Copenhagen

Why don't people talk more about this wonderful city? Maybe it's because it's summer but this is a walking person's dream- pedestrian streets, squares, happy people, English-speaking, harbors, canals, cafes, restaurants, museums absolutely everywhere, clean clean clean, and shopping for those who love Scandinavian prices. It's not a vista city- upper management was less enthusiastic snapping photos than in other places, but you have such a sense of content here, you feel like you have to wake up from the dream (and Copenhageners probably do in their dark, wet, windy winter).

On Fri Jul 11 alone the program had 110 performances around the city for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. We managed to see 4 in 2 days, all free (this city rules!)- surprisingly all performers spoke Danish- there must be a lot of Danish jazz musicians. We heard everything from vocal to young guys playing modern to five 60-somethings puffing oboes and trumpets to traditionals- crowds from 50 to 500. It was great- we'll have to see the Williamsburg Festival in Sep in NY.

So supposedly Danes are the happiest people in the world- is it the social capitalism inherent in Scandinavia or that this is a fairly homogenous, educated, content small country. The travel book said the attitude to working longer hrs here is "Why? You just get taxed more.". Maybe they're happy because everyone at the top is scuppered and no one is rich to make the rest feel bad. It's hard to find luxury shopping in Copenhagen- we saw more H&Ms and Zaras than all luxury stores combined. Could it work in the US? Will Obama try? He better not- I am holding my wallet.