Angale Merkel Hairstyles
I thought at lunch, how many women of a certain age, I’ve seen on this trip sporting Angela Merkel hairstyles.
There’s no understanding off peoples’ taste.
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!
The Marble Church
I visited this church, popularly called the Marble Church on my way back from the Design Museum.
It was the first place I’d come across except for the DSesign Museum, that was well and truly open. Consequently, it was busy.
The Danish Design Museum
I spent an hour at the museum, looking at various things, but it didn’t give me any clues as to the furniture I need for my house. Strangely though, they had an exhibition of post war British fabrics. The one on the poster, was suspiciously like one that C chose for our flat in the Barbican.
It was one designed for Heals and in those days C bought the fabric from there for a lot of our curtains.
The Amalienborg Palace
The Amalienborg Palace is the winter home of the Danish Royal family.
These pictures were taken about ten and show tourists just waiting around for something to happen.
Wandering Around Copenhagen
I didn’t sleep well, as the hotel was just so hot and the windows didn’t open easily.
About eight, in the morning, I’d had enough, so I checked out and went to the station, where the ticket office was at least open and I was able to buy my ticket to Hamburg on the 15:44 train. But I did have to queue up for perhaps thirty minutes, as there were no machines.
I then decided to put my case in a left luggage locker. Not a problem for me, as my case, only weighs a few kilos, but access to the lockers in the basement of the station was down two staircases and very difficult with a heavy case. There was a lift, but it was very small and slow. When I thought about using it later, someone was in it with a bicycle.
So I said goodbye to the station and started to look for some breakfast. But nothing seemed to open until eleven. In Stockholm, things started to happen earlier. but eleven is just too late for tourists. I got the impression, that I wasn’t the only visitor aimlessly wandering looking for something to do.
In the centre of Copenhagen, I never saw a map on the street, something that I rely on for directions. I did have a guide book, but with my gammy left hand, walking and reading a map is not on.
I did find the Danish Design Centre, which according to my guide book had some good exhibits on Danish design. But the exhibits have now been closed.
Currently We Have No Exhibitions
So I just had an excellent coffee and left.
As I walked, nothing was open, but at least there were a few seats, where I could sit by myself in the sun.
A Seat In The Sun
I’d come to Denmark partly to get ideas for my house, so in the end I walked to the Danish Design Museum, which although it opened at eleven, was open by the time I got there. I’d actually wasted a lot of time, talking to other tourists, who were standing around just looking aimless. It was also raining by now, which made my map useless, so I was glad to be in some shelter.
Fotografiska
Fotografiska is Stockholm’s photographic museum. I like photography so I walked there from the station at Slussen. I must admit, I was drawn there by the adverts for a Helmut Newton exhibition all over the city.
Unfortunately, the city built a motorway, between the museum and the cliff face behind, so there are no buses. One of the staff told me, that the city is redeveloping the area and hasn’t made up its mind about the transport in the area.
The various exhibits were fascinating, but the Helmut Newton exhibition also included some portraits of the famous, including a striking one of Margaret Thatcher, which is shown here. I also like this quote from Helmut Newton.
Nothing has been retouched, nothing electronically altered. I photographed what I saw.
It is a good rule for a photographer, that they shouldn’t break.
There was also a restaurant with views across the city on the top floor. If I’d had more time, I’d have had lunch!
The Vasa Museum
One of the reasons, I went to Stockholm was to see the Vasa.
I first heard about the ship in my teens, when it was raised from the floor of Stockholm Harbour. The techniques of raising the ship were also detailed in the Meccano Magazine.
It will be interesting to see how the Vasa compares with the Mary Rose.
I must have spent about three hours wandering around the museum and afterwards I felt a lot better, as the humidity in the museum was about 60% to keep the ship [preserved.
Do We Sometimes Push Technology Too Far?
I like proven technology, as often some of the things done fifty years or so ago, may not have been very good at the time, but somehow over time they have proved themselves to be reliable and economic.
The classioc is the Inter City 125 train, introduced as a stop-gap in 1976. But it is only one of a number of classic designs, that just never get replaced.
A personal old idea that affects me is Warfarin, which I take every day to thin my blood and stop myself having another stroke. There are more modern drugs, but I’ve heard cardilogists say that now is not the time to change, as we don’t know enough about the side effects of new drugs yet.
And that is the crux of the matter! When anything has been used for years, we have a vast knowledge base to make sure, that it doesn’t bite us or even worse.
So I was rather pleased to see this report that says the new Airbus A350 will use more traditional batteries than the Boeing 787. Before you use new technology in something as critical as an airliner, you must prove it as thoroughly as possible.
The problem with proving aircraft parts as compared to that of says cars, buses or trains, is that the aircraft leaves the ground and does other things land-based machines don’t.
I remember, my next door neighbour in London, when I was a child, a Mr. Gibbon, saying that if Ford wanted to test a new truck axle, they’d fit a few in trucks and give them to a contractor, who was known to break anything. If he couldn’t break any,then it was probably a better axle. But you can’t give aircraft to bad airlines and let them do the testing!
What worries me about these plane batteries, is how many other new ideas are incorporated, that haven’t been completely tested? Aviation is littered with mistakes, where new designs have failed.
On the other hand, look at this wing of the baby Airbus 319/320/321, on which I flew to Stockholm.
Airbus A320 Wing
Go back twenty years or so and the design of a wing would be similar, but you can see developments like the wing-tips, that make the wings more efficient, have now become commonplace.
A Clever Phishing E-Mail Supposedly From O2
I just received an e-mail supposedly from O2 asking me to change my user name. This is the body.
Hello ,
We recently asked you to change your O2 Username.
To change the username to email please click on this link below to confirm this email and finish changing your username.
To keep your details safe, this link will only work for 48 hours from the time it was sent, so please click it now.
Sorry, but we can’t write back to you from this address, so please don’t reply to it. If you need further assistance, please contact Customer Services.
I am a customer of O2, but I never access them on-line, so I was a bit puzzled to start with. I then noticed it came to an old e-mail address, I only used for support on a company I owned. I then checked the headers and found that the e-mail came from Turkey.
It didn’t fool me, but it does show that phishing e-mails are getting more credible.
The Anonymous Widower 