More Copenhagen

The weather here has been very ordinary but we have really enjoyed our time. Today was a max of 15 with showers - our neighbours at the restaurant tonight told us they had a wonderful spring ...........


The equivalent to our national library is the Royal Library - called the Black Diamond - spectacular both inside and out.

This is for Nicky, the architect in the family. Very clever louvres on the Black Diamond that deflect to allow sun in or block it out.

From inside the library


In the Library was a very confronting photo exhibition recording this event

'In the afternoon of January 16, 1969, the twenty-year old history student walked to the top of Wenceslas Square and set himself on fire. He died in hospital three days later of severe burns. In a letter left at the scene, Jan called on the Czechoslovak people to preserve what remained of democracy in the country and demanded that censorship be abolished. His funeral, attended by thousands of people, turned into a spontaneous demonstration in support of freedom and Jan Palach's grave in a Prague cemetery became a symbol of resistance. Two other men, Jan Zajic and Evzen Plocek, followed Jan Palach's example in early 1969 - despite his protestations for them not to - sacrificing their lives in protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops. '

We were in this square at the end of last year and were touched to see this photo of so many people there for Jan Paalach's funeral.

People carry allsorts in the carriers on front of their bikes - a couple of children in this case and a pet below.

I really want to believe that alternative communities are a force for good but almost all the ones that I have visited disappoint me. A visit to Christiana today was no exception. It was built on inspiring principles but, like Nimbin, has ended up being a smelly refuse heap with lots of stoned people sitting around. Why does this happen so often. I am sure there must be good examples out there that I haven't found many yet.

No visit to Copenhagen is complete without seeing the little mermaid

Who cares if you can't get breakfast at your B&B when you can have brunch at NyHavn watching the boats go by.

The Danes must be spitting chips. Their local lad, Jorn Utzon, comes to Oz and designs our fabulous Opera house and then when they need a new one this is what they end up with. I am sure it is superb but not a patch on ours.

The new National Theatre

Oooops!! Bad mistake yesterday - my lack of proficiency in Danish meant that I mistook the Danish Parliament buildings for the Palace. Sorry. But we still didn't see the royals altough our dinner companions last night said they could often be seen out and about - just not where we were. So these are the palace.

This is the closest we got to Princess Mary and Fred

This is for Andy and Christy - a water feature with fish.

More beautiful people - they all seem to look like Emily and her children.

The last 2 nights we have eaten at a great restaurant called BioMio http://copenhagen.unlike.net/locations/305793-Bio-Mio It is just down the road from us and has great fresh simple organic food. A really nice atmosphere and the manager and barmen are both Aussies.

We have really enjoyed Copenhagen in spite of the weather. It is very enviro friendly - more than a third of the traffic is cycles and they have a rush hour 'green wave' for bikes so that they can maintain a good speed with green lights favouring them.

http://vodpod.com/watch/1068678-elsewhere-filming-copenhagens-green-wave

It takes me back to our years in Oxford where we had no car (and no TV) for 3 years. Some days it was hard work cycling to school or church in the mornings at sub zero temps with 2 little children but we were very fit.

I've done some extra blogs because we are about to start cruising and if previous experiences are anything to go by, internet access will be prohibitively expensive unless i can find an internet cafe on land. Keep in touch Love from us both K&P

Copenhagen

Well we are coming to the end of our first 24 hours in Copenhagen - a few surprises- some good some not so good. I may have told you about my close brush with a scam when I was booking accommodation in Copenhagen a few months back. I had emailed someone called 'Shelagh" back and forth and was about to send him/her a $150 deposit when out of the blue the money was to be sent to someone in Nigeria. I immediately emailed back to say "Goodbye Shelagh, I do not send money to unknown people in Nigeria" only to get a phone call a couple of nights later in the middle of the night asking why the money hadn't been sent - to say I was a bit spooked would be an understatement. A a result I booked what I thought was an ensuite B&B room with the Danish tourist office only to discover on arrival arouond 10 pm last night that we were sharing the bathroom with our landlady and there is no breakfast. Never mind - she is very nice and it is just for 3 nights. Phil doesn't do suprise very well but i took him to a very nice restaurant tonight with a good bootle of red and he seems MUCH happier. Enough of that. We have had a very pleasant day - weather could be better - it is mid-summer and just 15 deg????? But we wandered around the Royal Palace ( Phil refused to ask to see Princess Mary - her Mum, Henrietta, used to be his secretary in Uni of Tas so I thought that was worth an audience). Very pleasant city - millions of bikes and very eco. We had dinner at an organic restaurant - BioMio - lovely fresh food with an open kitchen - the Manager and barmen were both Aussies. So now just a few pictures to give you a feel for the city.

Royal Palace

Our corner store

This is for my Mum who likes knitting socks - an exhibit in the National Museum

I thought this painting in the Art Gallery was interesting - Holbech has painted his daughter with her African nanny

Clever design in the National Museum - they have put a glass roof over the courtyard and cantilevered timber walkways and staircases to create some really useful and pleasing spaces.


So many beautiful people!!!!

Canal near the Palace

Tivoli Gardens

Couldn't resist this one outside the City Hall. A couple cycled to the Registry Office on this bike to be married with their 2 little children in the carrier. Love the decorative touch.

Last of England

I had a day in Oxford with my best friend Margaret. She will be 80 soon so it was a lovely treat for us both. We had lunch at the Cherwell Boathouse and watched the punters in action - some more expert than others.

The South Downs Way is just sooooo green and lush.

Golfers - please note. If you miss the putt, it is 200m straight over the cliff at Seaford Head.


Note the wind turbine on the coast guard cottage - i am trying to pursuade Andy to put one on the side of their house where there is always a gale blowing.

Just to show I am here too


The coffee was good the cake was a bit ordinary but the company was first class.

We have only managed 2 lunches at Bill's in Lewes so far this summer - such yummy food. Some of you will know it well.

For Kimberley and Ginny - spot the moggie - on a leash!!!!!!!

Our last evening in Seaford - the ferry from France coming into port.

Bliss

Arriving at Seaford to stay with Andy and Christy must be one of the lovliest things that could happen to anyone - and we do it often. To be beside the sea listening to the waves as you drift off to sleep and wake in the morning is wonderful. And they are always so welcoming except that this time they left for Wales 2 days after we arrived. Are they trying to tell us something? Actually we were more than happy to have a quiet week on our own to get over the flight. We still have almost 3 weeks with them so plenty of time to do things together.


The van loaded for Wales

Last Sunday was the annual carnival in Seaford so we watched the parade from our balcony.

We never come to England without at least one visit to Sissinghurst - a beautiful garden

We climbed to the top of the tower for a birdseye view of the gardens

Looking down from the tower

The Vanguard Way along the top of the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs is so dramatic. If you have read our blog before you have seen more photos of this than you need but maybe there is someone out there who hasn't seen them before.

I haven't been able to find a cat for Kimberley and Ginny. Will this rabbit do instead? He was sitting on the edge of the cliff.
Nearing the end of the cliff walk with Cuckmere Haven and the coast guard cottages in sight.

Richie and Kimberley - I thought you would be interested in these vege beds at Alfriston Clergy House = a National Trust property near here.

This one is for Noah and Maddie - maybe Steve could build you a tree house like this one in your back garden.

I'm off to Oxford for the day tomorrow - my friend Margaret turns 80 next month so we are going out to lucnh at a posh restaurant to kick off the celebrations.

Hong Kong

Lovely stopover in Hong Kong. One unexpected event. We arrived at our hotel on Monday night to be greeted by a bevy of media photographers – we didn’t know who could have tipped them off about our visit. It turned out that a swine flu sufferer had stayed in the hotel last week so there was a lot of media interest in how the hotel was dealing with it. Hygiene measures were VERY evident – we had our temp taken 3 times before we got to our room. All the staff are wearing masks and gloves. There are alcohol handwash dispensers all over the place and all imaginable surfaces are disinfected numerous times a day. But every cloud has a silver lining – we were upgraded to an executive room on the 19th floor with access to the club facilities so, unless we catch H1N1 it will have been a bonus to have Mr *** staying here last week.

We haven’t done a whole lot. We took a bus to Aberdeen – a former fishing village on the other side of the island. Caught the Star ferry across the harbour and back. Spent a couple of hours in the Art Gallery – fabulous exhibitions of extremely intricately ancient gold filigree and wonderful ceramics – Jane Barr would love it. And wlked quite a bit – sometimes more than we planned – got a bit lost a couple of times.

We had our friends Alan and Andrea Walker over for drinks last night – it was lovely catching up again. Then we strolled through the Ladies Market at FaYuen St. I used to be able to spot heaps of bargains there on previous visits but it all looked too tacky – I think I’m over buying cheap designer fakes – not too sure about the ethics of it either.

We are off in the morning to London – we warned Christy and Andy of our near-miss with Mr **** and offered to stay away from them for a few days till make sure we weren’t contagious. Andy says we are welcome as long as we don’t kiss him too much – I’ll have to restrain Phil – you know what he’s like.

PS Kimberley and Ginny = I tried to take a photo of a cat for you but I think they've all been eaten. Sorry!
Star Ferry across to the island
























Contrasting the old and the new at Central



























The junks at Aberdeen still act as ferries across to the island which is now covered with high rise. The old photos of just 60 years ago have just a few low level homes and store houses.
I took this photo for Jeff who has bought Noah and Maddie fishing rods and is trying to teach them to fish - I thought this might be a timely reminder.



The exterior of the Museum of Art had been tranformed by these posters - it used to look like this. I think it's a big improvement but Phil isn't so sure.




































A fruit stall in Fa Yuen Street

Well done Christy

Just a couple of hours ago Christy heard that she had passed her exams to become a Consultant in Emergency Medicine - and at the first sitting!!!!!! . We are so happy for her. She has worked so hard for the past five years to get to this point.

Kimberley, Richie and friends creat a vege garden

On May 2, with the help of new freinds from the permaculture group they made a vege garden on their front lawn in Maroubra. Have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIvxKjBjR4k It is just fabulous.

Travel plans

On May 18 we are off again - this time on an around the world ticket - home again August 1. This is provided swine flu doesn't catch up with us. We heard on the news this morning that everyone in a Hong Kong hotel has been locked in for 7 days because one person has swine flu - makes you realise that the best laid plans can easily go awry. I'm not soo sure what we would do in a hotel for 7 days - watch a lot of TV and read all our books in one go I guess. Anyway, here are the plans:

May 18 Canb - Syd
May 18 Syd to HK

May 18/19/20 HK Royal Plaza Hotel, Mong Kok

May 21 HK to London

May 21 to June 2 Seaford with Christy and Andy

June 2,3, 4 Oxford
June 5,6,7,8 Seaford

June 9 Gatwick to Copenhagen
June 9/10/11 Copenhagen

June 12 Cruise
Copenhagen, Berlin, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo

June 24/25/26 Brugges
June 27/28/29/30/ London
July 1 Seaford – Andy and Christy

July 7 London to Toronto

July 7/8/9/10 Mussoka Lakes

Niagra 11/7 to 18/7
July 19/20/21 Toronto

July 21 Toronto to LA

July 23 LA to Hawaii staying with Mel and Mim Lang

July 31 Hawaii to Syd QF 4 leaving 10.45am arrive 17.30 Aug 1

This Thursday I am off to Queensland to spend Mothers' Day with my Mum; home monday night then a quick spring clean of the house before we jet off early the next monday morning.