Living in Houston, where you can drive half-way to Los Angeles and still be in Texas, has given me a new appreciation of how close everything in Europe is, and how we never took advantage when we actually - you know - spent 30 years growing up here. The English Channel is more of a psychological barrier than a watery one, so now that we're back we need to take advantage.
Hence: we left our quick Garmisch trip for Copenhagen, the Danish capital, far in the frozen wastes of northern Europe (that is, 42 miles higher in latitude than Newcastle). The answer to: "Which country has the best [insert quality of life measurement here]?" is usually one of the Scandinavian ones, and my expectations were not disappointed. Also, Covid does not exist in Denmark! Removing masks felt very strange, like going out without underwear. As I do that all the time I quickly got used to it.
For casually strolling around, this city is incredible, and on our first day we wandered along the water's edge, waving at Sweden, until we got to The Little Mermaid, then came back through the famous star-shaped 17th Century citadel before pausing at a coffee shop for...well, a Danish pastry. Our hotel room was straight out of the Ikea "look what you can do with 42 square metres!" showroom, next to the wooden-roofed train station which disconcertingly housed many American shops including Dunkin' Donuts.
Outside of the city we visited Kronborg Castle, which Shakespeare made famous in his play about star-crossed lovers and witches or whatever. And then there were the Vikings! The Danish National Museum has an incredible new hall dedicated to them, with a lot about their little boat trips over to Lindisfarne. Surprisingly, tons of Vikings settled around there, and it's said that many in the North East of England can still communicate quite easily with their Nordic cousins. It's true - Danish and Geordie are equally incomprehensible to me.
Also difficult to understand is quite how expensive everything is. There seems to be a set price for a meal. Pizza and wine? €100. Burgers and beer? €100. Coffee and Danish? €100 (slight exaggeration). I decided it was better for my mental and economic health just to stop converting from Danish kroner. And any efforts to speak Danish by phonetically reading from Google Translate on my phone were met with responses in perfect English, so I stopped that as well. Maybe I should have tried my Geordie accent.
Then it was back down to Brussels as Pete's week of school holiday drew to a close. The airport was packed, but thankfully a family lane marked by LEGO men meant we could bypass the queues and catch our flight. Goodbye Denmark! Your quality of life was indeed spectacular, and I'll be back as soon as my credit card recovers.
