Half Marathon Day for Drew - A bit more religion than I expected for me!

The Lakes - Copenhagen

As often happens on days with things planned, I woke a little earlier than usual at 4.30am this Sunday morning. I'm not sure what I was excited about, it is Drew doing the Half Marathon not me!

I compete loading the photos from yesterday, which had been a photo heavy day, into Flickr and completed Friday's blog post. 

Drew also woke up earlier than usual at 6am. I make coffee, two cups each - stretching one coffee bag between two cups as I have done each morning since we arrived. 

Breakfast

We had decided to have breakfast at Risteriet Coffee Halmtorvet as it is nearby and the breakfast is quick to prepare and simple enough to meet Drew's criteria of no fussy food before his run. Typical of us, in aiming to be there at opening time - 9am - we arrived at 8.50am, but say on the benches outside until 9am. Arrived, we had what we had had on Thursday - Sourdough with cheese and ham for me and sourdough with cheese for Drew followed by an americano and a latte.

 

Breakfast finished at 9.20am we both headed to the Metro, Drew to travel on the M3 via Kongens Nytorv to Vibenshus Runddel and I on the M3 going the other way around the circle to Nørrebros Runddel station. 

I boarded the 9.30am Metro. Only I and one other person were the in our carriage of twenty people not carrying half marathon bags. At each stop more runners got on. 

Church

I arrived at Norrebros Runddel at 9.40pm and it is a ten-minute walk to Sakramentskirken (Blessed Sacrament Church) where there was to be Mass at 10am. 

A short walk brings me to the church which is in the main road in Norrebro. Indeed they were laying race directions and barriers out on the road as I arrived.

Sakramentskirken is a simple plain church and soon before Mass was due to start three Mother Teresa nuns sat in front of me. 

At 10am prompt we began a hymn, one whose words were familiar to me, though I'd not heard them in Danish:

What is strange is that these seven verses about the characteristics of the coming Jesus are normally sung in Advent, not at this time of the year. The English version taking its name for the final verse and chorus - O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The other verses are in the correct order - Wisdom, Adoni, Root of Jesse etc.

The 'priest' then gave a brief introduction, at which point the three nuns all left the Church, I was a bit puzzled, the only bit of the introduction I got was about the priest being on holiday in Slovenia. However, what the prayer leader had meant is that there was no priest to celebrate Mass, because the regular priest was in Slovenia and therefore, the worship leader, a Deacon, was going to lead a Liturgy of the Word and Holy Communion but not Mass. Of course, this only became clear to me after the Prayers of the Faithful, up until that point everything was as it would be at Sunday Mass. Then the Deacon went to the tabernacle to bring the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar - immediately I realised where that the sisters had gone, because they would be wanting to go to Mass on a Sunday. Still, I stayed and enjoyed the rest of the prayers and singing - Danish words to very familiar chants used in Latin and English.

I was also interested in the readings, as here in Danish, on this Sunday the readings set for the day throughout the Catholic Church include these words of St. Paul in his first letter to Timonthy (2:1-8)

My advice is that, first of all, there should be prayers offered for everyone – petitions, intercessions and thanksgiving – and especially for kings and others in authority... 

It seemed apposite for this day, the day before Queen Elizabeth the Second's funeral in the UK.

The other two readings were about supporting the poor. The first Amos 8:4-7:

 Listen to this, you who trample on the needy and try to suppress the poor people of the country … The Lord swears it by the pride of Jacob, ‘Never will I forget a single thing you have done.’

Is pretty in your face, the Gospel (Luke 16:1-13) also pulls no punches, as the last verses say:

English	Danish
No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.	Ingen slave kan tjene to herrer. Han vil enten hade den ene og elske den anden eller holde sig til den ene og ringeagte den anden. I kan ikke tjene både Gud og mammon.

It was interesting to me to see the Danish word for money in this context is the old English word that would be familiar to readers of the King James VI & I bible, though doesn't appear in modern versions. It gave me an insight into the homily (sermon) as the Deacon was constantly referring to the choice between Gud (God) and mammon (money). He was my kind of preacher; he had finished in six minutes. Focussed and with what seemed like a clear message. So, the service ended at 11am. But I still had to get to Mass. 

This idea may seem stange to non-Catholics, but one of the fundemental obligations laid on a Catholic (along with the commands of the Lord, like those mentioned in the gospel of loving and caring for family, friends and neighbours.) is "On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass." (Canon Law: Canon 1247.) While this can be abrogated for particular reasons, like illness or, for example, a pandemic. In today's case I was well and able to get to Mass as there were five other Catholic Churches in the City. 

However, as it turned out the answer was nearer to hand. Sakramentskirken is home of Copenhagen's French-speaking population and the French Mass was being celebrated at 11.30am. So, I had time to sit and pray, and was able to attend the Mass in French.

This did, of course, mean I heard the same readings in a different language. The French priest was much more fiery in his homily, taking 12 minutes about it. My French is very poor, so I made less sense of the homily than I did the Danish version - until the priest began decrying 'Trump' and 'La foule Maga' as examples of the people Amos was having a go at in the Bible. Who says religion and politics don't meet.

My Universalis app, provided me with the text of the Mass for both languages - a really great bonus of an app I already use multiple times of the day. Given this church is regularly used for French Masses they also have a Carnet De Chants available. 

So, intending to go to Mass - normally 50 minutes most Sundays, I ended up in Church from 9:55 until 12.30am, certainly as I say in the title of today's post, more time than I was expecting. But handy that I didn't have to hunt out somewhere else to go to Mass later in the day. 

Lunch

Given the length of time I had been in Church and the additional time I'd been travelling there, I needed to find a toilet. Thankfully, just 200 meters down the road was a nice cafe selling sandwiches and coffee. I stopped there, placed my order and visited their toilets while it was being prepared.

I tried to be adventurous and asked for Rugbrødssandwich med røget laks, hvidløgsost og Spinit - a Rye Bread Sandwich with smoked salmon, garlic cheese and spinach and, of course, a cup of Americano. It was delicious.

Walking Back

After leaving the cafe it was another 100 yards and I was at the Queen Louise Bridge.

This bridge separates the three lakes, which are in fact manmade items from the time when the old City was walled and these were part of the moat on the glacis of the walls. They are now a lovely place to walk. Indeed, they are so popular that instead of the usual close pedestrian and cycle path, the ones here are separated by a grass verge as they are both so busy. 

The lakes are called Sortedams Sø, Peblinge Sø and Sankt Jørgens Sø with the first two being separated by Queen Louise Bridge and the final two by Gyldenløvesgade. This photo is of the housing on Peblinge Sø.  

In the gap between Peblinge Sø and Sankt Jørgens Sø keeping pedestrians and cyclist completely separate is harder, but it is managed effectively by the Danes with the steps being for pedestrians - up on the right, down on the left - and the ramps for cyclists. It seemed to work well.

At the end of Sankt Jørgens Sø is the National Planetarium building with its own fountain beside.

Across the road from the end of Sankt Jørgens Sø is another Catholic Church, the Church of the Sacred Heart - it was closed when I walked past (mid-Sunday afternoon). 

Hotel

I arrived back at the hotel at 2.30pm and Drew got back from his half-marathon at 3:10pm - having done a time of 2:26 minutes, seven minutes less than the Cardiff Half earlier in the year. I made us some teas and Drew bathed and relaxed while I updated the blog and loaded some photos.

Dinner

Given the running, when booking the holiday, I made sure that tonight's meal was going to be close to the hotel - in case Drew wasn't up to walking far. As it happens, he was fine.

The restaurant of choice was Nimb Brasserie based in the Nimb hotel the opposite side of the railway station for us. In this case the Railway station becomes a path from one side to another. 

Our table was booked for 7.30pm and we arrived a few (10) minutes early. The setting was lovely and the view outside was across the Tivoli Gardens, this hotel being designed as part of Tivoli with entrance on the park side as well as on the public side.

The meal began with some delightful bread, two rye, two white.

For starters Drew opted for the Classic steak tartare with egg yolk and cress - as ever the 'little underdone' joke reappeared! There was a really deep herbiness to the flavour and the egg was gooey.

I went with the Duck rillettes served with cornichons, mustard and grilled bread. The cornichons and pickled onions were amazingly pickled - the sharpest I've tasted and an excellent foil for the rich texture and flavour of the duck. It was like being transported to France with this food.

I also had a soup course, which was wonderfully flavoured. It was Porcino mushroom bisque with scallops cooked "mi cuit", piquillo pepper, marcona almonds and grilled olives. The crunch of the almonds and the crispness of the caramelised scallops were a great delight, but the bisque, with the sweet unctuous peppers were the real star of this delightful little morsel.

For mains Drew had Gnocchi in creamy herbal sauce with peas, spinach, courgette and parmesan. This dish was also rich in herbs, the gnocchi was nice and squidgy like a good gnocchi should be. It was just right for Drew's after race need.

While I had Danish matured ribeye Steak with pommes frites and salad. Simple but delicious - the chips were astounging crisp, the salad had a balsamic and oilive oil dressing which was perfect and, the star of the show

As for the beef, when I asked for blue steak, the waitress said her tick list only went down to rare. She said that she would ask the chefs but thought that as they were all French trained, they should be able to do it. As you can see below (vegetarians look away) they managed it perfectly.

For dessert Drew had the Peach Melba Special which had snowflakes (little bits of icecream) sprinkled over as part of the service. 

The meringue was very rich and sweet, very lightly toasted and amazing to eat. Delicious. The sponge in the melba was light and tasty and there was a nice bit of soft fruit to offset the peachiness.

 

I opted for the three 3 French cheeses with garnish and crispbread. I must have messed up using the 'night' feature on my phone, as by this time it was very dark, but when I checked this photo it was black. However, I can tell you that the cheeses were Époisses, Comté and Selles-sur-Cher. Each one of them delightful in their own way, the crispbread was thin rye bread toasted on both sides, so less like a Ryvita than I was expecting, and very crunchy. 

We finished with a cup of espresso each. Very pleased with what we had had.  

We walked back the .2 of a mile to the hotel and were there by 9.45pm and in bed by 10pm. Today I had only walked 4.1 miles. Drew had done significantly more!