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Published: October 26th 2011
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The next morning definitely dawned too early – as in, my dad had to text me when I was supposed to already be downstairs to see if I was okay. And I was still asleep. Good thing I had a few minutes!
We had another good morning session, and again headed off to lunch – this time at Tivoli gardens. I’d read about Tivoli in a murder mystery several years ago that took place in Copenhagen, and looked forward to seeing it. It’s supposed to be one of the most famous landmarks in the city. We took a short coach ride, and walked a short distance to get to the entrance and our restaurant, Groften, was close by.
The group filed in, and we were in a private room overlooking the rest of the restaurant. The meal was to be served family style – and it was a smorgasbord. It’s just something you have to do when you’re in Denmark! Unfortunately, we had no idea how many courses would come out, but it worked out fine.
Lunch started with everyone getting a huge beer (I went with coke) and each table getting a bottle of acquavit – dangerous
stuff at the best of times, let alone lunch. Let’s just say that the singing started well before the middle of the meal.
The first course was two kinds of pickled herring. I skipped it, but I heard from a number of people that they very much enjoyed the curried herring. The next course was a large piece of fish that had been deep fried. I’m sure you’ll be shocked, but I skipped that too, and stuck with bread for the time being (though, even I'll admit that it smelled pretty good!).
Fortunately the next course (yep, we were on our third already!) involved some meat – some of it was raw, but I skipped over that, and had some roast beef and mayo on bread, with some hardboiled egg, and some bacon. If there’s bacon, I must eat it of course!
This course went on for a while, and I was sure the next would be our final one.
No.
The next course was a pate (covered in bacon – I ate the bacon) and some pork. There may have even been another main meal course after that – I can’t even remember at
this point! – but we definitely finished with a cheese course. The cheese was fabulous, and the red grapes were an excellent pairing.
By this time, we’d lost some people to shopping and walking around, while others were well into the acquavit. I left at about 3:30 because I was tired and wanted to wander back to the hotel – I hoped to go along the shopping street, but, no surprise, I got lost and missed it entirely. Fortunately, I figured out how to get back to the hotel, which was a good thing. Once back at the hotel, I finished packing and put my feet up for a little while, and then learned that a few in the group hadn’t left lunch until 5pm.
You read that right.
So dinner would be interesting…
I showered and dressed for the gala in a new silver dress I’d just gotten, and headed downstairs. Only my dad and one of our hosts was there. I didn’t take this as a good sign. No one was really showing up, and we were starting to get very worried – until one of the delegates pointed out that we’d noted in
the materials that we’d leave at 8, not 7:30. Oops. But better early than late!
Eventually almost everyone showed up, but we lost two of the drinking crowd from the afternoon. The gala dinner was at Moltkes Palae, which was fortunately not far from the hotel – so we could walk.
We headed over, and I was a bit confused because the name on the door of the place we went into wasn’t Moltkes Palae – but we were in the right place! They led us into a set of rooms where we were to have our cocktails. I met our photographer, who mingled, taking photos of the group (and hopefully some candids – she didn’t seem to shoot much, and there’s no reason for that with a digital camera!).
After about thirty minutes, we rounded everyone up to go upstairs…only they weren’t ready for us! Fortunately, our chairman had the idea to line everyone up on the stairs for a full group photo. It was very complicated, but incredibly funny and definitely distracting. I hope the photos came out well!
Finally, we could go into the room where we were to have dinner…and of course,
they’d not put out the seating chart or table numbers. Fabulous. Fortunately, I had a list of all the table assignments with me, and with a few last minute changes, we managed to get everyone seated. Good thing I'm anal...er, detail-oriented.
Dinner was again excellent – most of the group had a seafood medley (I love when they use the word medley in a menu), and those of us not eating seafood had some kind of soup. We debated what it could be, and I think it ended up being cauliflower. It was quite good, minus the over abundance of dill that seemed to be everywhere this trip. I like dill as much as the next person, but not piles of it!
Anyway.
The main course was veal with a potato gratin (supposedly – it was good, but it wasn’t a gratin). Everyone enjoyed it immensely, and the delegate sitting next to me had two helpings of meat and four servings of potatoes! He was concerned I’d put him on the “potato list” like those on my “alcohol list.” I promised him that being on the "potato list" wasn't a serious offense in my book!
Just
after the entrée, we did out gift presentation and speeches – as we were getting to the microphone, one of the erstwhile delegates arrived. He was still a bit drunk, but he was there. We found a table for him, did our speeches, and got ready for the entertainment.
My dad and I knew what the entertainment was, but it was a secret from everyone else – we had arranged for comic waiters to serve the dessert. As we were getting ready for them to come out, our erstwhile delegate decided to make a speech of his own. I slapped my forehead with my palm and hoped for the best. Fortunately, it was quite funny, but when he started to get a bit long-winded, my dad cut him off.
As the waiters came out, I chuckled to myself in anticipation of what was coming. They began by serving more wine at the tables, and the head waiter introduced himself to me. The other waiter who came to our table was acting as though he was drunk, and several of the delegates were concerned. Some of the waitresses were flirting with delegates, or moping around, and people were definitely
concerned. It occurred to most of my table that it was a joke, but it took a few of them a bit longer to catch on – for me, that was one of the more hilarious things, watching their shock over these waiters’ behavior and thinking they were real waiters!
Finally, they went to the microphone and introduced themselves – still in character. They spent the rest of the evening joking with guests, doing everything from teasing one of our board members about paying for the entire meal, joking that our chairman wanted us to toast just him, pretending to fall in love with one of the delegates and even singing a few songs dedicated to the group. It was a riot and everyone enjoyed it immensely.
I had been a bit nervous since we didn’t have any major entertainment planned, but the group really enjoyed it, and the crepes suzette and ice cream we had for dessert. After a little while longer, the majority of us headed back to the hotel bar for a quick nightcap, and my dad and I were able to get out of there by one am. Of course, I was up until
three am, but c’est la vie.
All in all, it was a lovely and successful conference, full of a lot of laughter and warm feelings – that’s the best kind. But I am glad to be on my way home, to snuggle my puppies, and recover from my jet lag and lack of sleep! Copenhagen and London were great, but there’s no place like home.
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