This is post #1 of our 2016 Copenhagen-Stockholm trip.

When we traveled around Spain and Lisbon this spring, I did a post saying hi to my Mom.  This time I did only one post like this: “Bye, Mom!” My son and his family landed in the LA airport the same time as we were boarding, so I called to tell him hello, and then we whooshed down the jetway to our tiny teeny cubicle — aka, airline seat —  for the next 12 hours or so.

We’ve traveled a lot this year.  Proof?  We critiqued the choice of movies offered on the plane.  This crop was pretty dismal. About halfway through the flight when I feel like I’d pay a million dollars to be in Economy Plus — anywhere but crammed in “steerage class” like sardines — is when I start reading the stuff in the seat pocket in front of me, noticing that their model has blissed out (eyes closed) while preparing to evacuate in the event of an emergency.  Probably not a good idea.We make the change of aircraft and airline in London’s Heathrow. At the security to get INTO the airport, they take apart my luggage looking for a pair of scissors.  They found it (leftover in one of the suitcase pockets from the previous trip; I’d forgotten I had them in there). I repacked and was on my way.  Landing in Copenhagen, we immediately notice the wooden floors.And the design of the luggage carts.And their #copenhagenbench campaign, complete with floors that look like grass and a park with real park benches to sit on.What a lovely way to handle the incoming luggage: they tell you the carousel, how many minutes until your luggage lands, and if it has arrived, they post up a suitcase.More park stuff, including a flooring that looks like the cobblestones we saw everywhere in the city, and wee bit of climbing apparatus for children who have been cooped up in airplanes.There always seems to be a RUSH of some sorts to get going to our hotel, but as Dave hassled out our Metro tickets, I was able to snap a couple of pictures in the airport.  That idea — of a giant icon of the product being sold, as in the floating hot dog, above — was a theme we’d see over and over in our visit to Copenhagen and Stockholm.Waiting for the Metro: a decorated ball/globe.We emerge and immediately start noticing the different details that distinguish this place from any other, like the signage and decorative detailing on the buildings.  Public sites under construction (like this one, where they are replacing the cobblestones) are something every country has in common, I’m afraid. Our room is long and narrow and on the first floor overlooking the breakfast courtyard. (in case you need to iron something)We freshen up, check in on the internet, and head out for dinner.  This is the breakfast room that only Dave will enjoy as only one of us was covered for breakfast; I’m on my own.  Our room is just to the left of that swirling step of steps, on the bottom floor.The hotel’s name is Kong Arthur (more details on the itinerary on the home page) which means King Arthur.  So is this a miniature round table from that era? Our destination, a short block from our hotel, was the Pizzeria La Fiorita.  It took us a minute to work out the system, but you go down into the shop, order, and then sit outside until your buzzer lights up.  You then return the buzzer and retrieve the food.Squash soda?After a few minutes, the people sitting at the table next to us cleared so we moved over there, as they had a large umbrella covering their table, and it was a bit drizzly.  Our pizza was the shop’s special “La Fiorita.”Our pasta was the shop’s special “La Fiorita.”  Since I like just about everything, and I’m jetlagged and hungry and want to find my way to bed Right Now, I’ve learned to go for the restaurant special and usually that is fine.We took the roundabout way back to our hotel, through this plaza/playground.At the end of our street is a series of rectangular “lakes,” three in a row, which are leftovers from the ancient city’s moat system.  That large swan is a paddleboat, but there were also real swans paddling around, too. It’s nearly 8:30 p.m. and we are getting a version of a sunset.  Because we are so far north, the sun sets, but light stays.  And in the morning, it gets light early (around 5-ish a.m.) and the sun rises a bit after that.Park statuary.  There’s one on the other side to make this a matched set, but with far fewer little children climbing all over him.  This site, when we arrived home, provided an explanation:  “The enormous god with the beard of a wild man lies on its plinth and is being crawled all over by a group of small naked bronze children. They symbolise 16 different stages in the Nile floods (32 feet difference between the highest and lowest water levels). The bronze cast was made after a Roman marble statue in the Musei Vaticani, Rome. the original was discovered in 1513 near S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, and restored by Antonio Canova during the 19th century.”

We walk back to our hotel and with the exception of the cars, feel like we are visitors in the early 19th century.  So many buildings in Copenhagen and Stockholm had that “Belle epoche” feeling that I half expected to see women in long gowns and upswept hairdos being escorted by men in dark suits and starched collars.

Nope–just us tourists in T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers, looking to find their way to some sleep.