Heading Home

Out Flight was at 7:50 and the airport is about 30 minutes away so we set the alarm for 5am. We were on the road by 5:30 and light traffic to the airport. The car return was easy, just park the car and drop the keys, then to the usual bottleneck at airports, check in. They seem to work on those parts of air travel that save the airlines time and money, but not the parts that save the customer any time. Iceland Air had 1 person checking people in and a line of people strung out across the whole checkin area. They finally realized that they were not going to get everyone checked in before the plane left, so they added another 2 people and it got caught up. We thought we had lots of time, but went right to the plane from check in. I sat with a Danish couple who were meeting their 2 daughters in Iceland for a 2 week family vacation. The husband was a full fledged Dane but his wife was American and had moved to Denmark 35 years ago. So of course I had to flush out the idea of taxes, health care, retirement and why those Danes are so darn happy. He was a software guy for Hewlett Packard. His take on American health care was that America is too big to have a country wide health care program but is crazy not to have something better than what we have. Each European country has it's own system and they are all different because the local cultures are different. He was thinking each state should have their own system. The other difference he pointed out was that in Denmark people and businesses sort of proudly pay their taxes to support the public parks, transportation, health care, old people, etc so the idea of ducking out on taxes would be sort of shameful. At the same time he pointed out, they do not over-use their system or try to take advantage of it (more shame). Maybe that is why we ride on trains and noted that they do not check for your ticket and everyone seems to still buy tickets. Someone pointed out that nobody jay walks in Denmark and we noticed the same thing. There can be no traffic at all, and people still wait for the walk light. I suppose it would be shameful to do so. Interesting.

We landed at Reykjavik, Iceland with it's lava fields. Today it was pretty clear out and we could see the mountains in the distance. Iceland basically has one road that goes around its circumference and I am guessing you could drive around it in 2 days based on what the Danish couple told me. We had leftover Danish Kroners so we bought some Icelandic beer for Jacob as thanks for guiding us around Boston. We got change in Iceland kroners so I thing we have coins from every country. Watched 2 movies on the plane to Boston (5 hrs) which gobbled up the time.

Boston went very smoothly and Jake met us and got us on the SilverLine to the bus station with a little time time spare so we could chat. I waited forever to get bus tickets (same issue as the airport checkin) but we were soon headed north out of Boston on the bus. The bus takes longer but is very quiet compared to the plane and the seats have more room and for some reason our tickets were very inexpensive today ($49 each). Can't drive (or park) for that. It is also nice to have wi-fi so I coulld catch up on mail, news, etc. We napped a bit and realized that we had been awake for a long time. Fifteen minute stop at White River to stretch the legs and get a drink then the home stretch back to Burling. Got in around 7 pm and a taxi to work in Williston where our car was waiting (thanks Seth). We picked up the dog who was excited to see us (but he gets excited about seeing anyone, so who knows) and then home. Still no kitchen but it looks like it getting there. Now we are really tired so off to bed.

Fredericksborg Castle, Wind Turbines. Car Day in Denmark

Today is our last full day here in Scandinavia, specifically Denmark, and since we did the "city day" yesterday in Copenhagen, we decided to do a quick lap around the countryside to see how the Danes live. Breakfast and then in the car to drive north to Frederiksborg Castle which was built by Christian IV (my new hero) as his "usual place". We saw his place in Copenhagen yesterday and it was fantastic. So we used this castle as an excuse to get out of dodge and see the countryside. This castle, even after being partially burned down and rebuilt a few times is big and beautiful. It is a bit overwhelming and confusing because they filled it with what appears to be every painting of every monarch, every chest of drawers ever carved as presents to every royal family ever being royal. They also loaded it up with church stuff, knight stuff and anything else they had crammed into back closets and sheds. I went to see my hero Christian IV and ended up seeing all the Christian IV wannabees. It is nonetheless impressive, and the Danes have out of the public money kept it up and are very proud of everything there. I need to research who married whom before I go back so I can keep track of who all these people are.

Did I mention Denmark is also chock full of wind turbines? When we flew in I could count a couple dozen as we landed. Denmark has been developing wind turbines for decades and last I checked they were considered the largest maker of turbines. They get 20% of their electricity from wind energy. When you drive around, you will see 1, 2, 3 5, 20, all different number and also all sized turbines you can imagine because the small ones are the earlier ones that are still running today. They usually sit in fields with wheat growing around them, but many are off-shore. I drove by a bunch of really old ones today and then realized they were sitting in the back yard of Risø. Riso is the standards organization whose papers I have been reading for the last few decades and here they are 6km from my hotel. Very cool. Pretty clunky looking wind turbines though.

The countryside is covered with wheat and someone told us today that is is just about ready to harvest and because the weather has been so wet, they have to act quickly when it is ready and when the weather cooperates so it is dry enough.

We drove north to the coast and stopped in the town of Gilleleje. They have a walking mall down town (2 blocks so it is a small town) and a beach with free parking and nice benches for people to sit and relax. I have probably commented before on the "public wealth" here. The roads are in good shape, the public transportation, either train or bus goes everywhere and is simple but well maintained, and there are lots of simple, well-groomed parks for people to enjoy. They get free college tuition (only 4 year university, not grad school) and 1000Kr per month to live on while they are in school. Health care is provided (by the way we were told that if a foreigner gets hurt here, they are taken care of compliments of Denmark, although I doubt it would cover triple heart bypasses or the like), and maternity leave is pretty generous (read David Brooks pieces on the value of early childhood care based on statistics). What you do not see a lot of is really wealthy people, although we did see some nice oceanside homes today, so there must be some. Maybe I have rose colored glasses here but they seem proud to contribute to the public wealth and it shows.

So we tried to get lost on some rural roads, which is hard because there are not that many roads being a small island (we were not on the larger part of Denmark). We found a bakery and bought real Danish danishes for our son Jake (Jake, don't read this. It is supposed to be a surprise for tomorrow) and they wrapped it up special so it would last the day in a box, gift wrapped. Nice touch.

We were pretty beat from the almost 3 weeks of travel and decided to head back to the hotel and pack and get a last dinner in town somewhere. We actually stopped by the big Cathedral in town and took a few pictures, but never made it to the Viking Ship Museum. I think we hit saturation sometime in the last day or 2.

We picked up a few things to bring home, found some pizza for dinner (we've found Scandinavian pizza to be really good, and different than home), went back to the hotel, and packed. Tomorrow it is back to those thieving vikings at Iceland Air. This time we come prepared with real kroners (Swedish and Danish, so take that).

Rain in Copenhagen

So it was payback day (actually only the morning) for all the awesome weather we have had here. I could hear it pouring outside when my eyes cracked open this morning. The plan was to take the train to Copenhagen and get a walking tour with a guy named Richard who dresses up as Hans Christian Andersen. We have rain jackets but no umbrella so the hotel just happened to have an extra umbrella a guest had forgotten and we both tucked under it and walked to the railroad station in our little town of Roskilde. We bought a 24 hour ticket that as it turned out was good for all the transportation (metro and buses) in Copenhagen as well. It took about 30 minutes to get to the station in downtown Copenhagen on the nice smooth quiet electric train (we've got to get some of these). We asked about driving into Copenhagen but parking is sky high in the city and you can tell because this disincentive works because there are very few cars in Copenhagen and lots of walking streets and lots of bicycles and a few scooters here and there. We hit the tourist info place where we were supposed to meet Richard and loaded up on maps. Richard arrived in his top hat, coat and tails (the Hans Christian Andersen garb) and apologized that it was raining too hard to really give us a tour that would be much good because all the interesting stuff he usually does is outside. He did do another tour in the afternoon at Rosenborg Castle so we told him we might meet him there. So we decided to go to the National Museum but stopped at city hall (free admission) mostly because it was raining so hard. We ran into Richard (Hans), his old high school buddy from New Jersey (Steve) and a woman from San Francisco (Amy) and Richard decided to take us to the Bertel Thorvaldsens museum (whoever he was). I had actually seen his name on a few things over the last couple of days so we joined them. Richard didn't charge us anything but was going there anyway. He turned out to be like a non-stop encyclopedia and basically wore us out with all the info we got. If you walk into a museum or town and walk around, you have no idea what you are looking at but if you have a guy like this framing everything you are seeing, it is a whole different thing. It was raining so hard on the way to the museum that he stopped by a restaurant that he knew and chatted up the owner who gave us all complimentary shots of schnapps to warm us up. Class act.

So Thorvaldsens was a sculptor who worked with his dad (also a sculptor) but really had natural talent and blew by his dad quickly (sounds like dad was ok with that). He was a natural and soon became the most sought after sculptor in the world at that time (1770 to 1844). He had the talent but the market was in Rome so at an early age, he moved to Rome and set up shop to make sculptures for kings and rich folks all over the world. He first did plaster casts, then had his "students" rough out the marble version, then he finished the marble versions. He did a lot of plaster sculptures that did not end up being transferred to stone and many of these were on display as well. The style of the day was based around Greek mythology so most of the famous guys wanted to be dressed in togas, as did their wives. He also did a lot of religious pieces. All I could think of was another one of those lucky people who discovered their natural ability, loved what they did and made a long successful career out of it (and got wicked rich). He really did have the talent and it showed in the beautiful pieces he did.

So after that we went back out in the rain and dropped in at the Christiansborg Palace and saw the royal viewing rooms. where all the official royal events take place. The monarchy sort of dissolved in the early 1800's after they set up a Parliament, but the Danes still love their royal family and keep the traditions alive. We saw the most amazing tapestries that were done just a few years ago by a Danish artist that took 60 people 10 years to weave. They were full of Danish historical references and just the research must have taken him years. Another passionate guy with a really big project leaving his mark.

The history of royal families is fun to figure out because the marriages were to make alliances between countries and a lot of wheeling and dealing was going on to combine countries or territories. The most colorful monarch in Denmark is Christian IV (1577 to 1648) who took the throne at 19 and lived to be 70 and devoted each and every day to doing really interesting and edgy stuff. The public loved him, got behind him and Denmark truly advanced during the time of his reign. I have to read his biography when I get back because he sounds like a dynamo. He had a castle (actually he had a lot of stuff built) and was out each day while they were building it measuring the stones to make sure the workers got it right. He partied a lot, always participated personally on the front lines of any wars Denmark entered into on horseback (unlike our leaders today), and generally was a well loved king and role model (except for the womanizing parts). He built Rosenborg Castle as his summer home and this is the tour Richard was giving in the afternoon. This tour was inside so we had a group of about 10 people which was about the right size for this castle as some of the viewing areas are small. Richard gave us the entire scoop on Christian IV and a lot of his stuff was there. The Danish crown jewels were there as well under lock and key.
So at the end of the tour we said good bye to the folks we'd met and went to find something warm to drink. We ran into Richard and his high school buddy again at a bakery and warmed up with coffee and tea. We then decided it was too late to do the National Museum so we did a walking tour of our own out of the Rick Steves' book. These are great because they get you away from the fray and help you look past all of the modern stuff and points out the buildings on the back streets that have the richest stories. We did this until we got near the harbor and then decided to hop on the Metro and go out of the city, just to ride the super high tech subway with no driver (all done with computers folks). What a fantastic transport system they have here. It is weird to sit in the front of the train, where a driver might sit and go from stop to stop smoothly and quietly. We came back into the city and decided to stop in Christiania. This is a hippie commune community in the 1970's and there was a restaurant there that Deb had read about. The restaurant looked out of business and the community is still there, but it looked like it had gotten a little rough. They had signs saying"No Photos" everywhere I can assume because there are still drug deals going on there. We got out of there and back on the Metro, and found a restaurant to celebrate Deb's birthday. We found a great place which turned out to be the oldest restaurant in Copenhagen and had amazing fish on the menu. They brought out chocolate cake with a candle and the other folks in the restaurant seemed to enjoy my rendition of Happy Birthday. I did not know how to sing it in Danish, sorry.

It was getting late so we walked back to the train station (seeing the accordion street performer for the third time today - he must go from street to street all day) and hopped on the next train home which tonight took about 20 minutes. Oh yeah, it stopped raining midday so the afternoon was great. Tomorrow we stay around Roskilde to see the Viking museum and go for a drive to see Christian IVs winter castle.

Not so fast retreat from Bergen to Copenhagen

So we kind of misinterpreted the flight and we did not leave this morning but rather this afternoon, so we slept some more this morning, moved the car off the street to free parking (at 8am all the delivery trucks roll in) to a lot up the street, and went back to the hotel for breakfast. After that we packed up, checked out, rolled the bags down to the parked car and decided to walk all the way around Bergen and back. Today Bergen was crawling with tourists (that would be us). There were about 4 to 6 cruise ships in the harbor and the wharf was loaded with people. Being Bergen experts by now (very smug) we took the upper streets away from the wharf and avoided all that. We watched one of the big cruise ships back in and parallel park at one of the big docks (at least I thought it was cool). They have side thrusters so they can actually push themselves around pretty well. I did notice some dents in the back bumper so I guess it isn't always perfect landing for those guys. The woman at the hotel sent us off looking for pretty little white houses away from the downtown, which we found and they were indeed very small and white and quaint. We then found a back way into the ramparts above the fortified area of town and got a good view of the whole town. We were too cheap to ride the funicular up the side of the valley so this was just as good and free. Also got some great views of the back of the tenements (above) with the morning sun. So back to the car and off to the airport. I stopped for diesel (fill before returning the car) and gave our last kroners to the fuel guy. I sadly returned the car (it was fun) and we got to the airport, checked our luggage and then sat outside until we had to board. The flight was 1.5 hours to Copenhagen and uneventful. If you want a drink or snack you have to buy them. We are much too cheap for that.

Dehydrated and starving (just kidding) we got to the Copenhagen airport, got the rental car (actually more like a go cart, yippee), and headed west a half an hour to Roskilde where our hotel is.

This town is way older than Copenhagen and all the monarchs are buried here in the cathedral. It has a big downtown street for pedestrians only and I do not get the sense that they see many tourists. Copenhagen gets the spotlight. We checked in and did a quick recon walk around the town and found a great Mexican place under the tattoo parlor. Tattoos are big here, and most seem a little too big, if you know what I mean. We easily got money out of the ATM so that was good news after the saga in Norway, plus I am not sure they have deposit bottles here.

We checked out the grocery store in town which is always a good indicator of what things cost (less than Norway, which would not be a stretch), and also is fun to see all the weird stuff they buy here. Not much English on store labels so who knows what some of this stuff is.

The train station is right in town and the plan is to hit Copenhagen tomorrow and then stay around here to visit the Viking Museum, the Cathedral, and maybe drive around and look at wind turbines. It is supposed to pour for the next few days so we will see.

Final Fjords

For our last day in Norway we decided to do an all day road trip with the diesel sipping Fiesta. I love driving this car. It is small and fun to hammer (granted a tack hammer) down these skinny twisty roads. Mixing it up with the big Mercedes buses and Scania trucks is as close to my motorcycle as I am going to get this trip. Deb figured out a great loop that took us up over some mountains, along some nice hidden fjords not yet promoted to tourists (emphasis on yet), and a couple of ferry rides just to make sure we were doing our fair share for the Norwegian economy.

It was supposed to be beautiful today but the day started off overcast and a bit misty(remember Bergen is called the Norwegian rain forest). We took the same road out of Bergen then turned east and followed Rt 7 over hill and dale. Again, these Norwegians love to drill tunnels. They put them everywhere, and they put tunnels in places with very little population but where some of the best fjord viewing is (are you thinking what I am thinking, future tourist kroners..). I think they are using their oil money to develop their tourist trade. These tunnels are big enough for buses and big trucks so they deliver the ingredients for a successful tourist industry (tourists' plastic Norwegian moose (meese?) and soft ice cream). We also noticed that in these parts today, they are growing cherry trees all over the place. They sell them beside the road, but have enough to wholesale them somewhere. It must be the fact that down in the fjords, the temperature is moderated a bit by all the water. The big amusement ride today was ducking and dodging travel trailers, buses and trucks on the ever changing twisty roads with lane widths varying from 1 to 2 lanes. Nothing like cruising through a deep turn and discovering that the lane just went from 2 to 1 and a logging truck is headed right for you. By the end of the day I got used to slamming on the brakes, hugging the right shoulder until the mirrors just kissed the guardrail, and creeping by whoever was coming the other way. I didn't have to but a lot of folks had to back up. There were a lot of mirrors getting quickly folded back, especially on the travel trailers with those extra wide mirror extenders.

The bus drivers are amazing. I first witnessed this last week on the snow road (previous post), but today I saw buses go places I didn't think my little car would go. These guys are good. And the buses run to all these tiny little remote towns, not like home!!

At one spot we got stuck behind a half mile of cars, campers and trucks because a big truck did something at the entrance to a tunnel and blocked traffic both ways. We finally crawled past him but did not see the damage so not sure what happened there?

The ferries are very efficient and you no sooner shut your car off, than the thing is moving. The minute they hit the dock on the other side, the ramp drops and 3 lanes of cars jockey their way out. I got real low on diesel and had a tough time finding more until we almost got back to Bergen ($9.33 per gallon!). Fortunately, this thing is a miser and I averaged 57 mpg this last tank. Take that you Prius weenies!

So by the end of the day the sun was brilliant and we caught some dinner and walked along the harbor with wonderful late evening light (dark around 10pm). Street was full of people, harbor full of boats.

So tomorrow we fly to Copenhagen. I gotta pack.

Lepers, Composers, and Recycled Cheese Graters

It rained last night in the Norwegian Rainforest (what the locals call Bergen). It actually sprinkled here and again today, but not so much that we got too wet. First stop this morning was the Leprosy Museum. Believe it or not, the walking tour woman told us it was her favorite thing to go see. Not my favorite, but it was another walking tour and the history of it is pretty interesting and maybe tells a little about the damage done by stereotyping and narrow minds. Leprosy is a bacterial disease that 95% of humans are genetically immune to, but for centuries was associated with "unclean" living (as per Moses in the Bible it seems). Priests were not allowed to touch lepers for religious reasons (the unclean thing), but the nuns could, so the hospital out back of the church started filling with more and more cases of leprosy until it was full (140 at its peak). It was not until the late 1800's that someone started looking at the patterns of infections and discovered that the vast population (95%) are genetically immune to it, and it was spread through the air (coughing). This part of Norway had a lot of lepers because of the damp conditions around here. This hospital was seeing lepers since the 1400's so it went on quite a while. These days it is curable but many still suffer because of the stigma attached (let's keep those minds more open going forward).

Next we caught the tram (oh man I wish we had one of these babies going from Bristol to Williston) which is the "light rail" transport that goes from downtown Bergen to the outskirts and feeds all the buses along the way. We walked 20 minutes from the rail stop to the Edvard Grieg home, museum and concert hall. I did not recognize his name (red neck) but when I heard the music, I knew who he was from Bugs Bunny and Bambi Vs Godzilla cartoons (who said I wasn't cultured) (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPFxBzlFe94&feature=related). Being a late 1800's forward thinker he also built a "composer's hut" where he went to write his masterpieces, which was the predecessor to our modern day "man cave". This is where men go to endeavor in lofty pursuits (and also avoid the dreaded "honey-do" list). Norway is very proud of their famous folks and once again, even at this museum the other very famous musician showed up, Ole Bull. Gotta look him up because his picture is everywhere, his statue is everywhere, he has bars named after him, etc, etc. Sorry Edvard, you got upstaged again. Anyway, nice museum, nice calming music.

We were going to go to Ole Bull's estate but ran out of time. It was a tram stop south of here, then a bus, then a ferry ride away and we would have arrived just about closing time. The museums here seem to only be open between 11am and 3 or 5pm, sometimes 6pm, so you gotta be quick.

We took the tram back into Bergen and hit the other 2 art museums we missed before, The Contemporary Art Museum (lots of Norwegians painting just like the French painters, but Norwegian landscapes and people) houses the "classic" paintings of Norway. A couple of great ones and some very dark ones.

The West Norway Museum of Decorative Art, which had a silver exhibit (spoons, dishes, tea warmers, snooze fest,..) and some of the really creative, simple, fresh "thing" designs like furniture, kitchenware, lamps, pottery, etc. I love this stuff because it is all about function and simplicity and somehow they make it look cool (think Swedish office chairs from the 60's) . They had a special collection of stuff built with recycled stuff (see attached cheese grader lamp). We rested our dogs at the museum cafe and then headed to find supper. We got sidetracked by a guy named Bob (www.bobatlarge.com) who was keeping the street crowd entertained. We chatted him up a bit after and learned he's travelling all over the world doing street performing. He had just came from a Street Performance Olympics in Dublin so he is pretty serious about this stuff. We found a great place that looked more like a bar than restaurant, but we had some amazing fish souffle and mackerel.

Then a stroll around town, watched a ferry come in with some locals on it (island?), checked out some rich person's boat (complete with helicopter on board, Cayman Islands tag), then back to the hotel. I think we hit everything there is to see in Bergen. Maybe a long drive tomorrow..

Contrary to what the weather guys said, it did not rain today (actually it did a little tonight). We are having amazing luck with the weather and appreciate it. The first thing we did, and the highlight of the day, was the walking tour of Bergen. We bought a 48 hour Bergen Card which gets us into all the museums and lets us ride the bus, light rail etc. Bergen has about 250,000 people and after you walk around a bit, it feels smaller and smaller. The woman who gave the tour (in English thank you very much) was great. Bergen really got going around 1100, about the time everything else seemed to get started here in Norway. Bergen started fishing. For centuries they traded dried fish for grain. They specialized in dried fish. Cod fish was (and maybe still is), the fish of choice. Dried fish was valuable to the world because it can be stored for years (during shipment, on long ocean voyages, etc, etc). Bergen was also the capital of Norway for centuries. Around the late 1300's German businessmen came to town and stayed at first for the summer, and then all year round. The got special provisions from the Norwegian government to exclusive trading rights in the fishing industry and this kicked off a 3-400 year run of German controlled trade in Bergen. German boys (no girls) were shipped to Bergen at 13-15 years of age and put to work. If you see a postcard or hat or something from Bergen, it will more than likely be the 10 or 11 tenement houses right on the waterfront. These tenements were long houses that each housed about 100 German men who ran businesses in Bergen. Each had a central kitchen toward the back (run by boys), a communal room where they could hold meetings and socialize. On the back of each tenement was the "store front" where commerce took place. The boys were tested when they arrived to see if they were tough enough to live there doing hard work in dark damp conditions (Bergen winter weather), and they were sent home if not. They stayed there for 10 or 20 years and then returned home at middle age to take normal lives back home in Germany.

The Norwegians eventually nationalized all of this and kept a lot of the Germans to run the businesses in town. The feeling among Norwegians is that it was an okay arrangement because it increased commerce with the outside world, even if they did not control it.

The other historical theme is fires. Seems like they had fires that wiped out some part of the town every 20 to 30 years and they have a whole museum dedicated to fire. The big fire in 1702 wiped most of the city out, and the last big fire was in 1955. After this last fire, the old tenements were almost bulldozed and modern buildings put in but after poking around in the ashes, they realized that there were several cities buried under the ground and they decided to restore the city and rebuild it very carefully, put a couple museums in to show off all the stuff they dug up and maybe charge some kroners for tourists to see them. Great tour.

We then went to the Rosenkrantz Tower which has had enough rich and/or famous people or kings rebuild it that it is hard to tell which part was built when. But we climbed to the top and got some great pictures. One exhibit here was about all the intricate laws that were in place back on the 11-1200's. They were very organized and very fair.

We stopped by the Theta Museum which is basically one room that was restored to the way it was during World War II and served as a place for the Norwegian Resistance to report to the Allies the comings and goings of the Germans in Bergen, which the Germans used as a port to supply their war effort with ships, planes, fuel, ammunition and soldiers. They used radio signals from this small room to transmit over the pond to England what was moving through. There were 13 young men (19-22) running this and 9 of them lived until the end of the war. There is a weird relationship here with Germany, partly because of the whole 400 year of running things thing, and partly old wounds from WWII. They don't talk about it much.

We tried to hit the Leprosy Museum but it was closed. The small museums here only seem to be open a few hours a day, a few days a week.

So off to the art museum, or one of them. We only had 45 minutes to rip through the museum and we got through the entire thing, sort of drive-by art appreciation.

We walked all over town to find a place to eat and finally ended up back on the wharf.

The great news is we finally found an ATM that took our card and gave us money. No more digging those coke bottles out of the garbage cans..