Christmas Markets - Copenhagen Page

We ate minimal breakfasts, because of the possible gastronomic ordeal ahead. It was a grey, misty day but not too cold at first, although it cleared & became colder when we walked back to the ship. Taking our time to walk down, we saw the Changing of the Guard at the palace.

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King Frederik V

Changing the Guard at the Palace

The Crane Fountain at Amagetorv

We arrived at Café Norden at Amagetorv by the cranes, one minute before Ken's niece, Mara, who is a scientist at Copnhagen University & has just got a PhD for (ongoing) work on a vaccine for MRSA, which I called the “Privatisation Bug”, as it only appeared when hospital cleaning was out-sourced. For once, it fairly easy work to explain but she made the point that the drug companies are not interested in new anti-biotics, although their irresponsible selling of them had caused so much trouble, as there is not much profit in them. She was delighted to see us, as we had not met for 7 years & insisted on paying for the brunch, which was pretty huge & defeated even Ken. There was salmon & tuna, bacon & scrambled eggs, two cheeses, chocolate cake, jam & three ethnic breads. We ate & chattered for two & a half hours.

Avis & Mara

Stroget, the pedestrianised main street

Xmas Market on Kongens Nytorv

Having just finished “Four Futures” by Peter Frase, Ken pointed out that the rich are not interested in curing the poor, as their labour is no longer needed & people like Mara are only making it worse by delaying their dying off. This sounds extreme, except that it is actually going on right now. Politically, Mara seems spot-on. I gave her, her father Geof’s weather station, as the safest & quickest way to get it to him (since Geof has lived on Skiathos for 46 years), although they are meeting in Athens Airport soon for Xmas in Bucharest at one of Geof’s friends. I noticed an antique warship on the way back. It was already dimming down by time we got to the ship. I edited the photos & the battery ran out, so I went to bed. So did Avis but forced me up at 18:25 for a dinner I did not need. The show was a funny man, Simon Sands, who was genuinely funny. Before, someone drew Christopher Gee’s attention to me, as he was in trouble with his antique MacBook. He is a not-so- funny man. I put him on the right road & he was duly grateful later, after we had been to the Observation Lounge & met Audrey & Brian, friends of brother Geof’s, who had met him on Skiathos. Small world.