>From izzy@izzy.com Sun Jul 5 08:36:59 1998 Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 20:55:29 +0200 From: Michael Israeli Subject: June 11: day of travel Last night was our final one in Madrid (and for that matter Spain). We went out to an Italian restaurant on Calle Prim. The pasta there was excellent, and both also had Veal Scallopine prepared in a marsala sauce. The cool thing about this restaurant was that they gave us a complementary glass of Cava (champagne) upon seating us. We also had a very nice secluded, dark, candle lit table in a window nook. We enjoyed it very much. We got back to the hotel and packed up in preparation for leaving. Today we woke up at 7am in order to have time to check out, have breakfast, and head to the Madrid airport. We had no trouble finding our way to the gate and getting through customs. The Spanish customs officials don't even ask you any questions. They look at your US passport, stamp it, and you are on your way. When our flight was ready to board, they loaded us onto a bus which drove us out to some kind of airplane parking lot. Our plane was actually a SpanAir one - this flight was a cooperative one between SpanAir and SAS. --Note: the above was written on the plane from Spain to Copenhagen. Now, we are sitting in the airport in Copenhagen, having just returned from a busy day of sightseeing! We have about an hour or so to kill, so we thought we'd write some more. We landed at about 2:30 and since we'd checked our bags through to Norway, we deplaned and proceeded directly to customs, where we were waved through the security area (although a little old lady near us got her bag searched). The customs official who stamped our passports asked Michael how long he'd be staying in Denmark, and when Michael told him just for the day, the man said "that's too bad, but you are welcome to come here anyway!" Then, when he looked at Hillary's passport, he asked, "Hillary? Is that like..." and Hillary cut him off with a "yes," before he could make the obligate Clinton joke. He said "oh, I guess you hear that all the time, well, you are most welcome to come here anyway!" and waved her through. He reminded Hillary of her neurosci professor in that both men have red skin and pale white/blond hair - but the neurosci professor is the incarnation of evil, and this customs guy was pretty nice. We had read in our guidebook about the SAS express bus from the airport to the city's Central Train station, so we took that - a great bargain, at a mere 35 DKK (about $4.50) because a cab would have been much more. It runs every 15 minutes and is pretty nice. It dropped us off about 25 minutes later at the train station (yes, Jeff, we got a photo. It's a nice brick building.) We headed across the street into the Tivoli gardens, which is a combination amusement park/botanical garden/bunch of restaurants and fine dining. At first, we were kind of disappointed in it, but as we wandered through we found some very cute ducks, which Michael befriended, feeding them 2 DKK worth of duck food; and then we found some really beautiful gardens and fountains and things, which we took photos of. We deliberately passed straight by the Hard Rock Cafe located near the exit of the gardens. After we finished in there, we walked down the "Stroget" (the o should have a diagonal line through it; this is pronounced "STRO-yet." This is a mile long pedestrian thoroughfare that runs through the heart of Copenhagen. It is lined by designer shops, regular shops, and a plethora of shawarma restaurants which also sell waffles and soft serve ice cream. As shoes are to Madrid, so shawarma is to Copenhagen!! Who would have guessed? Why this isn't mentioned in the guidebooks we have is a complete mystery. We walked all the way to the end of the Stroget, passing through the Kongens Nytorv (King's Square) which is a plaza containing a statue of some important guy on a horse, surrounded by some fancy hotels and the biggest department store in Scandinavia, Magasin du Nord. Finally we came to an area called Nyhavyn. Nyhavyn used to be a wild area populated by sailors - it is a canal-front part of town and there are still boats lining the sidewalk (boats in the water, not on the land), and there are some tour boats which leave from here. On either side of the canal there are buildings, and on one side of the canal there is a large pedestrian walkway with many sidewalk cafes on it. We stopped at a Mexican place and had beers and fajitas :). They were good! We hung out there for a while enjoying the amazing weather - while rain and 15 C had been forecast, it turned out to be sunny and warm at about 21 C or so. However, it started cooling off so we decided to mosey. We walked back along the pedestrian walkway, taking a turn we had not taken before, and encountering the Museum of Erotica. This we couldn't miss! So, we went in. The first thing we saw was a giant golden penis with the words "museum of erotica" underneath it. This was a photo op we couldn't pass up :) Things progressed....there were paintings, photographs, carvings, dioramas, paraphernalia, videos, movies, magazines, you name it, they had it, and it was in color too! A very strange place. Not only were there pictures and things, but there were photos of famous people with dissertations on their sex lives printed up next to them (in Danish and English). There were hard core movies, soft core movies, sex aids, sex toys, sex drugs. There was a lot of stuff in there. It took about an hour or so to see it all. Finally we got out of there. On our way out we passed a group of four middle aged Danish women heading in. :) After that, we walked back to catch the SAS bus back to the airport. We just missed one (remember, they come every 15 min) so we walked into the train station to check it out. There was a gang of Danish soccer fans in line to catch a train to France. They were wearing Danish "football" jerseys and hats and stuff, all red and white like the flag - and one guy had a buzz cut and had his white/blond hair dyed scarlet red - except for leaving a white cross still white, so his hair was a flag! Hillary had occasion to check out the rest room in the train station - it was weird. You could get a shower there for 15 DKK. There was a sign next to the sink that said "washing hands is free, washing for 'other purposes' is 5 DKK." We're not sure what those "other purposes" are. Also, there was a room in there where an attendent was selling a variety of panties (yes, underwear) for 25 DKK a pair. Why you need to buy new underwear in the restroom of the train station is beyond us. Maybe they are often crowded and people find themselves unable to wait, and end up needing new undies? Who knows. Anyway, we caught the SAS bus and got back to the airport and here we are, waiting for our plane to Bergen. We are excited about being reunited with our luggage. Tomorrow, we will explore Bergen, and then hop on the Richard With (that's a boat) to begin our 6 day cruise of the Fjords. Woo! love, Michael and Hillary