Sunny Copenhagen Days

Friday, Sept. 7, 2007--Copenhagen (Continued)

Met Arvind and Carit at Carit's workplace at 18:00 and rode with them to the summer house at Farum. It was a beautiful day with sunshine. I had only been to the new summer house location in the winter before, so it was nice to be there and see it with the grass being thick and green and the flowers blooming.

Evy and Arvind had their small guest house ready for me. It is only about 4 spuare meters (about 4 square yards), but it is so nice. There is a lounge chair in one corner, a small table, and a single bed. The bed had a nice fluffy comfortor on it. There are small windows with curtains that can be pulled. The floor is carpeted. Staying there is like staying in a doll house!

We had dinner with Gitte and Carit. They served grilled pork chops, grilled steak, grilled mushrooms, grilled asparagus, and a leafy salad with dressing. It was delicious. We had red wine. But I quickly became dehydrated and moved to drinking water and orange-flavored drink. Sascha, Gitte's and Carit's daughter, and her boyfriend Christian came to visit after having dinner with his parents. We all had ice cream and cookies while they were there. Sascha has just started to university this year and was telling me about her courses and the program at the university.

Saturday, Sept. 9, 2007--Copenhagen

I remained at the summer house through mid-afternoon. Evy put out all the ingredients for us to have a do-it-yourself smørrebrød luncheon. There were red herrings, curry herrings, pickled herrings, smoked salmon, wild boar salami, Italian salami, boiled eggs, sliced tomatoes, various cheeses, etc. We had the usual beers and aquavit to accompany it all.

Evy baked a lemon cream sponge cake. We took it to the neighbors' summer house and had coffee and dessert with them. Then it was time for me to head back to town. Gitte and Carit gave me a ride to the train station where I took the H Train back to Grethe's.

Jens and Robert had Grethe and me to dinner in the evening along with Torben and Erik, two friends I had not seen since Arne's death. We had a long, casual evening of visiting. Jens showed us their newly remodeled bathroom and their new glass-enclosed balcony. Then he served champagne for our arrival drink. For dinner, we started with shrimp cocktails (shrimp, caviar, and a spicy sauce) and white wine. Then we had roast lamb with potato salad and red wine for the main course. For dessert we had three kinds of cheeses with crackers, grapes, and another red wine. Later, gin and tonics were offered. It was a great dinner, but I am not used to so much alcohol after having traveled in Islamic countries for so many months where alcohol is not normally served. I had to quit drinking early in the evening; I just couldn't keep up!

Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007--Copenhagen

It's another sunny, pretty day. I hope this weather will hold out while I am traveling in Estonia and Latvia. I leave tomorrow for two weeks there. But I expect their will be showers and cool weather during much of my trip.

Morten and Helle, Grethe's brother and his wife, came here for breakfast this morning. They have just returned from a week at a summer house on a small island north of Jutland. They showed us the photos of their summer house on the Internet and told us about their interactions with the local people there during the week.

Grethe and I have spent the rest of the day relaxing. She goes back to work tomorrow. And I need to reorganize my things for traveling to the Baltic States. It's nice to have nothing special to do. There are leftovers from dinner a few nights ago, so Grethe will make one of my favorite dishes for dinner--biksemad (a form of hash). Tomorrow morning we will each go our separate ways and won't see each other until I am back from the Baltics and she is back from her vacation to Normandy.