Impressions of Copenhagen

We are so lucky. Our hotel's in the heart of the city, maybe a 10 minute walk to Tivoli. We are on Studiestraede which mjeans exatly what you might think - study street. The university is here and we walked past the stately and elegant university library. It's such an old and dignified building that it looks slightly forbidding, though I want to explore it before I leave here.

Between our hotel and City Hall is a huge square, the Radhus Pladsen, which is lively with activity all day long and probably mucyh of the night. We stopped to enjoy the sun (and a glass of wine) and to people-watch for awhile and it confirmed what we had already noticed. The Danes are exceptionally attractive people. Don't move here unless you think you're hot stuff!!

Most of the downtown featurese old but well maintained red brick buildings, many with white lattice windows. No screens anywhere but they arenøt needed. We havenøt seen one mosquito since we got here.

The trade-off for having a hotel centrally located is that thereøs no escaping the noise. They like to party here and party late! No air conditioning means we open the windows and while that lets in cool night air it also lets in very late night laughter and loud voices.

As you might expect in a city this size, the popular downtown is dirty. There's a lot of loose litter, mostly just paper, but lots of cigarette stubs and the occasional piece of doggie poo. So you walk at your peril if youøre captivated by the tall church spires.

We attended an orientation for first-time convention goers this mornig and I was disappointed to hear the first question was why this wasn't done or that wasn't done. Organizing an event of this size requires tremendous volunteer effort and logistical coordination and if things don't come off quite as planned, I think it's rude to whine about it in a public forum. Hans and I also got on a wrong train and off at the wrong spot and had to walk further than exptected. So what? We asked and happened to get wrong information but no one misdirected us maliciously. Anyway, once one person complained it seemed many had a transit problem and they all wanted to vent. it was irritating and more than anything I wanted to stand up and say so but...

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