Greeting from Copenhagen, home to tall men and beautiful women. Callie and I just ran into my good friend (and four-minute miler) Joe Fabris in the train station. Sheer coincidence. Travel and its adventures sometimes yield random moments of wonder like that. Pretty amazing.
I'm researching and writing my way through Europe. Next stop is Hamburg, then on to Munich to check out the 1972 Olympic marathon course and tour the Olympikstadia where Frank Shorter won gold and Steve Prefontaine finished fourth in one of the most exciting races you will ever watch.
Copenhagen was a great writer's retreat, a compact place with a gorgeous new metro and miles of good walking along the waterfront. We don't know the city so we depended upon the kindness of friends to guide us around. Mike Brough gave us a listing of sights and especially food courts. The Little Mermaid statue was splendid, though not as wondrous as Broens Street Food. I developed a theory that Danes spend so much time alone during the winter that they congregate in mass numbers when the weather is warm. You could see it in the crowds eating and drinking at Broens, and also the hordes of sunbathers laying out in temperatures no Californian would dare. Not on sand, but on the pavers lining the canals. Every now and then someone would dive into the cold Baltic waters but for the most part it was all about basking in the fleeting sun.
The Bear was filmed here for its last season. We sought out a number of the locations, though mostly for the food. The local hot dog at Joans Polser is everything I had heard about, though we did not have time to seek out the chicken sandwich at Poulette. I can, however, verify anything you might have heard about Copenhagen being a foodie town. Everything was fresh, innovative, and perfectly cooked. The beer was cold and served in large glasses, which made me very content.
A UCI World Cup bicycle race finished in the heart of the city yesterday. So much going on. So much to see. My habit has been to write late in the evening in our cozy hotel room at Villa Copenhagen. As with most travel, the break from our normal daily routine at home has fostered creativity and conjured dreams about new life challenges. When I went to Copenhagen Central to buy tickets yesterday the agent told me that every train out of Denmark was booked for the next ten days. "Insane," he said about the number of tourists. He found us seats eventually but I was unworried. Part of me was hoping he would say no. A train is not the only way to Munich. Even as he sought out tickets, I was wondering about a ferry to Stockholm or Gdansk, maybe some other amazing adventure through a roundabout destination.
That is for another day. The train is fast and the countryside beautiful. Not quiet — the man taking calls through his headset makes sure we all know his business. I think he believes he is surrounded by only Danish speakers, so intimate are the details of his call. But that's travel.