Lunch In Copenhagen
I had lunch in Copenhagen, by a canal that was lined with restaurants.
A Restaurant-Lined Canal
The food was good, but it was probably served at the slowest pace I’d ever received. I was so bored at one point, that I took to taking a photo of the chair opposite.
An Unsuitable Chair
Why do you put such a chair in a restaurant? It’s impossible to put your coat over the back of it, so I used the chair next to me for my coat. So they might have lost a cover because of the unsuitable chairs.
In the end, this restaurant ruined my afternoon, as they were so slow on service, I didn’t have time to visit the Jewish Museum in Copenhagen. I’ve always been fascinated, as was my father, about how the Danes got most of their Jews out of the country to Sweden, after the Nazi invasion.
At least though I ate well! Albeit very slowly!
Unwelcoming Copenhagen!
My stay in Copenhagen was not the best.
I arrived in the city at six in the evening, to find the tourist office closed and all the hotels full. I eventually got a room in a rather poor hotel at a five star price. The Danes may be nice people, but some of them know how to rip off tourists.
The room was a fifteen minute walk from the station, so I decided to go there, get some food and then book my onward travel to Hamburg for the morning. I did have the train times, but I only had my tablet and felt that at the station there would be some of the excellent German ticket machines.
In the end, I got an excellent gluten-free meal at an Italian restaurant by the station, but by the time, I’d finished it was eight and the station was shut. There were no automatic machines, that sold tickets to Hamburg either. Customer Service? Forget it!
So I went back to my grotty hotel room and went to bed. There wasn’t even any reliable wi-fi, and there was nothing I could understand on the television. In fact, I doubt that even a Dane could have understood it, as both the sound and the picture was excrutiating.
Would I Go Back To Stockholm?
Most certainly! Yes! Although, I wouldn’t stay in the Stureplan Hotel again!
I’d probably try to get in Hotel Rival. It looks like I can get a room at a reasonable price for a couple of weeks ahead.
The hotel also knows its gluten-free, as it appeared did most of Stockholm.
Perhaps next time I go, it’ll be a stop-over on the way to see the bears!
Everybody needs to go to Stockholm once, just to see the Vasa.
A Walk And A Taste Of Stockholm
After checking out the tickets, I went for a walk with lunch thrown in using my Walk and Eat Guide.
The pictures tell the story of the walk.
I actually had lunch in Cafe Rival, which is in the hotel of the same name. Again there was gluten-free bread. I think, if I go to Stockholm again, I’ll try the Hotel Rival first.
A Good Hotel, But!
I stayed in the Stureplan Hotel in Stockholm.
Hotel Stureplan, Stockholm
It was a good hotel, for what I paid, and I couldn’t complain about the position, staff or the food, where I even got gluten-free bread for breakfast.
But it had various faults that annoyed me.
The first and one of the most serious was the intermittent wi-fi. I couldn’t get it in my bedroom unless I connected first in the lobby that was on the way to the lift. Security on wei-fi doesn’t bother me, but this can’t be the most secure, if you have to use your device in the open.
I think the hotel had had a makeover from a designer. Look at this picture of the shampoo and shower gel.
Shampoo And Shower Gel
The only way to tell is to read the small writing on the back, which for me, means glasses. But as I don’t shower in my glasses, I couldn’t tell which was which, when I needed them. Anbd trhen there was the shower controls.
Unfathomable Shower Controls
it worked well, but which side was the water control and which was the temperature. The only way I worked it out, was by experiment, after giving it a good once over with my glasses. I still haven’t found a hotel shower as good as the digital Aqualiser Quartz, I had in Suffolk.
I think partly, my problem may well be my left hand, which doesn’t work that well and also because I need my glasses to decipher things like this. Surely, all controls should be obvious to someone who is virtually blind!
I wasn’t struck with the shower door, as water leaked underneath and made the floor slippery.
A Useless Shower Door
My balance is good for someone, who had a bad stroke, but I know quite a few people, who would have found the floor dangerous.
But it was the little touches that I didn’t like. The hotel seemed to have quite a few steps like this.
A Tricky Step
If my house can be designed with totally flat floors, surely a good hotel can. Luckily, I didn’t trip up badly.
I also didn’t like the tissues.
A Silly Box Of Tissues
With my rhinitis, it was just one good blow and they were in the bin. Not very green!
Porridge At Heathrow
On the way out to Stockholm, I wanted to eat well before I left the UK. The flight left at 11:30, so it was a bit early for lunch, but I was able to get a second breakfast at Gordon Ramsay in Terminal Five. I had porridge for the first time in years and jolly good it was too.
Porridge At Heathrow
Note in the background, the card describing Gordon Ramsay’s onboard picnics. That is a good idea and the manager assured me they can be gluten-free.
My First Real Fish And Chips In Thirty Years
I’ve never been a great one for greasy fish and chips in newspaper and my late wife, C, wasn’t either. Although, when we lived in St. John’s Wood, we did occasionally get a takeaway from Sea Shell in Lisson Grove. But even in the 1960s, that was of a different quality to for example the chip shop. I remember in East Barnet close to my mother-in-law’s.
Yesterday I read in Giles Coren’s restaurant review in The Times of The Fish and Chip Shop in Upper Street, Islington. I passed it yesterday whilst shopping, popped in and found they could do gluten-free fish and chips. So later in the day, I returned with my son for supper.
The Fish And Chip Shop, Islington
I had plaice in a gluten-free batter and my son had a fish curry. We both found the food excellent and I finished off with an ice cream, the quality and flavour of which, probably betrayed the usual source of most good ice cream in restaurants in the northern and central parts of London; Marine Ices in Camden Town.
The one problem with the restaurant was that we were a bit cramped on the bar, so if you’re thinking of going, book early. My son and I usually decide to go for a meal, perhaps an hour or so before, so we tend to end up in somewhere like Carluccio’s, Pizza Express or Côte, where booking is optional early in the evening or at lunchtime.
On the other hand, as it is very convenient for me, with the 30 bus stop opposite, it’s one of those restaurants, where if I need supper because my fridge is empty or the cooking has gone wrong, I’ll go and sit on the bar and partake of a plaice and chips. As Giles Coren said in his review, the chips are nice, proper, potatoey English chip shop chips.
Eating out in my local area has just got better!
Nespresso Is The Apple Of Coffee
Not my statement, but something that was hinted at in an article in The Times.
I don’t drink much coffee and I always wondered about Nespresso, with its expensive advertising. If it was that good, why don’t I see more machines in peoples’ houses.
It looks like they’ve got a marketing philosophy based on a cheap machine and expensively-packaged coffee.
I tend to avoid machines in the kitchen, as you have to wash them up and except for my cooker, microwave and fridge, I only use three pieces of electrical equipment; a kettle, a toaster and a Kenwood chopper, which was heavily promoted by Delia. I do have a dishwasher, but I don’t use it, as it was wrecked by the tenants, who lived here before I bought the house. It just doesn’t get anything clean, whereas my Mark One hand and a gammy one, perform the task well.
So when I see that Nespresso, a subsidiary of Nestle are involved in a legal spat with Mondelez, who in my book are still called Kraft, as I do here on Reuters, I know that there can only be one winner, the lawyers. And the poor old consumer will pay for it all in higher prices. So Nespresso is a product to avoid!
Incidentally, both companies are on my avoid lists, as they don’t in my book publish full and detailed information on gluten about their products. I also don’t like Nestle’s stand on powdered milk for babies and who would buy anything from the company that made its name with sliced cheese. Other companies in my avoid group are Mars and in fact any company, where you can’t find the gluten-free information easily on their web site, or if you’re in the shop, on the packaging.
Will It Be Kangaroo Or Lamb Pie Tonight?
With Australia and New Zealand playing today in the cricket, the question has to be asked!
With Australia at two for twelve, it looks like it’s veering t0wards kangaroo.
But because I have one in the fridge, it will actually be shepherd’s made from beef.
How To Celebrate Australian Defeat By England
Last night, I made a couple of my shepherd’s pies.
Last Night’s Shepherd’s Pie
One was for last night and the other was to be saved for later. Although, as I have had a slight problem with the fridge, I suspect it’ll go in the freezer. I dropped a knife yesterday and it slid under the fridge. In getting it out of its hole under the work-top, I must have pulled the cable out, so of course it stopped working. As all my milk went solid, I’m not in the best mood today, having had to drink black tea.
I had a thought yesterday, as I was making the pies. Would one work with kangaroo mince, to celebrate a victory over the old enemy?
My rudimentary cooking skills say it would and from time in Australia, I know that kangaroos are good eating. So I used that great cooking utensil, Google, to look for a supplier.
The first I found was Macken Brothers in Chiswick. They have a selection of exotic meats and confirmed they can do kangaroo mince.
I also searched further and found Kezie Foods in Scotland, which has a wide selection of kangaroo meat. According to that page, kangaroo meat is very good for your heart.
I’ll definitely cook something in the next month or so.
The Anonymous Widower 