The image could just as easily be titled “The Lost Art of Conversation.” Morning in this Saigon coffee shop finds almost everybody engaged with their mobile phones. Or leering at the passing photographer. Nary a word is being uttered.
During a recent visit to Ho Chi Minh City, my friend Mark introduced me to the Musulman Mosque in an up-market part of District 1 near Saigon’s old city hall (now the home of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City; aka, the municipal government). Formally named Jamia al-Muslimin Mosque, the building was completed in 1935 by Indian expatriates living in Saigon, which was then part of the French colony of Cochinchina. The small mosque with its distinctive architecture and color scheme is a quiet haven in one corner of a bustling city that is decidedly not known for tranquility.
My first visit ever to London. I emerged from the Westminster tube station shortly before noon on a heavily overcast Saturday morning. I was with two of my dearest friends from the US, a couple from Cambridge, Mass, and we were on our way to Westminster Abbey. We had decided to meet in London, because I am not inclined to visit the US while Trump and his crime family loot and destroy everything they can get their hands on, and my friends were happy to escape the US for a few days of catching up and hanging out in one of the world’s great cities. As we walked over to nearby Westminster Abbey, strolling and chatting definitely took precedence over searching for the perfect angle to get a photo of Big Ben. We all took a few shots of Parliament Square for the travel scrapbook and that was pretty much the end of it.
Big Ben and its surroundings are one of the most photographed urban landscapes anywhere in the world. Even if you arrive on a perfect day with magnificent natural lighting and have plenty of time to explore vantage points and shooting angles, your odds of coming up with an image that says something unique or new about Big Ben are very long indeed. When I visit places like Big Ben and Parliament Square in London, I am looking for sharp, properly exposed, and well-composed images that say “I’ve been there.” If one of my images has something that sets it apart from vacation scrapbook cliches; well, I can live with that.
Back home and looking through the pictures from the walk, I decided the photo above did a reasonable job of summarizing my trip to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Saturday tourists and a few Londoners going about their business add some motion in the foreground while a tired Churchill leans on his cane next to Big Ben, and all framed by an ominous gray sky.
When we emerged from Westminster Abbey several hours later, the clouds had gone from ominous to puffy white and the scene was bathed in warm sunshine.
Altogether a successful outcome for the day: Big Ben photos now have a place in my travel scrapbook and I have great memories of a delightful day in London.
Poor Winston, England’s WWII savior, has pigeon shit covering his head and running down his overcoat while tourists are busy smiling and posing next to his statue in London’s Parliament Square. Of course, there are those who might say that the die hard defender of a moribund, collapsing empire is getting just what he deserves from the pigeons. And I admit that I am inclined to agree with that sentiment.
Last night was Tết Trung thu – the Mid-Autumn Festival – in Vietnam (and China and elsewhere in this part of the world). In Vietnam, I associate this traditional holiday with the Lion Dance more than anything else. The neighborhood dancers that came to our home, schoolboys who all live nearby, stopped by last night to perform and bring Minh and I good fortune in the year to come. Plenty of neighbors were on hand to watch – Lion Dance performances are great fun for all. For the record the boys have been practicing their drum act for the last six weeks or so about 50 meters from my house in a place used by the government’s neighborhood committee. Rehearsals finally came to an end with last night’s performances. Another reason to welcome the arrival of Tết Trung thu.
After the drum concert concluded, the lions arrived to do their dance. Some of the troupes that tour downtown areas do elaborate acrobatic acts that draw large crowds. The dance at my home was much simpler, but also considerably more intimate and no less enjoyable than slicker acts elsewhere.
After performing in the courtyard outside my home, the lion’s moved inside for a brief tour of the house to spread good fortune throughout. Some neighborhood kids grabbed front row seats for the festivities.
Finally, the dancers concluded their performance with a bright send-off, before moving on to the house across the street.
Wertheimpark, first opened to the public in 1812, is named after a prominent 19th century Jewish banker and philanthropist. Sitting by the side of a canal and near the city’s botanical garden, the park has quiet paths lined with stately, lush green trees, several notable trees (that is, trees over 100 years old), and plenty of open space for dogs to play and neighbors to meet when they are keeping an eye on their playing dogs.
Just off to one side of the open field, there is the artist Jan Wolkers’ “Never Again Auschwitz” memorial to people who died at Auschwitz and other Nazi extermination camps. The memorial is also referred to as “Broken mirrors.”
On the Vietnam Airlines flight to Denmark, I sat next to a Swedish man returning to Stockholm via Copenhagen from a business trip to Vietnam. We got into a rambling conversation ranging from his involvement with a startup business that recycles discarded pieces of synthetic fabrics that are cut away in the production of garments to life in Vietnam, the decline of the United States in the hands of malevolent fascists, to things to do in Copenhagen.
The company he works for has been created around some useful ideas, a reminder to me that there are literally thousands of niches in our mass consumption, growth-is-always-good global economy for businesses with ideas that make life on earth a bit less wasteful and a bit more sustainable.
But his thoughts on things to see in Copenhagen were of more immediate value to me. Among other places, he recommended I visit Tivoli which, as I understood his brief description, not entirely accurately as it turned out, was a beautiful space enclosing an amusement park.
On my second day in Copenhagen I set out around 7:00 am and walked over to Tivoli Gardens only to find the place would not open until 11:00, and when it did, I would need a ticket costing around $23 to go in. I returned late afternoon on my third day, and after buying my ticket and entering the Gardens, I discovered that Tivoli is indeed a beautiful place which features far more than an amusement park that requires a fee to enter. In addition to more than two dozen amusement rides inside the park (each of which requires the purchase of another ticket), Tivoli Gardens also has: a wide variety of restaurants and eateries within, ranging from several restaurants with Michelin stars to a food court serving different kinds of street foods; replicas of a Chinese pagoda (that looks more Japanese to me) and a Moorish palace; regular music, theatre and dance performances, as well as events for kids; and a very pricey five star hotel on the grounds if you are interested in spending a night or two.
A ticket to enter the park, plus a few rides, and then drinks and dinner, an outing to Tivoli can turn into an expensive day in no time, especially for a family. Though there are various ticket deals varied to what people want to do during their visits. And there is an annual pass ticket for locals who are likely to visit Tivoli several times during the year.
As for me I spent a couple of hours walking around on a beautifully sunny and warm early June afternoon soaking in the sights and the ambience. I came across a gathering of people watching a broadcast on a huge outdoor screen. I stopped to listen to the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, a 40ish woman named Sisse Marie Welling of the Green Left party, talking with a hot shot from Michelin about Copenhagen’s efforts to turn itself into the foodie capital of Europe. Sure. Why not?
While the city’s goal did little to inspire, it did get me thinking about having a proper dinner at one of the many restaurants in Tivoli Gardens. After spending some time reading restaurant reviews, I ended up in a place called Paafuglen that serves Danish cuisine. I did the works: an aperitif, first course of seasonal white asparagus in a creamy sauce, a main of baked haddock with new potatoes and washed down with a bottle of piss elegant sparkling water, ice cream for dessert, and finally coffee. It was a delicious, memorable dinner, the service was impeccable, and it was not cheap.
Tivoli Gardens, a unique, delightful place that was absolutely worth the price of admission.
The people in this photo are commuting to work first thing in the morning. Copenhagen is definitely a bike-friendly city. There were people biking everywhere I went in the city, almost entirely on public bike paths. Some people were out for exercise and recreation, but it seemed to me that for most, bicycles provided basic transportation – from home to workplace and back, for shopping, going out on the town and more.
In looking around for information about biking in Europe and Copenhagen in particular, I ran across the Copenhagenize Index (https://copenhagenizeindex.eu/) that, according to its website “is an evidence-based benchmark tracking to what extent the world’s cities have progressed in making cycling safe, convenient, and mainstream.” If you are interested, the organization’s 2025 index report is available for download as a pdf.
The report ranks the world’s top 30 cities for bicycling; Copenhagen is number two. Three of the top 30 cities are in Canada, none in the United States. Portland and Minneapolis are ranked 35 and 44, respectively.
Several days ago Sean Duffy, the Trump-licking moron wasting space as Secretary of the US Department of Transportation, complained that bike lanes are some sort of DEI initiative. When the index ranking the stupidest countries ever is published, no question where the United States will place.