Cynthia and the Road Trip team in Denmark

She then came to Italy in 2004 “ to escape Bush’s second administration” and to study paper conservation in Florence at the Palazzo Spinelli L’Instituto perL’Arte e il Restauro. Her work in the States was a reversal of the standard job path. She was the Director of the Native American Program division of the Corp for National and Community Service, which answered directly to President Clinton. From there, Cynthia took a financial dive and spent one year as a tribal Vista worker.

Cynthia with her Road Trip family

Now married to an Italian and living in Venice, she still contributes to the community’s welfare by doing pro bono conservation work at the monastery of San Lazzaro degli Armeni as well as being a tour guide. Cynthia is excited about joining the Road Trip. “It’s the perfect way to express American commitment to grassroots politics.”

Cynthia mans the stand in Copenhagen

Cynthia in Copenhagen

He holds two bachelor’s degrees – one in philosophy and one in engineering, from the University of Illinois and a Masters in Philosophy from Washington University.  Willem, who works in education, came to Europe because, “My spouse had a wonderful career opportunity and I joined her!”
Willem joined Democrats Abroad in 2009 but his political activism started back in Illinois.  “I believe in on-the-ground organizing and that even little campaigns are important.”

He is looking forward to joining the Road Trip because, “it will get me fired up for (the rest of) the 2012 campaign.  I learn something new every time I work with Democrats Abroad members from other places.  Besides, this will be fun!”

She brings to DA her experience in IT project management, film production, and events. Besides her involvement in large-scale projects, Vicki also founded a microfinance project for the fishing people of Lake Victoria, Africa.

Vicki sees the importance of winning on the ground, and as such has been a major force in Democrats Abroad’s Get Out the Vote efforts for this year’s election. “I live overseas and I care deeply about America,” she said. “I  want to support our country committees; new and old.  We want to reach beyond our current membership.  There are an estimated 1.6 million Americans living in Europe and we want to reach more of them and make it easy for them to participate in US elections.”

Vicki is from Iowa and studied at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), where she received her BA in Economics. She later went on to complete her MBA in International Enterprise from the Open University (UK).

She ostensibly came to Europe on a BUNAC – British University Work Permit – many years ago, although she notes that it was ‘frankly for a tall, dark, handsome Englishman; I never thought I’d find myself living somewhere smaller than Des Moines, Iowa!”

Vicki in Spain

On Wednesday morning, Quaide, Jacqueline, Gwendolyn, Norma and I waved goodbye to our Amsterdam hosts, Laura and Louie, before hitting the road for the next nine or so hours.

We drove in through the 19^th arrondissement during rush hour. Though it was not Quaide’s first time driving in Paris, we all had to help guide him and point out motorcycles and pedestrians as they came at us from every direction. Exhausted and stressed, we pulled up to Dorothy’s Gallery around 8 p.m. where we discovered more than fifty people waiting to celebrate our arrival! Bob Vallier, Member-at-Large for DA France, Eileen Bastianelli, in charge of the group’s social media, and many others prepared a marvelous buffet for everyone to munch on as Bob introduced Dorothy, our host for the next few days. Dorothy, of Dorothy’s Gallery, explained the concept of her next expo, which will show the multi-cultural faces of President Obama’s America.

Bob introduces Dorothy at the reception in her gallery

We then headed out to dinner at Pause Café, a chic bistro on the corner of the street. This, Bob explained, is where the Interior Minister’s wife likes to hang out, as well as famous French actors like Thierry Lhermitte or Miou-Miou.

Quaide, Gwendolyn and Bob enjoying dinner at the Pause Café

The event was not until 3 p.m.the following afternoon, so I took Jacqueline sightseeing in the morning. Since it was her first time in Paris, she absolutely wanted to go see the Eiffel Tower. I’ve been up it many, many times but the look of amazement on her face made me see the Tower through her eyes – the eyes of someone who has never taken the RER or experienced a strike or a Paris winter;  a person for whom Paris is still a picture book.

After a typical crepe lunch, we moseyed on over to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, walking right past the Notre Dame Cathedral. “Where are the steps?” Jacqueline asked me, falsely disappointed. “In the Disney movie, there are steps in front of Notre Dame!” We laughed and waited outside the shop for the bus and the rest of its passengers to arrive.

Opened in 1951 by George Whitman, Shakespeare and Company is a Paris literary institution, right next to the Notre Dame cathedral in the Latin Quarter.

The Road Trip's stand in front of Shakespeare and Company

Our canopy is too big for these narrow Parisian streets, so we were kindly allowed to use the bookstore parasol instead, which we promptly decorated with VoteFromAbroad.Org banners. It was my last time setting up the stands, as I am getting off the bus in Paris. Setting up camp has become such a habit after three weeks on the road that it destabilizes me to change my routine. I woke up this morning, confused to have to deal with this notion of “free time” again.

Finally, the stand was up and the internet running. The rain threatened, but held off on making an appearance.

Paris was a registration day full of complicated cases, which reminded us how much these voter registration drives are needed, where experienced volunteers like Quaide can give personal advice to people confused by the constant rule changes.

An old man with a large bandage on his forehead and a cane gripped in his hand sat down to register with his French wife by his side. He could not understand why he had not been receiving his ballots recently and he pulled out a yellowish, hand-written card with his personal information on it. His last address in the U.S. dated back to 1942 and his zip code no longer existed! We googled his address and found his new zip code so he could register to vote with the correct information.

Zip code fixed, ready to vote!

Mary, a member of Democrats Abroad France, had been at the reception the night before to welcome us to Paris. She had waited to register with the Road Trip and I was honored to take her through the steps online. Mary is almost blind so I spelled out everything I typed on the screen so she could make sure it was accurate. As I read and spelled out an address written on the piece of paper she had handed over to me, she exclaimed, “No, no that’s the wrong one!” We corrected it together and she signed the paper, feeling the line I drew with my thumbs on the page.

With every question on the form can come a new and unique problem that we have to help solve. “Are you a first time voter in this state?” A man told me he was in the navy when he voted so he’s not sure where his ballot counted. When I asked for his last address in the U.S., I learned his house was obliterated by a tornado and he took a moment to answer. The last time he lived in the U.S.was more than 50 years ago – “you weren’t even born,” he adds, smiling.

A rainy registration day

A lot of the time, the problem is that people don’t have the information required when we stop them unaware on the street. Often, the solution is simple: we hand them a card directing them to VoteFromAbroad.Org and they register from the comfort of their own home. Yet sometimes, their information dates back 20, 30, or even 50 years! When asked her last address in the U.S., a woman, distressed and frustrated, asked us over and over again, “because I don’t have an address from 25 years ago, does that mean I don’t get to vote?” She said she didn’t have the information on file anywhere, which is very important for voter registration.

This woman was not the first frustrated abroad voter we’d seen on the trip. I joined the Democrats Abroad Road Trip because I had an idea of how complicated the voting process could be overseas and I wanted to help get out the information. Yet I hadn’t realized how little Americans abroad are aware of the rule changes, especially regarding regular ballot requests. As the U.S. Department of State points out:

“To vote from abroad, you have to register to vote with local election officials in your state of legal (voting) residence, AND every year you have to ask to receive absentee ballots.” (Travel.state.gov)

The process can be frustrating at times, but it is all worth it when we hear our efforts being rewarded: “a friend told me I should come register with you today,” “I’ll send this VoteFromAbroad.Org card to my son,” “I will pass on the information to all my American students.”

The Democrats Abroad Road Trip is not about the number of registrations collected at the end of the day. We travel around Europe with thousands of brochures imprinted with information about voting and the address of the website VoteFromAbroad.Org so that people passing by – American or not – tell other Americans, who tell others, who tell some more, how to request an absentee ballot and where to find help (help@votefromabroad.org, for example).

The Democrats Abroad Road Trip also creates a feeling of community, being a part of a larger whole, by meeting other Americans with different experiences and many, many stories about life abroad.

Natalie is a young American who saw our stand in Paris. As she started to register with Eileen at the table behind me, I heard a yell: “first-time voter, first-time voter!” We all stopped to applaud, smile and congratulate her. Bravo Natalie!

Natalie will vote for the first time this November!

As the Road Trip reaches its end and I register someone for the last time, standing in the rain with a computer in my hand, I feel very grateful to Democrats Abroad for having let me be a part of this experience. Perhaps I should call it an experiment: this is the first such Road Trip organized in Europe! Be they the people riding alongside me in the bus or the local teams in every city we visited, I met many incredibly hard-working and dedicated people, who all had a sense of the importance of what we are trying to do on this Road Trip.

VoteFromAbroad.Org is not just an online form you have to fill out. It is a way of staying connected and involved in what happens back home. It is a right and it is a duty. So pass on the information to your friends, your neighbors, your enemies. And vote.

Our journey to London began in Calais, with a much anticipated crossing of the channel in our trusty little bus. Having said Au Revoir to Eve in Paris, Quaide, Jacqueline, Norma and I headed into the unknown. Quaide drove us into the train car and we tucked into makeshift road trip sandwiches while awaiting our arrival to England.

Queuing up to cross the channel!

Upon exiting the train car, Quaide was immediately set to yet another challenging task – driving our bus on, what some might call, the wrong side of the road! Finding ourselves in a bit of Friday afternoon traffic, headed towards London, we made our way on the M25, the M4 and the M40 motorways and arrived late afternoon to our beautiful home for the night.

On our way!

The lovely brick farmhouse in Buckinhamshire, kindly offered by Stephanie, an active member of Democrats Abroad UK, was truly a sight for sore eyes after our long journey from Paris earlier that day. We were greeted in true American style by a friendly black labrador called Estella, and in true British fashion with big, milky cups of tea!

Just as we began to plot our wander through the green cow fields behind the farmhouse to a nearby pub for dinner, a torrential downpour began. It showed no signs of letting up. As the sky began to darken, an even greater dilemma was presented: suddenly, the electricity went out throughout the house! We scrambled around a bit and, thankfully, found that there were well-placed flashlights all around. The team used them to venture into the dark basement in search of fuse boxes. (Well, I was too big a scaredy cat to do anything of the sort, staying at the top of the stairs with Estella, the black lab!)

After a bit of searching, Quaide located some fuse boxes in a nearby shed outside the house, but we still couldn’t get the lights back on. Finally, we made an executive decision to drive to the nearby pub and have some dinner and hope to use their phone in order to call someone who might have a solution for us. As luck would have it, we were able to speak with the owner of the home as well as the property manager and, after a delicious curry dinner, returned to the farmhouse with solid instructions about what to try next.

Within a few minutes, Quaide saved the day and had not only restored the electricity but rigged a makeshift system to ensure that the freezer contents from the basement and other important items, which had become quite damp from the rain, would be safe and no longer an electrical danger. What an evening!

July 14

We were greeted in the morning by Rob Carolina, chair of DA UK, and his lovely wife Sanja, who brought us welcome gifts – gorgeous tins full of delicious British shortbread! We sorted out our plan for who would be posted at the two canvassing locations in central London and off we went to start a productive day of getting the message out to potential voters throughout London. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side, but we did have two very prime spots for speaking with Americans out and about doing their Saturday afternoon shopping and errands.

Excellent for shopping as well as meeting Americans ready to register to vote!

Quaide and Norma joined Sanja and crew outside the Whole Foods in Kensington and spoke to lots of Americans on their way to or from healthy, yummie shopping trips. Rob, Jacqueline and I stood outside the Oxford Street John Lewis department store, joined shortly by another London DA UK member, Julian, with equal success in speaking with Americans passing by who were eager to learn how they could request their absentee ballots. All around, aside from a bit of very london-like rain and cold, it was an entirely productive day!

After a late lunch inside Whole Foods, discussing the highlights of the day, we were off for a fun photo shoots near Westminster Abbey.

Prime photo op: Westminster Abbey, a double decker bus, and the D.A. road trip crew!

Calling all Democrats Abroad!

Finally, it was time to make our way to the evening reception organized by Democrats Abroad UK at the Blue Posts Pub in St. James. Our final hoorah celebrated both a great day of canvassing in London and a truly successful and rewarding road trip, which visited 13 countries and 27 cities throughout Europe!  As we rolled up in the bus, we were greeted by press from The Independent, eager to interview and photograph us for an article featuring our grassroots-style voter registration drive. Check out the great article here.

Posing for press photos

Rob, chair of DA UK, and his wife Sanja

A big help, being the umbrella holder - Thanks Amy!

This afternoon we will enjoy the comfort of a spacious conference room and the enthusiasm of the bookstore’s marketing manager Agnes Joseph, who intends to carry on promoting voter registration throughout the summer. Local coordinator Amy Peterson and several other local Democrats are also on hand, taking turns standing outside with our banner-drapped umbrella to attract passing Americans. We are acccompanied by a singing accordionist sitting on the pavement nearby, adding a touch of street theatre to our activities.

Quaide welcomes people outside the bookstore

Not receiving a permit to set up in this sensitive area, at the heart of the European judicial and political processes, has proved fortuitous. This room, where the walls are covered with paintings, is an ideal venue; happily, the Americans do come. They have moved here from Iowa, Jersey City, New York and elsewhere, for their jobs or their partners’ jobs, some of them raising children internationally. The voter registration campaign makes voting that much easier for them. All are grateful and enthusiastic for this opportunity.

"It's important!"

Sharing stories with Amy and the other local Americans over dinner at Vapiano (an Italian restaurant decorated with black and white photographs of Italian life), I don’t feel in tune with the restaurant’s motto: “Chi va piano va sano e va lontano” (Who goes slowly goes well and goes far). Instead my companions are energetic people who want to make things happen, and soon – the elections aren’t that far away! We discuss the future value of investing in space exploration, the immediate necessity of improved educational opportunities and practices, sound environmental policies at home and over here, and the choices we give to our children by raising them overseas.

Members of DA Netherlands and the bus crew discuss life abroad over dinner

Our personal stories tell why we have moved from Ohio or Indiana or New York to the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany. Jack from Stonybrook teaches archaeology at Leiden University. Amy uses her American Studies background to compare the American and European perspectives. William works with a research group to promote environmentally safe practices.

I have only been on the Road Trip for a few days. Some of the others have been on the road for a month, efficiently assembling and dismounting and carrying the materials that make democracy more than a word. We hope that step by step the road to empowering Americans overseas will bring us to an election that is even more inclusive. Other benefits appear, too, as Europeans and others see what we are doing. We receive encouragement and applause from them, and it is heartening when a Turk, an Indonesian, or a German cheers us along. It’s almost like the Tour de France. Next stop, Paris.

We finish loading the van and say goodbye to our hosts, Laura and Louie and Lin and Martha. Two nights ago they greeted us with a dinner party where we made new friends. Renee and Martin for example, from Virginia and Holland, talked to me about their upcoming trip to Sardinia, not far from my home in Lucca (near Pisa).

Now, as we enter the highway, a Dutch vehicle drives up alongside and honks. Do we know him? What on earth does he want? He gestures to the roof of our van and shouts something in Dutch. We pull over, I reach up and discover Quaide’s black rain-soaked wallet camouflaged on the van’s black roof. The Dutch are outstanding, and one of them is also our eagle-eyed guardian angel.

Quaide's amazing parking skills

One of the local Amsterdam chapter members, Laura, was there to greet us and welcome us into town. We were lucky to be able to set up in the very center of the Dam square, a highly visible and populated area for both locals and tourists alike. Soon, the marvelous Martha, the chair of Democrats Abroad Netherlands, arrived to help speak with all the Americans who began to stop by our tent as they walked through the square, either throughout their normal routine or whilst on holiday. It was refreshing to have so many enthusiastic members from the Amsterdam chapter come out to support us all afternoon! Another Amsterdam member, who was also celebrating his birthday during our visit, walked around the square with a Vote from Abroad poster, speaking to heaps of people, Americans and otherwise, spreading the word about registering voters – Thanks Bob!

Martha and Quaide

We had an American woman come by who was literally on her way to the airport to return to her home in Scotland when she saw our tent and banners and decided she absolutely had to stop and get herself registered then and there! At that exact moment we were having a few difficulties with our online system and ended up having her fill out her entire registration on another member’s iphone! Thank goodness for the creativity of our group – ok, and technology too!

Registering to vote before heading home to Scotland

Throughout the day, we also had lots of American tourists stopping by, telling us how seeing our presence, while on vacation abroad, inspired them to go home and encourage their friends and families to make sure to come out and vote this year. It’s wonderful to see how far our efforts can stretch when we make ourselves seen throughout Europe, one city at a time.

Chatting with Americans

Finally, we packed up and loaded everything into the bus and continued on to a warm and delicious potluck dinner hosted by Louie and Laura, vice-chair of DA Netherlands and his wife.

The company was great and we even had another American woman, who was unable to come to the Dam earlier, pop over to register herself while the bus was still in town! With full and happy bellies we all gathered around while Quaide gave the group a presentation, complete with slideshow, of the road trip – from concept to reality. What a lovely way to spend the evening, making new friends and hearing stories from the road!

Sunshine, blue skies and our wonderful host Karsten greeted us as we rolled the bus into the bustling Saturday afternoon outdoor shopping area in the center of Frankfurt. Our arrival marked two significant firsts for me: my first visit to the lovely city of Frankfurt as well as my first full day joining the Road Trip crew on our European voter registration drive!

The stand in Frankfurt

Karsten talks to press

Beautiful day for a BBQ!

And…break! Each host collects their roadie and we’re off to bed, under heavy, humid summer rain. The darkness adds to the claminess but at least it’s reassuring not to have daylight at two in the morning like in Scandinavia! I got to stay with Nicole, a fellow Franco-American. We had fun commenting on German baguette in true French fashion and she gave me helpful indications on what to see in Berlin next time I came.

Our stand in Berlin

As usual, we set up the tent, tables and a computer – without forgetting our American flags of course! For this event, we had permits for two locations: the Potsdamer Platz, where we did registrations and the Brandenburg Gate (wow!), where we called people’s attention to VoteFromAbroad.Org (VFA). Nancy, the head of the DA Berlin chapter, stood in front of the impresive monument with fellow members handing out VFA cards with all the necessary information to register.

DA ladies in front of the Brandenburg gate

From early in the afternoon to 6 p.m., we welcomed a steady flow of visitors, sometimes even having to ask people to wait a few minutes to register! The wait gave us an opportunity to chat with our fellow Americans living in Berlin, but also in Prague and Portugal. The chair of the DA country committee for the Czech Republic, Linda Vadasz, even stopped by to encourage us.

The composition of the bus team changed a lot in Berlin. Cynthia, Rob and his daughter Hanna got off and Gwendolyn joined us for the first time – welcome! Quaide, Jacqueline and I remain. As time passed, we came to form our own little bus family, complete with private jokes, habitual seats and defined roles within the nucleus. It’s a sad thing to see our master saleswoman Cynthia, professional photographer Rob and promising very young dem Hanna (15) leave us but we hope to see them soon in Venice, Stockholm, Munich or Paris, where we live!

What royal treatment we received from the Berlin chapter! Water, coffee, banana bread, sandwiches and popsicles kept hunger at bay and kept people standing in line busy. The weatherman promised, the weather delivered: 30 degrees! A thirty-something-year-old man, seeking refuge from the temperature as he waited to register, explained to us that he had become a citizen of the United States only two years ago and that this was his first time registering to vote as an American. What an honor for us to be the ones helping a new citizen to partake in our democracy!

Registering for the first time!

American or not though, we still have to comply with German law, which the “Polizei” made sure we did when they came and checked our permits which we dutifully presented to them. At the stand, we could count on help from local volunteers, like Hilary and Florian, with everything from setting up tables to tourist information (for some reason, people keep asking us for directions…)

The day ended in front of the Brandenburg gate, where the Berlin chapter posed together with the bus team for some photos. We are now on our way to Frankfurt, where we will have our next voter registration drive. Auf Wiedersehen !

A long drive from Oslo to Copenhagen. The fatigue we all must feel is set off by the joy of the open road. For all its oil wealth, Norway prefers to invest in nature rather than highways. The roads look perfectly fine to me but they’re not the six lane affairs one sees in Sweden. Scandinavia this time of year is lush and green and pastoral.

We stopped off at a McDonald’s for lunch. It’s strangely reassuring. Somewhere to the south there’s a herd of dairy cows lolling about. To the south of Göteborg, Sweden, traffic grinds to a crawl and eventually we inch past an overturned truck. The truck was part of Madonna’s tour, carrying staging gear; so was our brush with celebrity.

The folks at Democrats Abroad Copenhagen have laid out the welcome mat for us in a big way. Cafe Holberg No. 19. Relaxed with big windows and mirrors. Danes soaking in the sun. Serene.

It’s great to meet Americans so focused on this election. It’s also great to just chat with other Americans. A lot of talk about the recent Supreme Court decision upholding President Obama’s healthcare plan. Surmising why Justice Roberts made himself the swing vote in favor, the talk turned to bad press he’d been getting, describing him not as an activist jurist, more like Scalia. That prospect and the consequent stain on his legacy may have been a factor. This election is a turning point, on that there’s consensus. More than the Federal balance sheet, it’s a question of whether the American Dream is still alive for me and the folks who’ve greeted us and for many we will meet in Copenhagen.

July 4th

09:30 July 4^th in front of Copenhagen City Hall is hot and sunny. City Hall itself looms over the square, a tremendous building topped with a golden spire. It’s hard to image any city requiring an administration bulky enough to fill that place. We set up the tent in record time just below the front steps. By now, it’s no wonder: we have all become pros at this.

Set-up in front of City Hall, Copenhagen

Many of the Americans living abroad – who we hope will stop by – are back in the country for the 4^th. Instead, waves of tourists, many American, wash past our tent from cruise ships that evidently dock here in incredible numbers.

A tour guide in full costume, who calls himself Hans Christian Andersson, honors us with a visit.  “Happy 4^th of July!” he exclaims. Thank you Mr. Andersson.

Andersson the tour guide picks up some info about registering from abroad

11:00 An American man stops by, attracted by the American flags hanging from the tent.  “Don’t forget to file your IRS form 1068,” he advises. “Even gold in your teeth has to be reported. Mine used to be here,” he adds, laughing.

A family from Scarsdale, New York comes by. Their next stop: Stockholm. “That’s where I live!” I say, before sharing the most important tip I can think of. “The best pizza in Stockholm is Dell Attore, near Karlaplan.” “Why would a New Yorker want pizza in Stockholm?” one of them responds with unassailable New York logic.

Barbara and Tommy from Orlando, Florida. “Thanks for doing this,” says Barbara, who worked for the Florida Election Commission processing ballots.

A voter explains why voting from abroad is important

13:14 Jan McCarthy was born in California and moved to Australia in 1956 at age three. An American citizen still, she has never cast a ballot in an American election. Today, while on holiday in Denmark, she saw our tent and came in to register for the first time.

13:45 “I’ve lived in Denmark for 42 years,” says Jonathan. “I was interested in folk high schools so I came here in 1970 to study. I met a Danish woman and we’ve been together 35 years.”

13:57 Zoey, an eight-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada, comes by with her Swedish grandmother.   Zoey is blond and sports a lovely, curious smile, as well as a rapidly diminishing ice cream cone.  She loves Elvis and ice cream. Her grandma wanted to know how Zoey’s parents could register to vote. Zoey and her grandma walk off, holding hands, chatting about this and that on this sunny 4^th of July in Denmark.

Ilya, the DA Denmark treasurer from Wisconsin, comes by with his Yorkshire Terrier “Gavroche.”  “From Les Miserable,” he explains. His journey began as a boy in the former Soviet Union when he and his family had to pay for the privilege of leaving. Never long in any one place, he then traveled to America, spending a few months each in various cities, until his dad, an agricultural engineer, got a job in Louisiana and from there became a success. Ilya now lives with his family in Copenhagen. He revels, it seems, in the sheer joy of staking out a challenge and meeting it. He wears a t-shirt sporting a graphic in the shape of a Coke logo saying “I Vote Obama.” “It’s by Marc Jacobs, you know,” Ilya explains.

Ilya, DA Denmark treasurer, with the bus crew

15:35 A couple from Atlanta, Georgia stops by with a question. “Do you register any party here?”  “Yes we do” I answer. “We’ve registered Democrats, Republicans and Independents.” “That’s good. Just checking,” the woman says. We chat a bit about high taxes in Northern Europe. “You know, when you buy a Mercedes over here a third the price is tax!”  the man exclaims, looking like he’s just bitten into a lemon.

Collette, an American who works for the U.S. Department of Defense, in the press policy office, is traveling solo though Scandinavia. She was curious as to who funds the Democrats Abroad Road Trip. Democrats Abroad funded the road trip as a voter registration drive and VoteFromabroad.Org promotion tour. The organization paid for basic funding and the rest comes from private donations from Americans, abroad and in the U.S. “Thanks for doing what you’re doing,” she says. She was living in Paris during the Bush years and was disheartened by rule changes intended to disenfranchise largely Democratic overseas voters.

DA Denmark head David Miller with the bus crew

After a long, hot and wonderful day in this magical city, Cynthia is in pain. Hanna, my 15-year-old daughter, applies some of what she’s learned in “Massage Story Time” in her Swedish elementary school. We’re all sunburned and dehydrated. David Miller, our DA host here in Copenhagen, takes the lot of us to Tivoli, the amusement park in the center of town. It’s a wonderful place, an old-world park with lots to poke your nose into, century old Rolls Royce cars in pristine condition, huge, lovely flowers perfectly grown, the kind you’d see in a seed catalog. Thank you David. Some of us go onto a ride that takes us spinning gently to the top of a tower from which we can briefly see the city of Copenhagen from above. The sea air is almost sweet. Tomorrow Berlin.