Day 7: Licorice Heaven or is that Pickle Alive? (Saturday, August 27th)

I wish I had Lana's ability to sleep anywhere and anytime. She was in bed with me before 23:00 and she awoke at 11:00. She did have a period in the middle of the night when she was awake for a couple of hours. I did not do very well with sleep, but hoping tonight will be dramatically better. It was raining heavy the whole night and continued through the morning. We were not moving out of the apartment until after 12 noon so a late start to our day. I had my usual bowl of fruit, but inside on the kitchen table. Not easy to be motivated when it is raining and we have only one umbrella and that is a story for another day....

A couple of observations of being in Copenhagen:

1.    the first time I saw anyone wearing a face mask was today so obviously in Europe they are not taking the pandemic as seriously as we do in Vancouver. Denmark dropped all restrictions February 1st

2.    as I have stated before you don't need any Danish Kroner - every merchant, hot dog stand or seller takes your Visa card and it is super easy to swipe your card over the card readers here!

Picture taken at the tournament Thursday from left to right myself, Bob Jacques (playing for North Carolina although is a Canadian like me and living on the Island), Bill Davilla and Brig Ord (drafted in first round by an NASL team) and both from the San Francisco Bay Area.

We take the M3 subway and from Radhuspladsen station it is a bit of a walk to our first choice Museum. Given it is raining it is a perfect opportunity to head to a Museum. The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum was highly recommended by some soccer teammates. It is indeed umbrella weather! When we arrive at the Museum courtesy of Google Maps there is a lineup for tickets and it is damn muggy inside the Museum. There is no discount for senior citizens! Hey!   :-)

Like most Museums you cannot go into the exhibits with your backpack. We were instructed to go downstairs and check in our bag at a locker and then try to enter the Museum with our tickets. I go downstairs and find out you need 20 Kroner token coin to activate each locker. No problem though as per the instructions below. Again, just swipe your credit card and you obtain the necessary coin.

Lana figures out that you can take these token coins and give them to other customers and they can plug the locker. Lana describes it as "pay it forward". We found a Dad and his son with our coin at the end of our day and they were super grateful. 

We spend about 90 minutes visiting most of the current exhibits. It is a pretty good art museum with diversity in its exhibits. I am no expert in regards to art, but both of us like what we like. Also, I am super interested in anything ancient Egyptian.

There is a huge atrium in the middle of the Museum with jungle plants, palm trees and jungle flowers. Maybe that is why it is so humid wherever we go in the Museum. The only place it was not humid was in the basement where the Egyptian Mummies were found. Some coed toilets. I did take a lot of pictures of some of the exhibits. We visited the Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Danish and French art exhibits. For French art they covered the period from 1870 - 1925 which included super talented artists: Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas (sculptures), Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Renoir and Manet. Pretty incredible lineup of brilliant artists. 

The pictures can speak for themselves I think.

Oh yeah, they don't have audio guides that you rent at the start, but in most exhibit rooms they will have audio that you just sit at and they play a constant loop about specific items in that room. Lana listening to something about ancient Egypt. 

                                      Yup, the ancient Egyptians were not that big.

                  NASOTHEK. An exhibit of noses check out the information below this picture. 

The Roman Emperor Tiberius statue. Pretty cool and probably life size. Not sure if it is accurate as I am certain Romans were as vain as we are today.

                                                      Picasso painting of a Spanish woman.

We are both pretty hungry as we did not have lunch. We wanted something casual, but delicious so we headed for the Danish hot dog vendor that I enjoyed earlier on my trip. Using Google Maps to navigate the winding streets and lanes. On the way Lana stops at a shop to look at buying a new jigsaw puzzle, but no luck. Not raining as much right now - more of a sprinkle. We finally arrive at the hot dog vendor and get in line. 

                                              These Danish hot dogs are delicious!

Menu board for our hot dogs. Sign is in English and Danish. We ordered different Danish hot dogs and found a seat to savour each morsel. Of course, being a messy eater it didn't take long before two of my pickles were airborne all on their own! We found out that pigeons will not eat pickles. The pigeons are so used to people and eating what they drop is they will crowd around your feet and brush up against your legs. The dogs are delicious! Besides a multi-grain hardened bun each dog comes with ketchup, mustard, pickles, remoulade, crispy onions and I think that is it! Very yummy and filling. Lana reported her dog as excellent, but somewhat salty. Crisp on the outside. 

Well, another long walk to the nearest M3 station. I did buy a two day City Small Pass as that will work for my remaining time in Copenhagen and then to the airport on Monday morning. Lana was on a mission to buy a European plug-in adaptor for her iPhone. She found it and is happy. In addition, she wanted to purchase some licorice at Lakrids by Bulow. Our Danish friend loves their delicious licorice and they are of the highest quality. In addition, he prefers salted licorice and that is best found in Denmark. Also, this store is located in Magazine du Nord which is a huge department store and famous in the city. The sales clerk had no problem providing us with tasting samples of the various licorice choices and each were yummy and normally covered in chocolate. Who knows, but some of our friends may get some licorice. 

We have some time in our apartment before we need to leave to meet with Lana's oldest nephew at Illium Bolighus so Lana can find the hand cream her sister loves. We are to meet him at 18:30. We were in contact with our real estate by phone as we received a counter offer on our condo and needed to make a decision on acceptance. The money aspect is not what we thought we could obtain, but on the other hand the current Vancouver real estate market is such an unknown. For certain prices are falling and not increasing. We decide to give it more thought before making a final decision.

We meet Lana's nephew on time at Illium Bolighus store located very close to Gammel Strand M3 station. Big hugs! He has been living and working in Copenhagen for a few years with his roommate a friend from Calgary and UBC. Lana and him go into the store while I people watch outside. Lana is successful in finding the hand cream and then we are off walking to his apartment located in the "Inner City." Not raining. His apartment is located on a busy side street and it is on the top floor maybe the fifth story. It is a walk-up (no elevator) so lots of effort to get up to the top floor. He has a large two bedroom unit that is really hip and very old. The apartment is at least two hundred years old. Wooden beams, lots of character, spacious, hardwood floors and something we admired.

We met his roommate who I have met before in Vancouver and the four of us sat for drinks and catch up. Lana's nephew has grown into a fine young man in his late twenties. Very polished and self confident. What an experience to leave your home and go to a foreign country and begin your life and career. Wow! Apparently our dinner reservations are for 20:00 and it is a long walk across town to Ripotot Restaurant. We walk through some pretty cool neighbourhoods that are off the tourist path. Lots of young people, hip restaurants, cafes and bars. This city just seems to be populated by young people? When we arrive at the restaurant Lana's nephew's Danish girlfriend is there. Our first chance to meet her. She is the epitome of what you think a Scandinavian women may look like; natural blonde, beautiful features and very chic. As we enjoy our meal we have a great conversation with this young couple and they are very sweet with each other. Lana is happy to see that her nephew is living an awesome life here in Copenhagen. 

Menu for tonight. As you can see they focus on local and seasonal ingredients. It is a small dishes (tasting menu) style of dining. Everything is top calibre tonight inclusive of service, food presentation, timing of dishes, ambience and sheer flavours. Wow, this is an excellent foodie experience. 

We wanted a medium bodied red wine to pair with the various dishes. None of us had drank a bottle from the Jura region of France and we asked our server for our recommendation. Our server was top class and personable. The wine has fruity notes, great nose and is a special cuvee made with the best grapes. We all thoroughly enjoyed this wine and the bottle was finished of course.   ;-)

Summer tempura with vegetables from Italy. Zucchini, padrone peppers and green onion. Dipping in a basil aioli which further enhanced the taste. What a great start. 

       Chicken liver parfait with pickled grapes. Incredible tastes that hit the mark for a home run. 

        Beef tartare, grape fruit tomato aioli dish. It doesn't taste like it looks and it was delicious. 

                          Hake crudo, tomato dish. Like ceviche and the fish was very fresh.

Trombetta, almond cream with pistachio dish. All I can say is yummy! Ribbons and chunks of zucchini and crunch from pistachio. Many contrasting flavours and textures. 

Youghurt, miso-glazed aubergines and parsley dish. Super hit of citrusy taste that really was unique and unexpected. 

Salmon from Faroe Islands, mussel sauce and pedrones (peppers). We love our Pacific salmon in Vancouver, but this salmon was its equal and maybe better. The fish was perfectly cooked. One of the best fish dishes ever. LANA HERE: Padrone peppers are very mild but one in ten is ridiculously hot. We've been eating these peppers for years and NEVER had a hot one. Well, as luck would have it the large pepper on the right side of the photo was a hot one!!  Both couples actually got a hot pepper in their dish!!

Guinea fowl (little chicken), celeriac purée in Bordelaise sauce. Fowl was moist and flavourful. Sauce was perfect and a great way to end that part of our dinner. 

By this time we are all very full! We have two plates of desserts which we did not take a picture. One dish was pan cotta with summer berries and the other was an Earl Grey chocolate tart. You can't go wrong with desserts and despite the fact all four of us were full we finished the desserts with big smiles on our faces. 

We finally left the restaurant around 23:20 so it was long meal but time went by very quickly. Great conversations with the nephew and his girlfriend. We learned more insights into Danish life, culture and language. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. We just happened to be very close to the Marmokirken M3 station so that was perfect timing. It has been a good day and we are both tired. Easy and quick subway ride back to our apartment.

It is close to midnight and we confirmed with our real estate agent we were accepting the offer on our condo. While we were not happy with the $ aspect there were lots of reasons to celebrate. The official closing date is Monday so we will know if the deal is final then. We will hold off any celebration until the agent has their deposit cheque in hand. We feel good about our decision overall. Takes the stress and anxiety away with a successful sale which comes in time for our need to pay up on our purchase of our half duplex for October 4th. Time to get to bed finally around 00:30....