Friday August 29, 1952:

I got up at a reasonable hour, bathed across the hall, and set out to find something to eat. I told the kids I’d meet them at 10 a.m. to get the opera tickets. For breakfast I found some fruit down the street, a banana, and stopped into a pastry shop. It seemed the Danish had a different shop for everything.

Magasin du Nord was my first stop after breakfast. Here I got a look at some books about Denmark and Copenhagen and ended up by buying the one with the prettiest pictures. Where had the morning gone? It was 10 o’clock, so I dashed across the street to the opera.

No friends in sight but plenty of early birds. One line extended clear across the lobby. I thought “this was going to be a little difficult.” So I decided to find out what the score was and good thing too cause it turned out that the big huge line was for the ballet. The much shorter line was for the opera.

In line I talked to a girl from Copenhagen who had come in from a summer home to get tickets. Then Betty Lou, Lucy and Carol came up just before I reached the window, so I got four tickets.
With this accomplished, I went back to Magisin du Nord to browse among the books. After some time there I bought a couple of art books. At the store I met an interesting Copenhagenite. We were talking about Copenhagen, its merits and what there was to see. He said he would like much to show me the old fortress.

After a call to his office to tell them he would be in later, we took off in a cab to the old fortress. We walked up around the fortress and through the park, where I got a good picture of a big windmill right there in the middle of Copenhagen. While walking we passed a couple on a bench making love.

There was a beautiful view through the trees to the lake beyond. As we walked down through the fortress we saw the soldiers parading around. I snapped a few pictures of the town hall and chapel at the end of the square. We continued to walk through the old gateway with the clock. I shot a picture of the gateway with a sailor walking through it. Then we sat down on an old bench and talked for quite sometime.

Somehow the conversation turned to religion, and I did my best. I knew he felt amazed that our religion meant so much to us. It was really part of our lives. He explained that his religion only came into his life two or three times a year.

The time passed too quickly and it was time for him to return to work. He said I must get up first, so I did. We went out past the statue of the woman warrior and walked past some quaint houses. I took a picture of a square with grass covered bomb shelters. From this square we took a taxi to the Town Hall square. We passed his office on the way not far from the square. Finally he walked with me over to the Town Hall and there we said goodbye.

I wandered around inside the great huge marble hall and then decided I best run across to Tivoli for some pictures before the sun decided to go away. So I quickly took a picture of the statue there in front of the town hall and one from across the street. Then I went to Tivoli from the side entrance and took four or five pictures of the different buildings, pond, and flowers.
At this time there were few people around in Copenhagen. I noticed a few other tourists like myself and some were eating at the different restaurants. I felt pangs of hunger myself, so I left Tivoli and looked around for a likely economical place to eat.

The name Cafeteria stuck out across the street. It wasn’t a large sign but I saw it nonetheless and it turned out to be not so bad. For lunch I had hamburger steak and a bowl of fruit. The rest of the afternoon disappeared in a hurry. I wandered down the boulevard toward Koenig’s Square going in and out of shops.

I got back to Koenig’s Square just a few minutes before 4 o’clock. I dashed up to get my bag because the bus was waiting to take us to the dock. Our American Express friend was there to take care of us. After passing through customs, we started the last boat ride before Swedish soil. I was just a little restless on the way over.

When we finally pulled in to Sweden It seemed like it took us an awfully long time to get off the boat. We got on the wrong side of the rope or something so it took longer. The missionaries were waving at us.

At the train station right across from the boat dock, the American Express man told us that we were close to the hotel. He also said that it took only 15 minutes to get to Lund on the train. So I had to make a quick decision of whether I was going to go to the hotel or to Lund to see my aunts.

I decided to go to the hotel and get situated before I took off for Lund. The hotel turned out to be just across the bridge and down around the corner. So when I saw the hotel entrance I turned around and headed back to the beautiful red vine covered train station across the big canal.

First I found the ticket office and bought a round trip ticket to Lund for 2.60 krona. The ticket man said there was a train leaving right away. So I found the track the Lund train was on and soon sat down in the first seat on the train.

After the train started moving, I asked the fellow across from me if he would tell me when to get off for the Lund station. He said yes and that he lived there and would show me as well. He asked me who I was going to see there. I showed him the addresses of my aunts. Well, it just so happened, luckily for me, that he works with my cousin and that he speaks a little English. So when we got off he picked up his bicycle outside the station and we started down the street.