Wunderful Wunderful Copenhagen (und Hamburg)
Useful Fact: the Danish for Hand Disinfecting Gel is Hand Desinfektant Gel.
Well Copenhagen is indeed wunderbar, more tatty I’d say than Stockholm and Oslo apart from umpteen palaces and museums and glorious Harrods size Department stores, but with bags of character plus even a lively gay scene (unlike Sweden and Norway) and plenty of beer and canals and vice versa…..
Met up with dear old muso buddy Jorn which was of course fabulous. Plus finally realised Tivoli Gardens in the heart of the city is a really really tacky and run down Amusement Park (the rides are rusting away before the eyes)…. They claim to be the oldest and 2nd largest (and I’d add rustiest) Theme Park on the planet….
In my constant search for European cities with quaint brightly coloured houses in a row turned into fridge magnets, add Copenhagen to the list…..
Thence to Hamburg, home of the Star Club (where a certain Beat Group cut their teeth) and of the famous JFK comment Ich Bin Ein Hamburger. Obviously he mistook the place for Frankfurt.
DB (Deutsche Bahn) used to be, along with the Japanese Bullet trains, the finest rail company on Earth. Now they’re kinda garbage….delays galore and trains that compared with the rest of Europe seem Vieux Chapeau. My first class compartment (I got a deal on 1st Interrail Pass) ain’t got no garbage receptacle, ain’t got no baggage storage, aint got no power sockets, ain’t got no place to stick yer cup, ain’t got no Nina Simone Soundtrack…..ok ok ok. 21st Century Problems but hey, we live in a USB-C world now….
Talking about garbage….Hamburg was described by the Fab Four as a 24 hour hell hole…well the area by the station seems to have a rule that if you don’t use drugs or spray cans you can get arrested…..still it was more catchup time with friend Freddy who took me to a Miss Marple era tearoom with coffee and highly calorific cakes, and a clientele from the 1930s or 1950s depending on yr Agatha Era……
Other than that and having a brief chat with a bunch of Irish attendees of a Strimmer Conference, nothing more to report here.
Hamburg: done and gorn.
Next stop, Holland and final leg of Mrs Journey…….
