted to buy it. The Danes said no but told her she was welcome to buy a copy set that is still being produced in the factory today.
Ok so now Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is giving a return dinner in Restaurant Nimb in Tivoli and after dinner he will provide entertainment.
While I was getting sea-sick going round and round up dilapidated stairs in the leaning tower, an e-mail popped up on screen while Jens was paying for my travel bills and expenses on-line. The e-mail was from Tivoli. It read: Hear Ye, Hear Ye. All Pee-ons are invited to spend gobs of mullah to see a Russian ballet in the concert hall at Tivoli. Jens instantly did a right click and paid our way to the first row, just 5th and 6th seats from the center.Jens wanted to get there early and we would have but I ended up wasting 20 minutes in front of the mirror creating the most embarrassing knot in my tie. I finally got it right but had to keep my jacket on and buttoned up the entire evening as the bottom of the tie just barely reached to my navel. Then one of the main streets was closed due to the President and the Queen eating at Nimb which is just across the street from the central train station making it the perfect spot for someone to blow up the joint and make a quick exit on train. Ha Ha - what a laugh - the train is always always ALWAYS delayed. So I guess the Queen and the Prez were pretty safe after all. But traffic was jammed and though a retired policeman sitting on my right, suggested that I be patient and wait for the light, (uh, yeah, right) I cranked the wheel and stepped on the gas. I just went ahead and made an illegal left hand turn, crossing a double yellow, peeling rubber and zipped into an underground parking structure like I was being chased by the bad guys in the film Frantic with Harrison Ford.
OK - so I park our potato in the parking garage and in just minutes we are handing our ticket to the Tivoli entrance guard and continue on to the concert hall. At the half way point between Tivoli's main entrance and the concert hall, while I was extremely focused on the intense cobolt blue color of the 100's of hyacinth, in just one of the endless numbers of flower patches; in the corner of my eye I see some action that awakens me from my Oz flower power trance. Some old fart with horrible teeth, which look more like a set of cheap plastic stage teeth, shaking hands with Jens says, "Good to see you again". And now he is walking towards me with his hand extended as if he was just dying to say hello to me. My stare becomes stuck on his grayish-bluish buck teeth - Oh my god! I know this guy. Now his wife is actually walking towards me too and anxious to shake my hand. It should be me who is to keep my eyes humbly toward the ground and do a curtsy.
It was Count Ingolf of Rosenborg and his wife Countess Sussi that I was shaking hands with. I needed someone to whack me and awaken me from my royalty wonder.Before Ingolf was Count, he was Prince Ingolf. He was almost Crown Prince Ingolf which would have made him King Ingolf later on BUT!.... now pay attention... King Frederik IX had 3 daughters and no sons. That means he had no heir to the throne after his death. In such a case, the king's brother's eldest son, Ingolf, would be heir to the throne, making him Crown Prince and then eventually King Ingolf. Ingolf and Margrethe are cousins and are about the same age. At the time when they were just kids, Denmark was way way WAY at the forefront of human rights and creating all things equal. So the people of Denmark voted for a new amendment to their constitution, adding even more freedom and equality. They voted that the kingdom can now be bestowed upon the kings eldest child - whether it be a boy OR a girl.
This meant 2 things: 1 - Margrethe, the eldest of the kings 3 daughters was now the Crown Princess. She became heir to the throne with the overwhelming vote of the people and 2 - Prince Ingolf was kicked into the real world. Marrying an ordinary civilian meant lowering his status from Prince to Count. Doomed forever more to shake hands with ordinary low life people like me at amusement parks.
I took my camera with me, hoping to snap and sneak a photo or two of the Russians. But now something really really REALLY big, REALLY HUGE was happening literally right in the palm of my hand. But I just couldn't bring myself to say to the Count; and how ironic it would be to say, OK - smile - say cheeze". It's a new camera but still I don't think the lens is high tech enough to capture all of that weird porcelain.
When I got to the concert hall and even before getting in line to be frisked, a security agent directed me to "go over there and check in your camera." We had about 15 minutes to buy a pre-entertainment cocktail but the line went completely around the theater and the price for 2 centiliters of alcohol was about 10 bucks. So I said to Jens that we should just forget it because we had already spent our allocated booze budget on parking citations.
Little did we know that there would have been plenty of time to get smashed as the Queen and President were a full hour late! I asked Jens if I could write to the Queen to have her reimburse me for the first hour of parking. Unlike me, down town parking is not cheap you know.
OK - the doors open and we proudly make our way to the first row and take our seats. We wait and wait and wait and wait. A full hour goes by and then suddenly.... Crown Prince Freddy and his down-under wife Mary, walk into the theater with Freddy's younger brother Jorkim and his oo la la frenchy poo wife, Maria - all looking better and more beautiful than anybody has the right too. The audience went, in a second, from being a noisy crowd to an instant hush. The only noise in the place was the muddle bang of the velvet theater seat pads swinging up against the back pads as everybody stood up in respect of the Royal Family. Then the biggies walk in: Queen Margrette and President Medvedev. She's a giant and he's the shortest man in the house with shoulders as square as the building. All eyes were huge and just about to fall out of their sockets as this huge amount of power glided into the hall and took their place.......IN THE 5th ROW !!
Good things come to those who are glued to the internet! 5th row royalty - ha!
We were able to look right up those tutu's making me forget all about that expensive parking.
Wow Wow WOW.... What an amazing performance! I swear you could actually feel the power and the strength of the dancers. One of the dancers took such huge flying leaps that Jens thought the dancer was going to jump right off of the stage and into the audience. I'm telling you it was just amazing! One of the woman's costumes was covered in pearls and diamonds and gold rings and trimmings. In a movement of fury, one of the diamonds popped off the dress and tingled to the edge of the stage. I reminded myself to pick up a free Russian souvenir just as soon as the final curtain went down.
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May 1
So now it's the first of May. It's a big day all over Europe for laborers to ban together for strong unions and better working conditions. Vote YES for Social Democrats! I know for sure, things will be better for me just as soon as I come to the end of this big bla bla bla bla blog job that I have created for myself. Now I'm just waiting for my computer to come back from the shop so that I can add pictures.
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OK, so whaddaya think? Was it too long? Too much detail? Too much info? You think so? Well then you can just kiss my ash!
So now it's the first of May. It's a big day all over Europe for laborers to ban together for strong unions and better working conditions. Vote YES for Social Democrats! I know for sure, things will be better for me just as soon as I come to the end of this big bla bla bla bla blog job that I have created for myself. Now I'm just waiting for my computer to come back from the shop so that I can add pictures.
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OK, so whaddaya think? Was it too long? Too much detail? Too much info? You think so? Well then you can just kiss my ash!
