Copenhagen is the capital city of magical spires! – Can you guess which is the Dragon Spire?

COPENHAGEN (7-DAY)

This stretch was a definite personal highlight of the trip.  Saadou was a lifelong friend of my first wife, Aspasia. After her bereavement in 2008, his email of condolences ignited our friendship leading to a 7-day stay with him and his awesome family.

They’ve pampered me with much love and quality times: delicious home-cooking Danish meals including daily candle-lit breakfasts consisting of herring, local cheese, black breads & aquavit. Abundant local walks, festivals, historic areas, and museums filled our days. We also took a day-trip ferry to Sweden. The whole family was so generous with their time, including Asta and Emma, 2 and 6 year-olds respectively, who were the sweetest of the swarm.

My Awesome Danish Family Folks!  Smiling and proud Saadou between his warm and sweet  daughter, Ida, and Agneta’s father, Christian. 

Loveliest Agneta and her two gifted daughters, Emma and Asta

Saadou’s kind son, Johannes, and his charming wife, Nanna, prepped an amazing cook-out Danish meal. They have a young precocious boy, Christian and a happy baby girl, Agnes

HAMBURG (4-DAY)

As a world history buff, this city has been on my radar for many years.  Using a 3-day Hop-On Hop-Off bus pass, I’ve time-traveled to 1300’s, when it was a place frequented by pirates throughout the centuries; to 1883 in picturesque Speicherstadt district where it is now today’s largest warehouse district in the world, all standing on massive oak timber piles; and to early 1960’s, in Reeperbahn bustling nightlife center where the Beatles began to make their mark on music.

Despite being located astride the River Elbe, some 60 miles from the North Sea, Hamburg is a major port city. The biggest port in Germany – the second-busiest in Europe and the third largest in the world, after London and New York.

Inside its city limits, Hamburg has more bridges than any other city in the world and more canals than Amsterdam and Venice combined. I’ve heard several figures, somewhere around 2,300 to over 2,500.

Köhlbrandbrücke – a bridge with one of the longest cable span; the central cable-stayed part has a span of over a 1000 feet supporting the infrastructure – it was an impressive sight! (Photo credit to Go-Nils)

St. Nicholas Church, the tallest building in the world from 1874 to 1876. Due to 1943 bombing run, it was irreparably damaged and abandoned.  It is now a monument to the destruction of WWII

In spite of the historical appeal, Hamburg felt “rough”, with sidewalks littered with cigarette butts and litter, and evidence of drug addiction and unemployment. I felt this even more strongly when I then travelled next to Berlin, a thriving, sophisticated city with a huge diversity of foods,  public art, and a fabulous public transportation system.