More Copenhagen and Ice Core

We got a fairly early start this morning and took in more sights in Copenhagen. We saw stunning architecture (new and old).  The Opera house is across the harbor from our hotel and was built fairly recently. It’s so pretty especially when the sun starts to set and it’s reflected off the glass. We also saw the stock exchange building which is quite pretty with its gables and large spire. It’s situated near the Christiansborg Palace which is actually the third version as the previous two burned down! This palace houses the Queen’s office and reception rooms (she lives near by Amalienborg Palace), the Prime Minister’s office, parliament and Supreme Court. The entire Danish government is in that single building. There’s actually been a seat of government there since the 12th century when it was Absalons’s Castle. We walked through royal reception rooms and they were beautiful. You can walk around pretty freely and take photos at will. Not as grand as Buckingham Palace, but still a site to see. We also saw the ruins of the old castles and it was interesting. It’s pretty dim down there and it’s hard to make out what you’re looking at some times. After Christiansborg, we hopped on a bus and made our way to meet up with the Ice Core tour.  Not at all what we were expecting, but we have a great appreciation for the scientists and teams who study them. They gave us a brief overview of the history of cutting them and what they’ve learned so far. There’s only about 15 of these deep ice vaults in the world! They then took us into the vault which is kept at -25 degrees celsius. The ice cores are stored in styrofoam like coolers and bagged in plastic to keep them clean and cool. The vault looks like a bunch racks of large igloo coolers. They showed us a few of the samples and told us what to look for in terms of the crystal formations, dust particles and gas bubbles. About 10 mins in there was about all we could take. It was really cool. They cut them into about 18 inch pieces, label them in order and study them. Not something we’ll likely see again.  All of the ice we saw was from Greenland and you can see the latest research at http://eastgrip.org. The recent drill camps have had polar bears wander in. The camps are pretty far away from the coast, so it’s alarming to see the polar bears that far inland. In the past they haven’t seen one in 25 years. In the last 3 years, they’ve seen 2. Climate change is really impacting these animals. Hopefully our children’s children will still live in a world where they exist in the wild.

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Copenhagen Sightseeing

We began the day with another giant breakfast spread (including some Danish danishes) at our hotel before heading off to Rosenberg Castle. This castle was built as a summer home for King Christian IV in the 1600s. While quite a bit smaller than similarly-purposed castles in England, it was still pretty impressive. The best part was the massive Great Hall / throne room on the third floor. This room held both the lavishly-ordained coronation thrones and the ‘everyday’ throne sitting across the hall from each other and it also had an exquisite carved ceiling. Denmark’s Crown Jewels are kept in the basement and are also quite stunning, as are the collection of carved amber and ivory knick knacks in the adjoining rooms. From there we walked back to our hotel to grab our jacket (as the sunny morning was beginning to give way to a cloudy and windy afternoon) and then hopped on a couple of motorized scooters to shorten our trek over to the Danish National History Museum. This place was a bit underwhelming, but it had a lot of interesting information and artifacts about the human inhabitation of Scandinavia, from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Middle Ages (and the Vikings), the rise of Christianity and colonialism through to the present. We could have spent the whole day in there, as it has over 300 rooms of stuff, but we wanted to get in one more stop today... Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli is kind of like a small Disneyland... themed throughout, lots of smaller rides and a couple of roller coasters. On Wednesday afternoons in September, it is not very busy at all, and we got to ride everything we wanted to in just a couple of hours, with virtually no waiting in line! Just as we hopped off The Demon roller coaster, it started to sprinkle and we called it a day, scootering back towards our hotel. A couple buildings down from our hotel on Nyhavn, we found a fairly authentic Danish restaurant for dinner and filled our bellies with various meats and beers until we felt sluggish. Off to bed!

Goodbye Norway and Hello Denmark

We left Bergen early this morning, returned our trusty rental car (love that Volvo) and hopped on the plane to Copenhagen. The view of Norway from the plane is incredible. There’s water, inlets and islands everywhere. Just beautiful. We landed in Copenhagen and successfully purchased and navigated the public transit to our hotel. We’re staying on the very end of Nyhavn which is full of colorful old wooden buildings. We grabbed some lunch and talked to the girls. Cameron headed up to the conference and Amanda walked around and walked through the Amalienborg Palace and museum. There’s four separate mansions on the square all facing each other and the Queen lives in the one with the most chimneys. The Crown Prince lives next door. Amanda also caught the changing of the guards which was without much fanfare as the Queen was not home. You can get pretty close to the guards and walk almost right up to the various palaces. Very unlike any other palace I’ve ever seen. A taxi drove into the middle of the square to pick up some people. The museum was in one of the mansions/palaces. It was lived in until the current Queen Magrethe’s mother passed. It was pretty cool as they had 4 different Kings’ studies that were basically untouched. The biggest surprise was just how cluttered and full of photos they were. While Amanda was walking around Cameron saw the city and countryside on his way to the conference. We grabbed a couple Danish-Argentinian steaks for dinner and called it a night. It’s a pretty city and we’re excited to splurge more tomorrow.

Fjords and Bergen

Today was a whirlwind. We woke up early to get breakfast before heading out for our fjord boat tour. Our boat was a RIB-boat that was capable of pretty high speeds. We had pretty clear skies, but some chilly temps and were thus given some warm waterproof gear before we started off. We toured around Aurlandsfjord and Nærøyfjord, the latter of which is one of the narrowest and shallowest of the fjords, which means the surrounding mountains are right on top of you, making it that much more dramatic. Most of these fjords are 1500 or more feet deep, but in one spot we stopped it was only about 30 feet deep. Both fjords are connected to the Sognefjord, which runs over 100 miles, about 1/3 the width of Norway, and is the second longest fjord in the world. There were hundreds of waterfalls... dozens of new ones around every turn. Besides the amazing natural beauty, there are a few scattered villages that dot these fjords some of which have only 40 residents and make their living raising sheep for milk and wool. One town only has one permanent resident that stays all year (others join him outside of winter). We spotted two dolphins in the fjord but weren’t fast enough to get pictures.

Words and pictures just can’t do it justice. The tour took a little over 2 hours before we were back on dry land. We grabbed lunch at a cool brewery-restaurant on the dock that was designed to look like an old stave church and had a Viking theme inside. It also had really good food, some of the best we've had on our trip. After lunch, we called home to talk to the girls and then drove 2.5 hours west to Bergen. We got in too late to do many excursions, but did get a chance to stroll through town and see the iconic old buildings/houses on Tyskebryggen and a 12th Century fortress. Wish we had another day for sightseeing in Bergen, but tomorrow we fly to Copenhagen.

2019 Norway Day 4

We started today off with an amazing buffet for breakfast. There was more food than I’ve ever seen. We stuffed our bellies and headed out on our adventure across the Norwegian fjords to Flåm. Today might be our best day so far. Once we got out of Oslo, everywhere you looked was an amazing view. Renting a car and driving might have been the best decision we’ve made. The mountains, rivers, lakes, fjords are breathtaking. It was pretty damp, windy and chilly in the morning. By mid afternoon it warmed up and was still chilly, but much warmer. There were so many cute little villages and farms along our way. Our camera is full of pictures and Amanda’s cheeks might be slightly wind burnt from taking them. The village of Vang and the beautiful lake and mountains surrounding Vang might have been our favorite other than where we are staying. It’s such a pretty area and you could see where the glaciers carved the countryside and horns into the mountains. We made it to 61.2 degrees latitude which is the northernmost we’ve ever been and that we’ll get on this trip. For perspective, we are at the same latitude as Anchorage, AL! Our next stop was the most well preserved stave church in Borglund. This church was built in the 1180s and used until the mid 1800s. The 1180s was just after the Viking age and when Norway back a Christian state. This church was built in Borglund and in that site because it was a site of a Viking area alter. They moved this alter into the church after it was finished. It’s a stave church due to the way it’s contracted with the trees used as posts (staves) in the church. The trees were flipped upside down during construction so that the bottom of the tree where the root meets the tree is at the top of the church. The church was filled with Christian and pagan items. The Viking/Nordic gods Odin and Freya appear to be carved on top of two of the staves and dragons are at the top and are prevalent around the church to protect it. The traditional pulpit and painting were added in the 1620s. The church is black as it was covered in pine tar during construction. It smells a lot like frankincense because of the resin. After the stave church we drove through a 24.5 km tunnel! It had three sections that were painted and lit to look like the northern lights. It was a nice break in the dull dark cement and rock walls. The first time took us by surprise and we got a nice kick out of the last two. After the longest tunnel, we headed up a white knuckle drive on a single lane snow road to get to Stegastein. Stegastein is a lookout on the side of the fjord that makes almost a number 7 and extends out over the Aurland Fjord. It is stunning and totally worth the drive. There were a few groups of people up there, but it was so quiet and peaceful. We spent quite a bit of time there also just taking in the view. At last we finally made it to our hotel. We’re staying at a marina right on the water overlooking the fjord. The view off our balcony is spectacular and if it was warmer than 32F, we would be sitting out there finishing this blog. As it’s not, we pop out and back in our warm room/apartment. Tomorrow we’re in for a cold day our on the fjord on a small little rib boat. Hopefully our fingers work to type up the blog tomorrow!

2019 Oslo day 3

We woke up bright and early this morning to grab some coffee before we left for the airport. The coffee shop just down the block, think Scandinavian Starbucks, didn’t open for another hour and a half! So, our hotel clerk took pity on us and made us some cafe americanos in the adjoining restaurant before we headed out to the airport for a quick 60 minute jaunt over to Oslo, Norway. After a minor sidetrack into an airport store for some warmer clothing, we rented our Volvo from Hertz and drove 45 minutes into town. Our hotel is very posh and well located close to the docks. We braved the rainy, chilly weather and found an outdoor food festival for lunch, where we tried a Norwegian hamburger and beer... both were good! After learning that the boat to our first sightseeing destination was not in service, we grabbed an Uber and went to the Fram museum. This museum was all about two boats that Roald Admunsen used to make his treks to the poles near the turn of the 20th Century. Unfortunately, these boats were a bit underwhelming after seeing the Vasa yesterday, but we could board these ships and wander around below deck, which was interesting. We had a snack and made our way to Our next stop, the Viking Ships museum. Cameron was skeptical of yet another ship-based museum, this one was pretty cool. This museum, which looked as if it might have been an old church, housed 3 Viking boats that dated back to about 900 AD. Two of the boats were remarkably well preserved and were found inside old Viking burial mounds; the Vikings buried important people in boats and under a mound of earth, which in this climate can actually lead to good preservation conditions. In addition to the ships, there were lots of other artifacts buried with these people that were excavated and were on display (including the skeletal remains), giving us a big portion of the relatively little information we know today about how the Vikings lived. Afterwards, we ubered back to the docks, walked around, took some pictures and found a tasty Gastropub for dinner. Our last stop after dinner was a walk up to the Royal Palace before finally calling it a day. Tomorrow, we drive 4+ hours across a number of fjords to Flam.

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On the second day we slept in! Best sleep in years. We also packed in a bunch of stuff. After a quick breakfast we headed to the number one must-do on our list: The Vasa Museum. This place is dedicated entirely to a Swedish war ship built back in the 1620s for King Gustavus Adolphus. The ship was completed in just two years and was the largest war ship in Europe at the time. Unfortunately, the Swedes had not yet figured out the physics of a ship with TWO gun decks and 64 cannons. It was too top-heavy and it sank 25 minutes into its maiden voyage due to a slight breeze. However, due to the lower than average salt content of the Baltic Sea and the corresponding lack of shipworms (which normally eat sunken ships in salty water), the ship was in remarkable condition even 300+ years later. A local researcher (yay science!) found the ship in the 1960s and with help from the Navy, lifted it out of the water and put it back together... The ship we saw in the museum was 98% original! It was massive, amazingly ornate and still a sight to behold. After an authentic lunch of Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, lingonberries, and pickled cucumbers (which to my surprise, we’re not just pickles), we headed off to see more. Originally we wanted to see the Skansen museum - which seemed like a Swedish version of a visit to the Jamestown colony - but we decided instead to go on a boat cruise of Stockholm. We rented scooters for the first time ever - amazingly easy and convenient - and trekked a few kilometers to reserve our spot on the boat. We got to see a number of sites we wouldn’t have otherwise and got to use / go through an actual working lock to move us the 1 meter difference between the Baltic Sea and a freshwater lake that surrounds the other half of Stockholm. After the two hour cruise, it was dinner time, so we found a spot at a nice Italian restaurant and grubbed before calling it a night. Tomorrow, we are off to Oslo!

2019 Stockholm day 1

After a lot of flights and not much sleep, we finally made it to Stockholm, Sweden around 11 am. Sidebar: We flew from Toronto to Munich. Upon landing in Munich the countryside is just so cute and charming. I can’t wait to visit Germany some day. Back to Stockholm. We were able to check into our cute, but tiny hotel room early, grabbed some lunch and coffee and started to plan our day. We walked to Gamla Stan which is basically old town Stockholm. We followed a walking tour (using our trusty guidebook) and ran into a lot of fellow tourists on our way. You start off by the Royal Palace which is huge and the facade is under renovation. It has one more room than Buckingham Palace. We did not pay to tour the museums, but did walk thru the free Royal Chapel. It’s beautiful, but not as luxurious and ornate as the what we saw in Windsor’s chapel and Buckingham Palace. Gamla Stan and most of Stockholm that we’ve seen so far is not car friendly. We walked through a bunch of cute little pedestrian streets and saw so many quaint old buildings. There’s a lot of cafes, bakeries and restaurants in this area and we sat outside at a bakery in the main square overlooking the Nobel museum. The bakery had the cutest painted ceilings which are supposedly original in a lot of the old buildings. Swedes have this coffee break that they call Fika. It usually involves coffee and a sweet snack. We tried kanelbulle which is basically a cinnamon roll along with another sugary pastry. They were great and gave us a boost of energy to get us the rest of the way along the island. We walked through the cathedral. The alter was made of silver and ebony. Very striking and we’ve never seen anything like it before.  The cathedral also had a painting of an event in the 1600s were it appeared to have 7 suns/ring like structures in the sky. If you’ve ever seen Thor 2, it reminded me of that. Maybe that’s where they got the inspiration. Who knows. Our last stop was the Slussen locks which were under construction. On one side is the Baltic Sea and the other side of the locks is Lake Malaren and the locks are used to connect them. Really wish we could have seen them in action. We stopped for a drink on the water and finished the night off with cheeseburgers and French fries. Drinks and burgers were great. The french fries were tossed with dill which was unique and a bit odd. We’ll be more adventurous eating tomorrow!

We’re back! Scandinavia here was come

After a short 6 year hiatus we are reviving this blog to document our travels around Scandinavia! Day 1 coming soon.