Today we decided to rent some bikes from our hotel and go for a ride around town.  These were typical Copenhagen city bikes, NOT like anything we are used to riding.  They are made out of lead, and would really rather sit still than actually take you anywhere.  You get on and the bike just kind of goes “Oh, really?”.

We did eventually get moving, but then had some trouble figuring out the gears.  We finally figured out that you have to stop pedaling to get the gears to shift (all 3 of them). Unfortunately we only figured that out AFTER climbing the only hill in Copenhagen.

Bikes here are a preferred means of transport, which means they are everywhere. One thing we noticed is that in addition to mostly being upright cruisers, most of the bikes are beat to hell.  I suspect that the majority, at least in the city, are parked outside on the street at night, which means they take a lot of weather abuse, and also means you want to have a beat bike so nobody steals it.  Many are cheap bikes to start with – I noticed that the grocery store down the street sells bikes along with the cucumbers.

Many streets have a special lane just for bikes between the street and the sidewalk.  This does mean that as a pedestrian you have to learn to watch out for bikes as well as cars before you step off the sidewalk, and DON’T mistake the bike way for a sidewalk or you’ll get cussed out good, if not run over.  Tami had to yank me back more than once to keep me from getting killed.  Of course I’m not exactly the most observant person. (What Mike fails to mention here is that these bike lanes are a bit like a freeway. You can’t just stop in the middle of them or make sudden changes or turns. He nearly got me run over by the oncoming hoard of cyclists when he made a sudden decision to stop at yet another cycle shop and did not give me but a half second of warning. The cursing was in Danish, though, so I have no idea what they were all saying.We survived.  -T)

There are also quite a variety of bikes.  In the picture above as well as here are what back home is known as a “Dutch bike”.  No idea what they call them here.  Cool idea, but I would not want to have one someplace hilly.  Even empty that’s got to add some real weight.  (And yes, there are two different people on bikes in that picture.)

-M

Vi är i Sverige nu. Well, we were in Sweden a couple of hours ago but I wanted to use some of the little bit of Swedish that I remember. We made an expedition to Malmö for the day and it was a wonderful trip.Mike and I both have Swedish roots so it was a big goal of ours to make it to Sweden. We took a couple of quarters of Swedish lessons at the Nordic Heritage Museum a year or so ago, but unfortunately we don’t remember much. I see words on signs and think, “hmm, that looks familiar.” I really should have brushed up before we came. Keenan helped me with the numbers, but I should have done more. No matter, everyone speaks English, but it would have been fun to try some Swedish. It’s too bad Keenan couldn’t have been here with us since he is studying Swedish at the UW. Nästa gång!

It was so easy to get to Sweden—we just caught a train from the Copenhagen Central station and we were in Malmö in 30 minutes. There is now a bridge that runs between Denmark and Copenhagen and the train runs on the bridge. The first building we saw once we crossed into Sweden was a big IKEA. What fun it would have been to check that out!

As we crossed the bridge, we noticed a forest of wind turbines rising out of the water. Very bizarre! We did not have very high expectations of Malmö. A woman in the tourist center said there really wasn’t much there, but now I realize that she was Danish and this was Sweden we were talking about!

Malmö was a pleasant surprise of old buildings nicely preserved, lots of open squares and pedestrian streets, plenty of interesting shopping, and a beautiful, modern sense to the city that works well with the history. We found quite a few shops with furniture and home furnishings that really show-cased modern Scandinavian design and style. We were just drooling over many items we saw and were also so impressed with some of the inventive design of many household items. Why don’t we see more of these types of things? It was like IKEA on steroids and beyond. We loved it.

One thing we find amusing about these Nordic countries is their love of outdoor cafés. They are everywhere, but it is also still quite cold, so most of the cafés have blankets on the chairs so you can bundle up. We usually opt for going inside to stay warm!

While Denmark and Sweden are not nearly as expensive as Norway, they are still quite pricey and we are finding that a good way to avoid breaking the bank is to eat lunch out and then have a small dinner of crackers or bread, cheese, meats, and fruit in the room. Lunch in Malmö was some typical plates of fish, rye bread, and pickled onions. I had salmon and Mike had two kinds of white fish. They were delicious!

Salmon- yum!

Our lunch stop also had an extensive whiskey collection and we thus discovered a Swedish whiskey. The bartender steered us to the government liquor store where we found a bottle to bring back—just half of our allowance! Kevin, Melinda, and Keenan—we also spotted the OP Anderson. The amazing thing is that it was actually cheaper in the US!

OP Anderson- look at all those bottles!

Our day in Sweden went quickly and we soon found ourselves back in the train station trying to figure out how to spend the rest of our Swedish kroner—it’s becoming a part of our travel: how to spend our remaining pounds, euros, kroner. Not usually a problem, but it’s a fun puzzle to make sure you don’t take out too much, and then find a way to spend what you have.

-T

It was an odd feeling to walk across that gangway for the last time, but at 7:30 in the morning, we were also half asleep. Cruise terminals are actually pretty weird because they are such bare-bones, basic buildings. Copenhagen was no different—it looked like a temporary building and was nothing more than a big room with everyone’s baggage laid out and stacks of city maps by the exit. It was well-organized, though, so we immediately found our bags and exited the ‘building’.

The other thing about cruise terminals is that they are usually in the middle of a very industrial area, as was this one. We knew we could walk to a train station so we bypassed the taxis. Within a few feet we were all alone and trudging along the blue path in a very desolate area, but we did find the minimal train station fairly soon. As we stepped onto the upper platform, a huge blast of wind swept Mike’s hat off and onto the track. Welcome to Copenhagen!

There was no place to buy tickets on the platform, but another passenger told us we had to go back to the 7-Eleven to get tickets. For which we had no money! There was no cash machine at the terminal and we do not have the computer chip credit cards like they have in Europe and that are the only kind you can use in the machines. So off Mike went to get tickets. He came back with tickets in hand only because of the kind generosity of a stranger in the 7-Eleven! With no Danish cash and a non-functional credit card, he was kind of out of luck, so we were so fortunate to have someone buy the tickets for him.

So we finally made it into the Copenhagen Central train station, where we were able to get some cash, and we continued our trudge to our hotel. It was cold, windy, threatening rain. It was a long way to the hotel from the train station. It was so early on a Saturday morning that we were the only ones in the street. We were looking for the address of our hotel, 66 Vesterbrogade. Addresses were scarce, but we did pass 38, then a long time until 62, and then suddenly we were at 72. Huh? So back we went. We could look up and see a big sign for a hotel on the side of the building, but no doorway. Then we realized that the entrance was inside a small driveway off the street. We had to be buzzed in and climb a flight of stairs to check-in. We stuffed Mike with all the luggage into the very small elevator and I know I was wondering what we were in for. But the desk clerk was extremely friendly and helpful, and while our room was not ready (not surprising at 8:30 am), she was full of ideas for places we could see, how to get there, and stored our bags while we did some exploring. We had arrived.

-T

The view from our room, overlooking the castle

Today was a half day stop in Oslo, Norway. I woke up early at 5:30 to the sight of the fjord leading to Oslo slipping by the window. This far south in Norway, the fjord is not very steep sided. It was a very grey, misty morning and the view was very reminiscent of home and Puget Sound. When the ship docked, we found ourselves directly overlooking the castle. It was right across the street from the ship—what a nice view we had!

We could leave the ship at 7:00 am and had to be back on the ship by 1:30. We did not sign up for any tours, as usual, so we saw no reason to be off the ship too early since nothing was going to be open until 9:30 or later. After leaving the ship, we walked through the castle grounds and then headed for the famed city hall, which is where the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony is held.

The murals lining the main hall are quite beautiful, and we also really enjoyed the series of carvings on the exterior of the building that illustrate many Norse myths.From there, we made a series of literally jaw-dropping observations on the streets of Oslo. We were looking at restaurant prices! The lecturer had prepared us the day before for the high prices, but I guess you just don’t believe it until you’ve seen it for yourself. So here we go: a McDonald’s burger- $20, basic burger in a restaurant- $28, nicer burger in a restaurant- $40. Pretty much any lunch entrée was at least $30 to $40 or more. You would easily drop $100 for just a very basic, minimal lunch. Sheesh, it was truly astounding.

Other items in stores were also expensive, but not to quite the same extent. We figured that restaurant prices were 3-4x the prices we’re used to and other items were 2-3x our prices. We didn’t even get any money out. We just wandered around looking at prices! And then decided to just eat lunch on the ship and save ourselves a bundle. Will Copenhagen be this expensive?????

Oslo was a nice city with some nice, old architecture, but also lots of modern buildings. There are lots of statues and sculptures and great building decorations. The 17^thof  May (Norwegian Independence) celebration is just around the corner and there was a military tattoo apparently going on in honor of that. We kept hearing a tattoo band playing somewhere in the streets, but we just never got any closer to it. We did see lots of kids wearing red pants with Norwegian flag patterns on them. We had fun speculating on what the pants were for, and never found out the truth.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...

I've been meaning to tell you...

We can guess what this says, but thought it would be more fun for everyone to contribute what they think it says!

Back on the ship, we found time to attend the Copenhagen lecture since we will be spending a few days there. I also had to hurry up and finish the book I had checked out from the library. Hard to believe I only managed to read three books in over two weeks—what’s the matter with me! We also had to pack our bags and get them out in the hallway by dinner time. It’s a little sad to realize that this portion of the trip is over, but we are also very excited about the next stage. As I was packing, I came across three of my favorite purchases, which others might find kind of odd. Ever since I was a kid I have always had a thing about flags from other countries and places. Can’t explain it but there it is. I like to collect unusual flags from places we have been and research them before we go so I know what I want to look for, so here’s a picture of the three flags I picked up on this trip, top to bottom:

Cornwall, Normandy, Amsterdam

Cornwall, Normandy, Amsterdam. I’m getting enough now that we need to design a new scheme for flying them all.

It took about three hours to travel the entire way out of the fjord that leads to Oslo. It was very pretty and again reminded us so much of the northwest. It was funny to me at one point because as I was out on our balcony watching the scenery go by, our neighbors, the ones who needed bundling, were out exclaiming about how fantastic the scenery was. And it was, don’t get me wrong, but they had clearly never seen such scenery and it is just what we have at home, so we suddenly felt like we were home again!

Heading to the North Sea

Just like home

As we exited the fjord and entered the North Sea, we hit some high winds, gusting to 65 knots. We got some good motion going on the ship and some great choppy waves. It made walking around problematic, and at one point they even closed the outdoor decks. For a while we were quite heeled over at times—I took a picture of a glass of water to try and show the angle of the floor. It would have been fun to see what the pools were doing—they really got sloshing pretty well in some of the other active, but milder, weather we’ve had. We enjoyed the drama, but there were probably others who were not so enamored.

We have also noticed today that there are a bunch of new people on the ship. How can we tell? Well, my first clue was when I realized that many of the people standing around us as we entered the dining room did not have silver hair! And we also started noticing a lot of different languages, many of them Russian or Eastern European sounding. It seems odd that they are joining the ship before Copenhagen, but we also know there are a fair number of empty cabins. I think the tone of the cruise will change quite a bit from here on. Well, and we’re leaving, so obviously there will be more food available!

-T

Today is a much-needed day at sea. After five days straight of full day touristing, we are ready to take it easy. Yes, it’s hard work being a tourist. Of course, we still have to fit in the lecture on Oslo, the galley tour, and there’s a movie we want to catch in the theater. I am still struggling to finish just my third book.

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For our stop in Rotterdam, we decided to do one of the organized tours. This was mainly because going in to Amsterdam is definitely the most interesting thing to do, and the tour we picked was actually a fairly cost effective way to get into town, for a change. We opted for the tour that included a short walking tour, a canal cruise, and then a couple of hours on your own.

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Can you tell that I like to write about food?  Well, here I go again.  There is quite a variety of food related options aboard ship.  That makes us happy!

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Back to England, back an hour in time, back to the pound sterling. Today was Dover and after the wonderful visits to Ireland, Falmouth, and France, we actually had lower expectations for Dover. The main side trips they offer take you into London, and that was certainly not how we wanted to spend our day. Aside from spending several hours on a bus, as the Paris trips did, we have both spent plenty of time in London. Dover has apparently been hit pretty hard by the poor economy and the town is mostly known for being the terminal for ferries to the continent. We did know, however, that there is a castle of some sort in Dover and it has tunnels that were used during WWII.

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This morning we awoke to a wake up call and fog in Le Havre. Our plan was to once again skip any of the ship’s tours and find our own way to Honfleur, known as the Gem of Normandy. We knew that there were buses running there from Le Havre, but the times were very limited. We had to find our way to the bus station by 8:49 and it was a fair walk from the ship terminal.

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We are finding ourselves in an interesting world of free form time and money. As we headed across the Atlantic, our time changes were quite regular. Each night we moved our clocks forward one hour and while it did start catching up with us, at least it was regular. Now we are doing this crazy criss-cross between continents and time zones. As we left Falmouth two days ago, we moved our clocks ahead before landing in France. Then we had to turn our clocks back again last night since we were headed to Dover today. But tomorrow we head back to the continent, The Netherlands, so we once again turn those clocks ahead. Who knows time it really is.

Money is posing a similar issue. In Ponta Delgada, the currency was Euros, as it was again in Ireland. Then we invaded Falmouth and had to get Pounds Sterling from the trusty cash machines. Next up, France, and pull out the Euros again. Tomorrow, in The Netherlands, we will be back to Euros. After that, we enter what I think of as the land of the Kroners. Or Kronas. Or Krones. Denmark, Norway, and Iceland each have their own currencies. We’ve heard that Dover will sometimes take Euros, as will Copenhagen, but we get a bit dizzy trying to keep straight what money we’re supposed to be using!