Today is Thursday, September 18, 2025. Yes, Elliot and I did get home yesterday from our trip to Copenhagen and Israel. In fact, we got back much earlier than expected: I think we entered the house around 12:20 p.m. and encountered our first piece of bad news: our one apartment elevator was out of order, so we had to schlep four pieces of luggage up four flights of stairs. The second piece of bad news was our living room television set just suddenly died. It’s a Sony and I couldn’t turn it on with two remotes. I’ve unplugged the set, rebooted it several times, replaced the batteries in the Verizon remote, and that still didn’t work. I even called our cat sitter, “Laura,” to ask if she turned on the set during the time we were absent, and she admitted she never did. I asked because maybe she experienced something if she had, but it’s now a moot point. I did call Verizon Fios today to find out that they can’t do anything. Either I call a repairman to come to the house or just buy a new set. My only other option is to call a tech person whose name is “Emanuel” who we used before to do some things on our Mac to have him come up to diagnose the situation. In the meantime, I’ll just have to bother Elliot while he’s sleeping in the bedroom to watch our LG set.

Anyway, the vacation was just incredible for the number of flights we took – six altogether – and the dissimilarity of the two countries we visited. Copenhagen was brimming with hygge ( a Danish word that describes “a cozy, contented mood evoked by comfort and conviviality.” The word is pronounced “hoo-gah,” and it roughly translates to “cosiness,” but it means so much more than that. It’s literally a lifestyle that is definitely absent here and not so evident in Israel because of the tense situation engendered almost two years ago with the assault on the country by Hamas on October 7, 2023. For the most part, our Israeli section of the trip was more restful than the first leg where we did more sightseeing in the Danish capital. We primarily stayed with Elliot’s cousins in Hod Hasharon. Even though we first stayed at the Orchard Hotel near the beach for two days before taking a Gett (the Israeli version of Uber) to our cousins’ house on Friday, September 12. Then we stayed with them until September 16 when we set our phone alarm to 3:45 a.m. to get to Ben Gurion Airport for an 8 a.m. flight to Copenhagen. We had a friend of our cousins take us in his taxi to the airport at 4:30. Fo one night, we stayed at a hotel by the airport where we had a 9 a.m. flight back to the States on a Delta flight. The Israeli flights were on El Al Israel Airline.

The Copenhagen stay was noted for the amount of walking we did in various neighborhoods. I entered – without Elliot – Christiansborg Palace one day and toured the vast structure by myself, only missing out on seeing the ruins since it was close to closing time. The highlight from that day of sightseeing was seeing Christiana which is unique in its setup: it’s a self-proclaimed “free town” neighborhood on the outskirts of Christianshavn, which is the most expensive area in Copenhagen. It’s known for its alternative lifestyle and community and it’s home to around 850 residents and various businesses, cafes, and cultural venues. Elliot and I were just too dumbfounded by its anachronistic milieu in that we couldn’t think of anything like this place existing in the United States or elsewhere. Even Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco is a thing of the past and it doesn’t even come close to this throwback to the 60s. I believe Haight-Ashbury was integrated into the greater part of San Francisco, but this neighborhood was definitely not. It was all unto itself. You really have to see it to believe it!

Another day we took a one-hour canal ride in which we saw the famous Little Mermaid statue sitting by itself by the water’s edge. Our tour guide proclaimed it the second most-famous disappointing attraction in Europe; the first was Manneken Pis (“little boy pissing”) in Brussels, Belgium. Which we have seen, by the way.

The true highlight of our Danish adventure was going to world-famous amusement park Tivoli Gardens at night. It is one of the oldest amusement parks that was opened way back in 1843. There are supposed to be 40 restaurants and cafes, more so than in all of Copenhagen.

In terms of rides, I was too faint hearted to go on a regular roller coaster, so I wimped out and rode a family-style roller coaster called The Little Dragon, rode bumper cars, and walked through a haunted house instead of riding in cars on a track. This haunted house required you to put your hands on a person’s shoulders in front of you and to walk through the various rooms of this allegedly haunted house that featured live actors. Since Elliot refused to go with me to this attraction, I was assigned to walk in with a family of three from Italy, as I recall, as my haunted house companions. The only live performer I could spot was one young lady who came out of nowhere to attempt to scare us with her sudden appearance. She really did not do the trick, in my opinion. In fact, I was more amused by the “ride” than anything else.

When we got to Israel, the mood, as I suggested, did change, though the atmosphere in Hod Hasharon where our cousins lived was pretty convivial. People managed to go about their business without exhibiting any apparent tenseness. Cafes were brimming with young people – and old – having a coffee or dessert. Restaurants were full. The first night we were in Tel Aviv at the Orchard Hotel, we managed to walk to Neve Tzedek, which is an artsy-fartsy section of the city, and have dinner at a place called Suzana. The food there was very delicious. It was here that we were greeted by about four or five feral cats who begged for food. And Elliot was the one who obliged at least one of them. Tel Aviv is noted for its abundance of cats, not Copenhagen.

Two memorable events from our trip to Israel stand out: the first being was hearing a siren go off at around 3:40 a.m. to announce that we had to go to a safe room in the house to await for instructions to go back outside (here we entered the hallway since the window in our “safe room” where we slept was not completely closed) with “Becca,” our hostess. We must have waited a good ten minutes or so before Becca got the go-ahead to go back inside. So that was nerve-wracking; I don’t think I slept much after that.

The second event occurred on Sunday when Elliot’s cousin, “Ruth,” drove us almost 90 minutes to the south to view memorials to the victims of October 7: one commemorating victims killed on a particular kibbutz and the other memorializing the tragic deaths of hundreds of music festival goers at the Nova Festival who were mowed down by Hamas terrorists. At one point, we were looking down at Gaza over a bluff and seeing smoke billowing out from down below. We certainly knew what that signified. Seeing those memorials had a profound effect on both of us. Of course, Ruth had a conscious wish of not making us forget the initial atrocities committed on October 7. That cannot be denied. I just wish that the response to this first act of barbarism was not met with far greater barbarism by the Israelis, but not all Israelis have agreed with Netanyahu’s strategy here and have taken to the streets to demonstrate against his methods. Our cousins admitted that they themselves have participated in several of these massive protests. As I admitted participating in three demonstrations against Il Trumpini right here in New York to them.

Anyway, the entire trip was filled with great food, great people, and great scenery. What’s there to complain about? Getting up massively early for two flights and not sleeping on the flight returning from Copenhagen. All I recall is that I viewed three films in the 8-hour flight back to New York. One of those was High Ground from 2025 that stars Charlie Weber, Henry Thomas, and the estimable Jon Voight as the title character’s former sheriff of a father. The plot concerns the arrest of a drifter (Henry Thomas) who, we later discover, is to be a star witness against a brutal drug cartel who is embodied in the character of James Oliver Wheatley, the violent drug head gunning for Thomas. Even though there was the typical shoot-em-ups and explosives exploding, that didn’t happen until the very end of the film, while there was more character development in the rugged sheriff played by Weber who is going through his own gates of hell in his former role as a Ranger who had to make some very awful decisions that resulted in several lives lost.

Another film I did see was Bad Shabbos, from 2024. It tells the story of David (Jon Bass) and his fiancee Meg (Meghan Leathers) who steel themselves for the meeting of the future in-laws (his) on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. David’s parents are played by David Paymer as Richard and Kyra Sedgwick as Ellen who are your typical Jewish parents who are trying very hard to accept Meg’s Christian roots. The other family members gathering for this meshuganah dinner include kvetchy older sister Abby (Milana Vayntrub), tetchy younger brother Adam (Theo Taplitz), and Abby’s boyfriend, Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman), a snide Wall Street type. So far, the vibe is amusing, observant, and light, until about 20 minutes in, an accidental death occurs inside the apartment, in which the tone of the film immediately shifts to one of zaniness, as the attendees of this “bad shabbas” dinner attempt to cover up the death for the benefit of Meg’s parents, Beth (Catherine Curtin) and father, John (John Bedford Lloyd). Throw into this chaotic mix the Black doorman, Jordan, played here with gusto, Cliff “Method Man” Smith who gets dragged into the plot to cover up the death of one of the participants. At one point, he even attends the dinner in a powder-blue sweater vest and yarmulke, standing in as an Ethiopian Jew to Meg’s dumbfounded parents.

The reason I missed writing my blog is that I crashed as early as 9 lat night to sleep about 12 hours, even though I woke up several times during the night. You see, Israel is seven hours ahead of New York, and I did not sleep very much on the flight back. But I’m back now. I don’t think tonight I’ll be able to stay awake as late as I usually do; that will take some time.

And so it went!

Enjoy the pictures from our fabulous trip, by the way.

Here is the rear view of The Little Mermaid as seen on our canal ride.

This is a room in Christiansborg Palace.

This is a massive hallway in the palace.

Another room in the palace.

The throne room in which the king and queen preside. Frederik X is now King of Denmark who acceded to the throne after the abdication of his mother, Queen Margrethe. He is married to Queen Mary, who was born in Australia. They have four children.

This is the entrance to Tivoli Gardens.

More of electrifying Tivoli Gardens at night.

This is the Danish Jewish Museum that I visited without Elliot.

This is the Menorah standing outside the museum.

This sign is in Christiana.

These signposts are also in Christiana.

Here is the memorial to those killed at the Nova Festival on October 7.

Here are more plaques honoring those who died at the festival.

Ruth took us to a memorial to the burned-out cars that were devastated in the attack on October 7.

Here is a terrorist vehicle that was destroyed in the assault.

Here is a hotel near our hotel in Tel Aviv.

Here is one of the cats who had no shame approaching our dinner table to ask for food at Suzana in Neve Tzedek.