It’s been a long 3 months since our last holiday (ok, 12 weeks to be precise).  Work has been a bit thin on the ground (graphene thin) so my longest journey lately has been to Ormskirk Market (0.7 miles) so I am getting itchy feet to travel somewhere.  I have been getting my travel fix by watching other people travel.  I have been listening to the audio book of Michael Palin’s Around the World in 80 Days, which led me to re-watch the original 1988 series.  When it was first aired this series had a great influence on me.  I remember watching it being staggered by how Michael Palin managed to go all around the world with just a canvas bag of clothes and shoulder bag, and still look so elegant and confident.   I think this is where my obsession with travelling light came from.  I wanted to be like him; but I was a spotty, disheveled, uncoordinated, unconfident 18 year old and he was a handsome, intelligent, successful, stylish man in his 40’s and could pull off wearing a Panama hat.  Turn the clock forward 30 years and I am now a  spotty, disheveled, uncoordinated, unconfident man in his 40’s, but I do now possess a canvas bag, a shoulder bag and a Panama hat.  However I also now have Karen, which puts pay to any ideas I have of travelling light.  (She’s worth it though, back pedal, back pedal.)

I wanted to be like him; but I was a spotty, disheveled, uncoordinated, unconfident 18 year old and he was a handsome, intelligent, successful, stylish man in his 40’s and could pull off wearing a Panama hat.

We are not off around the world, but next week we are off to Copenhagen. We have applied the usual Fenner formula of suspiciously cheap flights to a very expensive place, so what we save on the flights will have been blown by the time we buy lunch on the first day.  We are staying 3 nights but effectively have 4 days there.  Apparently, as well as bacon and butter, the Danes do Christmas rather well and if this cold snap is still in place next week, we could have ideal conditions to make Karen a very happy girl.  Well, except for the fact that I will be walking around behind her muttering “how much?” and “we’ll never get that back with our Easyjet luggage allowance”.  My favourite line walking around craft stalls is “I could make that”.

In preparation this week we took a trip to our local bureau de change (0.8 miles) to pick up some Danish Krone.

“The smallest denomination I have is the 100 note” the lady behind the glass said.

“What!  That’s a bit big.  How much is that worth?”.  Rapid tapping of keyboard.

“£12”

“Oh, go on then.  That might just buy us 2 coffees.”

So we are all set: flights booked; accommodation booked; car parking booked; list of late Christmas presents to buy at duty free, written.  I’ll let you know how we get on this time next week.