Dessa´s 6th birthday

OMG, the kid is turning 6! Where did the time go? Indy always gets his birthday blog, but because Dessa´s birthday is the 31st of December it always seems to be swallowed by New Year´s! Not this year, no Sir,  I have been wading in photos of my sweet little girl since yesterday in preparation for her own very special blog - New Year´s Eve or not.

Birthday girl has been sharing our lives now for six long years, I cannot imagine how life was without her! She is beautiful, she is sweet, getting up in the morning being cute, continuing this all day long and going to bed still being cute. In fact she likes to sleep in and prefers to go to bed early. But in the field she actually pretends to be a real hunting dog!

Her six years have been really busy! After her first two years she realized that she actually got a bro (huge and white, but Mom says it´s a bro and he is looking up to her so it is all right) with whom she shares and watches her beloved garden.

But of course she is also busy with being pretty (here she is posing with a bling) - prettiness, next to cuteness, being the most important asset of a proper English Cocker. (I bet they learn it in puppy class when still at home with their dog moms. "And if you look like this you are so darn cute and pretty that you will get a goody from your Future human mom." Dessa must have been especially attentive, graduating with A++++.

But she also developed a taste for travelling. Browsing through her photos I realized how much we dragged her around the continent so far - and more to come!

Switzerland she always enjoys very much, she especially likes the Lauterbrunnen Valley with its plenty of opportunities to have a drink or a quick bath when it is getting hot. But she also likes to go to the beach in Italy watching how beautifully the sun sets over the waves...

Life is full of good food, fun places to go, lots of excitement and entertaining things to do!

But if she naps, she naps hard......

Have the bestest of birthdays, I know you do not care about age or numbers, but you will definately go bonkers about the goody shower that will come down on you on your big day tomorrow!

Sweet Putzi, we love you so very, very much! Happy 6th birthday and let´s hope for many, many more years to come together with your family who just could not do without you...

 

Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!

Dear friends and readers,

Another year has flashed by, and boy what a ride it was! So many ups and downs, so many things happening... I feel a bit tired now, cannot wait for some relaxing times and I am not sad to see the old year go. May the new year be a bit slower and a bit less action-packed. The weather has changed over here shortly before Christmas, last night we had icy rain, and all the trees were wrapped in ice, today everything is melting. Maybe a sign for a change of attitude in the New Year?

I wish you all a very warm, comfy, cozy and happy MERRY CHRISTMAS and for 2013 lots and lots of good health and good times! And now it is time for the kiddos to take over. They are in real party mood and cannot wait to wish you all the best for the festive season themselves!

Longfield Gospel and Christmas market at the Belvedere

Vienna has so many Christmas markets that we did not have a clue about the Christmas market in front of the Belvedere. Tourists probably prefer the markets downtown and Austrians do not know - but I guess this will change soon because it is beautiful!

Yesterday Longfield Gospel hosted a Christmas concert there, and it was the perfect surrounding and the perfect atmosphere.

The stage was right in front of the Upper Belvedere, but there were so many people there that I did not see anything at all!! Grrr, old friend Sigi and new friend Riki are members of the choir (and rumor has it I might be too soon) and I would have loved to see them in action, but even though I am so terribly tall it was impossible.

So we sneaked behind the market booths and got glimpses from there. The Longfield project basically started as a choir of amateurs who simply wanted to have fun with singing, but meanwhile they have accomplished a very high level of expertise and perform in many concerts each year. The music yesterday was a mixture of thriving African rythms and well-know Christmas songs, and everybody loved it. Come see them yourself nexttime!

And afterwards it is a good opportunity to do a little bit of Christmas shopping. The booths offer traditional goods, and the atmosphere is more christmassy than you find it e.g. at the Market before Schönbrunn Castle.

 And the setting, no doubt, is wonderful. They even have lights on the lake.....

It was quite cold yesterday, so we all came with lots of layers. And I was wearing my conelike arctic coat, in which I need to be helped back up to my feet again when dropping to the side like a bowling pin. But it is cosy and warm. Sigi obviously was freezing when she got home, but due to Doctor´s orders she is fine today, her voice has not suffered and she will continue to be one of the stars of Longfield!

What a great evening just before Christmas! Thank you, Longfield, and thank you, friends! See you at the next concert - or hopefully much earlier!

Kronborg Slot

As much as I liked everything we saw or did in Denmark - today I want to show you the - in my opinion - best part of our visit: Kronborg Slot. It is one of the most important Northern Renaissance castles and is situated in Helsingor, guarding the Oresund Sound, built in a time when Denmark was a grand nation, a powerful force of the seas, with the King demanding all the ships travelling through the Oresund Sound to pay dues to be allowed to pass. (Some of the dues were used to fight the pirates that were a real pest at that time to guarantee save travels in the waters of Denmark. This is the official version, and it seems that it is actually true!)

Kronborg Slot is also known as the "Hamlet castle", the castle that inspired Shakespeare to write his Hamlet, and if you read it carefully all of the numbers and descriptions about the castle that Hamlet, prince of Denmark, resides in, are mirrowing Kronborg Castle. It is not sure if Shakespeare has actually been to the castle himself, but at least two of his closest friends have been, so they easily can have informed him about the dimensions, looks and the importance of Kronborg. We were told that Copenhagen was a "pitiful, dirty shack" at that time (the guide there told us), and the castle in fact was the favourite place of residence for many of the kings. I so loved it!!!!!!!

You can travel to Helsingor by ferry or by train, coming from Copenhagen, getting off at Helsingor Station. It takes you about an hour from Copenhagen.

Walking up to the castle will take you another 15-20 minutes, they have fireplaces on the way up so you can warm your hands and enjoy the view of the castle while you walk there. Another time that we were happy to have come in Winter! In Summer it is the No.1 tourist spot in Denmark, with more than 200.000 visitors per year, but when we were there it was almost just us, the mercury sea, the quietness of a Winter´s day, the snow and the castle.... It was so quiet that one seemed to be experiencing this very special "Denish" atmosphere, everything seemed so unreal, and we did not even hear the sound of the waves as the sound seemed to be completely still.

It is so huge that it is hard to take a photo of it in one piece, but here you see a model of it that you will find approaching the main gate.

This day I was in a constant high, and it was one of the best trips we ever made. Everything was perfect, the journey there, the eery atmosphere.... And when we bought tickets to enter the castle one of the tourguides was hanging out there, being obviously bored, who took a liking in us and asked us if we wanted to go on a private tour with her. We did not have to pay anything extra, but obviously she liked our "aahs" and "oohs" so that instead of a 20 minute tour (that was scheduled hours later, they don´t do many in Winter time) she showed us around the castle for more than two hours!

(Later I found out that she had studied Philology, and after my surprised "Me too!" she seemed to like us even more. How are the odds meeting a fellow philologist in a castle in Denmark???)

First Natalia showed us the famous casemates - a word that means "home in the darkness". In these areas thousands of soldiers stayed for weeks in wars and sieges, and it must have been extremely demanding to live, sleep, cook aso there in these dark, damp place. They also kept the weapons and horses there, they even had something like a huge kitchen, and as people were afraid of diseases the soldiers were not allowed to drink water, only BEER was allowed, 8 litres a day. I cannot imagine to go into a battle with just 1 litre. But maybe it makes you die happy? Well, I doubt it.

We also met Holger Danske (Holger the Dane), who is residing at the entry to the casemates. I love the legend that surrounds this friendly giant. After fighting for Denmark in foreign places he came back to his home country, felt awfully tired, sat down and turned into stone. But when the Kingdom will be threatened by a foreign enemy Holger Danske will turn into flesh and blood again and he will rise and defend his country. So far he is still sleeping, so everything must be good for Denmark. I would feel extremely comfortable with such a strong ally watching over me...

The King´s and Queen´s appartement were something completely different. Besides: The inside of the castle burned almost completely down in 16something, and then the King decided to decorate everything completely new to the modern fashion. This is the King´s appartement with a rather Baroque looking ceiling. They tore down the wonderful wooden ceiling - even were it was not burnt - and put this up. I would have preferred the wooden works.

The ballroom. (We were told that the Christmas tree usually is not there - we said, "Yes, yes, we thought so".)

A view out into the Oresund sound. Don´t you just love the little flags??

The Castle Courtyard. At weekends there is a Christmas market there before Christmas, but during the week the yard is left to itself. Much better....

The sound of silence. Coming out of the main gate you can walk a view steps to the beach, there was nobody there except us and this one person, and I guess he also wanted to be kept alone, because he quickly walked away when we came down. Thanks, man...

What a brilliant day! Do go when you are in the area, you will love it! And I envy you that your first time at Kronborg Slot is still ahead.....

Copenhagen - Canal Tour and Tivoli

We are back in Copenhagen, and this time I want to tell you more about the place itself.

If you want to do your decent share of sightseeing you need to go into Copenhagen downtown. The metro station you want to get off is "Kongens Nytorv", being one of only two metro stations in the actual city. As much as I loved everything else, the public transport system is not very good, they do not have a lot of stations, and the maior tourist sights are not well or not at all connected. Like a Finnish friend of mine said, "Well, guess why they all ride their bikes??" So if you travel to Copenhagen just reckon with a lot of walking (and a lot of looking for directions and signs that are not there). The good news: They build a metro station at the Townhall at the moment, to connect this area to the public transport system.

When we got off one of the first things we saw was a flower market. We had minus degrees and it was a lovely sight! Nowhere in the more Southern countries I have seen anything like that in the Winter months....

On Gammel Strand (yes, this is its real name) you find one of two Cannel Tour stations (the other one is at Nyhavn, check www.canaltours.dk, you can easily book online, which is what we did). I always find roundtrips very useful to give you a first orientation in a city and also a first look at it. In Copenhagen of course you get the hop-on-hop-off-busses as well, but if there are waterways I always prefer those.

From Gammel Strand station you have a view on the island of Slotsholmen, most prominently on this picture you find the Stock exchange which is most famous for its Dragon Steeple, representing four dragons, their tails intwining and forming it. It is actually just next to Christiansborg Slot, where you can find the Houses of Parliament. In Summer time the boats go almost nonstop from this station, in Winter there are about 5 tours a day, and you will find a marker here telling you when the next boat is going, which is about each 1.15 hrs. But with such a fine view waiting is easy - and we only had to wait for half an hour or so. (You do not find the times in the internet, so don´t bother.)

The boats are fabulous! They are extremely flat because they have to be able to pass underneath
the sometimes extremely low and narrow bridges. The guide on board will tell you like a zillion times to be extremely cautious and watch your head - in Summer time, when the boats are open, I am sure this is absolutely necessary! Even now I saw people hopping up and down outside and almost missing the low bridges coming up. But it is not the guide´s fault, she really tries to keep you alive!

The boat takes you on a tour of the most important parts of Copenhagen. Like for example Nyhavn - "Newhaun" as it is actually pronounced - a dead end with historical boats anchoring, in Winter time they have a Christmas market there and in Summer many restaurants attract lots of customers.

They also take you out into the Harbour area, where part of it is military area and therefore closed to public. (The Cormoran did not seem to bother though.) The Denish people claim that their Navy is the oldest in the world.

This is the Danish Opera House. It is located opposite Amalienborg Slot (which is where Queen Margarethe is residing, but  I will show Amalienborg to you some other time) on the island of Holmen. Building it was extremely expensive, but, I don´t know.... for me an opera house as to be old-fashioned, not stylish..... But this is just personal taste!

On this tour you also get to see the Little Mermaid looking out into the harbour, but you see her only from the back, so I will also tell you more about here some other time. Instead I want to show you how narrow and low the bridges are when they take you back into the city, this time into the Christianshavn area.

And as you can see the weather had improved dramatically! So when we got off at Gammel Strand again we could explore the Christmas market there.

Here you are extremely close to the Stroget, the main shopping street of Copenhagen, it is a pedestrian zone, so walking is very comfortable, and the shops (e.g. the Illum) you find there are really nice. The Stroget takes you down to the Townhall and the Tivoli, which is exactly why we followed it.

Don´t ask me what these poor people did here, just clad in colours instead of a warm coat. They did some movie shooting there and I dare say that the Denish film is just as akward as the Austrian one....

Behind the Townhall you will find the H.C. Andersen Boulevard (yip! yip! yip!), and after crossing it you are at the Tivoli! It is Copenhagen´s amusement park with the same rustic flair as for example Coney Island, and each year before Christmas they set up their famous Christas market there. For us a new experience, because the roller coasters and caroussels are still working, but you also find litte booths for Christmas shopping, Christmas gloegg.... We paid 200 crowns just to get in (just to get in, mind!), so food and if you want to go on any of the rides is extra) but believe me it is worth it. Just remember to go there by night, and you will be overwhelmed. It is just sparkles and lights and wonders.....

I leave you here now with a few images of the Christmas market at Tivoli by night, it is phantastic. See you really soon and enjoy!

Copenhagen - Hotel and some recommendations

I definately wanted to go to Denmark for quite a while with actually two main reasons behind.

1) I was in London businesswise in July 2005 when terrorists targeted the public transport system and several bombs exploded in the tubes and on busses in the morning rush hour. The only reason why I was not in one of the tubes on fire was my kind collegue from Denmark, coming up to me in the lobby of the hotel, smiling and saying, "I am so old, they pay me a taxi to go to the conference venue. Do you want to join me? There is room in the car!" So I went with her and was lucky not to get blown up. (Other collegues went by tube this morning and definately had stories to tell, many of them about fire and explosion.) This warmed me up for Denmark and its very kind people enormously.

2) For my thesis I had to do a lot of research on Hans Christian Andersen, and while reading his diaries I learned a lot about Denmark, its rough sea and its long, cold Winters at warm fireplaces. So this wish built up inside me to go and see it all for myself.

It was a very early flight but the cool thing is: From Vienna you are in Copenhagen at 8.30 a.m. and have a full day ahead.

Our hotel was the BELLA SKY COMWELL, a very stylish hotel, only recently built, and we learned that it won "Best Architecture in Europe” at the International Hotel Awards, which is actually no surprise if you see it for yourself. http://www.bellaskycomwell.dk/hotelsite2011/frontpage/?gclid=CN2YnNbRlLQCFcq9zAoduEsAhw

The Nordic people definately have a feeling for design - just think of Finnland´s Iittala or Marimekko, or IKEA from Sweden - and just the same is found in Denmark. The difference to the often stylish but cold design I found in many other places of the world like e.g. Miami Beach with its loads of glass and coolness: The design in the Nordic countries is mostly very practical and still comfy at the same time.

Everywhere were lights and green - real green by the way, no plastic stuff - and the staff of the hotel was extremely friendly. And if you sat on one of the design chair it was always comfy.

Our room of course was the same. Stylish but so very comfortable! The best shower in the world, and the bed was heaven.

I need not say anything more about the skybar. Comfy seats, wonderful view, lovely staff, nice drinks.

The hotel is situated in an area outside Copenhagen which they probably want to build up. The station (bus and metro) is called Bella Center, but actually we did not see much of a center except our hotel. Still it only takes you 15 minutes to the very center of Copenhagen, which is fabulous of course! But still you can take photos like this just by stepping outside....

 

 

I definately would recommend this hotel any time, we really, really loved it.

 

Food is ridiculously expensive in Denmark, I was told that it is the high taxes, and I guess the people living there cope with it and have an income that is adapted. But if you come from a non-nordic country (except Switzerland or Japan) it really is ridiculous. A nice sandwich and a coke easily can come up to 100 Denish Crowns, which would be around € 14,-. So you better make sure that you book your hotel with breakfast, and I assure you you won´t be disappointed. Nowhere in Scandinavia I ever got a breakfast buffet that was not ample and with everything you could think of and wish for.

 

 

And there is something else I recommend in Denmark: The Yam-yam chain! It is basically an Asian food chain that offers a certain number of dishes, you simply chose if you want noodles or rice and which of the dishes on top, you will find Chicken Tikka Masala, Yellow Thai Curry, aso. And believe me: Outside Asia I have never had better Asian food! You smell the fresh ingredients, taste the Coconut milk... and it is actually a bargain compaired to a "real" restaurant. It is to go, but you can also sit down and enjoy it right there.

 

 

Yes, shopping is an issue in Denmark! In Copenhagen you find lots of great (and wonderfully decorated) shops and department stores - the most popular being the famous "Illum" - and people definately enjoy going shopping there. Of course it is expensive for non-Scandinavians, but of course you can get a tax exempt any time. We bought a little something for me, but I will officially only get it at Christmas. *smile* Usually people go to places like New York or London for Christmas shopping, that is fine of course, but try Copenhagen the next time!

 

 

The Christmas spirit is anywhere to be found in this lovely country, so do come here in Winter time and enjoy it! Go with the flow, experience the very special flair and get to know Denmark and its kind people! We certainly loved it and are absolutely happy that we chose exactly this time of the year to come here. Here you see the Townhall and its Christmas tree, so I am really close now to tell you more of the sights and the place itself. More to come soon.

 

 

Until then: Have a good time!