The Return to Copenhagen

Wednesday-Thursday, July 6-7, 2016--San Antonio to Copenhagen

Flying over was one of the easiest trips ever.  I didn't leave San Antonio until 13:50.  That meant I could sleep until I awoke naturally.  Then my sister Sue and I had lunch before she took me to the airport.  On the flight from San Antonio to Chicago, no one sat beside me.  In Chicago, I went off my flight and onto my next one to Brussels with no wait time.  Again, no one sat in the seat beside me.  In Brussels, I had to wait only 50 minutes to board my next flight which got me to Copenhagen at noon on the 7th.  I remember many flights in the past where I had to get up extra early and be at the airport for an early morning flight and did not arrive in Copenhagen until mid-afternoon the next day.

A 97-year-old man sat by the window on the other side of the empty seat on the flight from Chicago to Brussels.  He was alert and jolly.  He said, "I signed on for 100 years and it looks like I am going to make it!"  He was born to American parents in Brussels, but they returned to the States in 1932 when he was 9 years old.  He returns yearly to visit old friends.  And he says he still rents a car while there.  I asked how, since I knew that rental agencies normally have age limits.  He said he rents every year from a Volvo dealership with no problem since they have done business with him for so long.

A young man from Peru sat beside me on the flight from Brussels to Copenhagen.  He was coming to join friends from Spain who were already in the city.  He is living 3 years in Brussels studying French.  He already has a degree in accounting and wants to work for an international corporation.  My guess is that he comes from a wealthy family, since he travels internationally often.

It was tough, but I stayed awake the rest of the day in Copenhagen.  Robert picked me up at the airport, and we went by metro back to town where Jens prepared us a light lunch of boiled eggs with caviar and a piece of fish frikadeller (a meatball made from ground fish).  Then Jens and I went to the rebuilt market at Israels Plads where he bought fresh new potatoes (still damp with mud) and fresh cherries.  I spent most of the rest of the afternoon trying to help them get their e-mail on their iPad.  It was quite complicated, however, because someone else had set up the iPad for them and they lacked passwords that were needed.  To further complicate the situation, the language for the iPad is French.  I brought it back to Grethe's with me in the evening and will work on it more tomorrow.

Grethe arrived around 17:00.  We all visited for a while.  Then we shared a bottle of champagne.  For dinner, Jens, who is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, served pork schnitzel topped by pickled herring and horseradish along with the new potatoes we had bought with a sauce of dijon mustard and mayonnaise mixed together.  We had the fresh cherries with two kinds of cheese and crackers for dessert.

We left there about 21:00 because of the long trip I had made.  At Grethe's, I immediately got ready for bed and was asleep soon after 22:00.