Copenhagen Adventures

We arrived in Copenhagen on Thursday morning and went directly by train from the airport to the apartment we have rented for our stay, in the suburb of Amagerbro. When you make all of the arrangements through a website and by email, you never really know what you've signed up for until you walk across the threshold of the place you booked, but thankfully our experiences of making reservations for overseas stays have all been good ones, including on this occasion. This apartment is in an excellent neighbourhood, 500 metres from the subway, a strip shopping centre and a small shopping mall. It is very clean, bright and airy and what I would call "typically Danish" in style - polished floorboards, muted tones in the furnishings, white walls and very tastefully decorated. We're lucky to have found such a nice place to stay.

We didn't waste any time sitting around admiring the apartment, though, because of course it was nearly time for "elevenses" when we had unpacked, so we took ourselves down to one of the many local cafes for good coffee and even better Danish pastries. We then went to the supermarket to buy food: sandwich fixings, bread, butter, fruit and vegetables. As has been typical in the places we have rented in Europe in the past, there are always some items in the pantry which have been put there for renters to use - fresh packets of sugar, flour, salt, a variety of herbs and spices, honey, balsamic, tea, coffee and packets of cereal are typically provided, just to get you started. The rest is up to you. It makes things easy when you don't have to purchase every single ingredient to put together a simple meal. We eat out often, but it's nice to know you have the makings of a light picnic lunch to take out for a day when you're on the move, or a quick supper when you come home exhausted from a big day.

We visited the Danish Jewish Museum on Thursday afternoon. Designed by the internationally highly-regarded architect Daniel Libeskind, its unusual layout forms the shape of the Hebrew word mitzvah (good deed) to capture the essence of Danish-Jewish history. For 400 years Jews have lived peacefully in Denmark - during the Holocaust the Danes embraced and protected their Jewish people in a completely selfless way, after the Nazi occupation of Denmark, risking their lives to aid the escape of almost the entire Jewish population across the water in fishing boats to neutral Sweden. After the war the Danes then organised for the Jews to return to their homes here, where gardens had been tended for them in their absence, houses had been maintained in the same condition as when they'd had to be abandoned and so on - it was absolutely expected and anticipated that the forced migration was temporary. The altruism shown by the Danish people was a statement to the world that they saw no difference between Danes of one religion and another and they were utterly opposed to the persecution of the Jews. The Museum is fascinating and a must-see, not just because of this more recent story, but because of the comprehensive way it acknowledges the centuries' old Jewish immigration to Denmark from Spain, Germany, Poland and Russia and the significant and beautiful artefacts which have been preserved from those times. Visit www.jewmus.dk for more information if you're interested.

Later in the day we lucked upon a wonderful experience when we were visiting a beautiful church in the main street of the city and the choir was rehearsing for a concert this weekend. Due to the acoustics and their magnificent voices we enjoyed an absolutely fantastic personal musical treat.

Choir rehearsal

Yesterday we visited the Danish Design Centre; currently there's a hands-on exhibition focused on recycling which was absolutely fascinating. The Danes are at the forefront in world innovation in this field - there's virtually nothing these folks are NOT recycling. We can learn valuable lessons from the Danish attitude to making the world a better place environmentally for future generations.

Today I was treated to a very special day, courtesy of C who works for the multi-national iconic French cosmetics company Sephora, here in Copenhagen. She had organised a day of pampering for me which started with a luxurious facial using the most fabulous products, followed by a full make-up makeover, OPI gel manicure then a massage. What a treat! To top it all off, C organised a gift for me of skin-care and makeup products the value of which I couldn't even estimate, but is certainly more than I would ever spend in a lifetime of such purchases. Pictured below is today's haul - how I will fit this lot in my suitcase I have absolutely no idea.

Several kilos of makeup and skincare products!

OK, enough for this post - we have done other things, but will save them for other posts.

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