The Copenhagen Interpretation*
- John Zuchero
- Oct 8
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 9
We started our latest adventure when our neighbor, Liz, drove us to the beautiful, newly renovated Portland airport (ranked either one or two in best American airports) … even though it is close to “war-ravaged” Portland (sarcasm)!
We left September 29th around 3 pm on Icelandic Air. It was a seven-hour flight to Reykjavik, which, after a “few” glasses of champagne, Nancy spent sleeping and John watched Nancy sleep 😵💫😵💫! After going th rough customs in Iceland, we boarded a flight to Copenhagen, Denmark. Why Copenhagen? Nancy’s granddaughter, Yarrow, recently began a master’s program at Lund International University, so we came for a quick visit.
We took a taxi to our Airbnb apartment. The taxi had to drive side streets since EU ministers were meeting in Copenhagen and all the roads were blocked. The apartment we rented was on a very lively street near the center of town. There were lots of bars, restaurants, bakeries on every other street corner, and (to Nancy’s delight), lots of thrift/vintage stores.
We have to tell you about our apartment. Have you ever stayed in a place that was someone’s everyday home, not their vacation home or dedicated rental? The first time we did was our first visit to Portland where we stayed in a young woman’s home. She moved out for the week back in with her parents. Funny but where we now live is about five minutes from that earlier Airbnb. Anyway, the Airbnb in Copenhagen was just such a place. The young couple moved out for the days we were there. You can certainly understand why they rent their apartment.
Nancy wanted to make sure we were near all the “action” and in any city, that costs more. We paid a princely/princessly sum and the couple we rented from had a significant portion of their monthly rent paid for, while probably going home to be pampered by their parents! Smart!
The apartment reminded John of a starter apartment for a young couple. Because their stuff was in the place, we had nowhere to hang our clothes, so our suitcases laid open on the small living room/dining room floor. It had a nice bed and a tiny, tiny shower. Our first night we had dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant, where we got into a long discussion with a German couple seated next to us. Can you guess who the main topic of discussion was? They had a lot of penetrating questions…we had few cogent answers.
Because Nancy had mostly slept through the seven hours from Portland to Iceland, she was feeling perky…John slept about 20 hours from after dinner until noon the next day. You can tell who the weak link in this team is.
The next morning, we discovered three separate coffee shop/bakeries within a few blocks of each other. We then spent time trying to understand the train system since we needed to find our way to Sweden. It was a mostly successful endeavor since we did get to the town of Lund crossing the Öresund Strait into Sweden. We say mostly because we paid twice the amount we should have for the tickets. Oh well, we just considered it a donation to the efficiently run and safe train system!
While we waited for Yarrow to finish her classes for the day, we wandered the small, beautiful town. We then stopped for a glass (or two) of wine in a cute little place (Kyrkogatan/Fem…I dare you to try and pronounce that) near the Lund Cathedral. When she arrived, she showed us around her school before a dinner at a local Thai restaurant.
After dinner we returned to Copenhagen by train. John is sometimes known (to Nancy) as “Mr. Navigator.” He usually figures out how to get around a place quickly. But, on the way out of the North Copenhagen train station he mixed up, and we ended up walking down a long darkly lite street for a few blocks before turning back the right way. We made it back to the apartment safely. The bar across the street was rockin,’ people inside and outside (smoking) in lower 50-degree weather drinking beer and having a good old time. But strangely enough, at 9 pm it closed and everyone left. It was like that every night…9 pm and gone. Surprisingly, lots of people still smoke cigarettes.
The next day we decided to check out downtown Copenhagen. Such beauty in the buildings of these old European towns. Everyone bikes….and fast.
Thank heavens John is always looking out for Nancy…she rarely looks both ways before crossing a street. There were a few close calls with speeders on bicycles.
We were planning to walk to Strøget, the main walking street in Copenhagen, which is one of the longest pedestrian shopping streets in Europe, stretching 1.1 kilometers. It features a variety of shops, cafes, and attractions, making it a popular destination for both locals and tourists.
While walking around we saw the picture below on the left. The picture of the sign on the right we took in Playa del Carmen, Mexico a few years ago. We bet they have many takers.
We came to a square filled with people, dressed in everything from shorts and tee shirts to puffy down jackets. And everywhere we looked there were people sitting having coffee or beer at 10:30 am. It reminded us of Portland, where whenever the sun peaks out, no matter the temperature, people are out sitting around drinking beer or coffee and talking. It’s an unwritten law in Portland that if the sun’s out it’s time to GO out. So, what did we do? We stopped at an outdoor café and had a beer and sat in the warm sun. When Nancy asked the waiter why so many people were drinking beer at 10:30 am on a weekday, he replied, “Because it’s Denmark, we like the sun and a cold beer.” No way to respond to that than to drink our beer and appreciate the warmth.
As we sat there, we noticed a food cart selling what looked like hotdogs cooked in a roll. Kinda funny to see because the top of the sausage was peaking out of the top of the roll. We found out they are called pølsehorn, which are a Danish snack where a hot dog (pølse) is wrapped in a soft bread dough, baked together, and often eaten on the go.
After lunch we traveled over to Sweden again but this time to the town called Malmo where Yarrow lives. She met us at the train station and took us to see her apartment. She lives in a university approved apartment, which was cute. Nancy thought the shower was a hoot and took the pictures below. In typical Scandinavian style …. clean lines. So sleek and clean that there is no enclosure on the floor to keep the water in. So instead of squeeging glass shower doors, Yarrow has to squeegee the floor.
Yarrow and Nancy left John reading in the apartment while they went off to do one of their favorite activities, scour vintage/second hand/thrift stores. Yarrow needed to decorate her walls to make the apartment “hers.” So, Nacy (the name her grandchildren call her) happily accompanied her in that quest—while looking for bargains for herself too!
The next morning Yarrow worked on her resume for intern jobs for this summer. One of the places she is applying is a Nike in Portland! If any of our Portland friends or neighbors know anyone in HR at Nile, we can pass along her resume.
That afternoon she came over to Copenhagen and the two of them did the same (scouring vintage/second hand/thrift stores) just this time in Copenhagen. The number of vintage stores is amazing. Finally, they had some success in a small shop we (Nancy and John) had visited the day before, not vintage but very cool.
On Saturday, we were supposed to meet Yarrow at a design museum, but the weather was miserable, cold, and rainy. So, we hung around the apartment until we headed to an airport hotel.
The next morning (Sunday) we spilt for Split, Croatia for a weeklong “wine cruise on Sail Croatia You will discover why the quotes are around the word wine in our next installment.
Nancy booked our flight from Copenhagen to Croatia using frequent flier points. The difference in points between coach and first class was minimal so she booked first class. When we got on board the SAS flight, first class was about eight rows, and we were the only two people in it. So, we moved to the first row, had the complete attention of the two handsome (Nancy’s words) stewards, who kept asking if we wanted more champagne, which of course we did, had a wonderful breakfast and made our way to Split, Croatia.
After we landed we met our driver, Igor (no lie) who took us to meet our ship and our next adventure.
More, next time on what John’s calling, “The Quest for the Holy Barolo.” Go ahead, say it aloud “Holy Barolo.” It just rolls off the tongue…as does a great Barolo!
Bye all,
Nancy and John
The Copenhagen Interpretation * — if anyone knows (without Googling) what the Copenhagen Interpretation is you win the “No Prize” prize of the week. Good luck contestants!