I flew down to Copenhagen on Wednesday to attend a conference on Political Literature -- more on which later -- as well as to visit a friend doing dissertation research in the Danish capital. We took a walk through the central city, stopping at the Rundetårn, an observatory built in the 1600s by King Christian IV. I had been up to the top back in 1994, when I travelled through Northern Europe with a high school friend, but never found a chance to go back up when I was living in Copenhagen during the first half of this year. So this was my first time in the tower, which consists of an enormous spiral ramp, since 13 years ago.

The view from the top is spectacular -- you can see the Øresund bridge in the distance, leading to Sweden.