I love Derby day. Brings back memories of when I went 5 years ago. It's really a spectacle and great fun. I sat on the infield and had a blast. What you don't realize watching it on TV is that it's really a whole day of racing that starts at noon and it ends with the Derby and lots of great food and fun between. You go through a tunnel under the track, drop $20 in a bucket and you're in. Warning, be careful what turn you sit in if you ever go, they have very different intentional environments. Turn #1 is for people watching, #2 is like a family picnic area, #3 is like Mardi Gras and #4 is the serious betting crowd. The year I went it rained like crazy early in the day. There was so much water that people were up to above their knees and were jumping off of things into the lakes that were forming in the infield. The rain lasted an hour or so and then it was a sunny day for the Derby and then it rained when it was over. God held the rain back for the perfect window to run the race. That year Smarty Jones won and I actually made enough with my bet on the race to pay for going and still have a bit left over. The hats really are crazy and it rocks for people watching and meeting new folks. Something I think everyone in this part of the world should try once with it only being 6 hours away.
The first white here that I just added is the airport hall in Copenhagen, pretty cool! Also added a pic of the fountains in the lake across from my hotel.
Well I'm in Silkeborg, Denmark for a week overseas. I flew first from Atlanta to Copenhagen and was thinking nothing like 10 hours of movies and food on the way over, but then uhg, no personal video screens, and thought it might be time to knock myself out with ambien for 10 hours, but never ended up sleeping much, as after dinner there was only like 3 hours to sleep until breakfast anyway. Landed in Demark. Is it a hard landing when luggage bins open and O2 masks come down? Noticed I forgot my belt at security after going through passport control, not as big of a deal as I thought. Copenhagen is a nice airport. I g0t to fly a prop plane from Copenhagen to Billund on an airline I've never heard of, yes! So small no assigned seats, just gets better. It was an ATR, the one they banned in the US because of safety issues! Ended up landing safely and was a pretty flight, you really get an appreciation of how much of a farm and island/water nation this is. Got a cab and ended up walking around a Danish flea market in the plaza outside my hotel waiting 60 min until I could check in. Same junk as in the US, food, obsolete electronics, VHS tapes, records and garage sale stuff. The hotel is in kind of a neat area, kind of like Atlantic Station area, except it's an old paper mill that's been converted. There's my hotel, condos, a movie theater (movies in English with Danish subtitles), arts center and a bunch of restaurants. Had great mexican steak dinner, so weird to not have the HUGE US portions, kind of felt cheated at first, like is that all there is?, but was perfect. Now I'm sitting in my room, actually streaming the Braves game, feels like home. Still basically light outside at 10:15, gotta love being this far north, a little cold though, 65F during the day and 45F at night. Off to bed in a bit for a 8:30am start tomorrow, but should be a pretty easy day. European hotels, especially this one, have good breakfasts too. Good night, drop me a note with any Questions about Denmark!
