Øl Time

Just innocently drinking some high quality øl with the guys. Clockwise: me, Jens, Peter, Anders, Henrik. Mini-breweries have become become extremely popular in the past couple of years. The Carlsberg/Tuborg goliath used to run the show almost exclusively, but now it seems like there's a brew made in every town big enough to have its own håndbod team.

The Bike Parade to Bakken

Bakken is København's other amusement park. Less famous, older, cheaper, in the suburbs, and decidedly blue collar, Bakken is the place to go for amusement if you're a local or a drunk Swede. Opening night is celebrated with a massive bike parade from Nørrebro to the famous red gate. Over 5,000 bikes of all shapes, sizes, and vintages make the 10km trip.

This is a Nimbus, the only bike ever designed and manufactured in Denmark. The company shut down many years ago and now these bikes are obvious collectors' items.

If you ever see a bike with this emblem, go ahead and yell out "Hvordan gør det?!" because there's a 99% chance the owner is a proud Dane. Avoid striking up an extended conversation though, because this owner is likely a rabid enthusiast able to drone on for hours about the best bike ever made.

Many of the bikes were works of art, ancient, or just something out of the ordinary, but this one took the cake. Talk about self-expression.

Recruiting for LHAS

We recruited for two days this week at Copenhagen's main technical school, DSE, in Lyngby. LHAS is aggressively hiring these days, and you can see the effort in our impressive recruiting display and manpower (um, actually womanpower). I was very pleased with the size of TT's logo on the display and I'd like to take credit for it. I did my best to convince some of these students that they go to California with me and work for TT, but I feel like I just scared them. In hindsight I was probably most effective when I stood quietly so that my fellow recruiters could point at and talk about me.

Dybbølsbro

Another beautiful morning to be enjoyed before work. This pic means a lot more to me than anyone else because I see this train station twice every day. The station is adjacent to the Dybbølsbro, which means double bridge, as in one for the pedestrians and another for the cars.

Bike theft is a common crime in Denmark, and it's not hard to see why. Many of those bikes are left there night after night and most are not chained to the rack. It's easy to imagine someone with a van stopping in the middle of night to scoop up three or four bikes in less than a minute. Surprisingly, people don't seem to care too much. Losing a bike now and again is just part of living in Copenhagen.

Open Skies

The EU and US have finally agreed to 'open the skies' and eliminate most of the restrictions on EU-US flights. Starting next March, any US or EU airline can fly from any city, to any city. Also part of the agreement, airlines are now allowed to merge with others outside of their country. This is great news for us trans-Atlantic travelers. The number of EU-US flights is projected to increase by 50% in the next six years, and the increased competition will almost certainly lower prices.

Spring = BBQ

Apparently the mild temperatures of spring have come early this year, and I am not complaining. Danes (Scandinavians in general) greatly appreciate nice sunny weather, and when the sun is out the office is conspicuously quiet because everyone has gone home to their gardens and grills. Jovanco, pictured here, invited me to his house to enjoy one of these first days of spring. Days like today make the remaining three months seem not nearly long enough.

Our Coffee Machine

It's a real trooper, let me tell you. All day, every day, it's doing its part to help us survive. The complicated buttons allow you to customize your serving with various amounts of sugar, powdered cream, and chocolate. There's a promising button labeled Espresso, but so far it has only produced a serving of the same old grind. We will keep trying, though, and of course I'll report any new developments.

One Last Night in the Pub

Phil really hit his stride our last night in Dublin. He had an audience of not one, not two, but five lovely Irish ladies for the entire evening. I was impressed, but I think at times he was a little scared. They absolutely melted when he danced for them. These pictures hardly do the evening justice.

Souvenir Hypnosis

Yes, it's true, I caught the souvenir bug while in Dublin. I don't know exactly why, but everything Irish just looked so cool. Plus, they tell me that green is 'my color.' If this happens again I'm going to have serious luggage problems when I go home in July.

Newgrange

We took a day trip out to the Irish countryside to see the famous Neolithic passage tombs. They're approximately 5000 years old, making them some of the oldest known monuments in the world. The builders of these tombs worshipped the sun and they frequently oriented the passages and openings to interact with sunlight on important days of the solar year. Newgrange is the most famous due to its size and the precise way in which sunlight enters its passage on the dawn of the winter solstice.

We arrived too late to go inside the tombs, so instead we spent a couple of hours walking through the beautiful countryside surrounding them. The weather was bizarre: we had pure sun, sun with snow, sun with rain, clouds with snow, clouds with rain, and back to sunshine...all in the span of three hours.

Tom and Jerry

When you dig into Irish history you find mostly blood, death, starvation, and general misery. All that suffering must have shaped their light-hearted live-for-today attitudes. Irish monuments and epitaphs are more likely to crack a joke than say something pompous. They're usually tongue-in-cheek, so you have to understand the context, but make a point of reading them and you'll see what I mean.

I ran across this display in Christ Church Cathedral. Where else but Ireland will you find a dead cat and rat displayed on a cathedral wall?

The Truth

This is a portion of the very first Guinness newspaper ad from the late 19th century. There are anecdotes of mothers giving it to their babies and hospitals ordering it by the crate.

Quality

Guinness is a brand obsessed with quality. In Ireland all Guinness owned taps are inspected and cleaned monthly by Quality Teams. Here you see me standing proudly next to my van after they nominated me to be an honorary member of the Quality Team.

And for the record, the Guinness in Ireland definitely tastes different and better. I was unable to get a convincing answer as to why, but it's true.

Guinness brews the vast majority of beer sold in Ireland, including Budweiser and Carlsberg. That's called a monopoly.

St. Patrick's Night

WOW. That's how I usually start when trying to describe the fun I had on the night of St. Patrick's Day. Irish pub culture is amazingly fun. It has been quite difficult to put the total feeling into words.

...But I guess I should try. When you walk into a pub every single person has something fun to say and it takes little if any encouragement to get it out of them. Extreme extroverts, every last one of them. I'm pretty sure the word pretentious doesn't even exist in the Irish dictionary because everyone receives the same arm-over-the-shoulder reception. Friendly is not always an accurate word, though, because these guys have tempers with hair triggers. Luckily they forget their anger as soon as someone puts a fresh beer in their hands. Without a doubt St. Patty's in Dublin will go down as one of my best European experiences.

Who are these guys? What did we talk about? Could they be any more photogenic?

Yes, that 'Killer' tattoo was homemade prison-style. A closeup of that impressive grill is available upon request.

We followed these guys for what must have been a couple miles away from the main tourist zone to a street of clubs populated by locals only. They kept the hike interesting by singing songs, making obscene gestures toward the passing taxis, and of course running with their pants down. Shortly after this photo was taken they took off their shirts in an apparent attempt to better appreciate the rain/snow mix and subzero wind chill. Good times.

Lovely London

In spite of the fact that it is insanely expensive, people drive like maniacs on the wrong side of the road, street signs are cleverly hidden (on the asphalt), airport security may soon require a strip search of all passengers, and the girls are infamously unattractive with a terrible fashion sense...London is still seems like it might be a nice place.

Nap Time

London has many outstanding museums and the best of them are FREE. Yes, in a city where the McDonald's Cost Index is $12, the museums are free. Where better to take a nice long nap than in the presence of a regal portrait of George W.?

Camera Happy

Central London is jam-packed with postcard worthy architecture, both historic and contemporary. It is very easy to get into the mode of click, click, walk, click, zoom, click, walk... and that's exactly what happened to me and Phil. I know this is modus operandi for many tourists, but it's not my style (as some of you have discovered first hand). Anyway, the sights were seen, the pics were taken, and I feel obligated to share a few.

The Palace of Westminster: Neo-Gothic architecture at its best. (a debatable statement)

The Westminster clock tower, a.k.a. Big Ben, and one of those legendary double decker buses. If you're looking for a (relatively) cheap thrill then climb to the upper deck, sit in the front row, and cruise around the city. Certain roundabouts are guaranteed to get the adrenaline flowing.

Swiss Re, better known as The Gherkin, designed by Foster and Partners. It has an elaborate natural ventilation system that spirals up the building, and many see it as a key milestone in the quest for a zero energy skyscraper.

The British Museum houses a very impressive collection of ancient artifacts stolen from countries all over the world, including the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone. I have pictures of all of that stuff, to be sure, but this one of the Reading Room in the Great Court turned out better. That cool gridshell glass roof is a recent addition also designed by the venerable Sir Norman Foster. Every surface reflected the sky and it really was that blue.

The Tate Modern

I toured London the 2 days prior to Chris's arrival. I decided to visit the Tate Modern the day before he arrived. This museum houses a vast collection of Modern (twentieth century) art. I typically don't "dig" modern art, and I know Chris does. I feared that if I went with him, we would spend the majority of the afternoon looking at "crap."

Well, I really enjoyed the art and spent the majority of an afternoon there anyways. Also, it turned out that the interior architechture was pretty cool too....Bottom line, I enjoyed the Tate Modern and Chris missed out!

This is one of the pieces I enjoyed the most. Night Vision by Fiona Rae, is an Oil and Acrylic on Canvas. The colors of the painting, when viewed up close, is what I really enjoyed the most, so this picture doesn't do it justice!

Finally, here is a picture of some cool slides, inside the building, that I regret not going down.

- PK

A London Reunion

I only had 48 hours to spend in London, so I prioritized and spent the first two in a pub enjoying a splendid plate of fish and chips (and peas). This fine lad in the background is an old long lost friend from high school, Mr. Phil Kokel. This is one of those cases that proves it pays to stay in touch with good people, even if your paths take you in separate directions and you never see each other. At some point, with a little (or a lot of) effort, you will meet again and have a smashing time.

i'm lovin' it

In case you didn't know, beyond the borders of the U.S. McDonald's is Bigtime. I mean it's a bona fide destination. Yes, the restaurant is still focused on children, but adults do not consider it a 'bad' place to eat. The basics of the menu are always the same size, shape and color, and they usually taste familiar as well. This makes McDonald's a dependable tourists' cost index. In Copenhagen, for example, my quarter pounder with cheese + fries + drink = 55 DKK = $10.

I can't name all nine of the languages, but Danish did not make the cut--even within its own country. This doesn't surprise me too much, but the absence of Spanish does seem odd. And you gotta love the French. They took a cute concise slogan and turned it into a haughty verse, probably lacing a sub-rosa stab at globalism into its word choice.

Enjoy Cykler

Min cykel.

Frederiksborg Slot

This morning I hopped on the S-tog and took a 40 minute ride to Hillerød, home of Frederiksborg Slot. The castle sprawls over three islands surrounded by a well-groomed artificial lake. An impressive garden extends up the hill, providing photogenic framed views. The structure has been around since medieval times, but at the start of the 17th century Christian IV rebuilt it as we see it today using a 'Dutch Renaissance' architectural style. Denmark's finest castle, no doubt about it.

The Metro

Here's a shot inside the new Metro. The graffiti artists haven't even had time to leave a mark...or maybe they like it too much to vandalize it? Nah, not possible. Anyway, it is interesting because there is no driver--ever. It's totally controlled by a computer in an undisclosed location. I've seen systems like this in airports (JFK comes to mind), but never as a major metro system. The two ends of the train have very large aqarium windows where kids love to sit and watch as we weave our way through the tunnels. I have to say it is about as fun as public transportation could ever hope to be.

Umulig Dansk

I have to let off a little steam regarding my efforts to learn Danish. My progress has been agonizingly slow. After spending 2 1/2 months surrounded by Danes speaking Danish, I have only mastered the hello/goodbye, numbers, and a few other random vocabulary words.

The problem is that Danish people do not expect foreigners to learn their language; even the simplest words such as tak and hej are not deemed necessary. Quite a contrast to places like Italy and France where prices for common goods are based on one's ability to speak the local language. Any time I spout off a little rudimentary Danish I simultaneously impress and amuse my victim. Instead of responding in slow and simple 'baby Danish' they will often just continue the conversation in English. This does not exactly encourage me to dig deeper and fumble out my next sentence in Danish.

Regardless, I continue fighting the good fight. I have made much more progress reading Danish. Each day on the train I translate the newspaper headlines and articles with the help of my trusty pocket dictionary. I'm hoping that one day soon my vocabulary will reach a critical mass and I'll be able to hold an entire conversation in Danish.

A New Office

It's hard to imagine just how fast Leif Hansen has grown in the past few years. Don't quote me on this, but I think the number employees has grown by 1000% in the past five years. I asked around, and virtually everyone was hired less than three years ago.

Recently they leased additional office space and now my group of engineers will be moving into the new space. These pics are from our 'officewarming' party. One thing you learn fast at LHAS: any event is good reason to celebrate with a quick little party at 15:00. I'd estimate that once a week on average we are celebrating something. The pic below shows the typical spread: chips, nuts, wine, Fanta, Coca-Cola Light, and the ubiquitous Grøn Tuborg.

Home Sweet Home

I live on the 1st floor (actually the 2nd) of the building on left. I live in a very new neighborhood generally referred to as Islands Brygge (EES-lands BRUG-ga). You can see they are continuing to build more apartments just down the street from my place. Ten years ago Islands Brygge was a mixture of deserted industrial buildings, slum apartments, and open fields. Accessibility was the area's Achilles' heel: there is only one bridge to the city center and the S-tog doesn't touch this island.

The new and expanding Metro has changed all of that. The area is now extremely accessible and very close to the city center and airport. Not surprisingly, it is experiencing a building boom unlike any in Denmark's history. This is one of several reasons why København's economy has been doing remarkably well the past few years.
The blue dot marks the spot: home sweet home. A little over a mile from the heart of the city and directly across the water from Vesterbro, another revitalized area with the city's best restaurants and nightlife.

Smørrebrød

Delicate, colorful, delicious, and usually expensive, smørrebrød is a real treat for everyone, including the Danes. I'd like to submit these little open-faced sandwiches to the FDA and see how close they come to being the perfect square meal. Visions of food pyramids danced in my head while I was eating. My hunch is that if you only ate smørrebrød every day of your life you would have perfect skin, shiny blond hair, be able to ski cross country long distances, and die at the age of 110.

Riots in Copenhagen

A little background...
Built in 1897, the "Youth House" in the Nørrebro district was a community theater for the labor movement and a culture and conference center; Vladimir Lenin was among its visitors. In recent years, it has hosted concerts with performers like Australian musician Nick Cave and Icelandic singer Bjork.

Six years ago the government sold the building to a Christian congregation, but the building continued to function as a leftist cultural center. Last year Danish courts declared the building's users to be squatters and ordered an eviction. The 'squatters' refused to leave, claiming the city gave them the building many years ago and therefore had no right to sell it.

Last night...
(Associated Press) - Copenhagen police arrested dozens of people early Sunday in a third straight night of unrest triggered by the eviction of squatters from a disputed youth center. Small groups of protesters threw rocks at police and set fire to trash bins and barricades, but the violence did not escalate into the full-scale riots of the two previous nights.

"We are very happy that the situation was so quiet," police spokesman Lars Borg said. "The people who want to demonstrate have been more ... aware that the things they are doing are not the right things to do."

More than 30 people were arrested near the Christiania hippie enclave after protesters built barricades on a major street and set them on fire around 3 a.m. (0200GMT,) police said. In all, 643 people have been arrested, including 140 foreigners from Europe and the United States, since the clashes started Thursday. They included 20 Swedes, 20 Norwegians and 25 Germans, police said.

One protester was reportedly wounded in the violence early Saturday, while 25 people were injured the night before as angry youth hurled cobblestones at riot police who responded with tear gas. The street violence was Denmark's worst in 14 years. The situation calmed down later Saturday, but police reported skirmishes with separate bands of protesters pelting officers with firecrackers and rocks. Police also said some protesters were pulling trash bins into the street, and in some cases setting them on fire. At least one car was also set ablaze.

A little more background...
I don't know enough about the legal history of the Youth House to have an opinion on whether the government has the right to evict the 'squatters.' What I do know is that people here and in the rest of Europe generally see this as yet another clash between hard-nosed modern captialism and a fading socialist/leftist ideology. This incident has been a call to arms for many leftist groups, and that's why so many of the protesters are not even from Denmark.

Isaberg, Sweden

Six of us took a day trip to Isaberg, Sweden. It's a small ski slope four hours from Copenhagen, and being the closest to Denmark it was packed with Danes like us. We left at 6am, returned at 9pm, and made the best of a winter Saturday.

Bowling with LHAS

An annual event for the LHAS employees and a fun way to start the weekend. I was impressed by how many people of all ages participated. We invaded the entire bowling alley and had very little room to spare.

Ballerup

The Leif Hansen office is located in Ballerup, a suburb on the western edge of Copenhagen. The area is similar to TT Dallas's office park except everything is half-sized, from cars and roads to buildings and landscaping.
I take the 'S-tog' lightrail to and from work each day. Including my walk to the station it's a 45 minute commute. Here's a glimpse of my daily hike with an extremely rare cloudless sunset and a little fresh snow on the ground. March is a fickle month in Denmark. Spring is itching to make an appearance but Winter wants one last show.