Over the hills, under the moon - and off the beaten path

How much can you achieve, when you are fueled by passion, will, and endurance?  For many Danes,  these abilities have the last few weeks led us to great accomplishments,  as we have managed to stay in our sofas or recliners for hours on end while watching on TV how the Danish Jonas Vingegaard fought his way to the front of the Tour de France. How awesome it has been for all of us to be able to lie around, while he scaled mountains during the heat of the day and dueled his rival Tadej Pogacar every meter of the way. Today, I  rose up from the recliner. Since the early afternoon, I have been standing on the Parisian Avenue des Champs-Elysées, in front of the Maison de Danemark,  surrounded by thousands of fellow Danes, all celebrating, shouting, and waving their flags. I arrived several hours ahead of the actual race, hoping for a front-row view  of Vingegaard racing towards the  Arc de Triomphe and into Danish sports history The first couple...

Last night, we sat on the slope leading up to the Sacre Coeur on top of the Montmartre hill. Surrounded by thousands of others - all looking at the vast Paris skyline and waiting for the July 14 fireworks to start. We knew the fireworks on Bastille Day were supposed to emanate from the Eiffel Tower, which wasn't in sight from this particular place,  but 10.000 Parisians can't be wrong! Since they had all gathered on this precise slope, something just had to happen here.  This was what we thought, but we were wrong! We didn't see a thing!  Nothing at all!  Just the twinkling skyline of La Ville Lumière and the thousands of spectators, who, like us, were sitting, staring into a black void. We sat for an hour in the almost tropical heat, drank a lovely bottle of wine, and experienced the thrill of being closer to a potential superspreader event than we had ever been since the start of Covid! Earlier in the evening, before climbing the hill, we went to the local Ba...

  During the last weeks, we located or revisited quite a few quirky spots, which you rarely read about in guide books, and we decided to place our findings on a map.  In this way, friends, who come to visit London, can see suggestions for experiences, which might be a bit secret or at least off the beaten track. (P utting them out here might eventually make them not so secret anymore, but, well - 'that's life!') See the bottom of this post for  how to use our map ---------------  o - o ---------------     --------------------------- o ------------------------ SOME TECHNICAL STUFF: This link gives a peek at our map of cool, quirky, and often hidden, places in New York, Paris, and Copenhagen: https://go.mapstr.com/kJx7W7py3mb -------- If you want to use our map, install the apps Google map and Mapstr on your phone (both Android and IOS) Create an account for Mapstr (it is free), and allow the app to access your location.   Now, press the ...

Behind a black door in London hides a subversive collection of beasts, freaks, decay,  self-indulgence, and outright falsehoods. And no - we're not talking about the door at no 10 Downing street, behind which you can still find Boris Johnson for a few more weeks! This particular door we just happened to pass,  walking down a quite common East London street not far from our apartment. A plaque on the door warns clients that the building is in fact "Not a Brothel, No Prostitutes Live at this Address."  The title above the door is 'Last Tuesday society'  and   - as we pass by on precisely a Tuesday afternoon - we dare to walk in. Inside the 'Tuesday Society', you find a gloomy bar where they serve absinth in all its forms, and behind the bar a hidden spiral staircase which leads down to the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. What a collection! The skeleton of a two-headed kitten, the skull of a unicorn, mummified fair...

Living in London for the last week has been challenging. The biggest strike in Britain in 30 years has created travel chaos by closing down the railways and the tube lines, and the striking rail workers and London Underground staff have taken to the streets in protests against pay freezes and proposed job cuts. Rita and I have also taken to the streets, as walking is by far the easiest way to get around these days. We have to stay local, though, as traversing the enormous  London metropolis by foot from end to end is almost impossible Fortunately, we are living in the utterly charming,  vibrant neighborhood of Islington, which feels almost like a village within the city. Islington,  popular with young, progressive people,  has a history of radical left-wing politics since Marx lived and studied in the neighborhood.  The area is generally posh and affluent, but the population is actually quite ...

  We've only had four days in Edinburg. Four days are not nearly enough to get a grip of  a city, but  easy enough to make you fall in love with it Walking the Scottish capital, it  feels like wandering into an amazing  Harry Potter wizarding world with turreted buildings and secret, cobblestoned alleys (or 'closes', as they are called in Edinburgh) There is a reason for this When J.K. Rowling began writing the first Potter book, she moved to Edinburg and, being a single mom and quite poor, she wrote the first three novels sitting in coffee houses with her infant daughter sleeping in a pram at her side. Some of the first chapters were written at a corner table inside a cafe in  Nicolson Street, which at the time was co-owned by her brother-in-law. Now the cafe is closed - and you see no Potter paraphernalia inside. As far as I could see, not even dementors were hanging around.   Quite close to the rom...

  While most of Europe this June was hit by a historic heat wave with temperatures up towards (and in some places even beyond) 40 degrees celsius, we managed to find the one tiny spot  with cold rain and howling winds. We visited our oldest British friends in their small cabin way up in the northwestern corner of Scotland and after driving for many, many hours along single-track dirt roads, we found ourselves in the most gorgeous landscape. On a vast heath, surrounded by bald mountains – and with the waves of the North Atlantic ocean hammering towards a sandy shore deep beneath us. The surrounding area has for many generations been defined by crofting, the traditional Highland type of agriculture with its small landholdings, scattered farm houses, and areas of communal grazing. After the Highland clearances in early 1800, when tenants where forced out to make room for sheep, many ruined houses now lie scattered across the hillsides.  Michael did not see mu...