Today is my 71st birthday. Grethe is back at work, and because we went to bed so early last night, I awoke soon after she left the apartment and couldn't go back to sleep. In a surprise move, I started my birthday celebration by falling out of the bed!!! I awoke, looked at my watch to see it was 6:30, and tried to go back to sleep. When I couldn't sleep more, I decided to get up. I was facing the window side of the bed which is the opposite side to the one where I needed to be. I just pushed the covers over behind me and rolled over them to the edge of the bed. That put me a little too close to the edge, and the covers under me started sliding off taking me with them!! My shoulder and head were near the small bedside table, so as my body plumped toward the floor, I was using my arm to try to brace the table to keep from hitting it and, more importantly, to try to avoid knocking the lamp off and breaking it. So my birthday started with a big drama!
I celebrated my birthday by going to places that were my favorites in our local neighborhood. I started by walking through Solbjerg Cemetery where Arne is buried. We both used to walk through there on our way to town or to the park. I stopped at his grave site and cleared off the numbered plaque. (His remains were cremated and were buried in a small plot about 1 foot x 1 foot x 4 feet. No tombstones are allowed; there is just a very small numbered plaque to find it. Because of the rain they get here, however, the plaque was buried under about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of mud and grass, so I had to dig with the key to uncover it.)
From the cemetery, I crossed into Frederiksberg Have, the park where I always went on sunny afternoons to sunbathe and read when Arne was working. Today was sunny, so people were out in their underwear enjoying the weather. The small stream where I once had baby ducks bite at my toes is still there (with baby ducks that are probably the great-, great-, great-grandducklings of the ones who bit me) still swimming as the viking-style rowboats take people on a ride through the park. The castle has its Danish flag on top and the back garden on the other side of the lake from where I most often sunbathed is still a lush green lined by huge trimmed trees.
I turned down Pile Alle as I left the park to walk into the center of Frederiksberg, the community that was our "hometown"--a separate city somewhat like Alamo Heights in San Antonio or Hyde Park in Dallas. I walked past the Town Hall where I had to go to the tax office to report Arne's death. I went by shops where we often bought things including 3 Falke Furniture which specializes in Scandinavian modern designs. I walked through the modern shopping center we often frequented. I peeked into the library where I used to read the International Herald Tribune each day before we had the Internet at home here. I wandered down Gammel Kongevej toward town noticing that many of the nicer shops that used to be there are now gone. I turned back toward home by going up Frederiksberg Alle, one of the most elegant boulevards in town and one that I have always thought should be lined with designer boutiques. I passed the Betty Nansen Theater where we once saw a great production of Woyzeck which ended up being performed at theaters around the world. I discovered that the pissoir Arne always appreciated has been replaced with an electronic toilet booth that requires a payment. I turned the corner at Federiksberg Kirke where Arne and I once attended a funeral and walked passed the three Gamle Familiehaver (old outdoor beer garden restaurants) which I was glad to see still exist. I walked through Soendermarken, the park where children slide down the hills in their sleds where it snows. That brought me back to Valby and Grethe's apartment.
In the evening, we went to a new section of Copenhagen that has been developed where factories used to exist. It is between the center of town and the airport. It is now full of apartment buildings--both high-rise and shorter ones. We had dinner with Torben and Erik who moved to their new apartment about a year ago. It takes up half of the 13th floor of a contemporary building which has a huge wrap-around balcony. The apartment has windows and doors allowing views in three directions--toward the center of town with its old towers piercing the sky, toward Sweden with Amager Beach just across the street, and toward the west where the convention center and other new developments exist.
Torben served very traditional Danish summer food--thick meat patties consisting of a combination of ground pork and beef with nice seasonings, creamed cabbage, and boiled new potatoes. For dessert, we had a delicious bowl of cold strawberry soup topped with a cream made from egg yolks, cow cream, sugar, and cinnamon and chunks of fresh strawberries. There were twelve of us there including friends I had not seen in many years.
________
I finished reading Tiger Moon by Penelope Lively yesterday. It was a bit uninteresting at first, but the last 2/3 of the book turned things around. Although the main character was difficult to like, she leads an interesting life and the reader gradually understands why she is the way she is. After thinking it would deserve a rating of 2 1/2 out of 4 at the beginning, I finally decided it was worth 3 out of 4 (or 3 1/2 out of 5).
No comments:
Post a Comment