I just flew back from Europe...

...and boy are my arms tired.  Ha.  But seriously, folks: last-minute business trip to London over Thanksgiving weekend + close friends living in Stockholm = weekend in Copenhagen.  This brings my "countries I visited for the first time in 2009" tally to 6, if you count Tibet as a country separate from China, which I do: Japan, the UK, Finland, China, Tibet, and Denmark.  Not bad.I spent an afternoon at the Danish king's summer palace, which included a room with mirrors on all walls/floor/ceilings, and a variety of museum items like tiny stuff carved from what appeared to be ivory. I also ate a giant hotdog and played around on a weird sculpture in the middle of one of the squares. We stayed in a great apartment and I enjoyed the Danish graffiti (particularly the use of the word "spoon")... ...took the obligatory boat tour... ...and visited monuments like a church with a staircase winding around the outside of its spire (sadly closed for the season) and the "Black Diamond". We went to the lighting of the Copenhagen Christmas tree--which (at least for this night) was powered by people riding stationary bikes around it. Copenhagen is about to host a giant climate summit and there was no shortage of "green" messaging all over. I really like this shot--shot with my 430EX flash with a Gary Fong diffuser, set to underexpose by two stops, and the shutter dragged to get the background light. There's a nice blur on the right of some people walking by.Back in London, on my last day I made a mad dash around the tube system looking for photo opportunities at about 5:30 in the morning, before there were many people up and about. I am still waiting on my copy of Photoshopp but can't wait to play with these some more once I have it. More photos in the trip gallery.