Sunday, March 14, 2010

Notes from Copenhagen

Well, we did decide to "get outta here", in a roundabout way.

I had to travel to Copenhagen for work last week, and Jeff accompanied me on his first-ever "take your husband to work" trip.

We left on Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Copenhagen 9 hours and 51 minutes later on Wednesday morning at 9:30AM local time. After a quick trip and arrival to our first hotel by 11AM, we collapsed into bed for a quick 2-hour nap. Then, after showers and BBC news, we went to our first appointment and tour at 3pm. We asked all of our questions, over coffee, and got the lay of the land from my sales contact (no security info needed as I had already been there 2 months ago).

By 5:30PM we were ready for a glass of wine and a venture out in the chilly, rainy weather for food. We went to an amazing Thai restaurant where Jeff had wonton soup and sweet and sour pork, I had wonton soup and pad Thai, and our companion had green curry chicken (it smelled the yummiest out of all!). After a 15 minute walk back to the hotel it was time to hit the hay to get ready for our last day in Copenhagen. (Of course, I awoke at 3:30AM like I always do on Day 1 in Europe. Boo.)

On Thursday morning we packed up, had a fabulous European breakfast (complete with an assortment of cheeses, deli meats, and pickled herring), then headed to our next appointment which was just down the street, definitely walking distance even with our suitcases. We stowed our luggage and had a Q&A and tour at the new property, and sat down for a cup of coffee and bottle of water and some chat-time.

Next up was another appointment - after a cab ride across town - and more touring with a "back of house" show (we saw the liquor room). We were hosted with an American-style lunch complete with a club sandwich and hamburger. This was the hotel we stayed at for the night so I headed upstairs for a quick hour and a half nap, a couple hours of work, and then we were ready to go out again.

After a Carlsberg beer in the lobby, we headed back downtown to try some very traditional Danish food: a HUGE weinershnitzel with sauerkraut and pickled herring, osso buco with tomatoes, roasted pork loin, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, and peas. Everything washed down REALLY well with more Carlsberg...we were definitely glad to cab it back to our hotel.

Friday morning was an early morning with breakfast at 7:15AM and departing for the airport by 8:15AM. Our flight left a little later than the scheduled 11AM departure time, but that was ok because after almost 11 hours in flight, a thunderstorm in Atlanta had us in a holding pattern of turbulence for almost an hour. For those with motion sickness...it would not have gone well for you. We finally landed and made it through the longest customs line EVER and got back into the terminal. After a quick bite to eat on the way home, we greeted our kitties by 7PM on Friday night.

It was a fast trip - lots of fun experiences but definitely not all vacation. It was cold and rainy, and there were quite a few work hours stuffed between travel, but we definitely had a chance to see the city a bit. A few photos are forthcoming...

1 comment:

Anna said...

I found it hilarious you ate Thai food your first night but soon realized I didn't know what danish food was (besides the obvious, danishes, which in reality probably aren't even Danish). At any rate, glad you cleared that all up with your description of your second nights meal. Enough rambling, sounds like a good time, for a work trip that is.