On Saturday, we set off on a 6-week journey in Europe. The first half will be Scandinavia (focus on the fjords) and then we're off to Northern Italy and the Cinque Terra.
We left San Francisco at 2pm Saturday and arrived in Copenhagen, our home for the next 3 days, this afternoon. Except for Finland, we will be 9 hours ahead of Mill Valley. The flights were the best kind: reasonably on time, uneventful, with generous connection times. We are staying at the Phoenix Hotel, which seems to be pretty well located near lots of interesting stuff. We met the other 6 people who are joining us on this pre-trip and set off our our guide, Veera (a Finland native with an old summer home in the far north and a winter home in Helsinki), to get the lay of the land.
Right off, we were introduced to the concept of a barbershop that is also a bar -- we saw another mashup later too. The owner saw us peeking into his garden-level windows and invited us in. He said there is no drinking age limit -- apparently 16 is drinking age by the glass, but they don't have to check ids and will serve as long as the person looks competent.The bar portion primarily serves beer, but whiskey is becoming more popular.
Veera told us that Copenhagen (pronounced with a long A, not short like I always thought) is in the forefront of foodie innovation and we walked past 2 Michelin rated restaurants in our shortish jaunt.
We walked down to the 'New Harbor' which is now lined with restaurants. In the old days, the houses lining the waterfront served the sailors and the establishments were primarily bars and brothels. It has upscaled a bunch since then!
We made it back to the hotel and decided to get a grocery store dinner -- a sandwich, pasta salad, AND a decent bottle of red wine was $22! More reasonable than I expected here.
We left San Francisco at 2pm Saturday and arrived in Copenhagen, our home for the next 3 days, this afternoon. Except for Finland, we will be 9 hours ahead of Mill Valley. The flights were the best kind: reasonably on time, uneventful, with generous connection times. We are staying at the Phoenix Hotel, which seems to be pretty well located near lots of interesting stuff. We met the other 6 people who are joining us on this pre-trip and set off our our guide, Veera (a Finland native with an old summer home in the far north and a winter home in Helsinki), to get the lay of the land.
Right off, we were introduced to the concept of a barbershop that is also a bar -- we saw another mashup later too. The owner saw us peeking into his garden-level windows and invited us in. He said there is no drinking age limit -- apparently 16 is drinking age by the glass, but they don't have to check ids and will serve as long as the person looks competent.The bar portion primarily serves beer, but whiskey is becoming more popular.
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| Our host showing off his vintage barber chair and sinks with a selection of adult beverages. |
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| The back part of the establishment is a full bar. |
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| A little later we saw this gas station that appears to be even more popular for hamburgers -- there was a long line of people waiting to spend $11 or more on a single take-out burger. |
Veera told us that Copenhagen (pronounced with a long A, not short like I always thought) is in the forefront of foodie innovation and we walked past 2 Michelin rated restaurants in our shortish jaunt.
We walked down to the 'New Harbor' which is now lined with restaurants. In the old days, the houses lining the waterfront served the sailors and the establishments were primarily bars and brothels. It has upscaled a bunch since then!
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| Above and below -- 2 views of the new harbor |
We made it back to the hotel and decided to get a grocery store dinner -- a sandwich, pasta salad, AND a decent bottle of red wine was $22! More reasonable than I expected here.
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