Tomorrow we return to the US of A. Crazy how this month flew by; it seems like just yesterday that we were sliding down sidewalks in Portugal. Now it’s time to go home and figure out how to pay the bills.

Anyway, Denmark has been great fun. This place has a great vibe. I don’t know if it’s caused by the hundreds of bags of Matador Mix lining the walls of the grocery stores … or the fact that they get to use an ‘a’ and ‘e’ squished together as an actual letter (æ). Whatever it is, it makes the country a rather enjoyable and relaxing place to visit. Copenhagen is a busy city, but it’s small enough that it’s managable and stress-free (at least for a visitor like me). You can get anywhere you need to go on a bicycle. And it appears to be the preferred mode of transportation. I’ve never seen this in any other city I’ve visited. With the exception of a drive to Hillerød to visit a castle, it seems like everything we’ve done has been five or ten minutes away.

Even Sweden is close. We took a train over the Oresund Bridge to spend the afternoon in Malmo with Annette. Malmo (they pronounce it Mal-muh) sort of like Copenhagen without bike lanes. Apparently it’s a bit cheaper too, so we stocked up on some licorice. I nearly had to take a knee when i tasted the salt licorice from a street vendor. It was stupid good.

So I should wrap things up here. It’s been fun posting items on this blog and keeping in touch with you all. Maybe I’ll keep this blog alive and chronicle my future travels between Montclair and Clifton and Bloomfield. Or not.

Take care and we’ll seeya in NJ sometime soon.

So what’s a trip without some Top 3 rankings? I’d do Top 10, or even Top 5 rankings, but we didn’t visit that many countries … and who would want to read it anyway? Maybe I’ll add some more later, but for now, here goes:

Best adult beverages:

1. Sagres Bohemia (Lisbon)
2. Carling Extra Cold (London)
3. Carlsberg Special (Copenhagen)

Best transportation:

1. Germany trains (ICE is their national network of trains)
2. London buses (they’re everywhere — with little waiting time)
3. Lisbon trolleys (hop on/hop off … SF style)

Best caffeine:

1. Barcelona (every cup was perfect)
2. Lisbon (dark and strong — like me)
3. Copenhagen (ahh, homemade)

Best cuisine:

1. Spain (tapas at midnight is a beautiful thing)
2. Germany (meat, potatoes, goodness)
3. Portugal (they put a fried egg on every dish — can’t go wrong)

Best desserts:

1. Denmark (come now…)
2. Portugal (tarts from Belem, pastries)
3. France (apple tarte tartin, etc … just don’t eat it on the Metro)

Worst odor on a human being:

1. Paris (Metro + hot day + Parisian = stank)
2. Barcelona (it’s hot there, but no excuse)
3. Lisbon (not toooo bad, but needed a third)

Worst odor not on a human being:

1. Cheese in France
2. Garbage day in Barcelona
3. The bottom of my backpack

Jamie’s favorite cities:

1. Paris
2. Brugge
3. Copenhagen

Tom’s favorite cities:

1. Lisbon
2. Brugge
3. London

Worst attempt at blending in with the locals:

1. Josh calling a waitress in Spain ‘Senor’
2. Jamie speaking English with accent to hide fact that she’s American
3. Tom blended in very well

Most English speakers:

1. Denmark
2. England
3. Germany

Best names heard along the way:

1. Flip
2. Gert
3. Bent

Here’s are some shots from England, Brugge, Berlin, Wittenburg and København.

We’ve arrived in Denmark, the last leg of the journey. We spent about eight hours traveling by train from Berlin through Hamburg to Copenhagen. At one point (at the very northernmost tip of Germany) the train actually rolled onto a ship and was ferried across the Baltic Sea. We were able to get off the train and walk around on the ship for the 45-minute crossing. Pretty crazy.

It’s nice to see family and stay in some comfortable surroundings. We had dinner (and licorice) (and Carlsberg) at Sonja and Stefan’s (cousins) house last night. I’m at my Aunt Inger’s place now, typing away on a keyboard that has fun characters like: æ, ø, å, £. So it’s all gøød. We’ll be going to Annette’s (cousin) church this morning and plan on going to Tivoli tonight. I’ll try and get some photos up later.