Wonderful, Wonderful København!

I have had the BEST weekend. Really lovely.

Went to visit Sofie in Copenhagen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen) for the weekend - stayed in her lovely (and newly decorated) flat with her and Jean and the cats (Tosser - fnarrrrrr.... and Tilde). My sister Tracy joined me too. We had such a lovely and relaxing time!

Poor Tracy was a bit poorly with an extremely severe ulcerated tongue and inflamed gums - a most painful condition, which meant that she could not eat as much of the gorgeous Danish food as she would have liked, and we couldn't partake of as much nightlife as we would have under normal circumstances! Have spoken to her this morning, and it turns out that she also has an abscess in her gums, and the most severe case of ulcers that her doctor has ever seen! She has to go to get blood tests today to try and find out why her immune system appears to be shot to bits!

In actual fact though, Tracy's pain did us a bit of a favour - we had a lovely chilled out break... a lovely Saturday night in with Sofie and the cats, and some good home cooked food. We flew out Friday night, and Saturday Sofie and I walked up to the amazing bakery at the end of her road (normal Danish pastries you see in shops here are NOTHING compared to the real thing!) and got breakfast. We all then headed into the city and looked around the shops - Tracy went into purchase overdrive, and splashed lots of case on the gorgeous Scandinavian fashions there (I managed to largely resist, as had little room in my tiny rucksack!). We had a look around the gorgeous department store (Magasin), and had THE most delicious lunch there. I have never had a more delicious sandwich in my life - I kid you not! Chicken and bacon with some weird apricoty and mustardy sauce... amazing!

Saturday afternoon we headed down to my fave area, called "Nyhavn" (on "New Harbour" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyhavn). Gorgeous brightly coloured old-fashioned buildings, with lots of restaurants and bars, where you can sit in seated areas outside and watch the boats on the water. Lovely... we had nice apple cake and hot choclate in the autumnal sun. Saturday night, Sofie cooked THE most delicious meatballs (kind of boiled meatballs in curry sauce and rice), and we had some wine (not even too much!) and put the entire World to rights...

Sunday, Jean took us to the Imperial Hotel in Copenhagen for brunch (http://www.imperial-hotel-copenhagen.com/restaurant/brasserie/) - a delicious affair, consisting of hot breakfast foods, cheeses, pate, meats, pancakes, danish pastries, fruit, yoghurt etc... and our fill of tea and orange juice. Delicious! After that, we returned to "Nyhavn" to catch a boat trip around the harbour - a fantastic hour long trip around all the waterways in the city! Something I have never done there, and really enjoyed! I hadn't realised that the city was so big actually! Again, more hot drinks in the harbour area, and then on to the Frederiksborg park. Another new insight for me in Copenhagen. It was such a lovely and warm late afternoon walk... the highlight being a whole area of trees covered in beautifully coloured children's dummies and blankies! Apparently, it is a danish custom to tie your dummy to these trees once you have outgrown them. Gorgeous little pictures of children, and notes written detailing the date and circumstances of their final submission! Lovely...

A lovely supper prepared by Jean preceded a sad farewell to them both, and for Tracy THE most painful flight home. The cabin pressure caused an abscess to burst in her mouth :-(... not good. A sad end to a wonderful weekend!

I must say I LOVE the Scandinavian way of life - the food, the interior design and their love for children speak volumes to me. I MUST drag Mark there with me next time. He was (and still is) in the Lake District this weekend, camping with his mate Noel. The naughty boy is missing our three year anniversary today, spending it snuggled up to Noel in a tent instead... mind you, aside from the beard I am sure he will hardly tell the difference! ;-)

Love to you all.
Haylois
xxxxxx

PS. and I only managed to put on a pound and a half! Must have been the 15 meatballs I managed to squeeze down on Saturday night, and the ten danish pastries yesterday... heh.

PPS. Sorry I have been so shite at the blogging lately - will pull my socks up. I have missed out on telling you all manner of things - my Grandparents Diamond wedding party was lovely, and I had such a fun weekend with my parents and my sister and Nephews last week - Tracy, Henry and I slept in the garden in a tent last week, and told nighttime stories about farting princesses (that was Henry's idea)... oh to be four, when such great mirth can be drawn from simply saying the word "blow off" out loud! ;-)