Dennis & Aimee's Big Gay Paris Adventure

What should you do when you're super-busy? Plan a vacation, of course!

It's been nuts around here. Work is nuts (though the stuff James is turning out is incredible, and a pleasure to promote), I'm behind in French School homework (as a result), and this is the first weekend we've been home alone in over 6 weeks. I expect the whole month of June to be challenging, but one of my favorite things to do is plan travel, so why not just pile that onto the heap?

So, we're going to Copenhagen for the 4th of July. We're leaving the night of June 30 at 8:45pm, and returning July 5 at 5p or so. This is part of my master plan to go north for the summer and south for the winter. I had been hoping to go even more north, but after reading a bit about the cities in Sweden, Norway, and Finland... Well, let's just say that nothing struck me the way Copenhagen did. It sounds amazing.

Now, here's a funny fact: Denmark is the only country outside the United States to celebrate American Independence Day, and Tivoli's midnight fireworks are decidedly not big bang, but delicate twists of gold and silver. (WHY do they celebrate 4th of July? No clue. But it should be fun for us anyway!)

The tourist season peaks in June, July, and August, when daytime temperatures are often in the 70s (21°C to 26°C) and sometimes rise into the 80s (27°C to 32°C). In general, the weather is not overly warm, and a brisk breeze and brief rainstorms are possible anytime. Nights can be chilly, even in summer.

In June, the sun rises in Copenhagen at 4 AM and sets at 11 PM! That means it's not dark until midnight! I'm trying to talk Dennis into staying up all night the first night we're there, so we can see the sun rise. Since we get in at 10:30p, this should not be too hard. If we manage it, it's possible that I can see the aurora borealis on the same trip (thus eliminating my burning desire to go north in the winter, contrary to "the plan".)

There are ferries that go to Sweden, so that might be on the itinerary, but the biggest draw is Tivoli Gardens. I had heard that name before, but I never really knew what it was. Here's what they have to say at the spectacular site http://www.woco.dk:

Situated in the heart of the city, Tivoli has been visited by more than 270 million people since 1843. Here is everything a tourist may desire from a fairytale garden: 32 restaurants, 26 amusements, 400.000 flowers, 110.000 lamps, 150 concerts, artiste shows, Tivoli Boys Guard and international stars. And two times weekly the skies above are illuminated by the famous fireworks.

The newest addition to the funrides is a quite impressive roller coaster called The Deamon.

No, really. Like, there are giant pagodas and taj mahals and stuff all lit up at night (short as that may be) and concerts and parades and rides and games, but its charter says it needs to remain 75% parkland, so it's all of this in a fairytale garden. Oh, and fireworks too. Everything I read *swears* it's not Disneyfied. I can't wait.

I'm wondering if Dennis will let me read him my favorite Hans Christian Andersen story (which would be The Tinder Box -- if you'd like to read it, it's here). It's his 200th birthday, or rather, it would be if he weren't dead, and he was from Denmark. My cousin Dolly used to read me fairy tales from his books when I was a child. Other favorites (all available at the above site) include Thumbelina (I was a very small child, but not quite that small) and The Fir Tree, which is the saddest Christmas story you'll ever read.

So, other than that, no new news. This weekend I hope to accomplish nothing. Well, ok, except some laundry, french homework, and getting big stuff from the grocery.

--Aimee