Oslo

I know I didn't post yesterday...and today will be a small one. I think I finally figured out the onboard wifi system, but this is sort of a test of my abilities.

We made it onboard the ship just fine yesterday, have a great room, exhausted ourselves trying to do and see everything around the ship, ate a late (and slow) dinner and crashed.

Arrived in Oslo at 10 am and did our own tour-- Vigeland sculptures at Frogner park.

Plus our DIY tram tour for which Tom had to hike a bit to get tickets.  What a guy! Three of us went on the ferry over to the Viking ship museum, and I came back to rest my knee but had a nice relaxing lunch.  Oh, and met a cute troll on my way home.

Tomorrow is a sea day, so I will post again in two days from Germany.

Windy-ful, wonderful Copenhagen

Today, Monday, dawned cloudy and rainy (the weatherman lied) but we just grabbed our raincoats and headed out anyway.  It was windy much of the day, and dark grey storm clouds raced across the sky along with patches of blue. Today was planned to be a slower, quieter day.  Ken's bulging disc is still giving him walking problems, although he is much improved from a few weeks ago, and my cold has settled in for the usual cough and congestion discomfort.   And we agreed we both pushed ourselves a little too much yesterday.  So today was just going to be a couple of hours up to the Rosenborg Castle.

But first we stopped at the amber museum at the end of the canal.  Quite small, but with a nice collection of amber pieces of varying sizes and colors, also many examples with bugs captured in them and some good information about amber formation and aging, along with some exquisitely carved sailing ships, chess pieces, pipes and other sailing oriented carvings.  There is a lovely little commercial shop underneath the museum, but we decided to wait to purchase anything.

The Rosenborg Castle was only 500 yards away, but we got waylaid by a cute cafe with cappuccino halfway there.  We finally got to the Castle and Gardens just before noon, when everything stops to see the changing of the guards (Queen Margreth is in town) and the crowds are at their largest. After 45 minutes in line, stashing our purses in the mandatory lockers (I suppose so we don't make off with the family silver) we were into the Castle itself.

King Christian was quite the entertaining host.  He built a special chair to trick unsuspecting guests.  Essentially, upon his command a servant would pull a ring at the back of the chair, the chair extended metal arms to trap the guest from getting up, and water would squirt out from the armrest to drench the guest.  And then, when this hilarious fun was over and the guest managed to escape,  the chair made a farting noise.  Sort of an original Whoopee Cushion.

The King also had a mirrored room, purportedly so he could look up the skirts of the ladies, as well as a hidden peephole in the door of his bedroom, to check on who was waiting outside. 

We also saw an amazing assortment of porcelain, glass and fine furnishings, but I think they overdid the whole silver-in-my-purse thing...this lion just isn't going to fit, or the Queen's throne, either.

After the castle itself, we headed down to the basement where they keep the Crown Jewels.

The coronation crown, 7 pounds of gold, plus assorted diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls.

Closeup of the diamond and pearl encrusted saddle

Amber and gold set of jewels

Perfectly detailed armies of foot soldiers, cavalry on both horseback and elephants, archers and others.

After the Treasury, we wandered through the garden during one of the off-and-on dry spells, and happened upon this guy with Hans Christan Anderson

It was already 3 pm, and I had planned on only spending a couple of hours touring, and here it was already five hours.  So we had a quick nosh (lunch?) at one of the famous pølse vognes-or in English the hot dog stand.  But these have about 12 different varieties.  We ended up with two "ristets mit everything".  Not exactly sure what "everything" was, but it included stone ground mustard, ketchup, yellow sauce (sorta like a dijonnaise?) pickles and crispy fried onions.  Tasted very good, and still no heartburn!

Shortly after,  we went back to the hotel, where I am currently ensconced, yes in my garret room, listening to a nearby a capella choir practice as I write this.  Lovely, really great.  Beautiful voices.  Ken, Sandy and Tom went across the street to one of the canal side restaurants, but I figured it would be wiser for me to take a hot shower and rest in bed.  Tom will bring me hot tea and some bread for dinner.  Tomorrow we board the ship and depart to Norway.

Writing From my Garret

Today we awoke to thunder and rain at 6 am.   By 9 we had eaten a lovely breakfast at our little hotel and I was forced to admit that the scratchy feeling in the back of my throat from the last two days meant I was coming down with a cold.  Dang it!  We always use disinfecting wipes whenever we fly, but apparently I touched some contaminated doorknob, handrail, elevator button or simply walked too close to someone who had coughed......and now I am that someone.   I hope none of the others comes down with it, too.

The rain ended by 10, so the four of us decided to venture out to see some of the sights of Copenhagen.  We wandered down some of the Stroget, a pedestrian shopping mall with the likes of Hermes and Cartier--fortunately still closed on a Sunday morning or I might have been tempted to check out a certain scarf in the former I had seen.  Not too far from that we found a Canal Tour which took us sightseeing from the water, and the sun even started to peek through the clouds a little.  Turns out our hotel is on a canal on the tour, along with the lowest bridge on the tour, about 2" above the heads of the passengers.

This is the street of our hotel

The Little Mermaid from the backside

Our next adventure was getting lost, going the wrong way on the right bus.  So we got ourselves off and turned around and headed to the Tycho Brahe Planetarium.  If you stumbled over that pronunciation, don't worry; it's t-YOU-ko bra-ah.   You can imagine how we mangle the rest of the words when trying to get to Nytorv (NEW-toe) or Kongensgade (Kongs-ha) and are cheerfully corrected by the Danes.  The day was shaping up pretty nicely, and we enjoyed some of the birds by the lake and the willows on the bank next to the planetarium.

By then I was fading fast, and having a dinner meeting with friends of my cousin at 7, we decided to head back to the hotel and grab a quick little lunch and a couple of beers from the Cheap Beer Kiosk across the street and some rest at the hotel.  I awoke two hours later to...more thunder and rain.  

Our cute little hotel is situated on a very busy corner, so I asked for a quiet room at the back.  It's pretty tiny, but it covers the bases.  Our view, such as it is, is the courtyard car park, but we still have some interesting architecture.

It's now just after 6 and time to head out for dinner, so I'm going to wake Tom, and will write more later.

Tivoli Tonight

Well, after yesterday's long post, today you get a short one.  We hauled our pile of luggage, much to the amusement of the Icelanders and Danes, from hotel to transfer bus to airport to taxi to new hotel in Copenhagen.  All four of us are ready to be in one place for a few days (or more) just so we can stop slinging bags.  Half of them are not needed right now-we just have to get them to the cruise ship-but we have to bring them with us.

Upon arrival in Copenhagen we decided to head over to Tivoli Gardens for the evening.  Dinner at the Biergarten, a wander around the lake and amusement rides and we are ready to end the night. It's midnight here and time to get some rest.

Geysers and Vikings and Waterfalls, oh my!

Today, after some decent sleep (and a couple of minor awakenings by rolling metal something--pipes?tent poles? beer kegs?--in the street) we awakened to a hearty Icelandic breakfast, and headed out for our Golden Circle tour.   We were on one of those large tour buses, not something we ordinarily do because of the "hurry up and wait" nature of waiting for the last passenger to return.  But since we were on a Big Bus anyway, we went with the top deck of a double decker version where we had a very nice view over the top of all cars, other buses and most buildings.  And since much of the tour involved driving from one place to another, we saw some beautiful rugged landscape along the way.

We first stopped at an indoor tomato greenhouse, which utilizes the abundant geothermal heat to warm the green house and power the full spectrum growing lights.  I don't know how many tomatoes are grown here, but it is safe to say they cannot grow them outdoors in Iceland, ever.  And they were growing lots.  We kinda missed some of the details of the farming operation, as we were also partaking of the famous Best Bloody Mary Ever (according the The Guardian).   Not being a fan of Bloody Mary's, I cannot attest to the quality, but the others thought it quite good.  I do know the basil was fresh, as it sits on the table and they give you herb shears to cut it up and add to your drink.  We sorta heard some story about Vikings and vodka.

We then headed out to the geyser area.  The original, Geysir, meaning 'Gusher' and from which we get the word 'geyser', is no longer spouting regularly due to underground changes from an earthquake.  But it's neighbor, Strokkur (translates as 'to churn') is much more frequent, about every 6-8 minutes on average.   What is very interesting, is that just as the geyser starts, it forms a big blue bubble of water as the geyser bursts out of the hole.  I took a video of one of the eruptions and here are two frames of the geyser.  And yes, the Vikings and modern day farmers, did/do cook food within the many hot steam vents found in the area.

After a nice lunch of traditional Icelandic lamb soup it was time to head out to the Gullfoss. Gullfoss means Golden Waterfall.  The sun was not out today, so we didn't see any golden, but it was certainly wet.  The mist thrown up by the falls was enough to feel even up in the parking area.  Tom braved the elements and hiked all the way to the edge of the falls, while the rest of us took in the sight from the upper rim.  The water flows at around 140 cubic meters per second, which creates quite a bit of rainbow forming mist when sunny.  The water comes from the glacial melt of Iceland's second largest glacier.  We heard another legend about a Viking, this a lad who crossed this river to reach his one true love on the other side.

That's Tom in the hat with the selfie stick

We headed next to the Thingvellir Park, a UNESCO World  Heritage Site.  It was some amazing landscape; the first Parliament location from 970 to 1798; also a place where the Vikings meted out justice by drowning. But also an interesting geological rarity; the rift valley between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasion tectonic plate as they slide past each other at the galloping rate of  1-2 cm per year.

After this we finally headed back to the hotel, but not without seeing the churchyard where the last Viking is interred.  And of course, we heard about the exploits and adventures of Ale, the drunken poet last Viking.  Then we were off to enjoy a nice happy hour (including fermented shark 😖 and Aquavit 😄), dinner and head to bed for a well-deserved night's rest.  For tomorrow we travel to Copenhagen.  

Blue Lagoon

We have arrived safely in Iceland;  spent several hours at the Blue Lagoon on the way in from the airport.  Having spent way too many sleepless hours on planes and buses the last two days, it was a welcome respite.  Got to our hotel, checked in, went out for an early dinner and are barely keeping our eyelids propped open.  We've been up for 30 hours straight, so need to finish this post before I fall asleep.

And we're on our way!

Greetings from Denver, CO. The first overnight stop on our next adventure.  It has pretty much taken us all day to get here on a 49 minute flight.  Left the house at 8:45, got to the Sunport in good time, through security behind a family with two little ones on leashes.  The kids were fine, but their parents kept getting tangled up in the leashes, strollers and car seats, but provided great entertainment for the rest of us in line.  Flight was uneventful, waited a bit for the hotel shuttle, checked in, ate a lunch and then connected up with cousin Sandy and husband Ken about 2:30.  

Then we started talking.  And talking. And talking.  Uber'ed over for some pizza around 7, and kept talking.  Finally stopped talking about half an hour ago, but we have plans to meet over breakfast and talk some more.  Talked so much we haven't checked in for our flight tomorrow yet. Talked so much we didn't take one picture of all of us yet, so you will just have to wait for tomorrow's report for that one.  Probably won't stop talking for the full 18 days.  

Two days and counting...

Getting ready for our next adventure, still in the throes of packing and I decided to instead dust off the 'ol blog and get it ready.   Honestly, the bedroom is a disaster, I still cannot decide if I need a couple more shirts and whether I need shorts, or not.  We will take two suitcases and one small under-seat bag each for this five week trip.  But we have eight suitcases out being tested for accommodation.   Still not absolutely sure which ones fit.  And the moneybelt I pulled out last week and put in one of the bags?   Cannot find it.  Anywhere.  So I am going with my backup one; not as silky and a little more worn, but seriously, I have looked everywhere and cannot find that sucker.  I wonder what else I checked off the list and can no longer find?