Danish possessions

Away again - to Copenhagen. I'll be working hard for the next three days, co-presenting a report I prepared with a colleague. Today, my early start was in order to get me to Copenhagen in time for a welcome lunch for some of the participants at the Congress. I managed it - just.

After lunch, I went to the hotel, checked in, and had a little sleep and then joined a much larger gathering at the Copenhagen City Hall for a welcoming reception. It's a pretty impressive building, adorned with many Danish flags. These coats of arms for Faroes (now basically autonomous), Iceland (now an independent sovereign state), Greenland (also basically autonomous) and the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) are momentos of Denmark's history as a seafaring empire of sorts. They caught my eye in the banqueting hall. And don't ask me what the walrus tusks are for...

I'm back in a hotel of course, and very nice it is too.