Sometimes you drop off the writing wagon for a while. Sometimes for more than a while. Perhaps the truth is that, when you‘ve done the trip of trips, around the world mainly by train, with scrapes, spills and strange men trying to sell you raccoons, all else seems pedestrian in the world of holidays.

But life’s what happens in the gaps. It’s been over 7 years since my return from Big Travels, and I’ve settled back into normality. The call of the road is always there, especially with 11yrs left until retirement from the Police, but now it happens in small chunks.

For a while I’ve been using Facebook as my primary organ for travel blah. It’s fine, and it’s accessible, but it does have its limitations in terms of the length and verbosity of the bilge I can emit. And also I miss the craft of good photography and sentences longer than 5 #hashtags.

So, four years on you have me back here. After BlogPad gradually went belly up I’ve finally found a way to edit WordPress via Jetpack, an iPad app. Time will tell how user-friendly it turns out. And I’m back in the game with a little Sony RX100 camera.

The last one really wasn’t right after being repeatedly dropped on it’s head-perhaps why I’m such a weird adult- eventually turning out into main board failure, which I definitely hope not to emulate.

The best photos are the ones you get hanging off a train or snap on a spur of the moment, and I find that I can’t do this with a bigger camera I actually need to keep safe in a case…possibly a theme here.

Mark and I have a fairly varied travel history for our five years together. Our last big trip on here was, by sheer luck and happenstance immediately before the pandemic, the gigantic spanner in everyone’s works. That was definitely fortunate, as evidenced by our cancelled trips amd ridiculously bureacratic brief outings in the 2 years hence.

We’ve slightly lost the short break habit since then. Blame the flight market, competing work schedules or, heck, the cost of living makarkey.

Despite this, last year saw a magnificent trip to Thailand and Singapore…definitely proving that a simple beach hut existence knocks the socks off Singapore and all its…neuroses. We alao managed to knock Singapore Airlines off our personal pedestal…not all that, at least in Economy.

Planning for this most recent trip began a few months ago. Mark has wanted to go back to the US for a while. Wouldn’t be my first choice, but it’s always nice to explore new places.

As is the way my mind works, the initial impetus for the exact destination came from a cracking deal. The flight market hasn’t been the same since COVID, but this seemed almost error fare good.

Heathrow to LA, premium economy with SAS for £640 return. The only slight snag, or bonus, is that you had to go via Copenhagen, their hub. Now personally, I love a stopover, it can feel like a second holiday. And direct flights ain’t all that, after our awful Cape Town rickety 747 direct flight with BA as a recent memory.

We couldn’t carve out a whole day in Copenhagen, but the schedule seemed to permit a couple of beers before onward leg in the morning, so we went for it.

SAS Plus is a recent development with Scandinavian Airlines. The major bonus is that much of the product is treated and ticketed as business class, therefore meaning Star Alliance lounge access and enhanced benefits on all legs. Including fast track security and bags. Game changers.

This means lounge access too- in Europe you’re treated as a business class passenger and therefore get the choice of any Star Alliance lounge at Heathrow.

Whilst the Singapore Airlines lounge is feted amongst travellers, particularly for the food and Singapore Sling cocktails, it was a very long way from our gate.

Instead we ended up at the often derided Lufthansa lounge. Sure, there was an element of Teutonic dourness to both lounge and clientele, but food options were great, and beer that you pour yourself from a tap will never not be fun.

SAS Plus on the European leg means you get a standard seat up front, and free food and drink- in this case the most complex meal I’ve seen on a plane thus far. And I quote “Roast beef with creamy potato salad, seasoned with chili and chives. Cabbage poached with sea buckthorn. Beetroot and miso cream. Leafy greens, sprinkled with millet and canola seeds”. Utterly delicious, and achingly Scandinavian. Well done SAS.

Of course, in Denmark everything just works, so we arrived ahead of time, cleared immigration and were in the city centre via direct train within 40 minutes of landing.

The lesson here, is trust the process. Even if you’ve got a short connection like us, stay in the centre and avoid the pricey and dull airport hotels. Transport works here.

Home for the night was the Comfort Inn on Vesterbro, five minutes walk from the glorious central station and right next to a duck shop, probably. This ran to £80ish for the night.

Rooms are comfortable and decidedly Scandinavian, with two single duvets and one odd little pillow each. Lovely parquet flooring but recklessly overheated, so a crap night’s sleep.

My only goal for Copenhagen was to have a beer ‘out out”, and we managed this perfectly with a buzzing backstreet craft ale bar down the block. I loved Copenhagen when I went in 2015 and this holds true now, with a lively crowd of generally very friendly and respectful young’uns, and strangely almost universally English spoken as a kind of Nordic lingua franca.

Common sense, prudence and tiredness meant we stopped at 2 beers. An early, but not disastrously so start the next day to get back to the airport for leg 2. We managed to not do a lap of the block like our walk to the hotel, so were at the train station within 5 mins.

Copenhagen Central station is achingly beautiful at any time of day. Built in 1911 it’s a stunning mix of wood and brick, echoing much of the harbourfront architecture. The last time I pulled in here was 2015, on the slow train from Hamburg (via train ferry no less!). I emerged onto the bright sunny streets and checked into my hostel where it seemed that everyone was model material. I did find out later that there was some form of model convention in town which explained a little. But nonetheless Copenhagen is utterly photogenic in most respects. .

Naturally, this being Denmark trains just turn up as expected, and fourteen minutes later we were at the airport. Bags checked through, so within 30 minutes of walking out of the hotel we were in the lounge.

I was really somewhat underwhelmed by the SAS lounge at CPH. Fairly limited, somewhat odd food selection, but at least a very comprehensive bar. We didn’t have long to wait in any case.

I was immediately really impressed with SAS Plus on board the aircraft. Huge comfy seats and loads of legroom, as well as a small amenity kit. Definitely an upgrade worth paying for, and probably my most comfortable flight to date, even with a fairly busy cabin. Strangely enough, seat width as well as pitch makes a big difference-not having to unknot shoulders for days after is a bonus for some reason, even without armrest wars, economy seats mean I hunch my shoulders in an odd way, just me?

The only downside was Swiss Family Annoying behind us with the children regularly clambering around the seats and grabbing the headrests.

Nonetheless, the 11.5hr flight ‘flew’ by, and I even managed a bit of sleep…interrupted once by my seatmate’s granny bladder and once by Annoying Son behind managing to actually grab my head whilst getting out of the seat, an impressive feat. I think he understood my sweary English outburst at this point.

Arriving in LA saw the SAS powerwalking championship in full effect. I didn’t really see the point until we entered the immigration hall and saw the rapidly growing Tensabarrier conga line.

Why IS arriving in the US so overwhelmingly soul-destroying? Every time? A solid hour and a half in the snaking line before brief itinerary quiz questions which Mark got ‘wrong’ therefore we had to endure brief TSA sass/interrogation before being allowed through. I’m sure it’s a technique to weed out ne’erdowells, I’ve had the full gamut of friendly-hostile on past transits.

Moving onto ground transport, LAX is deeply unlovely too. Onto the broken pavement on the back transit lanes dodging buses and taxis until your car hire shuttle arrives. Oh yeah, you need a car.

However, all is well. We are here.