Wednesday, June 21: 20,000 steps outside.

Today was our final visit to the Embassy (we hope!). We picked up Bob's emergency passport, which is good for a year.  He will not have to pay when he gets a new regular passport.  The Embassy people were very helpful and efficient.

We actually had time to come back to the hotel and get more coffee and breakfast!

Today, the first stop was the Church of our Savior, which has this amazing corkscrew spire that Bob wanted to climb.

The steps are outside!!!

 I was content to find a coffee shop across the street and have a big latte while he climbed.

Our next stop was Christiania, a leftover hippie communed from the 70s. We walked around and looked at items right out of a headshop from the 60s.

Along one aisle, various people were selling different strains of marijuana, and the scent of weed was everywhere.  There's also a women's blacksmith shop, where they make all sorts of art from iron; they also sell other artists' work there.

 We walked around a big lake in the place and then came back to an outdoor area for a beer.  We also watched graffiti artists paint over other graffiti, obviously with the permission of the powers that be.

We planned to take the bus back to our hotel but ended up stopping by the National Museum and having lunch in a square nearby at Restaurant PUK.  Our server was charming, and the food was traditional Danish: open-faced sandwiches. I had tartar, and Bob had cheese and pork fat (looked like aspic).  We both had beer, of course.

After lunch, we rode back to our hotel area but got off one stop before we should have (we think).  Anyway, we were one street above our normal street.  Once we found our bearings, I shopped for socks while Bob went back to the hotel.  He took a nap, and then we were off to Tivoli Gardens, one of the world's oldest amusement parks.

We watched a jazz concert and walked around the park, stopping at a microbrewery for a taste of  beer.

https://youtu.be/tl_A90IVZ44

And Bob had to have a picture among some random elephants.

Afterwards, we stopped at a hotdog stand on our way back to the hotel so that we could say that we had the most popular Danish street food.

Bed at 10:00PM.

Tuesday, June 20: First full day in Copenhagen.

We set the alarm because we needed to be at the Embassy by 9AM.  The breakfast in our hotel is great, so we were carbed up for our journey, which was simple since we'd already been there.  I will always try to get a decent hotel by the train station -- it makes things so much easier.

On our way to the American Embassy, we passed by the Russian Embassy.

We took a number and waited about 15 minutes, talked to a guy, waited another 10 minutes, talked to a different person, and were told to come back the next day at 8:15 for an emergency passport. Back to the hotel we went and sat in their courtyard, drinking coffee.

Our itinerary for the day was the Rick Steves Copenhagen walk, which started at City Hall.  On our way, we spotted an amber shop.  My curiosity was piqued because when we were visiting the Beckmerhagens, Martina had shown me small pieces of amber that the children picked up on the beach during their holiday in Fanö, a town on the North Sea in Denmark. I scored a lovely ring.

After a look at City Hall, we walked the Stroget, the first pedestrian shopping street in the world, according to our guide book. As we were walking, I kept tripping on the cobblestones, which had not happened on previous days.  However, I was wearing new shoes, and after the 5th or so trip, I saw an Ecco shoe store and bought some lightweight "trendy" sneakers. I NEVER wear sneakers, but these are not so bad, and I haven't tripped since.

By this time, we needed some lunch, so Bob found a few restaurants through an alley.  We chose Italian, and the experience was quite pleasant.

It was a lovely afternoon for al fresco Italian food.

We continued our walk on the shopping street to Nyhavn, the "new harbor." The art museum right on the water had a stunning exhibit on the outer wall. It was made up of life jackets gathered from refugees situated on the Greek island of Lesbos from 2015-2016 -- it had just opened. Powerful.

We walked around about bit and decided to take a boat tour.  It was quite windy, and being on the water was a bit chilly, but we persisted!
This is the opera house.

https://youtu.be/yhHmF4yVh5c

After our boat ride, we had fish and chips at a waterfront restaurant where it was a bit windy and cold.

Bed by 9:30 because we again had to awaken super-early the next morning.

Monday, June 19: From Germany to Denmark and trauma.

We had an early breakfast with the B's -- Tom then took Niklas to kindergarten and us to the airport. The first glitch was that Tom forgot Niklas's indoor shoes, so we had to go back to get them.  There was also a lot of traffic on the way, so I was getting nervous about our timing.  When we arrived, there was a big line, but Tom swiped a card and managed to get us into the priority line, so we got to the gate in plenty of time.

I took some pictures from the plane -- so clear and beautiful!

https://youtu.be/2IsvRn6_g58

Craziness began when we arrived in Copenhagen.  Bob couldn't find his passport.  We looked everywhere, but we did not have it. So we talked to SAS, who called the cleaners for the plane, but they didn't have it. Then we talked to people at the information kiosk, who gave us the number for the Hannover airport lost and found.  Tom had already contacted the airport with no luck.  We then realized that we could leave the airport even without the passport.

After asking many people and finally ending up at the information place for the metro and train, we got 7 day passes and were on our way.  Finding the hotel was easy, and we were able to check in immediately. I called the Hannover police, but they didn't have the passport.  I also called the Copenhagen police, and they didn't have it, either.  Finally, I called the American embassy.  They gave me a list of things we needed to bring in order to get an emergency passport. So off we went , first to the Copenhagen police (which was in the Central Railroad Station) and filled out a report, second to the photo booth in the center of the train station to get passport photos, and third to the Embassy, which was a simple train ride away.  When we arrived, we were told that the passport issues were only dealt with from 9-12AM, but we were able to get the paperwork to complete.  I filled everything out and then we finally had a meal -- we hadn't eaten since 7AM.

We found a great brew pub and had flights and Danish food. Bob had marinated herring and I had hard boiled quail eggs with a delicious dipping sauce.

And of course, the flights!

Then Bob had krill while I enjoyed pork cheeks.  Very different but delicious.

Bed by 9:30. We were exhausted.

Sunday, June 18: Full day in Hannover.

I awoke at 6:15AM and took my time getting ready for the day. Bob woke up about an hour after I did, and we walked to the Beckmerhagen house for breakfast al fresco, which consisted of delicious bread, jams, honey, and lots of coffee.

After breakfast, we watched the children play in their fort, and then Tom filled the wading pool so that they could play in the water. Yannik managed to get me wet -- the first time, it was an accident; the next time, not so much!! It was hot in the sun, so I just positioned myself so that my pants dried quickly.

It was quite warm for Germany, so the boys did not play soccer today!  Tom grilled sausages, and we had a salad bar for creating our own pasta salad.

Tom and Bob took the boys to a strawberry festival while Martina and I took naps.  We looked at pictures of their holidays to Fano in Denmark; we also looked at Tom's 40th birthday book, which included pictures of us!

We had wine and light snacks after the children went to bed, and then we headed back to pack for our departure.

Saturday, June 17: Hannover time.

Saturday morning at 5:00AM the alarm went off, and we quickly got ready to check out and board the bus back to Heathrow. I bought an adapter for our future trips!!  We got to the airport and aboard our plane to Germany with no problems. But now everything costs on British Air, even the coffee! I bought a cup, but it was awful.  Seriously, no free crappy coffee??

We were picked up by Tom's usual driver when he goes to the airport -- Tom was picking up his son from an overnight kindergarten event.

Martina and Yannik were at home, and Tom and Niklas soon arrived.  We had a meal al fresco made by Tom and Martina.

We had a lovely, low-key day.  We returned to our hotel by 10:30PM.

Friday, June 16: Stopover in London.

Our flight was relatively painless aside from the fact that the guy in the window seat seemed to pee more than I do.

 We arrived in London at 6:15AM (1:15AM EDT)`and set about running errands in the airport.  First, we updated our Oyster cards for our travels with Axel and family the following weekend. Then we went from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 (which involved a 4-minute train ride) to check in for Saturday's flight. British Air charges if you pick your seats more than 24 hours in advance, so I waited until exactly 24 hours and then checked in and got our seats.  It was now 8:15AM, and we got some pounds and headed toward the buses.  It took about 10 minutes to get from Terminal 5 to our hotel. I will now remember that the Sofitel Hotel is the one IN Terminal 5 for next year!

We were actually able to get into our room at 9:30AM, so we took naps.

Bob is still sleeping right now, but when my hair dries, I'll wake him up.  Windsor Castle isn't too far from here, so maybe we'll check it out.

We decided to have an easy day and just walk to a nearby Thai food restaurant that we had passed on our way to the hotel.  It is a lovely day in the UK, so we sat outside and had delicious Thai food with French and Belgian beer.

Afterwards, we had coffee al fresco at our hotel (accompanied by planes taking off every 10 minutes or so from Heathrow).

https://youtu.be/IJIDFW-e8ow

After I took a shower, I realized that I couldn’t use my European curling iron because I didn’t have an adapter for Europe to U.K.!! I dried and curled with a brush as best I could.  On our next trip to the lobby, I was able to borrow an adapter from the concierge.

After a walk around the hotel, including a little glade of apple trees with mowed walkway and multiple videos of really low airplanes taking off from Heathrow, we went back to the room to get ready for dinner.  I finalized packing as much as possible so that we could just go to bed after our evening meal.

The restaurant choice for the evening was Mr. Todiwala’s Kitchen, which just happened to be in our hotel.  The décor reminded us of Indian Summers, a fascinating TV series we’d watched on PBS.  I decided to try multiple small plates so that we could enjoy the various flavors of nouveau Indian cuisine. Every dish was wonderful – we mixed vegetarian entries with shrimp and chicken.
The menu was a little biography of the chef and the different elements of the cuisine.  It was so helpful and interesting.

 After dinner, we went right to bed in preparation for an early rising for the next day’s flight to Hannover.

We were awakened after our lovely dinner by the front desk.  Because the restaurant was really busy when we were ready to leave, I just signed for the meal using the room number in the hotel, but because I prepaid for the room, they had no record of my credit card.  So at 10:00PM, I had to get dressed and go to the lobby to give the staff my credit card.  Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well for most of the night.  It took me at least 1 ½ hours to get to sleep, and then Bob woke me up because he was cold, so we had to fiddle with the thermostat.  Arrgggh,