Rejser længere væk i København - Travelling further afield in the Copenhagen

 

Early Morning

Tuesday, our second Tuesday in Copenhagen arrived, it was another day with me waking up at 5.30am, not bad, there have been holidays when mornings have started at 3.30am! 

With Malmo having been so busy yesterday I had a lot of photos to upload and name on Flickr in between making cups of tea/coffee for Drew and I in the hotel room. So, even with the best intentions of leaving the hotel at 9am, not to be too late for breakfast, in the end, by the time we had both got washed and dressed we didn't leave the hotel until 9.50am.

Our plan for today was to venture to parts of Copenhagen we had not yet visited. Before the trip I had complied a list of 'must see places' informed by Visit Copenhagen's Top attractions in Copenhagen, Time Out's The 17 Best Things To Do In Copenhagen and Trip Advisor's Top 10 Attractions In Copenhagen and edited to our interests. Armed with this list there were only two places that really stood out for us that we hadn't managed to get to in our earlier days here, the two were Grundtvig's church and Amager Strandpark, which are on opposite sides of town from each other. 

Breakfast

Having renewed our Copenhagen City Pass on our DOT apps on Saturday we walked the one block from the hotel to the Stampesgade metro station to catch the metro to the Radhust station, from here it was a short walk to the Buzz Kaffebar that we had enjoyed so much on Saturday morning. We arrived at 10.00am and had a lovely breakfast.

Drew stayed with the Orange Juice he'd tried last time we were here, whereas I went with the drink called Hygge, which was a delicious mix of strawberry, apple and ginger - really refreshing.

For food we both had, again, the dish called Eggs and Sausage, which is such an amazing platter of delights. The description of it is here. Filling and delicious.

Suburban Train

On leaving Buzz we walked the five minutes to the Vesterport suburban train station, our City Pass, in addition to covering us for the metro, buses, waterbuses also allow for travel on the suburban trains in the City. So, today was our chance to try one.  

Vesterport Station is, as you can see in the photo below, built in a cutting between two sides of a very busy road in the middle of the City.

The view from the platform, see below, is also evidence of the urban nature of the location. In fact, the station is quite a busy one with four lines converging here. 

Only one of the four trains headed in the direction to which we wanted to travel, the B train, it arrived at 10.08am and we embarked on our way to Emdrup Station, the nearest station to our destination. 

Emdrup, though only 15 minutes away from central Copenhagen, is green and airy. Even the station looks more like a park than a railway station.

Everything is green in colour and in environmental terms too, down to the green planted roof over the platform.

Grundtvig's Church

Grundtvig's Church is, along with the Marble Church which we visited last Tuesday, one of the best-known churches in the City. 

When visiting the Marble Church, I mentioned the influence of Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, the poet, priest, hymn writer, teacher, philosopher, historian and politician on Danish culture and life. His most significant influence being on a restoration of Danish language and traditions at a time when the Danish Royal Family, of German stock, had introduced Germanic usage into both language, religion and teaching in Denmark, Grundtvig drew on the empowerment of the Danish rural population to renew Danish life. His contemporaries noted that he had renewed the Danish language and created a popular and national self-confidence. It is this same Grundtvig for whom this church (Grundtvigs Kirke in Danish) is named. 

On Grundtvig’s death in 1872 it was felt that a memorial to this great man shouldn’t be a small plaque or even a statue, but a church built in one of the new areas of the City, so that the faith which had been the centre of his life should be celebrated, or perhaps incarnated, in the up and coming community of Bispebjerg. A competition was held and in 1913 the architect Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint was selected to build it. He adopted the Expressionist style, which is very evident throughout the grand church. However, due to World War 1 the work didn’t start until 1921, the tower was complete by 1926, but the church and the surrounding buildings weren’t completed until 1940. 

Perhaps most striking is the frontage or tower of the church – it is an amazing edifice and approach the church from the direction of the Bispebjerg Cemetery at the end of the avenue it looks more like a mountain than a building, reminiscent in some ways of the approaches to great Baroque cathedrals.

Indeed, not only does it look like a mountain, but it actually gives its name to one. In 1936 Danish mountaineers saw the peak of one of the unnamed Greenland mountains and called it Grundtvigskirken, this image (borrowed from this site) shows the reason for the name!

I could spend the next section of the blog in superlatives about this church, its height, the amazing light, the way the tower, so dramatic outside is unnoticeable inside, all are striking, but I’d recommend you look for yourselves – the photos start here on Flickr, you’ll see there are plenty, both in and out. 

Indeed it is like no building I’ve ever seen before. 

Amager Strand

Having been awed by the designed grandeur of Grundtvig's Church our afternoon was spent in the contrast of the sandy coast of Copenhagen.

We caught the 12.24pm train from Emderb staying on this time to Norreport Station which has connection with the Metro, we caught the M2 from Norreport to Amager Strand station. The route was like this:
 

We arrived at 1.28pm and walked from the station towards the shore and in to Amager Strandpark. 

The map shows the scale of this open space by the sea, the second photo the way that land and sea have been integrated here to make for an amazing park area for pedestrians and cyclists and, as we saw, canoeists, paddleboarders and windsurfers.

Lots of Bike parking

Wind Surfing

Canoeists 

The park also led us past large numbers of windmills, Drew had been updating me about the huge increase in wind energy in Denmark since we arrived here last week, so now we had evidence of it. 

We also got to see our old friend, the wonderful Øresund Bridge which looks even more dramatic from this side of the strait that it does from Malmo.

Having walked for three miles we found ourselves closer to the Femøren station, the one further down the line, than the one we had got off. We caught the M2 from here to Kongens Nytorv and changed there for the M3 to København Metro Station a 21 minute journey, with a 400 metre walk back to the hotel. We arrived back at 3.30pm time to shower and dress before heading out for our last evening in this lovely city, but more of that in the next blog post. 

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!

Memorials and History in Copenhagen

The Lutheran Cathedral - Copenhagen

I woke this morning just before 5am, as usual and upload and named all of yesterday's photos for Flickr.

I then did my weekly Saturday task of checking my SIPP and our ISAs on Hargraves Landsdown's site, down by 1.1% since last week! I then uploaded the newsletter to the Parish Website. I made coffee for Drew and I when he awoke at 7am.

After coffee and ablutions, we left the hotel at 9am.

Walking into the City Centre

We decided, having walked around the back of the Central Station (Tietgensgade) the first three times, that today we would venture around the front (Vesterbrogade).

The road led us to the Liberty Memorial (Frihedsstøtten) standing in the middle of the road. This monument marks the Ordinance on the Release of the Stavnsbaandet from the Estates for the Peasant Mandkiøn on 20th June 1788. This being 100 years before the 'Release of the Serfs' a similar action in Russia under Tsar Alexander II. It sees Denmark moving from a feudal to a capitalist economy. 

A slight detour up a paved street called Axeltorv, led us to the Danish Film Institute (Palads), which is situated in the old Railway Station building which closed in 1911 when the new station was built. 

Axeltorv is interesting in its own right as it has the plants of the Solar System marked out by statues at roughly equivalent scale distances from each other. I particularly like Pluto (which was still a plant when these were created)

In line with the scale the four near plants, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are much closer together than the distant ones.

You can see them all, including a close up of the very grim looking Mars on Flickr - starting with Pluto here.

Crossing the Main Road (Hans Christian Andersens Boulavard), we came to City Hall Square and a few blocks from there to Buzz Kaffebar at the corner of Larsbjørnsstræde and Sankt Peders Stræde. 

We stopped here for breakfast.

Breakfast

Buzz Kaffebar has an amazing range of Brunch options which they offer from opening (9am on a weekends, 8am on weekdays until 12 noon).

We opted for the one called Egg and Sausages which, as a brunch comes with Coffee and Juice.

As usual I had an Americano and Drew a Latte. Drew had a straight orange juice whereas I was tempted by their mixes and chose the one called Strong. This was orange, carrot and ginger - mainly tasting of orange it had a carrot earthiness and little zings of ginger. I'd recommend it if you happened to be passing (as we may in the next few days!)

The Breakfast when it came belied its simple name. We each had a board with scrambled eggs and sausages, halloumi cheese on rucola in a spicy vinaigrette, blueberry porridge, avocado with pomegranate, fresh fruits (orange, watermelon, grapes and pomegranate), hummus sprinkled with paprika with olives, pancake with strawberry and a breadbasket of sourdough and rye to share. Drew and I swapped our porridge (which was more a yogurt) and fruit with each other. It was delicious and filling.

Sankt Petri Kirke

We walked along Sankt Peders Stræde to Sankt Petri Kirke/Saint Peter's Church an amazing building the spire of which can be seen from almost everywhere across the city. We had walked past it earlier in the week, but with a hearse pulling up at the time, we decided to miss visiting until later in the week. So, we are here on this Saturday morning.

Saint Peter's Church is the oldest existing church in Copenhagen. The nave dates back to Catholic times (1450) but it was enlarged in the 17th century by addition of a North and South aisle. In 1575 King Frederick the Second established it as a German church as the Danish royal family, notably his Queen. had a German heritage. The church still serves the German speaking community in Copenhagen. It has a bright open feel to it.

Beside the church - attached by the west door - is a large and ornate set of burial or sepulchral chapels. Those buried here range from the foundation period of the church to the present day, including a large area for memorial plaques and another for urns with cremated ashes.

There are 57 photos of the church and burial areas on Flickr - start here and swipe/click left

Copenhagen University

Opposite St. Peter's, and beside the Cathedral, is the Consistory House, the main ceremonial building of Copenhagen University.

The building has a range fo statues of scholars of the past, mainly long dead men (photos on Flickr), but one is of Inge Lehmann, the famous seismologist who did her research into seismological waves at the university.

The Reformation Memorial

In the spirit of memorials and history which have seemed to characterise our day today the next thing we saw, opposite the front of the Cathedral, was the Reformation Memorial. 

The monument isn't as old as it looks, being created to mark the 400 years' anniversary of Denmark's change from Catholicism to the Evangelical-Lutheran faith in 1536. All pictures here. 

Copenhagen Cathedral - The Church of Our Lady

The Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke) as it is now, was built in 1829, after the English Navy bombarded it, on the site of the 1187 church of Bishop Absalon. Absalon was Bishop of Roskilde, the then capital of Denmark, and established a port on the Baltic for the nation called Havn, which has become Copenhagen (Kobenhavn) as it developed and outgrew its neighbouring towns. The front of the Cathedral is picture at the top of today's post. The inside, sparsly decorated, but well lit, is below. 

Our Lady's Church is the mother church of the Danish National Church and the Bishop is the religious leader of the Church, the Monarch being the Head of the Church. It is famed for its statues of Christ and the Apostles, copies of which we saw in the Bertel Thorvaldsen Museum on Wednesday. All 59 photos including the church, its statutory and images of past Rectors and Bishops can be seen starting here. 

Round Tower

The round tower is a fascinating site in the very heart of the city. It was built in by King Christian IV as an observatory. It was built in the early 1600s, prompted by the research of the astronomer Tycho Brahe, who died in 1601. Though he was not much liked by the King, Christian believed that the work was so important it should be taken up by others. Brache's leaving of his notes to Kepler, the German astronomer, didn't go down well with his fellow countrymen. 

Trinity Church

Next to the round tower, indeed connected to it, is Trinity Church. While the queue to climb the Round Tower was long, a visit to the Church was easy with hardly anyone inside. So, we spent more time here than in the tower. 

Like the Round Tower, the Church was built at the request of King Christian IV who wanted a Church for the professors and students of the University. 

Christian's Trinity wasn't the normal one - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - but the church, the tower and the royal book collection. Or as he put it (at least in translation):

• A church for the Holy Trinity
• A stronghold of books 
• A star castle of wonderful execution

Unlike most of the other churches of this era, Trinity is no in the Dutch Renaissance style, but in a mix of reformation styles influenced by the earlier Gothic traditions, as can be seen from the windows (see below along with the clock, pointed opposite the pulpit, as a reminder to the preachers. The windows will will look familiar to people who know Catholic Churches and Cathedrals of the centuries before, something Christian IV might not have liked being reminded of, as he was at the Diet of Worms hearing Martin Luther make his impassioned plea for a new Church and, as King, he brought reformation to his home country, deposing his Catholic forbear - Christian III (a distant relation). 

As ever, more photos of the inside can be seen here. 

Freedom Museum

The final item of our day's visits was the Museum of Danish Resistance also known as the Freedom Museum. This is an account of the German occupation of Denmark from 1940 to 1945. A theme very much in my mind after the visit to the Danish Jewish Museum but presented here in an effective way.  

The Museum makes fantastic use of Audio-Visual for a warts and all account of Denmark, its royalty, its politicians and its people during the 1940-1945.

It uses five characters who wrote about their experience before they died. An engineering student, a communist activist who had fought in Spain's civil war, a housewife who formed part of the resistance, a young man who was studying medicine and a member of the Danish Nazi party all of whom, especially the latter, offered very different perspectives on their experience with their own words being voiced in English or Danish depending on your preference. A little about each of these characters can be read here:

• Musse Hartig
• Jørgen Kieler
• Thorkild Lund-Jensen
• Karl Christensen
• Henning Brøndum

There words were supported by artefacts, stories about the wider events for each of the five years and physical artefacts of them and others from the period. Including a jumper of a man killed while he was trying to signal to British Planes to deliver weapons.

Another, of one of the characters above, whose shirt that he was wearing as he died, worn and torn though it is, is here in the Museum.  

The impact of this place is immense - the photos, tell some of the story. You can view all 128 of them starting here with a view of the undemonstrative exterior and clicking/swiping left. 

Preparing for Tomorrow

One of Drew's objectives for today was to not exhaust himself before his half-marathon tomorrow. He set conditions on how far he was willing to walk, so we stayed well below the milage we have walked on most days of this break so far.

However, after the two and a half hours we spent in the Museum of Danish Resistance, he did want to check out the location from which he is to begin his run. We caught the Metro to the nearest station - Vibenshus Runddel Station - and walked the short distance to the loos (an important part of any race, I'm told!)

and the statue near to the start point for his age and speed category. So, he has some landmarks [Co-Pilot's note: I have, dear readers, a tendency to get lost, very, very easily.] when he is here on his own (well on his own with 25,000 others) tomorrow.

That done we got back on the metro and arrived at our nearby station - Copenhagen Central Station - at 3.45pm having walked just under six miles, 14,000 steps.

Dinner 

From 3.45pm until 6.15pm we had a cup of tea or two (drinking coffee each morning means we have some spare tea bags that it is good to use up) while editing and loading photos on Flickr and completing one of yesterday's blog posts. 

We left the hotel at 6.15 for the short walk, two blocks, to the restaurant for tonight - Ristorante Bueno. Drew had suggested an Italian would be a good meal for him the day before the race as the pasta would help him load up with carbs. When we found there was a restaurant with a good reputation so close we booked it last Wednesday, by then the 6.30pm slot was the only one free.  

The Meal started with bread and olive oil to dip it in, with some black and green olives. Drew enjoyed the dipping but left all the olives for me. He likes the taste but not the texture, so far be it from me to complain!

For starters I opted for Carpaccio di Salmone Con Limone. The smoked salmon was slicied thinly and was delicious, the lemon was sharp and the dill drew out the taste of the fish. The little additions, the tomatoes, chives, lemon and orange all got eaten and provided a freshness to the whole dish -  delizioso as the Italian's say.

Drew also had carpaccio, this time the Carpaccio di Manzo. with finly cut beef and generous heloing of Parmesan cheese. Drew again did his joke about it being a bit undercooked!! But he eat it and the rocket and tomatoes, leaving an empty plate, which is praise indeed.

My mains was Papperdelle Filleto e Tartufo, the pappardelle was as el dente as it is supposed to be, it provided a wonderful vehicle to get the tasty pieces of well cooked beef into my mouth along with the rich earthiness of the delightful truffle. Again, a word of Italian springs to mind - Bellissimo.

Drew, looking for uncomplicated flavours with plenty of body opted for the Ravioli Al Pomodoro e Basilico with parmesan on top. The three large ravioli were filled with strong cheese and the tomato and basil made the whole dish complete. A perfect pre-run meal.

I think I, being greedy, would probably have had a third course in the Italian, antipasto, pasta, main, dessert tradition. But it was not to be. I'm sure I'll survive one night with a dinner that suits Drew's running needs, not my delight in getting up from the table feeling full. There have been plenty of times on this holiday when we have managed the latter!

We finished the meal and got back to the hotel by 8pm. Drew sat and contemplated his run [Co-pilot's note: he means, dear readers, that I spent half an hour trying to get the bib on my t-shirt] and I relaxed until we went to bed at 10pm. Hopefully, in Drew's case, ready for the morrow.