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All posts for the month June, 2016

The Little Mermaid is Copenhagen's iconic site, and, to be honest, pretty small and unimpressive

The Little Mermaid is Copenhagen’s iconic site, and, to be honest, pretty small and unimpressive

Or, as it’s known to the English-speaking world, Copenhagen; I just liked the funny language and letters they use here.

Copenhagen is a city of bikers. For all our travels I've never before seen a two-level bike rack.

Copenhagen is a city of bikers. For all our travels I’ve never before seen a two-level bike rack.

Mark at Kronborg Castle, with Sweden visible across the channel

Mark at Kronborg Castle, with Sweden visible across the channel

We came to Copenhagen for the strangest reason. We had six days between our visit with Ajay and Ann in Dublin and meeting up with my brother and sister-in-law for 10 days in an apartment on Lake Como in northern Italy. What to do? Well, Mark & I both track the number of countries we’ve been to in our lives. In the 1970s I’d been to 11 countries because of my time in the Navy, so I was ahead of Mark. In 1984, though, he pulled ahead while on a college backpack trip. I’ve been trying to catch up ever since. With the stop in Ireland, though, I was just one country behind Mark, my 91 to his 92. So if we head up to Denmark for just a few days I could catch up, making it likely that some time late this year or perhaps early next year we would hit 100 together.

How’s that for a reason to go to Copenhagen? The strange thing that Mark pointed out is that every couple years now we’ve been coming to Scandinavia for a long weekend. We went to Stockholm in 2010 we spent a long weekend in Stockholm, and the next year we went to Reykjavik for a long weekend. Then in 2013, early on in this adventure, we spent four days in Helsinki. Some day we have to go to Scandinavia for more than a weekend in a capital city.

The bad news was that the weather stayed pretty much true to form. We came to Europe some six weeks ago to escape the cold, damp weather we were experiencing in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, but, wow. It’s continued to rain pretty much every day since we got here. And, as you might expect this far north, it’s pretty cold, too.

Some of the very Scandinavian architecture in Copenhagen. And note the color of the sky; it very much had a milky quality not unlike St. Petersburg during the season of the midnight sun.

Some of the very Scandinavian architecture in Copenhagen. And note the color of the sky; it very much had a milky quality not unlike St. Petersburg during the season of the midnight sun.

So there we were, up in Scandinavia as the summer solstice was approaching and yes, it stayed light really late and got light really early. We were there over the weekend and partiers were loud enough to wake me up at 3:00 AM, when it was already pretty much daylight. And all that partying noise would typically keep going until around 6:00 AM. Strange lifestyle; they would be going to bed as I was getting up for my morning run in one of the city’s several beautiful parks.

One of Copenhagen's great parks

One of Copenhagen’s great parks

We played the tourist card pretty handily in Copenhagen. On our first full day we took a boat tour of the canals and then a couple days later took a train for a day trip up to Helsingør in North Zealand, about an hour north of Copenhagen. The big deal there is Kronborg Castle, one of Denmark’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The castle is impressive in its own right but it’s real claim to fame is that under the town’s English name – Elsinore – it was the home of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And believe me, they really play up the Hamlet connection in the castle even though he really was a fictional character.

The view from our boat tour of Copenhagen's canals

The view from our boat tour of Copenhagen’s canals

Hamlet's castle

Hamlet’s castle

Another big hit in Copenhagen, though with an asterisk, is the food. For several years the restaurant Noma was routinely rated the top restaurant in the world, though we didn’t go. Apparently you need reservations months in advance, which we didn’t have. Oh, and you need about $1,100; it runs well over $500 per person for dinner. The good news is that, as we saw in San Sebastian in Basque Country, the presence of a great restaurant or two can really up the game for others. The bad news is that, unlike in Basque Country, the other restaurants in Copenhagen were really expensive, too. Good food, sometimes outstanding, and not $500 apiece, but still surprisingly expensive.

And then there was the strange thing with the credit card. In the first place, restaurants add on the roughly three percent fee that Visa charges them. We see that sometimes in developing countries but almost never in wealthy countries like Denmark. VISA has a policy prohibiting vendors from passing on those costs but my guess is that Danish laws override that prohibition. If the restaurant just swallows that cost, as in the U.S., they effectively pass some of it on to those paying cash. Thus it’s a pretty smart consumer protection act to allow vendors to pass on the cost. That’s my theory, anyway.

The bigger credit card deal, though, was with tipping. When we checked in to a cute boutique hotel the guy at the front desk told us “I see your American passport. Just so you know, unlike in the States, we don’t tip here, so no need to do that.” Great, and really appreciate the tip, so to speak. But every single time we used a credit card to pay for a meal the waiter would give us the option of adding a tip. Our guess is that Visa encourages them to do it since everyone (except us, of course) gets more money that way. Had our hotel not warned us away we would have wasted a lot of money and contributed to the spreading sense that tipping is reasonable and even expected.

That was Copenhagen, then. Good food, great parks, at least one good museum, rowdy partiers. And I’ve finally caught Mark in the great country chase.

Another great park, this one with lavender in full bloom

Another great park, this one with lavender in full bloom

A highlight was the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a great museum with antiquities, lots of statues, French masters, and a temporary Gaugin exhibit. Here we have some 4,500 year old Egyptian mummies.

A highlight was the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a great museum with antiquities, lots of statues, French masters, and a temporary Gaugin exhibit. Here we have some 4,500 year old Egyptian mummies.

Mark liked this bust of Victor Hugo by Rodin

Mark liked this bust of Victor Hugo by Rodin

While I was partial to this Van Gogh

While I was partial to this Van Gogh

The view from Vor Freisers Kirke, a 17th century church where the last 150 steps or so are around the outside of the steeple. Pretty great view, huh?

The view from Vor Freisers Kirke, a 17th century church where the last 150 steps or so are around the outside of the steeple. Pretty great view, huh?

Mark atop the church

Mark atop the church

Here we are at Hamle's castle. He was fake, the castle was real.

Here we are at Hamle’s castle. He was fake, the castle was real.

Jim, Mark, Ajay, and Lucia celebrating Ajay's 50th birthday in Dublin

Jim, Mark, Ajay, and Lucia celebrating Ajay’s 50th birthday in Dublin

This has been a brief period of travel hell.

From Bolzano we were off to Dublin. To get there, we had to take a train to Milan and overnight there, before flying the next day to Dublin. Somehow, though, the train wasn’t as straightforward as it should have been. We got to the train station and saw that our train would be leaving on time from Track 3. So we went to Track 3 and boarded the train when it came in maybe three or four minutes late. Now, as we experienced in Venice, Italian trains don’t provide nearly as much information at the tracks as you get anywhere else in Europe – there’s no monitor telling you the next train is going to these cities – but it seemed straightforward. What could go wrong? As I dozed off in the comfort of European rail travel Mark happened to notice that we were going north, as in up towards Austria and Germany. That’s the wrong direction. Not at all sure how it happened, but these savvy, experienced travelers got on the wrong train.

The Spire of Dublin rises nearly 400 feet from the city center, described as the world's largest sculpture

The Spire of Dublin rises nearly 400 feet from the city center, described as the world’s largest sculpture

We got off at the next stop and had to buy new tickets, but eventually got into Milan a couple hours late. Our original plan was that we were going to hang around northern Italy for a bit after the bike ride, but then we got an email from an old friend saying that he was spending his 50th birthday in Dublin and would love for us to join him. So we rearranged things a bit and instead scheduled the one night in Milan to catch a morning flight.

In the best Italian tradition, the airport getting out of Milan was pure hell. To call it a “line” for checking in would be a generous overstatement. There was sort of a general sense of “some people are already in front of us,” but nothing that resembles a 21st century airport line; barely better than a mob. And as things progressed it nearly became a mob. People would come up and see there was no real line so just get in wherever they could. It was like something from a Third World country 25 years ago. Crazy. It took us almost an hour while people were shoving their way forward to the one woman – one woman! – who was checking in the entire flight. Crazy experience.

And while I’m on the subject of stupid airport design, four days later when we flew out of Dublin there were precisely 36 seats in a big waiting area to board a plane that held probably 160 people or so. Insane. When you know people have to get to the airport plenty early to deal with security and all that, why on earth would you have a small fraction of the number of necessary seats? Who knows what they were thinking.

Back in Cambridge, one of our longtime restaurant standards was Temple Bar, maybe a half mile from our condo. Here I am at the REAL Temple Bar!

Back in Cambridge, one of our longtime restaurant standards was Temple Bar, maybe a half mile from our condo. Here I am at the REAL Temple Bar!

OK, at any rate, eventually we got to Dublin for four nights. Ajay was a classmate of ours in graduate school, so we’ve been friends for nearly 30 years now. So when his wife Ann suggested we join them in Dublin for his birthday, we jumped at the chance. Oddly, as close as it is to the east coast, I’d never been to Ireland. And even more oddly, we’re going back for a couple of weeks there in August, so just dropping in to Dublin and then flying out isn’t as crazy as it seems.

The Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park. Comprising some 1,750 acres, Phoenix Park is one of the largest parks in Europe. It even has a herd of wild deer!

The Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park. Comprising some 1,750 acres, Phoenix Park is one of the largest parks in Europe. It even has a herd of wild deer!

Impressions of Dublin. Rainy – consistent with our experience in Europe so far this year, it rained at least part of every day we were there. And they drink a lot in Dublin, though that probably shouldn’t come as a big surprise. There are a lot of pubs in Dublin and people drink a lot of beer in those pubs. Overall we found the food to be pretty marginal; I’m guessing that’s now what people are really going into the pubs for.

We were staying right next to Trinity College, Ireland’s oldest and most prestigious university. It was founded in 1592 – 44 years before Harvard, the oldest university in the U.S. – as part of the Tudor monarchy’s Protestant agenda, and as recently as 1970 the Catholic Church of Ireland forbade its members to attend without permission of their archbishop; famous alumni include Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker. The tour itself was somewhat anticlimactic; the tour guide was a lot more interested in himself than he was in us. Along with the tour we got to see the Book of Kells, an illustrated Bible consisting of the four gospels produced about the year 800. Considered Ireland’s finest national treasure, ultimately it was, well, an old book.

Onetime Trinity Provost George Salmon. When he took office in 1888 he swore that women would be admitted to Trinity over his dead body. In 1904, though, he was forced to sign the documents admitting women … and proceeded to die shortly thereafter. Who said there's no justice in the world?

Onetime Trinity Provost George Salmon. When he took office in 1888 he swore that women would be admitted to Trinity over his dead body. In 1904, though, he was forced to sign the documents admitting women … and proceeded to die shortly thereafter. Who said there’s no justice in the world?

And then we toured a jail, too (or, as it’s known here, a “gaol”). Kilmainham Jail was a great opportunity to learn a little bit about Irish history. It’s easy for me to remember that as recently as 100 years ago, Ireland was still under the control of the British. One of the key moments in the movement to independence was the Easter Rising, as it’s known, of April 1916. Basically, a group of patriots decided to use Britain’s engagement in the Great War to proclaim an Irish Republic. It didn’t work, and most of the ringleaders were imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail until they were executed in May and June of 1916. And while the “rising” was a failure at the time, it became part of the Irish identity as they ultimately fought successfully for independence. This year, 100 years after the Rising, you see all sorts of commemoration of the event.

From here we’re off to Copenhagen for a few days before going back to resume our summer in northern Italy. Maybe some day we’ll get out the rain that seems to blanket Europe this spring.

We only had a few hours in Milan, but our walk to dinner took us past the glorious cathedral, the Duomo

We only had a few hours in Milan, but our walk to dinner took us past the glorious cathedral, the Duomo

Ajay & I outside the Kilmainham Gaol

Ajay & I outside the Kilmainham Gaol

Inside the jail. It looked like a movie set, and indeed, scenes from several movies have been filmed here.

Inside the jail. It looked like a movie set, and indeed, scenes from several movies have been filmed here.

Ajay with his eight-year-old daughter Lucia and his 50th birthday cake

Ajay with his eight-year-old daughter Lucia and his 50th birthday cake

There was a lot of pub food in Dublin, but we did manage to find a bit of fine dining as well

There was a lot of pub food in Dublin, but we did manage to find a bit of fine dining as well

The Long Room in Trinity College, a classic college library

The Long Room in Trinity College, a classic college library

Socrates soaking up wisdom in the Long Room

Socrates soaking up wisdom in the Long Room

And me, soaking up Jameson Irish Whiskey on a tour of their original distillery. It was an important learning experience.

And me, soaking up Jameson Irish Whiskey on a tour of their original distillery. It was an important learning experience.

And finally, the whole crew; Ann, Lucia, Ajay, Mark, & Jim. They're off to tour the rest of Ireland while we're off to Copenhagen.

And finally, the whole crew; Ann, Lucia, Ajay, Mark, & Jim. They’re off to tour the rest of Ireland while we’re off to Copenhagen.

Our friends David & Marc joined us for the trip. Here they are sampling Aperol Spritzes, a very common drink in these parts. How common? One mid-morning I pulled into a small town and sat at a café for a break. There was a frail, elderly woman with her walker next to her enjoying her Aperol Spritz at 11:00 AM. God bless her!

Our friends David & Marc joined us for the trip. Here they are sampling Aperol Spritzes, a very common drink in these parts. How common? One mid-morning I pulled into a small town and sat at a café for a break. There was a frail, elderly woman with her walker next to her enjoying her Aperol Spritz at 11:00 AM. God bless her!

OK, so those last four days flew by so fast I didn’t have time to put anything up here. Two factors involved. One, after a couple days you’re having so much fun with friends old and new that you don’t want to be writing blogs and editing pictures. And two, there were some intense biking days and getting back to the room I was just exhausted. As in just collapsing exhausted. So here’s the quick summary.

IMG_2984_FotorThe map on the left (click on it to blow it up a bit) shows our route, though of course the bike paths weren’t quite as straight as those arrows, with the Austrian border and Venice highlighted just to put it all in perspective. On Day 4 we biked from San Candido to Bressanone, just over 50 miles. The next day was short, just 27 miles into the very cool city of Bolzano. Once we got to Bolzano there were options for extending the ride another 15 miles or so by going out to another site and then coming back but at that point we’re like “Why would we do that?” We’d done two 50-plus mile days in a row, which means you have lunch on the road and then get back on your bike to finish the day. The chance to get into town early, clean up, and have a nice lunch (with wine!) was pretty attractive.

Day 6, our last full day, was a particularly great ride. After nearly four weeks in Europe it was the first day – literally, the first day – where there was no sign of rain. The first sunny day from morning through evening. We rode from Bolzano to the little town of Merano and then, after a little break, rode back to Bolzano on a different route through apple orchards. That was a ride for the ages. Finally Saturday was our last little ride, just eight miles downriver and eight miles back.

The bike paths of Italy were universally in great shape and usually well used

The bike paths of Italy were universally in great shape and usually well used

Lots of scenery like this

Lots of scenery like this

The biking was great and the weather, while not ideal, wasn’t nearly as wet as the forecast had suggested it would be. The food, unfortunately, often had more to do with Germany than Italy, clearly a step in the wrong direction.

I was intrigued with Bolzano's Monument to Victory, a monument to Italy's defeat of the Austrians who lived there. Seemed odd, given that the area still seems more Germanic than Italian.

I was intrigued with Bolzano’s Monument to Victory, a monument to Italy’s defeat of the Austrians who lived there. Seemed odd, given that the area still seems more Germanic than Italian.

Bolzano in particular was a great town. It’s history includes having been conquered by the Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus, the stepson of Caesar Augustus, brother of Tiberius, grandfather of Caligula, and great-grandfather of Nero. One of ancient Rome’s greatest generals he was a rock star of his time, one of the people’s favorites and quite likely to succeed Augustus until he died just a bit too soon. Sad.

With a population of 100,000 Bolzano is by far the largest city in Italy’s South Tyrol, incorporating all the complexities and conflict of this Germanic region that’s part of Italy. The region, you see, was the price of Italy’s engagement in World War I on the side of the Triple Entente (France, Russia, and the UK). Italy had been part of the “Triple Alliance”, a secret pact between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, but agreed to switch sides if it could have South Tyrol when the war was over. The good guys won and they added these Alpine lands. Under the Italian fascists, Germanic inhabitants were required to change their names; use of the words Tyrol and Tyrolean were punishable offenses and, needless to say, schools used Italian instead of German. Looking at things today it’s pretty clear the Italianization didn’t work so well; signs are pretty much all in both languages though German seems far more prevalent.

The Bolzano cathedral in the city's central Waltherplatz. Sounds German, huh?

The Bolzano cathedral in the city’s central Waltherplatz. Sounds German, huh?

So how do we feel after seven days of biking? Tired, that’s for sure. But we had a great time, so no we’re going to seriously consider a longer trip next summer: there’s a 2,400-mile path from Nantes, France, on the Atlantic coast to Constanta, Romania, on the Black Sea. My last extended bike tour was 30 years ago, so I’m thinking it’s time to try it again.

In the meantime we’re off to Milan for just one night before catching a flight to Dublin to celebrate a friend’s 50th birthday. Until then, here are a few more pictures from the Dolomites.

Ten riders and two guides, so we made lots of friends. Here's Mark with Kerry (one of our guides) and Jeff, from New York.

Ten riders and two guides, so we made lots of friends. Here’s Mark with Kerry (one of our guides) and Jeff, from New York.

Tim & Pam from Portland were great traveling companions

Tim & Pam from Portland were great traveling companions

Mark and Giacomo, the world's greatest bike guide

Mark and Giacomo, the world’s greatest bike guide

Marc & Mark, with another of those ubiquitous Aperol Spritzes

Marc & Mark, with another of those ubiquitous Aperol Spritzes

Kerry showed us that there are other items on the drink menu, too

Kerry showed us that there are other items on the drink menu, too

Mark wanted a selfie with Marc & David. Giacomo wanted to be part of the fun.

Mark wanted a selfie with Marc & David. Giacomo wanted to be part of the fun.

Another day, another bike path

Another day, another bike path

Most of the routes were along rivers, like this. And while there were lots of flowers along the way, this was pretty unique.

Most of the routes were along rivers, like this. And while there were lots of flowers along the way, this was pretty unique.

Narrow roads winding through apple orchards make for pretty good biking

Narrow roads winding through apple orchards make for pretty good biking

Alpine biking has to have a few Alpine lakes, of course

Alpine biking has to have a few Alpine lakes, of course

And another lake

And another lake

Oh yeah, a picture of me on one of the routes

Oh yeah, a picture of me on one of the routes

One last bike path headed off the horizon

One last bike path headed off the horizon