Thursday May 3 - Copenhagen

Another day of sightseeing on our own.

View of cafe from our room

We did get up earlier today and headed out around 9AM for breakfast we went across the street to the H C Andersen bakery. DH had the cinnamon bun and a latte, I went for the special at 50 kroners, espresso, mulit-seed bun, cheese and marmalade.

Then it was time to walk. It was a magnificent sunny day with a high of 20C, not a cloud in the sky. First stop was City Hall with the statue of H C Andersen looking towards Tivoli Gardens. We then spotted a side door into the courtyard of City Hall and wandered in to talk some photos, when the guard spoke to us and said we could go in through the Mayor's entrance as he was just about to lock it. He then gave us directions up to the second floor with a note to admire the stair cases and some paintings.

Outside City Hall, sits H C Andersen looking across the road at Tivoli Gardens.
Then we followed our bus route from yesterday back through the city towards Nyhavn.

On to Nyhavn, and then to the Amalienborg Slot (Amalienborg Palace)
This palace has been the winter residence of the Danish royal family since 1794. The four identical rococo palaces face each other across the octagonal Amalienborg Slot, where the changing of the guard takes place each day at noon when the family is in residence. Only one of the palaces had a flag flying.

The guards are quite approachable for photographs. There was a group of school children as as the soliders on watch marches, they followed copying the soldiers' every move. They especially liked stamping their feet when they stopped.
The changing of the guards happened right on time, the police were very courteous in controlling the crowd, unlike the police in Athens for the changing of the guard.

Then a quick stop at the marble Church, the Russian Orthodox Church (you could only get a photo outside) and then the Catholic St. Angers which is completely under renovation.

We strolled along the canal and stopped for a beer at the Admiral Hotel, formally a warehouse now converted into a very upscale hotel We sat in the sun enjoying the sights.

Back to Nyhaven for lunch, we each had a starter and then shared a plate of cheese for dessert.

Some more strolling along Storget and we wandered into the University and Latin Quarter and stumbled upon the Round Tower.

We picked up a t-shirt for DH and a box for my collection. We got back to the hotel at 6PM for a rest before we go out to dinner.

My Recipe Box - Irish Peas

Growing up when we had these peas my mother referred to them as Irish peas. In the UK they are known as mushy peas. Living in Montreal it was impossible to find them as the company/importer did not put a translation  on the label. We had to rely on someone either bringing them over from Ireland or else someone bringing them from Ontario.
Here in Toronto I can find them anywhere.
People either love these or hate them.
The box above is for the regular peas - that is they need 13-16 hours to soak before cooking them.
Therefore we usually buy the quick soak type. These only need two hours to soak.

On the weekend my husband requested Irish peas, but I only had the original type and didn't have 13-16 hours to soak them. I did some googling and found that you can easily make them into "quick-soak".


Soaking Dried Peas:

Overnight Method, Put 1 cup / 200 grams, / 7 ounces dried peas into a large bowl with 3 cups / 700ml / 1? pints tepid water. Do not add any salt.

Quick soak Method, Put 1 cup / 200 grams  dried peas into a large saucepan with 3 cups / 700ml  water. Bring to the boil and continue to boil for 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat. Cover pan and leave to stand for one hour.Cooking dried peas on the stove drain the water from the soaked peas and move peas to a large saucepan. Cover with plenty of fresh water, cover and bring slowly to the boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to a simmer cook for 40 to 50 minutes or until tender. The longer the soaking time, the shorter the cooking time. If necessary, add salt during the last 5 minutes of cooking time.

Wednesday May 2 - Copenhagen - Hop On Hop Off Tour

We got off to a really late start today, I was up at 7AM but sleepy head DH (jet lag) slept in until 10!!

Since breakfast is not included in our hotel and we're not paying $20 CDN each we decided to go out and enjoy a local cafe and have coffee and pastry.

We headed to the Radisson (around the corner) to take the Mermaid Tour on the Hop On Hop Off tour.
We were redeeming our voucher (I had bought our tickets on line) the rep serving us was an English man so I asked him what had taken him to work in Copenhagen. He flashed his wedding ring and said his wife was Danish, and that the only reason any English man lived in Denmark was the sirens they married!
The entire tour takes 1 hour and you  see such highlights as: Amalienborg Palace, The Little Mermaid and Rosenberg Castle.
I will only post only the (going to be too busy sightseeing!!) highlights of our day and then do a more detailed post on the sights when I have more time.



Click on photo for bigger view.

We went round on this tour since we only boarded at 11:30. Tomorrow we will do a long walking tour on our own.

The Little Mermaid

 Nyhaven

And then we came back to the starting point to board the Carlsberg tour.
We got off at Carlsberg and bought our self-guided tour which includes two beers at the end. This is a fun tour and you move at your own pace.

 Lunch - we decided to use our beer tickets and have lunch in the Jacobsen Bar and Restaurant on the grounds. We chose to share a Taste of Denmark plate - chicken salad, bacon, prunes, two types of (yummy) cheese, potato salad, meatball, and smoked salmon served with a basket of breads.

We then waited and waited for the bus to come back and took it back to the starting point. We then decided to tour Tivoli Gardens as it was such a beautiful afternoon. Entrance is 95 kroner each. The grounds are magnificent and the Copenhagen residents were out enjoying the sunny day.

ABM

Time to enjoy some sunshine in a beer garden

Dinner - was at a Hungarian Tavern within Tivoli Gardens. There are so many restaurants to choose from on the grounds all all were pretty full.

The gardens as we left

My Recipe Box - Chicken Sate Dumplings

I love Chinese dumplings! Here is my go-to recipe.  It also includes a gluten free wrapper recipe.

And here are some photos of dumplings we had in China.

When we are in Hawaii, on the Big Island we always make sure we go to The Bamboo restaurant in Hawi just for their potstickers (well also everything else on their menu)!!
I even bought their cookbook. 

Ground pork would be great also.

2012 Decluttering - Monthly Update

For the month of April I definitely hit more than my 1 item a day declutter goal.
There was a charity pick-up for Breast Cancer Research so we put out five bags.
I haven't even listed all lot of the stuff that got decluttered!

Charity/Give away
1 purple sweater to a friend
Some magazines to a friend
Lots of books to friends
Cookbook Mexican from Puerto Vallerta - my sister
1 vase - my sister
Tiny whisk
1 coffee mug
1 trivet
3 fridge magnets
4 towels - my sister
1 Titanic special edition DVD to a friend

2 cat dishes - too big for our little guy
Small embroidery
Cleaned out 3 drawers in sewing desk and made up a box of spools of threads and other sewing materials
2 office leather portfolios
5 golf trophies (hubby's)
1 magazine holder
1 basket
Some stationery items from combining two office boxes into one.
Christmas bags



The following went to the charity pick-up on April 9 (5 bags).
Green sweatshirt - I am finally parting with it.
Purple sweatshirt - some marks
1 pair black pants - very worn
11 of hubby's golf shirts
9 of hubby's winter sweaters
2 of hubby's shirts
10 of hubby's t-shirts
3 pairs of shorts - worn
1 pair of dress shoes - too tight
1 pair of flip flops
2 pairs hubby's winter boots
1 pair brown cords
1 pair green cords
1 blue winter sweater
2 green sweaters
1 black travel purse
1 pair brown pants - they are fluff collectors
Red sweater
1 pair beige sandals

Garbage
4 pairs of underwear
3 season passes to museums - expired

2 cat food saver lids
3 trips to the recycling bin with boxes from basement
Some paper coasters
I entered some more recipes into my blog - My Recipe Box and threw out the paper versions.
Old box of opened crackers - gone stale
Roasting pan - damaged
Container of homemade bread crumbs from ages ago
2 old bottles of Diet Coke - gone flat
Moved coconut from large glass jar (recycled) to container from bread crumbs above
Almost empty can of Liquid Plumber
1 non-working night light
1 very old bra - but a favourite
2 used travel toothpastes
1 Empty tin that used to store onion soup mix which I no longer buy
1 empty glass jar for storage
Cleaned out sewing desk - threw out odd buttons, pins, etc.
Manual for a slide projector that we got rid of years ago
Bunches of pins from sewing drawer, loose threads, geometry set
2 t-shirt panels
Small box
2 Spanish travel books from 1999
A pile of city/state maps from our travels
3 film canisters
Minnie Mouse wall hanging - moved from garage sale items in April.
2 souvenir framed work certificates
2 work name plates





Pantry/Freezer
Old buns/burgers from freezer
Can of chip shop curry
Salmon from last year
An unidentified frozen package
Reduced 1 HUGE container of dry milk (for the breadmaker) to a small container.


Garage Sale:
Crock pot - slightly chipped but works fine. It was replaced with a shiny new one that I won in the Heart and Stroke lottery.

1 small heater
8 picture frames
1 framed Italian photo
3 Montreal prints
Cat lamp
2 -Spanish instruction CD sets
2 Umbra Contact shelves - never used

Books
Basket - from combing batteries into one central container

Sell/Sold:
X box - $50
Coffee Table
TV Stand
Black futon
Sewing machine table
Dining room set
Black wooden African women heads











Running total for garage sale (this not really updated)
Green leather bound binder with blank pages, a ruler and several pockets for holding items. I used to use it to record household measurements or pictures of things I liked for the house. I took all the relvant information and updated my House spreadsheet, took some photos of some pages (old house paint colours) and tore out pages.
One curtain rod
One shower rod
Two air purifiers
Two scarves
One gold basket
Four ceramic door knobs
One hanging space saver shelf
One wicker soap dispenser
One blue serving dish
Metal cutlery tray I was using in bathroom for makeup
Towel
2 space saver shelves (from cleaning out 2 shelves in the kitchen).
Beer mug
4 photo albums that I emptied wedding photos from - they will be scanned
Theatre programs 

London slides
Cribbage game
Small storage basket - blue
2 throws from front porch
10 books
Cat dish - too big for our little guy
1 cookbook - Road Grill a
3 small Chinese cookbooks

Tuesday May 1 - Copenhagen

Somehow Blogger (thank you very much) deleted all the photos I had scheduled for this post as well as the write up.


May 2012 - Toronto to Copenhagen

We flew out on April 30th, an hour late, at 10PM on Air Canada. flight was uneventful, the usual surly flight attendants that AC seems to attract.
Landed in Copenhagen at around noon due to the delay and the time difference is six hours. Customs was a breeze, he simply stamped your passport, no questions, no forms.
While waiting for our luggage, I could overhear the sales rep at the American Express currency exchange desk cheerfully acting as a tour guide and giving people directions into the city.
We had planned on taking the metro but he was directing people to the train. Both, by the way, immediately accessible once you pick up your luggage.
They have an easy automated machine to buy your train tickets which were around $6 each. They trains come frequently, they is plenty of room to accommodate everyone's luggage and we were in Central Station in fifteen minutes.
We stepped out of the station and Tivoli Gardens was in front of us, meaning we had to get around the gardens to get to our hotel on H.C. Andersens Blvd. We quickly realized that it was May 1, a holiday, Labour Day in Europe so the Gardens were packed with families.

 

Once we got our bearings with our map we headed to find the hotel.  Of course, it would have been shorter if we had turned left instead of right coming out of the station.

We easily found our hotel, the Hotel Alexandra and had the most wonderful, ever, receptionist greet us. Our room, upgraded to a superior, on an impulse, is gorgeous. A corner unit, overlooking the street with three windows, one of them a bay window, called the Arne Jacobsen room and furnished with a selection of his fine furniture and textiles.