Sara and I spent all day today on a walking tour of Copenhagen. I am glad that before I came over to vacation with Sara I did a lot of waking to train for the Camino. She is walking me ragged. The Camino will be easy after I spend two weeks walking with Sara all over Copenhagen, Krakow and Stockholm.

We started the day off with a three hour guided walking tour of the Copenhagen City center.

Mark, Miriam and Sara

Mariam is from the Faeroe Islands. She married a Danish man and they have two young sons. She not only narrated the historical sites on the tour but she also gave us many insights into modern life as a young Dane in Copenhagen.

The City of Copenhagen was founded by Bishop Absalon.

Bishop Absalon

Bishop Absalon was struck by lightening and survived. His friends and enemies determined that only someone with very powerful juju could survive a lightening strike so they agreed to be baptized and submit to his rule.

Changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace.

The Queen of Denmark, Queen Christiana, a truly remarkable woman, lives in this palace. She translated The Lord of the Rings books into Danish. That is a pretty big deal!

Frederik’s Church or The Marble Church

This is a beautiful church adjacent to the Palace. The dome inside was awe inspiring. I assume the architect was trained in Rome.

That was the end of the guided walking tour. After the tour Sara and I had lunch at an outdoor food court where we got Mexican food at The California Kitchen.

We then walked to Christianna. This is a hippy dippy place where people buy and smoke pot in public. Reminds me of downtown Denver. This place has a sinister thuggish feel to it and Sara and I walked through it and left as fast as our feet would carry us. Take my advice and scratch Christianna off your list of sites to see in Copenhagen.

Sara in Christianna

Our final stop was The Church of Our Savior. As you can see this Lutheran Church has a staircase that allows you to climb to the to the top of the spire. I thought I was going to have a heart attack but I followed Sara to the top and we were rewarded with a great view of Copenhagen.

Church of Our Savior

View from the top of the spire of The Church of Our Savior Lutheran Church

The interior of this Church was not as awe inspiring as The Marble Church but it was very beautiful in a more reserved Lutheran way.

This is the intricately carved wooden pipe organ at The Church of Our Savior.

Sara and I have decided to try one of the delicious Spanish restaurants in our neighborhood for dinner.

I hope everyone is having a restful Labor Day Holiday.

This is Annie and Peter and me and Sara. Peter is Annie’s husband. Annie’s Mother was the granddaughter of my step grandmother’s sister. You need to diagram it out to understand it.

Annie and Peter are so nice! We are technically not blood relatives but they sure made us feel like we were an integral part of their Danish family.

Our first stop was The Round Tower, an observatory built in the 17th century by King Christian IV. We walked up the 209 meter long spiral ramp to the top of the tower where we were rewarded with a spectacular view of Copenhagen.

Next we went to Rosenborg Castle and King’s Garden. Rosenborg Castle was built by King Christian IV from 1606 to 1634. The palace is a great museum and houses the Danish National jewels.

After our tour of the Rosenborg Castle and the Gardens we went to Annie and Peter’s house for lunch. They have a beautiful home that is very Danish modern and is decorated with Annie’s colorful and very well done oil on canvas paintings. Annie fixed a scrumptious lunch of smorgasbord sandwiches with an apple crumble and whipped cream traditional Danish desert. Annie’s smorgasbord was as good as Marie’s smorgasbord, and that is saying a lot!

Of course we had Danish beer before and with lunch and had a couple of Aquavit toasts.

After that we went to the coast to a small fishing village, where we walked around and then climbed up to an observation tower where we could wave to Sweden but not salute Sweden. True Danes might wave at Sweden but we are not going to salute them. Perhaps a little bit of Nordic rivalry.

Thanks so much to Annie and Peter for such a memorable day and for going out of your way to entertain a couple of Danes from America and for making us feel like we are part of your family.

Finally, Sara found a great Italian restaurant where we had a wonderful charcuterie plate and a great pizza.

Now, a good night’s sleep and more Copenhagen tomorrow.

Canal in Copenhagen

Sara at the Illinois State Fair.

Just kidding. We walked around a food festival in Copenhagen and I saw this corn cutout and it seemed a little out of place so I twisted Sara’s arm and she grudgingly agreed to pose for this picture.

We had a great first day in Copenhagen. We landed at about 1:00 PM and caught a cab to the hotel. We are in the center of old town Copenhagen in a pedestrian and bicycle only area. There are bikes everywhere! This must be the most bicycle friendly city in the world.

Sara and I went to an outdoor food court and had smorgasbord sandwiches for lunch. Delicious.

We then walked along the main canal, had a drink at a sidewalk cafe and then dinner at a fish restaurant.

I love Denmark!

That is the plane that is going to fly all the way from Denver to Iceland? Now I know why the fare was so cheap! That looks like a plane you would fly from Denver to Salt Lake City.

I’ll bet Iceland Air got a really good deal when they bought this old broken down POS from a bankruptcy auction. I anticipate that this flight will be an adventure in discomfort.

Good thing I have my St. Christopher medal and prayer card. I am going to need them.

Yikes!!

That’s right, the sign says Welcome to Colorful Colorado when it should say Leaving Colorful Colorado, to help illustrate the theme of this blog post. I am at the airport in Denver and saw this painting. I assumed I could find the companion painting with a Leaving Colorful Colorado sign. No such luck. You will need to use your imagination on this one.

It is 2:00 PM and the flight to Copenhagen, with a short layover in Iceland, leaves at 4:50 PM. It has been 48 years since my one and only trip to Denmark. The summer after my freshman year of high school I spent part of the summer with my grandparents, Marinus and Marie, in Denmark, and part of the summer with my grandfather Carl and his extended family in Germany. What an adventure that was, and a real growing experience, literally. The before and after pictures document that I grew so much over that summer that my clothes did not fit when I got back to Springfield. I was wearing the highest of high water pants when I got off the plane back in the good old U. S. of A.

I am now 48 years older and probably no wiser. I just hope I don’t grow out of my clothes on this trip.

Abe and I want to give a big shoutout, hug and kiss to Jan for taking us out to the airport. Abe, Jan and I go way back.

Abe, Jan and Mark in Washington D.C.

Abe, Jan and Mark in Gettysburg

Jan and Mark at Abe’s home in Springfield, Illinois

The next post will be tomorrow from Copenhagen.

I hope everyone has a restful Labor Day weekend.

That’s right. You guessed it. St. Christopher has officially doubled down. My parish priest blessed the St. Christopher medal as requested by my mother, St. Rita and I put him above Abe on my pack. Then my sister, California Karen, sent me this beautiful St. Christoper prayer card. That was so sweet. However, Abe is now enraged. He is in full diva mode. He feels like St. Christopher pulled a fast one and Abe now feels outnumbered, two St. Christophers to one Abe Lincoln. He now refuses to fly over in the checked baggage compartment with the pack and wants a seat of his own. With his long legs I am sure he will demand an upgrade from coach to either business class or first class. I think I will wait until tomorrow and let Iceland 🇮🇸 Air sort this out.

Thanks Karen.

Happy birthday to my father who is 90 years old today. He has been the best father who ever was or ever will be and he has been and always will be my bff. I think that means “best friend forever.”

My father was a child of the Great Depression and a Korean War veteran. He was tough but not too tough and always fair.

Like all men of his generation, the Greatest Generation, the 70s were a difficult time to navigate.

I think this story will illustrate my point.

It was the summer of 1973 and I had just graduated from high school. I came home late on a Saturday night to find my father sitting at the head of our white Formica kitchen table with the overhead fluorescent lights blazing. He had a cigarette in one hand, a beer in the other and a book on the table in front of him. He barked at me to sit down at the opposite end of the table. He then pushed the book across the table at me and, in a stern voice asked: “What in the hell is that and don’t you dare lie to me.”

I was in no shape for a bright lights and rubber hose interrogation, but I thought I had better come up with some kind of answer. “It’s Catcher in the Rye. It is a subversive communist influenced book that they made me read in English class. Let’s get out the barbecue grill and burn it.”

He didn’t think that was funny and told me to open the book. I did and inside the book I found a roach, a marijuana roach. My father: “I want you to tell me what that is and don’t even think about lying.” The truth has never been my first option but I decided to give it a go.

“Dad, it is a roach.” He threw his can of beer at my head, obviously not his first beer as he missed my head by three feet, and screamed: “Dammit, I told you not to lie to me. That is not a cockroach. The basement is full of cockroaches. I know a cockroach when I see one and that is not a cockroach. One more chance to stop the lying and tell me the truth.”

Now what do I do? I tried telling him the truth and that was a disaster. I decided to take a different approach.

“Dad, I am so sorry I lied to you. You are right. This is not a cockroach. It is a teeny tiny marijuana. I thought that because it was so small it would be harmless.”

My father then lectured me on the dangers of smoking marijuana, even teeny tiny marijuanas, and told me to go to bed.

The moral to this story.

Truth is always relative. But if you win the father lottery like I did, your father’s truth will be with you forever and leave an everlasting imprint on your soul.

Thanks for everything Dad.

Love Mark

You guessed it. That is a St. Christopher medal. My mother, who my father affectionately calls St. Rita, sent it to me for the journey. I agree with what you are thinking as you read this post. “That was so sweet.”

However, the St. Christopher medal has caused a little problem. I tried to attach it to my pack and Abe got very upset. He likes to be top dog and reminded me that he was the greatest President there ever was or ever will be. He also pointed out that it is Abe and Mark on the Camino, not Abe, Mark and St. Christopher on the Camino. I told Abe that we are going to need all the help we can get along the Camino and it would break my mother’s heart if St. Christoper gets left behind. Abe, being the ever wise politician, decided that it would be bad form to disappoint my mother and St. Christopher might come in handy in a pinch. So Abe agreed to let St. Christoper join the expedition.

I hope Abe does not turn out to be a diva on this trip.

Buen Camino

This is the route from St. Jean to Santiago. The identified towns are suggested overnight stops in the John Brierly guidebook.

I plan to use this guide book as a general reference but would like to stay overnight at a number of convents, monasteries and churches along the way and avoid staying overnight in the bigger cities. We will see how that works.

As most of you know the evening Abraham Lincoln was shot he was attending a play at Ford’s theater with his wife Mary. Immediately before the assassin’s bullet entered his brain, Lincoln told Mary that after the war, “We will not return to Springfield. We will go abroad among strangers where I can rest. We will visit the Holy Land.”

After the assassination Abe was taken directly to Springfield for burial. No trip to the Holy Land for Abe. Spain is not the Holy Land and Santiago is not Jerusalem but I decided to bring Abe with me on my journey. After all he did for our country, I thought that it is the least I could do for him. Besides, I think he will be good company.

Abe has agreed to cover my back as we walk the Camino.