MUNICH TO COPENHAGEN

Had a final Westin Grand executive club meal and drinks yesterday. Red wine, white wine and sparkling wine with snacks, then a chicken dish with salad.

We had a hotel credit so ended the night at their bar for Ballantine's and Johnny Walker Black on rocks.

The taxi ride from the Westin Grand to Munich Airport cost around $100. Those red numbers stand for maximum speed in kilometers/hour. The 120 thus means 75 MPH. If there are four thin lines over the number, there is NO SPEED LIMIT.

Airport check-in was swift and easy. Went to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge. There is also a Business Class Lounge. Had just about exactly same meal as yesterday, salami sandwich with a German beer.

Our Lufthansa flight took off on time.

Copenhagen Airport, CPH, is the largest airport in the Nordic countries, with 31 million passengers/year before the pandemic. The Daniel Inouye Honolulu Airport only handles 21 million passengers/year.

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark with a municipality of 1.4 million people, just about the number for the State of Hawaii.

Began as a Viking fishing village in the 10th century.
Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century.
Ruled Scandinavia during the Renaissance.

The University of Copenhagen was founded in 1479, before America was discovered by Columbus. Today, a student enrollment of 39,000.
Was neutral during World War I, thus prospered by trading with both Britain and Germany.

In 2023, was ranked #2 in Global Liveability.

#1 Vienna
#2 Copenhagen
#3 Melbourne
#4 Sydney
#5 Vancouver
#10 Osaka

Also came in #2 in the 2023 Monocle Quality of Life Survey.

#1 Vienna
#2 Copenhagen
#3 Munich
#4 Zurich
#5 Stockholm
#6 Tokyo
#10 Melbourne
#15 Singapore
#20 Seoul

Note the absence of U.S. cities.
Bikes are popular, for 62% ride them to work or school.

I've been to Copenhagen several times.

It must have been at least a third century ago when I picked up a car in Stockholm, and on my way to Italy, stopped by this city.
Here is my blog from 2010 on COPENHAGEN AND UMAMI.

I mentioned that Copenhagen is known for bicycles, in two days I had not seen one person riding one. Of course, it has been snowing.
The Little Mermaid is the most recognized attraction, symbolizing Hans Christian Anderdsen's fairy tale.
15 years ago Monocle picked Copenhagen as the second most livable city. Note that it remained #2 last year.

The Umami in the title is the name of a French-Japanese fusion restaurant I experience, and loved.
In this posting I indicated that tomorrow I would be going to Noma.

So my blog the next day was titled, NOMA AND CHEF RENE.

In 2010 Noma was only the third best restaurant in the world, to #1 El Bulli and #2 Fat Duck.
However, Rene Redzepi had recently been voted the best chef on the entire globe.
You can read the rest of this posting.

I seem to be following my same 2010 itinerary, as I was scheduled to then move on to Amsterdam, something I will do next on this trip. So, anyway, should you wish to read that 25February2010 article, it is titled TODAY IN AMSTERDAM.

So anyway, we checked into the Marriott Copenhagen. Our view is that of the Nyhavn, the waterfront and entertainment district of the city. Plus, a short walk away Tivoli Gardens, the signature attraction of the country. Return tomorrow to see what we will do on our only full day in Copenhagen.

Walked 4963 steps.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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