Travel – Page 56

From Oslo to Tromso

January 26, 2018 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Norway, Travel

Our flight from Oslo was scheduled to leave at 1135am. I picked our hotel specifically because it was next to train station; the Flytoget High Speed Train to the airport leaves the train station about every ten minutes arriving at Gardermoen Airport in about 20 minutes. Another reason for picking the hotel; well breakfast. In this case breakfast was served in the Scandic Byporten location of the Egon Restaurants chain right across the walkway from the hotel.

It was still pretty dark at 730 in the morning here in Oslo.

Every breakfast features smoked salmon and-or pickled herring in these parts. Something I really enjoy for breakfast. The Missus enjoys the dark and dense rye breads and soft boiled eggs.

Nothing fancy, but enough to keep us until dinner if necessary.

We checked out, walked across the way to the train station, bought our tickets to the airport from the ticket machine (180 NOK – about $20/each) and got to the airport in no time.

Our flight to Tromso was quite punctual taking off on time. The flight was a quick two hours. It was quite interesting to see the landscape rapidly change as we headed North.

As things changed to what looked desolate a far as the eye could see.

As we got closer to our destination; Tromso, things looked even colder.

Our flight arrived at 125pm sharp. As we only do carry-on, we found the Flybussen; the Aiport Express Bus in rather good time, paid the driver and got aboard.

So here's what things looked like 145pm

Tromso has what they call Polar Night. During this time of the year, while it's not completely dark during mid-day, the sun never rises above the horizon. To quote this nice piece from Atlantic Magazine by Kari Leibowitz (date July 1, 2015):

"Located over 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Tromsø, Norway, is home to extreme light variation between seasons. During the Polar Night, which lasts from November to January, the sun doesn’t rise at all."

We found it quite fascinating, somewhat disorienting, and quite different. Like the article says; we found the folks in Tromso to be quite friendly and cheerful, in spite of the almost constant darkness. For some reason, the movie 30 Days of Night kept coming to mind.

Anyway, the airport bus stopped a couple of blocks from the apartment we were staying at. The owner was a very friendly guy. The apartment was spacious, with everything we needed in walking distance.

It also had a view of the street below that I would find mesmerizing.

We decided to take a short rest, then go ahead and grab something to eat.

There were plans for a very busy night ahead of us!

Thanks for reading!

Oslo – Dinner at Arakataka

January 25, 2018 mmm-yoso Fine Dining, Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Norway, Travel

We'd done a good amount of walking in Oslo, so we settled in for a nice nap. I awoke to the sound of a ships horn. I looked out the window, it was already getting dark at 430pm, and I saw the cruise ship we'd arrived on leaving the harbor.

It was time to wake up. We had dinner reservations at…surprise, a place the Missus picked out. I managed to get reservations at Arakataka which seemed a bit off the beaten path, though it was only a half mile away. The darkness probably had something to do with it.

The restaurant was rather small with an even smaller open kitchen.

The bar area was a bit larger, but the place was still not very large. The Hostess and our Server were amazing. Very knowledgeable, amiable, and just so nice. I mentioned being told to try the Aquavit in Norway; specifically Aquavit Linie. Man, this stuff is good. I ended up bringing back a couple of bottles. I'll tell more about it in a future post.

Most folks were getting the tasting menu, but having a bunch of tasting menu meals coming, we decided to order from the menu. And it turned out to be the perfect thing to do.

The weakest item of the night was the Potato Bread and Smoked Artic Char.

The potato bread was on the soggy side, the flavor of the char very mild and lost under all those greens and herbs.

Things turned around with the rather interesting Rutabaga, Porcini, and Pecorino. Which looked nothing like what I had imagined it would.

Thinly sliced and made pliable; the rutabaga had a nice crunch, the fragrance of porcini danced around the plate, and the pecorino added a nice milky-saltiness which really elevated this dish.

The Reindeer Tartare, Beetroot, and Juniper was another nice combination.

The mild, clean flavor of the reindeer, matched with the sweetness of the beets, and the tartness of the juniper was a surprisingly nice combination!

The Dry Aged Pork was nice and tender….and yes, it medium rare, making it ever so moist.

But the real winner was the combination of shaved black truffle and kale. Another interesting and rather delicious combination of earthy flavors with the crunch and bitterness of the kale.

The Skate was so buttery and mildly sweet. A wonderful piece of fish….the Missus claims one of the best She's had.

But I really enjoyed the pungent-mildly garlicky ramps and the savory and almost briney flavor of the salsify. We were both enjoying vegetables that we really don't get much back home in San Diego.

Of course we had to order the Duck, Cabbage, and Lingonberries, which looked quite lovely.

A nice sliced duck breast on the right. Nice and gamey. Slices of duck confit under roasted wild cabbage, lingonberries, with black garlic. This looked and tasted wonderful itself. But then another bowl arrived and was poured on the dish.

A espuma of duck confit, hearts, skin and barley……

Good lord! This was like being invited into duck heaven! The texture of the duck hearts were especially satisfying.

We were wiped out after this hefty dish and had no room for dessert. Another glass of Aquavit….well, one does need a digestif, right?

This was probably our favorite meal in Scandinavia. It had the right combination of comfort, flavor, and interesting, yet tasty dishes that were nicely seasoned and kept our attention. While the combinations were interesting, nothing was so over-the-top to be strange. And like all the places we ate at in Scandinavia, service was so friendly.

Arakataka
Mariboes Gate 7
Oslo, Norway

As we were finishing up dinner, we noticed a large queue lining up one block over. The Missus was curious. So we walked over after dinner and asked what was going on. We were told that there was a concert going on….and then in the typical Norweigan way, we were told that there were "still tickets available….so please, if you're interested we'll be happy to have you…." Such nice folks!

It was pretty chilly as we walked back to the hotel.

And yet Oslo was so relaxed…..it definitely had an affect on you.

We headed back and got to sleep early. Tomorrow, we'd be flying to a city 250 miles above the Artic Circle. It was going to be an interesting day for a kid from Hawaii…..

Thanks for reading!

Kanazawa – Kuroyuri

January 15, 2018 mmm-yoso Japan, Japanese Restaurants, Kanazawa and Ishikawa Prefecture, Travel

We had really enjoyed our first afternoon in Kanazawa; checking out Omi-cho Market and having a nice lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing before heading off to dinner. Which was really close by. I'd had a friend make reservations at Kuroyuri; a Oden restaurant. Kuroyuri is located in the Hyakubangai Shopping Center which is attached to Kanazawa Station. And was rather easy to find.

Man, this place was busy. There's a packed u-shaped bar area on one side of the restaurant and packed tables on the other. And we did have a table waiting for us when we arrived.

I had heard that one of the iconic dishes of Kanazawa is Oden and Kuroyuri has been around for more than a half-century specializing in Oden. The menu has oden; here you order by item and a whole bunch of really good looking izakaya type dishes along with another iconic dish of the Kaga Domain, Jibuni.

So, of course we ordered it all. Along with a nice bottle of sake.

The oden here is very light and clean; not too salty, but with an mild ocean-savory flavor. As a whole, we enjoyed this, but not as much as other items we ordered. Our favorite item by far was the egg wrapped in fish cake. What a symphony of textures!

Our favorite item by far, was the amazingly savory and sweet Kasuzuke (fermented in sake lees) Fugu…yep, blowfish.

We were surprised at how relatively tender (it is after all dried and marinated) the fish was; without being too salty. We actually had a second order.

The Nukazuke (fermented in rice bran) seemed a bit saltier without the complexity of the previous version.

The strong fragrance and oiliness of the Nukazuke Saba(Mackerel pickled in rice bran) was a bit much for the Missus.

It was on the fishy side and quite salty, but I thought it to be really good bar food.

The Jibuni; a classic Kanazawa duck stew arrived in a pretty lacquer bowl.

Man, this was quite rich and hearty. the salty-sweet flavors shone through, along with the gamey duck. Loved the mushrooms in this along with the seitan. Very nice overall.

We ended with a cleansing mushroom – egg drop soup.

And some yaki-onigiri to keep any future hunger at bay.

We really enjoyed our meal at Kuroyuri. The Missus loves izakaya style dishes. The service was excellent as they usually are in most restaurants in Japan.

We'd gladly return….especially for that fugu and more sake of course.

Kuroyuri
1-1 Kinoshinbomachi
Kanazawa, Japan

We walked through Kanazawa Station on the way back to the Nikko Hotel. The gate at the front of the station is called the 'Tsuzumi-mon' (Drum Gate) The two pillars are shaped like traditional hand drums.

The area behind the gate is covered by a large glass dome; known as the 'Motenashi' (Welcome) Dome. This was all built as part of the project that eventually brought the Shinkansen to Kanazawa. If you'd like to read a bit more about the history of Kanazawa Station, click on this link.

It was an easy walk back to our room. I found that the beer I had bought in Hida-Takayama was now nicely chilled.

I had bought this one….well, because it had Sarubobo on it. For some reason, we really took to Sarubobo during our visit to Takayama.

I spent the rest of the evening just watching Kanazawa from the window.

There was something about Kanazawa, and this trip as a whole that really touched us……

Thanks for reading!

Oslo – The National Gallery and Lunch at Grande Café

January 2, 2018 mmm-yoso Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Norway, Travel

Though there we buses, shuttles, and taxis queued up as we disembarked from the overnight cruise we decided to walk to our hotel.

Our hotel was located in the Byporten (City Gate) Shopping Mall. Since we'd only be spending one night in Oslo, this was the perfect location as it was next door to the Central Train Station, with direct service to the airport.

Upon completing the twenty-five minute walk from the cruise ship terminal, we arrived at the train station and Byporten. We knew it when we were greeted by this fellow.

"Tiger City" (Tigerstaden) is Oslo's nickname and this statue stands proudly in the square in front of Østbanehallen and the Train Station. We quickly stored our bags….we were too early for check-in and headed out.

The main street of Oslo's downtown area is Karl Johans Gate, which stretches from the train station to the Royal Palace. We decided to check out the National Gallery as it held a painting that both the Missus and I wanted to see.

Along the way we passed the Oslo Cathedral, which was built in 1697.

It is actually Oslo's third cathedral; the first was abandoned when King Christian IV decided to move the city west to be within the protected confines of Akershus Fortress. The second was completed in 1639, only to burn down fifty years later.

One of the things that caught our eye was this carving.

I later read that this corner stone is a thousand years old. It was taken from Oslo's first cathedral and placed here when the church was being built.

We peeked in the door and were welcomed in, but didn't spend much time as it was Sunday and there were services being held.

Across the way is the public square known as Stortorvet. The statue of Christian IV hovers above the square.

From there the boulevard turns into a mass of chain stores and such for a while.

Until you get to the long stately boulevard that leads to the Royal Palace.

On this day there was a lively Christmas Market right on the main street.

You couldn't help but stop at the skating rink and watch parents teaching the children how to skate….not always successfully…..

But quite charming nonetheless.

On our way to the National Gallery we took a wrong turn and ended up looking at this huge building. Turns out it's Oslo's City Hall.

A quick note; this is where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented every 10th of December. There's also supposed to be some really nice art pieces, but we needed to get to our destination.

A quick turn back and past the National Theatre.

We found the National Gallery. There are quite a number of famous works here….but of course we came to see….

The Scream by Edvard Munch. There's something so compelling about this work…panic, fear, anxiety…. To quote Munch himself:

"I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."

There was one other work that really made an impact on us. It is entitled, "A Sick Girl", by Christian Krohg. It is a painting of a young lady dying of tuberculosis. The painting is so realistic….you meet the stare of the child who seems to look right through you. You see suffering, you see fear, you see the rose in the grasp of the girl slowly falling apart. Whoa…. heavy stuff.

We headed back to our hotel to see if we could check in. On the way back, as we walked past the historic Grand Hotel.

The hotel's restaurant, the Grand Café is pretty well known, once the hang out of intelligentsia and the elite, it just seemed a nice place to stop for some coffee so we stepped in.

The service is not overly formal, though there's definitely an old world vibe to the place. As you can easily tell by the folks having lunch and coffee when we arrived.

There's a famous mural showing some of the cafe's famous clientele (the "Kristiania Bohemians"), like Munch and Henrik Ibsen.

The Café actually closed down in 2015, but was reopened in 2016 with some modern touches….which probably included the open kitchen.

The menu seemed quite interesting so we decided to have a nice snack in addition to our coffee.

Starting with the Pork Cracklins with Parsley and Black Truffle Sauce.

The pork cracklins were very light and crisp and not greasy in the least. The sauce was on the weaker side in terms of truffle flavor; but we loved the way it coated the pork skins. Which tasted just fine on their own as well.

We also had the Horse Carpaccio.

While I wasn't sure what to make of the plantain chips; this truly isn't what I'd call a Nordic ingredient; the horse was cold, clean tasting, a hint of sweetness to it and very tender. The light mustard and sesame dressing really brought out a savory element in the dish. The carpaccio was wrapped around some lightly crisp, yet very tender salsify, which added another layer of a distinct taste to things. It's hard to describe the flavor. It's not parsnip, but almost slightly savory-briney in a way. This was really lovely!

The service was excellent; not overly stuffy, but quite professional. The prices aren't cheap, but we'd gladly return. There's a kind of casual elegance and refinement that a storied history brings….though I'm very much the uncouth visitor.

Grand Café
Karl Johans Gate 31
Oslo, Norway

The snack was perfect as it held us until dinner and fueled us for the walk back to our hotel. Our room was ready when we returned. After not getting much sleep the night before, even the coffee we had with lunch couldn't keep us awake. It was time for a short nap. Then we'd head out for dinner. This time, the Missus had chosen the place.

Thanks for reading!

The DFDS Overnight Cruise – Copenhagen to Oslo

December 30, 2017 mmm-yoso Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, Breakfast/Brunch, Denmark, Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Norway, Travel

As I mentioned in my previous post; I'd made reservations to take the overnight cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo. I thought this would be interesting for several reasons; first, the Missus had never been on a "cruise" and I thought this would be a nice way to see if this suited Her. Second, the Missus just doesn't care to see the same folks day after day. This was an overnight cruise, so I didn't think we'd be seeing the same folks all the time. Third, in terms of price, $269, think of it as a room and transportation, I thought it reasonable. A quick note on prices, there were fares as low as $88. But, having a read a few posts and I actually know two people who have done this, it became quite clear that a lot of young people take the cruise because booze is so cheap……international, duty free and all. So, since we'd be leaving on a Saturday night, more comfortable accommodations, I believe we had what they called "Commodore De Luxe" class would suite us well.

That's the view from our cabin. Our room was very comfortable.

And there was an attendant who went over our cabin with us….including the mini-bar with complimentary sparkling wine, beer, and water.

There was also a lounge for folks in Commodore Class, which was a really nice touch.

Complimentary beer, wine, drinks, and snacks.

Right out the door was the deck. Even though it was winter, the views were quite nice.

Soon we were underway. We decided to take a look around. Here's our Captain for this cruise.

The Duty Free Shop was a feeding frenzy of folks buying up cheap booze, clothes, and other stuffs. It was kind of crazy so we just headed back to our cabin.

We decided to get an early dinner. I'd spent an extra $40 for the "Christmas Buffet" dinner. So we headed down to that dining room. There weren't very many people eating at 530pm.

It was quite a generous spread; but much of it wasn't to our liking.

We enjoyed the pickled herring and smoked fish the best.

Much of it was either too salty, over-cooked, and just not prepared to our taste.

I was excited to try the game meats, but was also disappointed in preparations. Lacking in flavor other than being really salty.

The Missus and I split up and came back with a sampling of the various dishes.

In the end; we might have been better off just grabbing a sandwich and relaxing. Though the smoked and pickled fish were quite good.

After dinner we just went up to the lounge and relaxed.

Before ending our evening, we took one more walk around. At 9pm there already were folks feeling….well, pretty good. One guy was doing the Tarzan yell down one of the hallways! It was time to call it a night. After a nightcap of course.

The location of our room was very quiet, except for the two guys pounding on some door at 2am in the morning.

As for the Missus; well, She had a hard time sleeping. Not because of the movement or noise, but because of the vibration of the boat. So, I didn't get a ton of sleep either.

We decided to get an early breakfast. The "Commodore's Breakfast" was included in the price of our cabin and was in a different dining room than the regular buffet breakfast.

The selection and quality was decent.

More pickled herring and smoked salmon.

We took the long way back to the cabin. We enjoyed spending time on the deck.

In spite of the cold; it was really neat watching the ship slowly arrive in Oslo.

Soon enough we'd arrived at around 945am. Folks gathered to disembark and it was a bit of a cattle-call.

Though I'm certain it wasn't everyone….especially the folks who drank the night away.

As for us…well, it was a brand new day….and we'd arrived in Oslo!

Copenhagen – Breakfast, The National Museum, Torvehallerne Market, and the Coffee Collective

December 28, 2017 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Caffeine Fix, Denmark, Markets & Grocers, Travel

It kind of goes without saying that Denmark and Norway are not the most inexpensive places to visit.

So having breakfast provided by your hotel really does help. I've spoken to folks who had two meals a day in Copenhagen; they filled up on breakfast and then had dinner.

And based on our experience everyone does take advantage of the breakfasts. The selection was not bad; decent cheeses, the tomatoes tasted really good. The Missus really liked the very rustic, traditional Danish Rye bread; Rugbrød. I took a little longer….at first, the hard seeds and really dry texture made me call it simply "rug". But over time it grew on me. As you can tell from this breakfast, I was still in "rug" mode.

I really did enjoy the Skyr……something I really enjoyed in Iceland. And the breakfast did indeed fill us up as we weren't hungry until dinner.

While we were headed out on this day; our overnight cruise to Oslo wasn't leaving until the afternoon. So we went ahead and checked out, storing our bags for later.

We now had to figure out what to do? The Missus decided on visiting the National Museum of Denmark which ended up being a great idea. It was a nice walk across the Inner City.

It's quite a large museum, but we lucky and managed to somehow get on the museum "highlights tour" in English. The young lady was delightful. Stopping by all the major displays like the Egtved Girl and giving us the lowdown. This Bronze Age girl and national icon isn't Danish. In 2015, scientific analysis of the remains determined that she was not from Jutland, but probably from the Black Forest.

She also went over the importance of Amber to the Danish.

We learned some really fun things. Did you know that Viking men were quite vain and cared about their appearance? They were known to keep combs and grooming "kits". They also bathed once a week, unheard of in those days. And no, there's no evidence they wore those horned helmets!

At the end the young lady went over the concept of Hygge and it's importance to Danish culture.

We usually don't enjoy tours like this one because of the amount of people. But there was only 5 of us in the group, so it was a lot of fun.

The National Museum of Denmark
Prinsens Palais
Copenhagen, Denmark

We then took our time heading back to the hotel. Just a mere two blocks from our hotel was Torvehallerne Market which houses over 60 shops and food stands in two glass buildings.

And while we didn't have time to eat here on either leg of the trip, we'd stop by and just walk around looking at the various stands.

The produce stands between the two buildings had a some really great looking stuff.

We especially loved how the potatoes still had soil on them….like they'd just been pulled out of the ground a few minutes ago.

We decided to kill some time and take a break at the Coffee Collective. A very busy stand in the market.

The Missus had the Coffee Kombucha which was really fizzy. I had a super strong double espresso….jet fuel.

The Coffee Collective Torvehallerne
Vendersgade 6D
Copenhagen, Denmark

Soon enough, it was time head back to the hotel and pick up our bags. We'd have to get the bus to the DFDS terminal. We were taking the overnight cruise to Oslo. We had checked out the rather discreet bus stop before heading to the museum. Pick-up time for us was 215pm, so off we went.

Past Saint Andrew's Church.

Down Gothersgade, left on Øster Voldgade and voila! The bus had arrived just as we did and we got on quickly as I had prepaid transport. We were amazed at how full the bus got. I've read that a lot of folks do day trips, arriving from, say Oslo in the morning. Spending the day shopping and seeing the sights, then heading back in the afternoon for the return overnight trip.

The Missus had never been on a cruise before. She has a problem seeing the same people over and over again, so long cruises and tours are out. This was just an overnight cruise; think of it as your transportation and hotel room combined.

This was going to be interesting……

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2017 mmm-yoso Alsace, France, Paris, France, Travel, yoso-silly

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Funny thing, we're not real big "Christmas folks". But something strange happened during our last trip. First, we visited Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Every year, there's a theme, and a huge Christmas Tree spanning five stories under the dome of the department store. You can click on the image and it will take you to the video page.

And then we went to the city of Strasbourg, which claims to have the largest Christmas Market in Europe. They say that Strasbourg is the Capital of Christmas. The entire city becomes a Christmas Market.

Yes, it's very commercial, but for some reason all the happy people, all the sights and sounds, just put us in a great mood.

You could say we found our Christmas spirit!

Want to see more amateurish videos?

You can find them on Flickr – here, here, and here.

We hope you have a fantastic and delici-yoso Christmas!

Copenhagen – The Little Mermaid and a Memory Card Fail at Bror

December 23, 2017 mmm-yoso Denmark, Fine Dining, Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Travel

After a nice break for lunch at Almanak, we headed back out. The Missus had seeing the statue of the Little Mermaid on her agenda.

We walked past the very Amsterdam looking Nyhavn Canal. There was a Christmas Market there as well. We'd walk though it on our return visit to the city.

Past the distinctive Opera House.

Until we got to the area known as Langelinie. Walking alongside the water you'll see a crowd of people. Of course, it has to be the Little Mermaid.

Shades of Mannekin Pis is pretty much all I have to say.

Watching the crowd is actually more interesting. As they try and get selfies and sometimes as close as possible to this rather small statue.

A study in human nature…..

As we walked back in the direction of our hotel, we did pass a couple of interesting sights in the area. This is the Ivar Huitfeldt Column which commemorates a battle during the Great Northern War.

And this striking fountain.

This is the Gefion Fountain. The dramatic scene depicts the Goddess Gefion driving four bulls. It is Copenhagen's creation story if you will.

According to the legend, the Swedish King promised to give Gefion all the land she could plough in one night. Gefion turned her four sons into oxen and carved out what is now known as Zealand, the island on which Copenhagen resides.

We also found the church in back of the statue; Saint Alban's (also known as the English Church) to be quite striking as well.

We headed back to the hotel, down the street known as Bredgade. It had started to drizzle a bit, so we looked around for a place to have a short respite. We noticed a church with an impressive copper dome, so we decided to take a look.

This is Frederiks Kirke (Frederik's Church), a Lutheran Church and has quite a story. The church was designed in 1740 and work started in 1749. But due to literally death and taxes, the site stood in ruin for over a hundred years. In what at the time was a highly controversial move, the land was sold to Industrialist Carl Frederik Tietgen on the condition that a church be built along the lines of the original plans and that it be donated to Denmark when completed? So what did Tietgen get out of it? Well, in turn he acquired land rights in the area.

There's a word you'll hear quite often in Denmark; Hygge. To me, it seems more of a concept than a word; that feeling one gets, I believe you can be alone or among friends. A coziness, that content feeling, secure, trusting, comfort…… Our hotel had "hygge hour", basically happy hour in the lobby. The Missus had a glass of wine, I had a pilsner. It was nice and relaxing.

We then headed off to dinner. I had a list of places to try but had to cross off a bunch of them because I couldn't get reservations. Amass comes to mind. Bummer, because the chef and owner, Matt Orlando is form San Diego. I had heard so much about "New Nordic (Danish) Cuisine". I went ahead and got reservations at Restaurant Bror; opened by two former sous-chefs at Noma.

Anyway, here's what happened. During the meal, my memory card failed. I have a couple of SD cards that are getting fairly old. Since, unlike the two Asian Young Ladies who we saw taking copious notes during their meal at Bror, I don't take notes….it's my memory and the photos that cue up many of my recollections of my meal. Guess my gear is getting old. This is the second card to go over the last 3-4 months. Sorry to say you won't be getting a post on our wonderful meal at Sushi Noguchi…..or I may just do a COMC with the photos that made it.

So, the deal with Bror is that you get either a four or five course set menu. You can also order a selection of snacks. Things like Bull Balls….yes, literally bull balls and such. The menu features some interesting ingredients, which we found in most cases to be too salty, put together in combinations where nothing really stood out. Several times; we ate each of the ingredients from the composed dishes and found them to be quite good separately, but together it was just a mish-mash.

For some reason, the Missus really didn't care for the bone marrow butter. I found the bone marrow and pickled pumpkin crispbread to have a rather unpleasant clash of flavors and textures….think pickled lard.

And so it went. The service was excellent and the wine tasting was fabulous.

But overall, this just didn't do it for us.

The dishes seemed to lack focus and direction. The cod head was supposed to have horseradish sauce; which tasted just like plain mayonnaise.

The best item we had was the cod – pesto lettuce cup. Though you really could have been eating any type of fish since all the clashing flavors cancelled each other out.

Sad, because I was really looking forward to these meals. This also kind of turned the Missus off on set menus….though it was kind of too late for Her because I had reservations at places in Amsterdam and Paris that had multi-course set menus. Luckily, we enjoyed those meals much more, especially Alliance in Paris.

So perhaps it's better that I just leave it at that.

Restaurant Bror
Skt. Peders Stræde 24 A
Copenhagen, Denmark

I still had an open evening during our return trip to Denmark. I was going to make reservations for a late lunch at a Copenhagen main stay that has been around since the 19th century or a set menu dinner at another restaurant. Guess what won out?

A Walk Around Copenhagen and Lunch at Almanak

December 21, 2017 mmm-yoso Denmark, Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Sandwiches, Travel

We started our first full day in Copenhagen with breakfast and then headed off. We were staying in the Nørreport area, which we enjoyed. Not as hectic as other parts of the city, but still centrally located. We decided to use the day to walk around the city. Rådhuspladsen, City Hall Square is considered to be the heart of the city by the guidebooks we read, so we headed off down Nørre Voldgade.

Taking a left on H.C. Andersens (yes, that H.C. Andersen) Boulevard coming right up to the square. As you can tell; the weather was a bit gloomy and overcast, but after having some record heat as we left San Diego, we really enjoyed the cold.

Copenhagen's City Hall is quite impressive. The tower of the city hall rises high above the square.

To the right of City Hall is a statue of Han Christian Andersen who seems to be staring wistfully at Tivoli Gardens across the street.

Interesting thing about taking a photo from this angle. The statue actually holds a cane in the left hand. From this angle though; doesn't it look like the statue is holding a knife and is perhaps not too happy about having to stare at the entrance of an amusement park for eternity?

On the otherside of city hall is the statue called "The Lure Blowers" which depicts two warriors lowing into a Lur, one of the oldest known instruments, dating back to the Bronze Age.

According to local, ahem "lure lore" the bronze statues will actually blow into the lure if a virgin walks by. For what it's worth; I've never heard of anyone actually hearing a peep coming from that horn…..

To the left of the "blowers" is the Strøget a collection of pedestrian streets that winds its way thru the center of the city.

Along the way you'll pass the University of Copenhagen, churches, and buildings that hide wonderful courtyards.

That distinctive obelisk is the Reformation Memorial. It celebrates Denmark's decision to break away from the Catholic Church, transitioning to Lutheranism in 1536.

It stands right in front of the Church of Our Lady.

We took a quick visit inside the cathedral. Which was bright, with clean lines, and is lined with statues of Jesus and his Apostles.

It was quite different from most churches we visit.

Rick Steves Copenhagen Guide recommends heading around the Holy Ghost church and thru a passage at #32 Valkendorfsgade. There you'll come across a lovely and peaceful square (Steves says its "beer-stained", but I think we were there during the off season) called Gråbrødretorv.

Nearby are the two squares known as Gammeltorv ("Old Square") and Nytorv ("New Square"). The Old Square features a distinctive fountain known as Caritas (Fountain of Charity).

This is the oldest fountain in Copenhagen and has quite an interesting story.

There was a Christmas Market on Nyhaven, so we decided to take a look.

It had all those necessities…meat in tubular form….

Traditional Viking Drinks……

And even sleeping dogs…..

Walking a bit further up the street we ended up on busy Amagertorv.

We took some time out to visit the beautiful Royal Copenhagen Store.

We then took a turn and headed down Købmagergade. I really wanted to have a hot dog from Den Økologiske Pølsemand, but the Missus refused. Suddenly, we heard some music, and wouldn't you know it, out of nowhere, a marching band came down the street!

We turned around and headed across Amagertorv and crossed the bridge to the island known as Slotsholmen ("Castle Island"). This has been the Center of Government since the Middle Ages. Many of the most impressive structures in Copenhagen reside on this island.

Christiansborg Palace.

Confederation of Danish Enterprise (Dansk Erhverv) – which I believe is sort of like the Chamber of Commerce.

And the very distinctive Børsen, the former Stock Exchange.

By now, I was getting a bit hungry. So we headed up along the waterfront until we came upon this retro looking building known as "the Standard".

I'd read about a restaurant named Almanak that took up half the building. The restaurant specialized in modern interpretations of the traditional Danish open faced sandwiches known as Smørrebrød.

The restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived. The very nice and tall (actually, just about everyone is tall here) young lady sat us; provided the one page lunch menu, and went through all the various smørrebrød, their preparation, what was more traditional and what was not. In the end we went with three sandwiches; which turned out to be enough for a light lunch.

Starting with the oh-so delici-yoso Christmas Herring.

Turns out that the Missus, who is not always fond of oilier fish loved pickled herring. And this version, pickled with the addition of beet juice, which added a tinge of sweetness to the savory-briny pickled herring. The texture was almost buttery; the dill helped cleanse the palate; the almonds added texture, the rye bread was moist and pleasantly dense.

The Smoked Salmon was equally delicious.

The sprouts added a slight and pleasant bitterness and crunch. The horseradish was just pungent enough to balance out the wonderful smoked salmon. The pickled lingonberries was also very tasty.

The only clunker was the Homemade Liver Pate.

We were somewhat puzzled when the supposed open-face sandwich arrived with bread on one side of the plate and a bowl on the other. Touching the bowl, I found it to be lukewarm. We could identify mushrooms and chunks of beets which lay on top of a grainy looking mush. This really looked like liver thrown in a food processor, brown-grey with some red bits floating around. The offal flavor was very pronounced, as was the unpleasant texture and metallic after taste. One quick note; I'm not the biggest fan of many liver dishes….my mom used to make liver for me as punishment. The Missus, who likes liver had a difficult time eating this as well. Not wanting to insult anyone; I finished the dish off. But from this point on, if we saw pate on the menu in Copenhagen; unless we saw it first, we just couldn't order it.

We did have very nice service. As for the price? Are you ready? Three open faced sandwiches (we later found out that 2-3 per person is normal) and one bottle of sparkling water…..was over $50 US. Not cheap…..

Almanak
Havnegade 44
Copenhagen, Denmark

But what the heck; we were in Copenhagen and next up….we'd be searching for the Little Mermaid.

Copenhagen – Bibendum Vinbar

December 16, 2017 mmm-yoso Denmark, Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Travel

By the time we head out on one of our trips; the Missus usually has me planning the next one. Well, at least the flights. The Missus missed seeing Northern Lights during our time in Iceland, so that needed to be handled. She wanted to spend more than Her usual time in "my favorite city". I knew She loved Paris because there's usually a "no more than two or three night" rule for most places.

Eventually, things came together, as they usually do. And after leaving San Diego at just past 7pm, we got into Copenhagen at around a half-past-seven the next evening. Having never flown into CPH, I wasn't sure how long immigration and transportation would take. We knew we'd definitely need something small to eat upon getting to our destination. Doing research, I found that most places closed around 9pm, at least around where we were staying. Also, it would be rather dark, a new city, so something close to our hotel was probably a good idea.

In the end, getting to Nørreport Station from the airport was quite easy. Since we don't check luggage, even for a three week trip, we grabbed our bags, and headed off. Passport check (unlike what we experienced in Brussels) took less than ten minutes. I quickly noticed something interesting. While usually low-keyed and reserved; Danes and Norwegians are quite quick to smile, not a crazy huge smile, but what seems, at least to me, a rather content one . The passport control woman looked at my passport, did her checks and gave me a smile and nod, and said "welcome, have a great stay"! The M2 metro takes you right to Nørreport Station and it was a short ten minute walk to our hotel. We enjoyed the location since it wasn't super crazy.

From there, it was literally a five minute walk to Bibendum Vinbar.

The place was pretty busy, in contrast to the rather quite streets. It was strange to see no cars actually driving on the streets. As whole, for a city with a population of over a million, we saw very few cars. In chatting with folks later, we found that any car that sold for less than around $13k was taxed at 105 percent, cars more than that are taxed at 180 percent. Also, we found the mass transit system to be quite efficient, and while not quite on the crazy level of Amsterdam, there were quite a few bikes with bike lanes everywhere.

I'd chosen Bibendum because of the later hours. The kitchen closes at 930pm. I'd made what I thought was optimistic reservations for 9pm. But due to how quickly we were able to get from the airport and check-in, we were pretty early. We decided to take the short walk down the street and see if we'd be able to eat early. While the table that was to be ours still had folks enjoying the evening, the bar area was empty, so we asked, and were seated at the bar.

I won't go into the wine we had; but will say, we were given tastes of several, based on our preferences, and enjoyed them all.

It was a light meal, just two dishes, starting with the Pate (90kr – about $14.25 US).

A rather petit portion, but fairly decent tasting combination pate of duck, pork, and chicken livers, topped with a pork aspic. Very clean, mildly offal-ly flavors. The fennel cream was interesting, but the fennel fronds really helped to cut through any richness. The fried chicken skin was crisp and quite good.

When we left San Diego, temperatures were in the 80's. Arriving in Copenhagen, it was in the high 30's. So we thought a some soup would be a good idea. We settled on the Goose Consommé (110 kr – about $17.35 US). What initially arrived at our table was a bowl containing lovely slices of smoked duck.

I had a piece of duck and it was nicely toothsome, sliced very thin, good smokiness, with a very nice savory "duckiness".

Which was nice until they poured that broth on it.

There was definitely soy sauce in this; not very good soy sauce. The was very salty and one-dimensional in flavor, with a slight tininess to it. It really tasted like very bad soy sauce ramen broth. It was a bit of a bummer as there was no rich-gamey flavors of goose in this.

Well, one out of two ain't bad. The wine was very nice, though the temperature was a bit off. The folks working here were very nice as well.

Bibendum Vinbar
Nansensgade 45
Copenhagen 1366, Denmark

And….we were on vacation….in Copenhagen.