Day 24, cont. - Scandinavia Travel Musings, Part One

This post may go to a couple of posts, but this one is one of those amazing and unbelievable stories. When we were in Norway, as I posted earlier, Ivan and I bought some "authentic" Norwegian sweaters. These, thank heaven, were NOT made in China. They are lovely and were not cheap. The lady in the shop where we bought them said we could get the tax on them refunded, we just needed the receipt, our international ticket and passport. She said this could be done at any airport or international ferry or train terminal. Since we were to depart Norway on a ferry that went from Oslo to Copenhagen, we collected the paperwork and had it at the ready. When we arrived at the DFDS terminal, we were hot and tired from dragging our luggage there and we forgot all about it until the ship was leaving the harbor. We took our paperwork to the Customer Service desk on the boat and they said they couldn't help us, but that we could get it done when we arrived in Copenhagen. We looked at each other and thought, "Norwegian tax refund in Copenhagen?? Right." Well, as you might imagine, this Gang That Couldn't Remember Straight once again forgot all about it once on terra firma in Copenhagen. So, we dragged our bedraggled selves to our hotel in Copenhagen where they told us we could get the refund at the airport when we departed for home. Once again, the consensus was - Right.

Well, here we are, at the airport and Ivan has in his hand a bunch of American dollars which he received when he submitted the paperwork for the refund! Go ahead - read that sentence again! Denmark gave us the refund for taxes paid on Norwegian goods. Is this a great country or what?!

Bird List, p.5 (Common Magpie, White-tailed Eagle, White Wagtail)

Common Magpie (Pica pica)
Norway, Sweden, Denmark
(About twice the size of our Black-billed Magpie, Pica hudsonia)

White-tailed Eagle
Norway

White Wagtail
These little guys were everywhere!

Bird List, p. 4 (Goosander, Greylag Goose, Oystercatcher, Smew)

Goosander
Norway

Greylag Goose
Norway

Oystercatcher
Norway

Smew (we saw females, like the bottom bird)
Norway

Bird List, p.3 (Rook, Woodpigeon, Eurasian Jay, Black-headed Gull)

Rook
Norway, Sweden

Woodpigeon
Norway, Sweden, Denmark
(I liked this bird the best - it was everywhere and fun to watch.)

Eurasian Jay
Norway (Sandnessjøen)
Yes, you've seen this one already, but isn't it gorgeous?!

Black-headed Gull
Denmark

Bird List, p.2 (Glaucous Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Tit, Hooded Crow)

Glaucous Gull
Norway

Great Black-backed Gull
Norway

Great Tit
Sweden (Lund Botanical Garden) and Denmark

Hooded Crow
Norway, Sweden, Denmark

Bird List, p.1 - (Blue Tit, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Nuthatch)

This last-ish post is photos of the birds we saw - well, most of them. All were lifted from the web. If you want to know where I got one, let me know. There are 19 photos - I'll put 4 per post for 4 posts and 3 on the last one. They're in no particular order, but I'll put the name of the bird and location where we saw it.

Blue Tit
First bird we saw! Norway, Sweden

Chiffchaff
Norway, Sweden

Common Gull
Norway

European Nuthatch
Sweden (Lund Botanical Garden)

Day 24 - Sept. 11 - Saturday - Traveling home

We are now in the process of re-packing everything for our trip home. Checking and re-checking our hotel room to be sure we have everything. The day is completely overcast, but it's not raining, so our 50-yard walk to the train station should be dry. I think the train trip to the airport takes, at most, 10 minutes and our flight is to depart at 12:25PM. Once we can drag ourselves away from these computers, we'll head to the station.

Many of you know that we were hoping to do some bird watching, but those opportunities were pretty rare. In spite of that, we did have some luck with some pretty nice and interesting birds. The next several posts are photos of some of the birds we saw. I'll write the last post of this blog once we're home.

Day 23, cont. - Transportation

This photo was taken on our walk to the brewery. Here's what you're looking at - the part right in front of the camera, with a mix of cobblestones and pavers, is the sidewalk and is for pedestrians. The paved strip to the right of the sidewalk, against which the cars are parked, is the bike lane and is for bicycles. Next to the parked cars are two lanes for cars, one for driving in each direction. Then there's a space for parked cars on the other side of the street, a bike lane and a sidewalk.

Now there may be more bicycles in use in China, but this country has to come in a close second. The way the streets are laid out, each type of transportation has its own lane. In the busy streets of downtown Copenhagen, to my untrained eye, it looks chaotic and dangerous, especially for the cyclists. If you step back and just watch the way this works, it's fantastic! Pedestrians do NOT walk in the bike lane. If they have to, for some reason, they must be on the lookout for the cyclists who have the absolute right of way. For Pete's sake, the buses have to watch out for approaching bicycles even when they are trying to make a right turn! They have to watch for bikes coming from in front of them and from behind them! And they do! I was astonished watching all this happen as smoothly as running your hand on silk. If we want to encourage people to use bicycles, instead of cars, making these lanes would be a good place to start!

Day 23 - Sept. 10 - Another major walking day

It had rained quite a bit during the night, but when we were ready to head out after breakfast, it was chilly and very windy, but no rain. The rain clouds were gathered and there were many awaiting their turn, but it was dry when we departed our hotel. This time, we walked in the direction opposite to the one we had gone the previous 2 days we've been here. Our first stop was the Tycho Brahe Museum and Planetarium. It was not what we expected, so we just looked around a bit and left. We had thought that it would have information about the life of Brahe, but the young lady at the ticket counter said there was a small exhibit about his life, but the descriptions were all in Danish. We decided to scrap our first stop and continue on to our second, the Carlsberg Brewery. In our planning, we figured we'd spend about an hour at the Planetarium and then walk to the brewery. We had not really thought all this out very carefully!
If you look at the map from the previous post, the brewery is located in a large green area called "Rektorparken." We figured is was Danish for "Place where no one wants you to go so they have made signs about how to get there really small and in odd places." It's remarkable how many English words fit into one Danish word!
Anyway, we walked and walked, and now it was sprinkling, and we walked some more. We must have asked of each other, "Do you think this is the entrance?" about a dozen times each! We ended up walking completely around the entire property of the brewery before we finally located the Visitor Center and place where you can do a tour. Unfortunately, the tours are self-guided and are of only the old brewery. The self-guided part was ok for us because everything was in Danish and English. Not sure how our Japanese friends would manage, but we did fine. The first thing you see on this tour is their collection of 15,000 different beer bottles from all over the world. They actually possess 19,580 bottles, but only 15,000 are on display. It was pretty impressive! We then did the rest of the tour, which is more about the history of the brewery than about how beer is made. We both thought the tour was very interesting and the displays were easy to understand.
One very bizarre thing to mention. Just ahead of us was a group of about 20 students, presumably from a local school. Ivan agrees with me that the average age of these kids was 6 (six), as in first graders! I was astonished that kids this young would be touring a brewery! I can't believe that any of them was interested in anything relating to the history of the brewery OR to beer! They were very good, though, not yelling or running around.
Once our tour was done, we had lunch in the brewery café where we also enjoyed our 2 free beers which were not really free, but came with the price of the tour ticket!
When we left it was finally raining so we decided to take the train back to the main station which, you may remember, is across the street from our hotel! Problem is we couldn't make the ticket thing work, so we decided to skip the train and walk. We managed to find a shortcut and the rain lasted only a brief time, so the walk back was quiet and interesting. We liked walking through a part of Copenhagen that is probably not seen by many visitors.
I'm going to post a couple of photos with captions and then will write a post about transportation in Copenhagen that I think you'll find interesting.

Old Carlsberg Brewery

New Carlsberg Brewery

Happy beer drinkers

Day 22, cont. - post Harbor Cruise

Before we did the harbor cruise, we spent much of the morning LOOKING for the harbor cruise! Below is a link that will give you a map of Copenhagen. On the map, the "A" balloon is the center of the city. Just below the "A" you will see the location of Tivoli. Our hotel is across the street from this park.

http://tinyurl.com/2aszryo

We walked from our hotel to the Christianshavn Canal and then north along the water toward (but not to) Kastellet, the star-shaped castle grounds where the royal family live. We couldn't find the place to board the harbor cruise boats anywhere. Our primary map had the departure location in a totally wrong place, but we persisted and finally found the right place. This used up a lot of energy so, right after our cruise was over, we had lunch at one of the outdoor cafés along Nyhavn Street (actually across the canal from the skinniest house!). The weather was pretty brisk, with quite cool temperatures and a stiff wind. I was tickled to see that many of these outdoor cafés provide their patrons with soft, fuzzy blankets in which to wrap themselves so they don't freeze while eating! Seemed pretty thoughtful to me.

Once done with lunch, we walked slowly and somewhat aimlessly in the general direction of our hotel. We passed through Størget, which is the high fashion shopping area for Copenhagen. It was a hoot, with street artists and performers rubbing elbows with the glitterati of northern Europe who were rubbing elbows with us ordinary folk. There were lots of people there.

Once we got back to the hotel, Ivan had a nap while I tried to resuscitate my hair. When he woke up, we looked in a book for a place to have dinner and, unfortunately settled on a place that no longer exists, something we didn't find out until after we had walked to where it was supposed to be. Frustrating. 

It was threatening to rain when we left our ultimate dining place, but we made it back to the hotel before it let loose. 

Day 22 - Sept. 9 - Thursday - Harbor Cruise

We decided the best way to see as much of Copenhagen as we could without wearing ourselves out was to take a harbor cruise. These are accomplished by having the visitors sit in wide flat boats (so they can pass under the many bridges that span the narrow canals). The tour took about an hour and we definitely enjoyed it. The guide described places along the route in Danish, English and Spanish. A couple of photos:

The bridge was the lowest we went under.
The top of my head was about 4" below the bottom!

Copenhagen Opera House
In my humble opinion, it has nothing on the Sydney Opera House

#4 Nyhavn Street
The guide told us this is the skinniest house in Denmark.
It looked to be about 6-8' wide!

This was the skinniest (I'm seeing a pattern here!) 'tunnel' we went through.
It was made all the more exciting by the sharp right turn the boat had to make immediately after exiting the tunnel!

Day 21, cont. - The Culmination

Comfy? Ready to reminisce? Good - you're ready to read.

We have a little book from Eyewitness Travel entitled, Top 10 Copenhagen, and we looked in it for a recommendation for a place to have dinner. At spot #9 is a place we figured we'd be able to walk to from our hotel. It's called Salonen and is located at #20 St Peder's Stræde. Here's what the book had to say about this funky place:

"This wonderfully cosy café is a firm favorite with both international students and locals. The laid-back atmosphere makes Salonen a great place to lounge and relax with a large cup of coffee or tea. For those in need of greater sustenance, the friendly staff serve up hearty food from the fusion/crossover menu - prepared in a kitchen little bigger than a square metre."

We had no trouble finding its location and walked down the few steps into the basement cafe. There were several people already having coffee or tea or beer while sitting at tiny tables in tiny chairs. The walls were painted a dark blue, not a single chair matched another, but all held the people sitting in them without protest. There was no table bigger than about 4 square feet, but all were clean and had colorful table coverings. We asked about seating and were told to sit wherever we wanted to. We picked a table at the very back of the place, in between three young women who were engaged in quiet but intense discussions and a young man and woman who seemed to be just chatting. The woman of that pair had hair that a crayon company might describe as "Burnt Siena" or, as my Mail program from Apple might call "Cayenne." It was eye-catching. To accessorise her hair, she had piercings in her right eyebrow, her nasal septum and her upper lip. These two were cute, though, because, at one point, they both leaped up and asked if Ivan and I would "watch their stuff" because they were going outside for a cigarette. Being good Danish visitors, we said,"Of course!" So, Ivan and I sat, for quite awhile, with nothing to drink and no menu. Finally I went to the lone waitress and asked about the menu. She was very sweet, smiled and pointed to the wall where hung a large chalkboard menu. All choices had names referring to music - Ivan chose "LP" and I chose "HiFi." Since neither of us reads Danish, this was a trusting leap into the unknown! I chose mine because I recognised the word, "avocado" and I think Ivan's reasoning followed the same rigorous guidelines! Our friends next door finally returned and Ivan told them that we couldn't find anything of interest in their bags, hence the bags (and he & I) were still there. They laughed and said they thought we looked kind of shifty, but they decided to ask us to watch their stuff anyway. The waitress finally came with our food and, since mine had smoked salmon, Ivan, gentleman that he is, asked if I'd like to switch dinners and I, refined lady that I am, said yes! Ivan's choice was delicious and he enjoyed the dinner I had chosen. As we were finishing off our dinners, I thought I heard Leonard Cohen rasping a song. I jumped up, went to the front and asked what the name of the song was. I told the waitress that I knew it was Leonard Cohen but I didn't recognise the song. She regarded me with wide eyes and a big smile and showed me the computer program that was controlling the music. We found the name of the song - Urbanizer #1- and I thanked her. As I returned to our table and resumed eating, the soft guitar chords at the beginning of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane began. I had to check my hair to see if it was down to the middle of my back once again! Ivan and I shared a memory-filled glance and finished eating while Grace Slick concluded her song. When we left, we thanked both the cook and the waitress for the meal and the memories. We walked back to our hotel talking quietly about how very lucky we are that we met when we did and are still enjoying the things that brought us together in the first place.

Day 21, cont. - Next to last for the day

OK, Ivan and I have just had a wonderful dining experience, but I want to take each and every one of you there with us. If you're our age, pour yourself a glass of wine, put on some Jefferson Airplane, sit in a comfy chair and read the next post. If you're older than us, do what I told the younger set to do. If you're younger than us, I can't help you. The next post might be meaningless to you - sorry.

Day 21, cont. - Copenhagen

Our hotel in Copenhagen is right across the street not only from the train station, but from Tivoli Gardens as well. (More on Tivoli in a moment.) In the name of all womankind, I feel compelled to make note of a specific aspect of, at least, our room in this lovely old hotel. The toilet tissue is directly in front of the commode. I was getting very tired of having to perform acrobatic twists and gymnastic turns in order to reach the toilet tissue in most of our previous hotels! Kudos to the Plaza Hotel for being so user friendly to those of us who use the commode frequently! Sorry if anyone is offended by that comment!

Now about Tivoli. Ivan and I visited Tivoli in 1974 and we have coherent and similar memories of the place. I visited Tivoli in June of 1984 with Nathan, who was 17 months old, and Ivan's Mother and my memories of the place are pretty strong. This afternoon, Ivan and I visited Tivoli and we were shocked and disappointed. The place is really kind of trashy now and I would never recommend a visit here to anyone I know. I remember beautiful gardens, I remember a quiet and almost meditative place, I remember people walking and admiring the many different types of gardens. Now it's like an expensive, but cheap - if you get my meaning - amusement park. The gardens, at least what's left of them, are neglected, the little pond gardens are full of algae and trash, and there's litter everywhere (my sister Doggie Divas know how I feel about litter!). 

So, today, Wednesday, has gone well as far as our travel went, but was a big disappointment in seeing a place we had remembered as very different.

Day 21 - Sept. 8 - Wednesday - Lund to Copenhagen

On our last day in Lund, Ivan and I decided to head to Mormor's Bakery (mormor means grandma) after packing up and checking out. The weather was quite windy, but sunny and pleasant. We stashed our bags at the Concordia and walked to the bakery which we had spotted early on, but had not had a chance to visit. Does the phrase, "Danish pastry," mean anything to you? Denmark is a mere 30 miles south of here and the pastries at this little bakery looked scrumptious! I picked one with almonds and Ivan had a chocolate cookie. Mine lived up to its appearance - and Ivan's was very tasty as well. We chatted for a bit after eating, then headed back to collect our bags and walked to the train station. It was an interesting walk along the cobbled streets and sidewalks of Lund. Both of us were charmed by this little town and its zillions of bicycles. I think I haven't put in a photo of these bikes, so here's one:

And this was only one of dozens of parking areas specifically for bicycles! We saw people of all ages and in all types of dress pedaling their ways to their destinations. Sweden is definitely a haven for cyclists.

So, we walked to the train station with the worldly possessions we had with us and had an interesting, if frustrating thing happen. We were told that we should go in a specific building in order to get the train to Copenhagen. We went in that building. The departure schedule (in Swedish) said that the next train would be in about 5 minutes on Track 1, access to which was down 2 sets of concrete stairs. Mind you, my big suitcase weighs about 75 pounds! Undaunted, we took the bags downstairs and followed the signs toward Track 1. Arrows pointed to yet another set of stairs, but these went UP! Fortunately, there was a small elevator next to these stairs so we bundled in and went up. Turns out, we could have avoided all this exercise if we had gone into the main train building in the first place! We went to the track and waited about one minute for the train. Had a very comfy and uneventful ride to Copenhagen.

Day 20, cont. - Lunch

The skies were getting more and more unsettled, so we headed back toward our hotel. About a block from the Concordia, we spotted this little falafel shop and decided we'd eat here. Ivan is waiting for our 2 sandwiches after being #3 in line - took about 3 minutes. When we were done eating, there were about 20 people in a line waiting to place their orders! We had arrived just in time.

As we approached the hotel, the rain started so our timing couldn't have been more perfect!

Ivan's having a nap now, while I finish this post. It's very windy and the skies still seem not to have decided what to do.

Day 20, cont. - One more fuchsia

Each fuchsia had a profusion of blooms. The sad thing is that there are no hummingbirds in Sweden (or Norway or anywhere in Europe!). The plants obviously do just fine without our little avian jewels, but imagine how wonderful it would be to watch a Black-chinned hummingbird sipping nectar from one of these!

Day 20 - Sept. 7 - Lund Botanical Garden

After a really nice dinner at Klostergatans Fisk last night, we retired to our hotel, attempted to watch a movie and fell asleep!

This morning we awakened to a decidedly undecided sky - bright sunshine followed by puffy white clouds scudding across the sky, followed by angry-looking dark clouds, then back to sunshine. We were headed to the Botanical Garden, but didn't know precisely where it was. It seems it is just off the map we have. The hotel clerk seemed to have a lot of confidence in our navigational ability and so we set off with binoculars,bird book and cameras at the ready. We ended up walking past the Garden, not realizing that there's an old cemetery at the western end of it. We did find the place and walked around loking at a few more birds than we had seen anywhere else, but we mostly admired the plants. There are 7,000 different plants in the place! We went for the birds, but there were very few to be seen. We had morning tea at the Cafe Botán and I was waylaid by the fuchsias that were growing nearby! They were gorgeous! The photos below are of a large standard fuchsia covered with blossoms that were smaller than my thumbnail! I know the second photo is out of focus, and for that I do apologize, but you can still get an idea of how very tiny the flowers were. Believe it or not, there was a fuchsia with an even tinier blossom!

This is the standard fuchsia with the teeny blossoms.

Tiny but perfect fuchsia blossoms.

Day 19, cont. - Horologium

This is just inside the Domkyrka and is officially called "Horologium Mirabile Lundense." The first word means that it's a timepiece, the second word means it's wondrous in its action, and the last word means it belongs in Lund. This instrument is incomprehensible to me! I made the photo as large as I can so the features can actually be seen. The wheel on the bottom is a calendar, and today, the pointer, located at what would be 9 o'clock on your watch, was pointing to Monday September 6. So far, so good. There's a lot of writing on the calendar wheel, all of which is in Swedish. I am illiterate in Swedish - sorry. Just above the calendar wheel are what look like three statues. I can tell you, for sure, that the middle statue is of Mary and the baby Jesus. The two on either side are supposed to be the Magi who appeared when Jesus was born. I thought there were three Magi, but hey, who's counting? Back to these 3 in a moment. The round thing at the top is a clock, but I defy you to tell me what time it says. (You'll notice that I have slyly cropped the time stamp from the photo.) Here's what the brochure says about this clock: "[it] is an astronomical clock, the oldest parts of which are from the 1420s. Twice a day the clock plays a tune and the Magi appear to worship the newly born baby Jesus on Mary's lap." The "twice a day" times are noon and 3PM, except on Sundays when they are 1PM and 3PM. Go figure.

I just found a video on youtube (is there anything that moves that isn't on youtube?) of this clock and its moving figures. This is it:
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=WEjvCkiFMN0&feature=related

In the video, there are seven Magi and the 2 statues on the side don't move. The Magi come out of their own door. Having watched the youtube video, I can tell you that it's less impressive than you might imagine. This is still a weird and bizarre thing to be inside this magnificent church.

Day 19, cont. - WOW!

This afternoon, after Ivan left for his meeting with the University folks, I was on my own. We had, in our walking around this morning, found this OLD cathedral about 4 blocks from our hotel. We peeked inside and then went out, since our mission was to find some lunch. I told Ivan I wanted to check out this church a bit more carefully, so I came back to it at about 2PM. I went inside, looked at a few features mentioned in the pamphlet, and sat on one of the chairs for a few moments of quiet contemplation. There was a faint, pleasing scent of incense in the air. It was the quiet that pervades the vast vault-like space inside an old church that I liked too. There were several other folks inside sitting quietly. Suddenly, the church was filled with the deep bass notes of a triumphal-sounding melody from the pipe organ. It was overwhelmingly loud and I was filled with awe at the majesty of the music. I didn't recognize the music, but I really liked listening to it! It had a joyous tenor to it. I closed my eyes, imagining only music and the beautiful sensations it aroused in me. I felt simply magnificent! When it ended, I hoped that the organist would play another piece, but that was the only one played. An unexpected, but fabulous experience!

Day 19 - Monday Sept. 6 - Domkyrka

Please look at these photos. They figure largely into a hair-raising experience I had this afternoon. That's hair-raising in a good, sort of goose-bumpy way. Pay particular to the 4th photo. I tried to black out a light that was making my photographing the particular object very difficult!

This is the outside of this church which was restored between 1860 and 1880.

This is the inside of the church, consecrated in 1123 (!).
Note the vast high ceiling.

This is a massive pipe organ. (Annoying light is blacked out.)
Next post will describe what happened here this afternoon.

Day 18, cont. - Arrival in Lund, Sweden

Once we had left the ship, we tried to figure out if we could walk to the central train station, but decided the better part of valor was to grab a cab. Good choice because the train station was a fair ways away. The tickets we had were for travel from Copenhagen to Lund, Sweden and could be used on any train from Sept. 5 to Oct. 4. We actually thought we were booked on a 2:30PM train and we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with our bags. Once we realized we could take any of about 8 trains, we took the one that was next. Had a nice ride north, chatting with a couple from Melbourne, Australia (yes, we talked a bit about cricket!) who are beginning week 4 of a 5-week jaunt all over Scandinavia and Europe. They're having lots of fun too!

Once in Lund, I realized that I had not purchased or printed a map of Lund, so we had no idea where our hotel was. Ivan asked at the tourist counter, but was told by the person there that she had never heard of the hotel. This was alarming news, so we decided to get a cab. The driver instantly knew where to go and in about 60 seconds, we were at the hotel's front door! This is a photo I took of the hotel - our room, #207 - is right at the corner window on the second floor:

This is a very charming and welcoming hotel. Our room is small, but very comfy. I know that Lund is not high on the list of where people who travel to Sweden want to go, but it's a visitor-friendly place. Plus, it has that stimulating, energetic atmosphere that college towns have. It also just happens to be Sweden's second oldest city at 1,000 years of age.

Ivan and I walked around the city for a bit and, at one point, we realized that we recognized many of the buildings we were seeing. Then we walked past the train station and it dawned on us that the reason our cab ride was so short was that the hotel is about 3 blocks from the train station! Needless to say, when we depart on Wednesday, we'll walk!  After our walk, on which we were actually scouting a place to have dinner, we settled upon a Thai food restaurant - Mae Yai - and had a tasty dinner there.

Day 18 - Sept. 5 - Sunday - Arrival in Copenhagen

Our night on the ferry was blessedly quiet and peaceful. We had a lovely breakfast in the "Blue Riband" room and got ready for disembarkation at 9:30 when we were to arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark. We stood on our little balcony as the ship approached its terminal and saw these wind power generators positioned in the harbor! (I hope they've somehow mitigated the loss of migrating birds that are chopped up by these things in the dark of night.)

Day 17 - Ivan in his chair

Ivan sitting in the chair (lap?) of luxury.

Day 17 - DFDS Seaways

After many hugs and smiles, we said goodbye to Oddvar and Solveig and went to the ferry terminal for DFDS Seaways. Our ship, the Crown of Scandinavia, sat awaiting our arrival. We checked in, received our boarding passes and our dinner ("Seafood Buffet") ticket, and went to our cabin. This is where the astonishment came in. My heart sank when I saw from our boarding passes that we were on deck 11, cabin 1115.  I was imagining that we would be on the very bottom of the boat and would be making friends with the engines of this boat too!  Not so, this time!  I remember when we made this booking.  I had asked Ivan about many of the features offered when making a booking.  I think he was feeling like having a little luxury and so we signed on for a "deluxe" cabin. (I should also tell you that 'deluxe' was the word used to describe our cabin on the Hurtigruta, too, so it has lost a bit of it's mystique.)  Well, imagine my shock when we had to take a special elevator to access the 11th deck (upwards) of a 12-deck ship! Imagine my further shock when we entered this beautiful cabin with a small, but nice bathroom, a sitting room and a little bedroom!  Ivan may have to postpone retirement so we can afford this part of our Norway trip!  Anyway, it's a beautiful ship and I think the noise from the engines won't be an issue. Here is the ship - I made a nearly invisible circle around where our cabin was, about in the center of the photo:

Photo purloined from this website:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crown_Of_Scandinavia_200804.jpg

Day 17 - Yesterday now

OK, my brain is becoming porridge. I think I'll be able to get completely caught up tomorrow, but it's now 10PM and I need to go to sleep. We're in Lund, Sweden and are still having fun! Ivan really likes it here. 

More on all that later . . . .

Day 17 - Sept. 4 - Saturday - Oslo Farewell

After breakfast at the hotel, Ivan and I re-packed our bags, checked out and stored our bags at the hotel. Oddvar and Solveig picked us up at 10AM and we had a mighty day within the city limits of Oslo. The first thing we did was visit the Munch Museum, something Ivan and I had wanted to do when we first arrived in Oslo, but didn't. This small museum houses some of the thousands of pieces of artwork, from paintings to wood carvings to photographs, done by Edvard Munch. Yes, it houses The Scream and yes, we saw it. Many other famous paintings, most of which evoke feelings of depression and anxiety, are on exhibit. Another small museum well worth a visit.

After a snack at the museum, we went shopping! Ivan wanted to buy a Norwegian sweater and Oddvar had 2 places for him to look. He found one at the first shop, but decided, wisely as it turned out, to see what the second shop had. He found the perfect sweater at the second shop and, bonus for me, Solveig found one for me too! I'm a little concerned that we'll be coming home with way more than we had when left home! 

So, shopping done, we drove around while Oddvar pointed out the American Embassy, the Nobel Peace Prize Institute, the National Library, the building where Oddvar works (past tense in one month - same as Ivan - YAY!), etc. We ended up at Vigeland Park, which is sort of a park within a park. Vigeland Park contains 212 bronze and stone sculptures done by Gustav Vigeland. The centerpiece of the park is a stone monolith on which are carved many intertwining nude human figures - all ages depicted from infancy to extreme old age. The monolith was carved, according to the Lonely Planet's Norway, by "three stone carvers working daily from 1929 to 1943 and was carved from a single stone pillar quarried from Iddefjorden in southeastern Norway." It's an amazing piece of artistic work. The entire park is pretty amazing.

Monolith is at the right side of the photo.

Solveig and me near one of the Vigeland sculptures. Check out the weather!!

Day 16 - Drøbak

Oddvar told us the story of the battle at Oscarsborg while we looked across the inlet at the battlement. It seemed so improbable that these old gun placements could have had the resounding success that they did. This town is a lovely seaside town with quaint shops, tiny restaurants, charming houses that sit on narrow winding roads. In many ways it reminded me of Carmel-by-the-Sea in California. We decided to have dinner in the town and Solveig led us to Kumlegaarden, a quiet restaurant on a side street. We had a pot of fish chowder, bread and wine and enjoyed it all immensely!

When dinner was served, we asked our waitress to take our photo:

Day 16 - Sept. 3 - Ås & the Battle of Drøbak Sound

Oddvar came to collect us in the morning and we went to his home in Ås, a small town about 30 miles south of Oslo. Here we spent the morning viewing a treasure trove of old photos and mementos. Oddvar showed us a tool made by his grandfather, Ole Andreas Nordnes, in Ketchikan, a tool used to keep track of the hooks on a fishing line. Ole's initials are carved into the tool! I commented on how clever the tool seemed and Oddvar brought out a second one and gave it to me! Any of you reading this who live near me, just ask and I'll bring it out and show you how it works. This is such a wonderful and unexpected gift. Anyway, we were immersed in reminiscing and identifying people in old photos that we completely lost track of time. Fortunately, Solveig hadn't. She had prepared a lovely lunch for us. 

After eating, we went to the campus of the college where Oddvar had been a student only a few years ago (right, Oddvar?). Solveig had worked in the library of this campus until 3 days ago when she retired. I didn't know she was intending to retire and so we had many toasts to the glory of emeritus status. 

After our walk was concluded, Oddvar decided to take us for some views of the Oslofjord and we drove west to the eastern side of the fjord which ends at the city of Oslo. He told us about the German battleships which attempted a stealth entry into this fjord during WWII. There is a relatively narrow neck to the fjord at the town of Drøbak. Fortunately, the Norwegian government had anticipated that this channel would prove too attractive to the Germans as an entry point for a potentially devastating attack on Norway. In the darkness of the night of April 9 in 1940, a fleet of German ships attempted to enter Oslofjord. They were running without lights, but were spotted by a lookout. Here's what the Wikipedia entry says about it:

"The Battle of Drøbak Sound took place in the northernmost part of the Oslofjord on 9 April 1940, on the first day of the German invasion of Norway. It was the start of the war in Western Europe . . . .

Oscarsborg Fortress engaged a German fleet sailing up the Oslofjord with the objective of seizing the Norwegian capital and capturing Haakon VII, the Norwegian king, and his government. At the time of the battle, the ageing fortress' Main Battery of guns was over forty years old and the installation had been relegated to training coastal artillery servicemen, leading the Germans to disregard the fortress' defensive value. Furthermore, the most powerful weapon of the fortress was a torpedo battery, which no one but the Norwegian military knew about.

In the end, the fortress' armament worked flawlessly. By sinking the lead ship of the German armada headed for Oslo, Oscarsborg Fortress saved the Norwegian king and government from being taken captive in the first hours of the invasion."

Here's the site for the info on this battle (it's pretty interesting, especially since the good guys won this particular battle): 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Drøbak_Sound

Day 15 - Dinner

We arrived at the Oslo Central train station around 3PM. We then checked into the Hotel Børsparken once again and settled in. Oddvar and Solveig were to pick us up at 5PM. We would be meeting with Bjørn Nordnes, the son of Bjarne Nordnes who is the son of Benjamin Nordnes, brother of Ole Andreas and Hans (are you still with me?). If you're not glassy-eyed by now, you have surmised that Bjørn, Oddvar, Astrid and I are SECOND COUSINS! This was truly an unexpected event for me. Without telling me what he was planning, Oddvar had contacted Bjørn and had asked him to join us for dinner at this lovely restaurant that overlooks all of Oslo. It was a spectacularly delightful dinner! I sat next to Bjørn and really enjoyed talking with him all evening. I hope that all of us will stay in close touch. 

Day 15 - 3 Photos from the train

This was taken on a high and long mountain pass just before we reached Dombås

This was taken after Dombås, but before Otta. Isn't this country gorgeous?

Pay attention, fans of the 1994 Olymics! This was taken right after we departed Lillehammer.
Hard to believe that this verdant place could have enough snow to host the Olympic games!
The lake, beside which we traveled all afternoon, is called Mjøssa and is 110 km long.

Day 15 - Sept. 2 - Train to Oslo

On this day, the weather was spectacularly beautiful. We walked to the train station and boarded our train to Oslo at 8:25AM. This trip was a 7-hour journey involving many high mountains, several tunnels and lots of stunning scenery. Our seats were both window seats - we sat across a table from each other. Ivan faced the direction of travel, so, if I wanted to take a photo of something, he could warn me of approaching trees!

Since the weather was co-operating, this trip was much more interesting than the ride from Mo to Trondheim. I have three photos taken at different times along the route. My project as we traveled was to write down the times we arrived at the towns along the route. I'm going to try to identify where each photo was taken! First is the train map. Should you feel as compulsive as I am, you may check the location of the town near which the photo was taken! Our route was the one that's on the left side of the map. Photos will be in the next post.

Day 14, cont. - Three instruments from Ringve

These, obviously, are accordions, but are very old.

Believe it or not, this is a bagpipe!
The color doesn't show well in the photo, but it is blue and has this kind of bizarre fringe on it.
This instrument is from the 18th century in France.

Another bagpipe, this one of unknown age from Bulgaria.