Hello Copenhagen, Goodbye Copenhagen. Hello London, Goodbye London.

On Thursday, after finishing with the cleaning and packing, we began our long journey home. We met Karsten's brother Lars at the Middelfart bus stop after some anxiety about whether we were in the right place or not. Middelfart is the halfway point for the trip between Aarhus and Copenhagen so there were just enough seats for us, with Griffin riding shotgun, by the bus door and beneath the coffee pot.  

I spent the journey talking with a gregarious Dane (an anomaly) named Ida (AY-da) who had spent five years in the States on a soccer scholarship. She struck up a conversation after observing me eating a sandwich and potato chips ("so American"). She and her girlfriend, who were headed from their home in Aarhus for a long weekend in Copenhagen, talked with me at length about Denmark and the Danish people. 

In Copenhagen, Pam and Rowan trained to Norrebro for some shopping and coffee shop reading (respectively) while Berit, Griffin and I dabbed to our AirBNB apartment on the canal, another spacious, gorgeous flat.  

All that talking on the bus really took it out of me but I mustered the energy to head across to the street to the Fiskatorvet mall with the kids. Berit and Griffin got drinks at the Baresso, but I had to get out of there pretty quickly. 

We walked about 30 minutes into the centrum to meet Pam and Rowan at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum. Griffin's opinion on the matter was that one art museum this trip was enough, but Berit was positive about the venture (generously so). 

Man Ray, Egyptian mummies and hieroglyphs, and French masters, all of which we fairly ran through. The kids stayed to play chess at the Man Ray exhibit while We foraged for dinner at Central Station. 

Our cabbie back to the flat, Søren, was a friendly, older Dane who we enjoyed talking with and who agreed to pick us up at 5 am Friday morning to take us to the airport. Everybody caught at least a few winks on the two hour flight to London and, after going through passport control and customs, we wended our way (speedily, via the Heathrow Express) to our Marylebone (75 Lisson Grove, Earls Court 16) flat, dumped our belongings and hit the streets. 

We nourished ourselves on coffees and pasties (oh ye delicious Cornwall pasties!) before making for Carnaby Street, Picadilly and other Soho destinations. We wound around through London, splitting up again as the girls headed to Cath Kitston and Griffin and I to Picadilly where he was pulled into some improv by a beat-boxing, saxophone-playing busker. Griffin and I wound our way through Charing Cross, through the book shops and down to Trafalger where we met the girls at Nelson's Column.

We cooled off and rested our feet in the Waterstones bookstore there. Pam bought a couple of YA books for her and Rowan. We walked down Whitehall, past the Cavalry where the changing of the guard occurs, past Westminster Abbey and across the Thames at Vauxhall Bridge (I think), turned and promenades along the Thames back up past the London Eye, leaning at the South Bank Centre where we fed ourselves among a throng enjoying various street food and music at the South Bank Love Festival. 

After 13 hours on their feet, everyone was pretty over all the walking. We took the Baker Line tube from Waterloo Station back to Marylebone. It's 6:45 a.m. It's Saturday, and we have a flight at 3 p.m.  Our idea is to hit the Portabello Market this morning, which was an absolute carnival when we found it here two years ago. We'll have to be back here at noon, collect our things and head off to Paddington Station to catch the Heathrow Express back to the airport for our 3 p.m. flight home What a long, incredible trip it's been.