Dinner and a Musical

Ooh, this post is a bit late! Busy weekend = late blog post, unfortunately.

Anyway, I had a great experience over the weekend. I started out with my brother and a friend at Spuntino, an Italian restaurant on Vesterbrogade here in Copenhagen. I bike past this place everyday, but for some reason I've never thought about dropping in for dinner. It serves Italian food and the menu functions as a placemat as well, so you get a chance to see what your culinary choices are as soon as you sit down at your table.

We opted to start with some bubbly, though. Always a good start.

Spuntino has different dishes to choose from or you can go for their Confused (Forvirret) menu, where the cook chooses 5-6 different dishes for your table to share -- a great way to get a taste of everything. That's going to have to be on my "must try" list, because we opted for individual dishes instead.

I had risoni with truffles and parmesan and sauteed prawns, as seen below. I ordered sauteed mushrooms with herbs as well, but I ate those before I remembered to take a photo. And their bread plate with lentil dip was deelish as well. Nomnom! Good food in portions that don't make you feel like hibernating for a month..

After dinner, it was time for the evening's main event: the musical, Love Never Dies, which is the sequel to the much-loved Phantom of the Opera. 

I must say, I loved it! I loved Phantom of the Opera and I love the sequel as well! I was amused and enthralled and moved all at the same time. The music was beautiful, the costumes were intriguing and the performers were absolutely superb. And the ambiance of Det Ny Teater, which dates back to 1908 and is the third theatre in the world to present Love Never Dies, only added to the overall musical experience. I would recommend catching this musical if it opens in theatres in your neighborhood!

Oh, and here I am sticking out like a sore (and extremely pink) thumb in the crowd of the theatre-goers in Det Ny Teater's beautiful foyer. I must say that old, beautiful places like this theatre is one of the best things about Copenhagen.

Definitely the highlight of my weekend! I can't wait for the next musical to be staged, Crazy For You.

The Shang Experience

Brr! Spring has taken a detour and winter has decided to prolong its stay in Copenhagen this week! And here everyone thought we could pack away our heavy boots and overcoats... Dagnabbit!

Times like these is when I like to let my thoughts drift back to our wedding and honeymoon stay at Shangrila's Mactan Resort and Spa in Cebu, Philippines. Aaaah! 
Sunshine, sea, excellent food and great service---definitely a place I can recommend checking out if those things are to your liking. 

My husband and I had a fantastic Panorama Suite in the Ocean Wing. Being in the Ocean Wing also gives you all-day access to the Ocean Club Lounge on the top floor. It offers you a great view, private breakfast buffet, all-day snacks and drinks as well as evening cocktails and canapes.

Let me tell you about our suite and hotel wing...

What's a luxury resort without a bright blue shimmery pool? We enjoyed this pool closer to the beach as it was quiter for us newlyweds.

We had a fantastic living room/office/dining room area...

... a wide balcony facing the beautiful waters of the Mactan channel...

...a heavenly bedroom with an extra wide bed for this tall husband-and-wife team...

...a huge bathroom with a tub, shower and lots of lovely, lovely L'Occitane toiletries...

...our very own Nespresso machine for that late night java fix...

...and a walk-in closet! This has to be one of my personal favorites of the room. It's a girl thing! Excuse the mess...but I just had to show a photo and how thrilled I was with the closet. There was even room enough to shove a suitcase and a wedding gown inside and still have room for a 360 degree dance move.

I must say I loved waking up to this view from the balcony in the morning. Makes you feel that heaven really does exist, doesn't it?

The Shang, as it's fondly called locally, provides excellent service from its warm and friendly Filipino personnel.

And dare I mention the food?

Whether it was jonesing for room service burgers---beautifully served, I might add....

...or a visit to one of the seaside hotel restaurants, Cowrie Cove, the dining was excellent. 
If ever you go, make sure to try Cowrie Cove's seafood coconut soup. Ok, that isn't the official name, but I'm sure your waiter will know what it is as ours recommended it as a must-try. And he wasn't wrong! 

Cowrie Cove's seafood platter was great, too! Nothing like dining right on the beach on fresh seafood.

And the skewered prawn dish was simply beautiful!

The international breakfast selection at the Tides restaurant is fantastic as well. Who said you can't have sushi for breakfast?

There are a ton of aqua activites to choose from, like diving, island hopping or jetskiing. 
And you can meet this friendly fella when you're booking your activity of choice.

I chose to do parasailing because I've always thought it looked totally zen to be all the way up in the sky.
Here, we sailed out from the dock by the Ocean Pavillion where we held our wedding the night before (more on that another time).

A view from Shangri-la from further out to sea.

Back to parasailing: Here, I'm getting the basics. Well, what I could hear from above the waves and the boat engine.

What a fun experience! Too bad I didn't have a camera because the view was fantastic up there! I could see the entire Mactan Channel, the tip of Punta Engaño (which is the part of Mactan Island that the resort was on), the city of Cebu and the mountains past the city. 

Chilling by the beach with cocktails is also highly recommended. 

Or under the palm trees by the pool. Either way, it's great for leaving the humdrum of daily life behind for a while.

Different vacations for different folks. I sure didn't mind my days in the lap of luxury. And I'll take those memories to keep me warm while spring is still battling for domain over Copenhagen at the moment.