Tuesday, August 28, 2007
We are starting to settle into a routine, if you can call living in a manor in England routine. I cannot believe it is already Tuesday. The last time I wrote was on Friday and we have been on the go ever since. I will try to update you on some of the happenings from the last several days.
Friday night – by the evening most of the students had managed to arrive; only 32 were still missing. They were tired and hungry but at the same time excited about finally getting to arrive. The weather was wonderful so after they had a chance to eat something you could see students all over the grounds taking pictures and just rejoicing about being here. We were to have a short orientation with the students but because of the travel delays it was postponed. We did go ahead and have the rehearsal at 8 p.m. for those that would sing in the local church service on Sunday. It was fun to stand in the long gallery overlooking majestic grounds singing songs of praise to God.
Saturday – Many formal activities on this day. There was the official convocation in the long gallery with the professors all in their robes and being ushered in with bagpipes. Afterwards there was an hour long orientation and lunch. I officially opened the Harlaxton Boutique in the afternoon and was in training for several hours by a part-time British staff member. She was very patient as she showed me all the procedures of opening, selling, and closing of the store. It has been many years since I have used a cash registrar and making change in British currency was slow going at first but I got used to it. Many students and faculty made a trip into Grantham for supplies on their free afternoon. In the evening there was another orientation and then the principal’s reception and high table dinner. We were to wear “smart” dress and it was interesting to see people’s interpretation of what that was. Also there were a number of students who had made it to Harlaxton late in the evening and their luggage was still missing at the airport. No one was turned away and it was another occasion marking that we were at Harlaxton College IN ENGLAND!! The professors wore their robes during dinner which caused numerous smiles as they tried to eat without getting their large sleeves in the food. All the professors were introduced to the students and had their credentials given so the students could appreciate the high quality of faculty that they would be learning from this semester. The families of the professors were also introduced.
After the formal dinner everyone went about their separate ways–except for the faculty. The faculty and families adjourned to the Van der Elst Room—also known as the Senior Common Room, also known as the faculty lounge—for our first faculty “seminar” session. This is another name for a social time with liquor. It was a time of socializing with drinks (there was plenty to drink for us non alcohol drinkers) and cheese/crackers. We were able to just sit back and continue the process of getting to know each other. The last time we were here we had to leave early since we had small children to put to bed but now we were able to stay late and just enjoy ourselves. Of course now we are old so we couldn’t stay up that late anymore. It is one of life’s little ironies. We managed to stay until midnight and then called it a day.
Sunday – God provided us another beautiful day. We started it out by attending the local Harlaxton Village Church which is Church of England (similar to the Episcopal Church). The church dates back to 1170’s. We had a wonderful experience, with Dr. Gordon Kingsley (Harlaxton principal) giving the message. We had a large number of faculty and students attend which more than doubled their attendance. Then back to Harlaxton College for the rest of the day’s activities which included meals, 2 orientation sessions, and joining procedures (matriculation). Ray and I helped with the joining by him passing out his research questionnaire and I marked students off as they got their ID pictures taken. We had 100% of the students make it through the procedures so we were all happy after 3 hours of work to get it completed. Needless to say there were very little free time on Saturday and Sunday for Ray and me.
Monday – The start of classes. Yea! Ray only had one class and it was in the afternoon. We started out the day attending the British Studies lecture in the long gallery. Dr. Kingsley starts it precisely at 8:30 with a gong and then the doors are closed. Anyone entering after that time will be either late or absent, depending on the timing. Harlaxton College has a very strict attendance policy due to the amount of travel students do over the weekend. Without the attendance policy many students would not find their way back to the college or out of bed for classes. The first lecture was informative, overwhelming and entertaining. Ray spent the rest of the day doing his final preparations for his classes. Most of the faculty was doing the same. I made a run into Grantham on the shuttle in the afternoon to buy a few supplies and worked on calendar projects.
Tuesday – Finally we are up to today. Normal class day and Ray has both of his classes today. I opened the Boutique on my own for the first time. It was officially open from 9-12 but I needed to be there before 8:30 to get it ready to open. It was a busy day with me doing about $800 worth of business in those three hours. We only sell souvenirs, t-shirts and sweatshirts so I did well in that amount of time. I am slow going through the closing procedures after I was able to close the door at noon so I just barely made it into lunch before they closed. I think Tuesday afternoons will become laundry day for me. Most of the professors have a full load of classes on Tuesday so this will be the quietest time for me to use the laundry room. The professors have a private laundry room with one washer and dryer for us to use free. The downside to that is it takes a full hour for one load of laundry just in the washer. The first load took over an hour and half to dry. The dryer is an extractor dryer so I have to empty the water out of a container midway through the cycle. I am sure I will learn the technique as time goes by. It is now 6:30 p.m. and I have been working on 2 loads of laundry since 2:30 and still the second load is wet. I can tell I will have to devote a large amount of time to completing laundry. Tonight at 7:30 we have a London trip briefing. We leave on Friday (no classes) for a weekend there.
And the fun continues.... - Penny
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
14. The students are arriving at Harlaxton 8-24-07
We are having another beautiful day in England. After that first rainy day when we arrived on Wednesday, the weather has turned warm and beautiful.
Thursday was a day of orientation for faculty and spouses. Gordon Kingsley is as delightful as ever in his stories. When you get combined the normally dry information of housekeeping, faculty orientation and advising along with the history of the manor, Britain, etc. you know you are in for an enjoyable day. We had a time at the beginning of the orientation where the entire faculty introduced themselves to the group and could share some personal or professional information. It was interesting to hear from each one. The British faculty was particularly entertaining in their kidding around with each other. It is encouraging to see how well they all get along, the faculty and the staff. They are like a big family, which is probably important here as it is a small college and personalities can make or break a good working relationship.
Faculty and staff meetings start with tea/coffee and “biscuits” and have breaks with more of the same. By the end of the day it felt like Ray and I were eating all day. After lunch we all had pictures taken for ID’s. I believe they are not used so much to get into things but more for faculty and students to carry with us in case we get lost somewhere off campus as on the back of the cards are the phone numbers of taxis, the college, security, the manor, and “mobile” phone numbers of some of the staff. On the front of the card is our picture, name and the Harlaxton College address. I am sure these cards have come in handy many times over the years when students and faculty have run into problems off campus.
In the afternoon we had free time and many faculty took advantage of that to go into Grantham, the nearest town, to get some needed personal supplies and food. Although we are eating in the cafeteria for all of our meals, we all like to have our snacks around. Ray and I went in on the first shuttle and got some more British money and then went into the local grocery store. It is always a long process at the beginning as we view the different brands. It is fun to try new things but sometimes just trying to find a basic cracker can be a challenge. I am sure we will find a few surprises as we open our snacks and find out if they are what we thought we were buying.
Thursday night we had a casual faculty dinner with some of the British faculty and their spouses. It was a fun time as we continue to get to know the others that we will be spending so much time with over these 4 months. The dinner was held in the Conservatory because it was such a beautiful day. Nothing quite like eating a nice dinner being served by the serving staff in a conservatory with beautiful plants, glass walls and ceilings so that you can see out to the manor grounds and driveway.
Now it is Friday and the first bus of students has arrived about 2:45 and the students looked exhausted. Bad weather in the United States caused delays and cancellations in several of the cities that the students were flying out of. has caused problems. There are 4 busloads of students that should have arrived about 1 p.m. here at Harlaxton and so far we have had only one. The next one is at 3 hours behind due to the delayed students and is now caught in traffic and they have not heard an update from the 3rd bus for awhile. The 4th bus is still stuck at the airport because 3-4 of the students "lost their passports on the airplane." Immigration has the students now and they are separated from the assistant dean of students. Hopefully the plane is still on the ground and the passports can be retrieved and the problems will be worked out soon.
The faculty and families have had a quiet day here. I am really glad they have the faculty come in several days before the students so they can get situated and then help out as the students arrive. I helped direct students through the manor as they came in off the bus, picked up their packets and then they headed to the cafeteria to read over their information and get some food. Most of them have not had lunch and very little food before that. Ray helped unload suitcases. Most of the professors have been working on finalizing their class syllabi. Ray and I have been checking out his classrooms. One will be in the "gold room" and his other class is in the basement and just very normal looking until you look out the window and see big stone lions out on the lawn. Not something you normally see out of your classroom window.
Tonight we will have just a short orientation time with the students who have arrived, along with dinner in the cafeteria. Tomorrow will be the big convocation day, orientation for the students, “high table dinner” and faculty social. It will also be the first time that the Harlaxton Boutique will be open and I will be officially working.
Penny
Thursday was a day of orientation for faculty and spouses. Gordon Kingsley is as delightful as ever in his stories. When you get combined the normally dry information of housekeeping, faculty orientation and advising along with the history of the manor, Britain, etc. you know you are in for an enjoyable day. We had a time at the beginning of the orientation where the entire faculty introduced themselves to the group and could share some personal or professional information. It was interesting to hear from each one. The British faculty was particularly entertaining in their kidding around with each other. It is encouraging to see how well they all get along, the faculty and the staff. They are like a big family, which is probably important here as it is a small college and personalities can make or break a good working relationship.
Faculty and staff meetings start with tea/coffee and “biscuits” and have breaks with more of the same. By the end of the day it felt like Ray and I were eating all day. After lunch we all had pictures taken for ID’s. I believe they are not used so much to get into things but more for faculty and students to carry with us in case we get lost somewhere off campus as on the back of the cards are the phone numbers of taxis, the college, security, the manor, and “mobile” phone numbers of some of the staff. On the front of the card is our picture, name and the Harlaxton College address. I am sure these cards have come in handy many times over the years when students and faculty have run into problems off campus.
In the afternoon we had free time and many faculty took advantage of that to go into Grantham, the nearest town, to get some needed personal supplies and food. Although we are eating in the cafeteria for all of our meals, we all like to have our snacks around. Ray and I went in on the first shuttle and got some more British money and then went into the local grocery store. It is always a long process at the beginning as we view the different brands. It is fun to try new things but sometimes just trying to find a basic cracker can be a challenge. I am sure we will find a few surprises as we open our snacks and find out if they are what we thought we were buying.
Thursday night we had a casual faculty dinner with some of the British faculty and their spouses. It was a fun time as we continue to get to know the others that we will be spending so much time with over these 4 months. The dinner was held in the Conservatory because it was such a beautiful day. Nothing quite like eating a nice dinner being served by the serving staff in a conservatory with beautiful plants, glass walls and ceilings so that you can see out to the manor grounds and driveway.
Now it is Friday and the first bus of students has arrived about 2:45 and the students looked exhausted. Bad weather in the United States caused delays and cancellations in several of the cities that the students were flying out of. has caused problems. There are 4 busloads of students that should have arrived about 1 p.m. here at Harlaxton and so far we have had only one. The next one is at 3 hours behind due to the delayed students and is now caught in traffic and they have not heard an update from the 3rd bus for awhile. The 4th bus is still stuck at the airport because 3-4 of the students "lost their passports on the airplane." Immigration has the students now and they are separated from the assistant dean of students. Hopefully the plane is still on the ground and the passports can be retrieved and the problems will be worked out soon.
The faculty and families have had a quiet day here. I am really glad they have the faculty come in several days before the students so they can get situated and then help out as the students arrive. I helped direct students through the manor as they came in off the bus, picked up their packets and then they headed to the cafeteria to read over their information and get some food. Most of them have not had lunch and very little food before that. Ray helped unload suitcases. Most of the professors have been working on finalizing their class syllabi. Ray and I have been checking out his classrooms. One will be in the "gold room" and his other class is in the basement and just very normal looking until you look out the window and see big stone lions out on the lawn. Not something you normally see out of your classroom window.
Tonight we will have just a short orientation time with the students who have arrived, along with dinner in the cafeteria. Tomorrow will be the big convocation day, orientation for the students, “high table dinner” and faculty social. It will also be the first time that the Harlaxton Boutique will be open and I will be officially working.
Penny
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
13 Leaving Bergen going to Harlaxton
Notice: New International law takes effect immediately. 5:00 AM has been declared illegal. All activities scheduled for that time will be rescheduled for noon or later. Violators will be shot.
We got up and made it to the bus stop for the 6:00 express bus which was listed on the time schedule we were given by the weather lady at the TI. She evidently is not infallible after all. It turns out that the 6:00 bus does not go until 6:15 and it is not an express but rather it stops every 38.4 seconds. It really wasn’t that bad and it turns out that our efforts to arrive early were rendered null and void by the fact that when we tried to check-in we were told by the Norwegian Air person to come back in 20 minutes. We were too early. I could hear my mother roll over in her grave and yell, “there is no such thing as too early.”
So we waited 20 minutes. Penny spent the waiting time fruitfully as she rescued a man from a major hassle. He dropped his just purchased ticket on the floor as he was passing in front of her and she grabbed it and ran after saying, “Sir! Sir!” He did not stop but a traveling companion did and called him by name. I wonder what the Norwegian word for “Sir” is.
On the way to the gate they route every one through the middle of the duty free shop. There was the typical booze, perfume and cigarettes. But the cigarette packages are different in Norway. They have in giant letters (the same size or bigger than the brand logo) the warning labels: Cigarette smoking will cause you to die young! Smoking is highly addictive and deadly! Smoking will give you cancer. You had to look hard to see the brand the warnings were just about all you could see. I think that is great.
The flight was fine. We were in row 2 with an empty seat between us. That was good thing because evidently the designer of the plane seating diagram had in mind people with detachable legs. The flight was fine but debarking was a horse of a different color. They opened the door and the stewardess began getting rained on. We were about half a mile from the terminal and it was raining. Welcome to England. (OK, maybe 30 meters. But the point is we got wet!)
Passport control wasn’t bad. I was glad we did not have a European Union (EU) passport. There were 2 queues, one for EU passports and one for the rest of the world. About 90% of the people were in the EU line with about half the agents and the other 10% (that is us) had the other half of the agents. Our line went quickly.
Then we walked to the exit wall and there were two doorways with signs over them. One said “arriving from EC countries” and the other said “nothing to declare.” Now I was sure I did not have an EU passport but I was less certain about the status of Norway (from where we were arriving). Well being the seasoned traveler I am I stopped and asked a man at the doors with a uniform. We said we were arriving from Bergen and were not sure which door. He first pointed me toward the EU door and then quickly said, “Oh no, Bergen is in Norway” (I knew that) and then said “It is this door.” And pointed to the “nothing to declare” door. We walked in that side and as we walked we could see into the other room (where the other EU line went) it was exactly like our room; large with some tables and with NO ONE there checking anything or asking anything. The people exited the room from both empty halls and into the same hall way and walked together into the next room. I laughed! The man was so serious about helping me know which door to go through.
We got our train tickets from the machine after being told by the man at the window to go use the machine. Then we had a bit of a disappointing lunch. I had a “classic burger” which turned out to be one of those grade school boiled beef patties. Penny ordered a chicken dish and was a bit disappointed that it was an Indian Curry dish.
We had to wait a bit for the train to be opened. It is cold (maybe lower 60s) and the wind is blowing and it is still raining. Our train platform was at the end of the covered section of the station. Penny decided that the opened toed shoes were not a great idea. It is much colder here than it has been in Scandinavia. I may not be dressed warmly enough.
We have to change trains in Peterborough and then it is off to Harlaxton.
We were met at the train station by Ralph who was very nice. We saw Gordon and Susanne and many of the other faculty. It will take some time to remember the names. But I am going to try.
Harlaxton of course has not changed in the big things but many things are much nicer now. Our flat is great. We have tons of room with lots of drawers and such. The bedroom and living room and kitchen are all one big room with a small bedroom with a single bed and a bath with a nice shower are of course separate rooms.
We got a tour of the building and remembered some of the stuff and it brought back memories. We are still trying to find our way around the 153 rooms of the house. After dinner the folks who flew in today from the states pretty much all crashed. A couple of couples, like us, have been in Europe traveling and so our clock is kind of adjusted. We decided to wash some clothes. But the free faculty laundry (one washer and one dryer) were already being used. So we decided to use the student pay laundry since there are no students yet. The problem is that we had to find the laundry. But then we had to find the change machine that we saw by the coke machine. It was tricky finding these things even though we had been by them a couple of times. When we did find the change machine we learned that that it only changes coins: a one pound coin gives you two 50 pence coins. One 50 pence gives you five 10p coins. This is OK for the washer which takes one 50p coin but the dryer takes a 20p coin and the change machine does not give those out. We had a couple but we needed more so I had to buy a coke for 70p. I put in two 50p coins and got a 20p and a 10p in change. Penny had to buy one also so we would have enough 20 p coins. But we have clean clothes.
It feels good to be here and have a room we can spread out a bit in. We start orientation in the morning and I am looking forward to that.
Ray
We got up and made it to the bus stop for the 6:00 express bus which was listed on the time schedule we were given by the weather lady at the TI. She evidently is not infallible after all. It turns out that the 6:00 bus does not go until 6:15 and it is not an express but rather it stops every 38.4 seconds. It really wasn’t that bad and it turns out that our efforts to arrive early were rendered null and void by the fact that when we tried to check-in we were told by the Norwegian Air person to come back in 20 minutes. We were too early. I could hear my mother roll over in her grave and yell, “there is no such thing as too early.”
So we waited 20 minutes. Penny spent the waiting time fruitfully as she rescued a man from a major hassle. He dropped his just purchased ticket on the floor as he was passing in front of her and she grabbed it and ran after saying, “Sir! Sir!” He did not stop but a traveling companion did and called him by name. I wonder what the Norwegian word for “Sir” is.
On the way to the gate they route every one through the middle of the duty free shop. There was the typical booze, perfume and cigarettes. But the cigarette packages are different in Norway. They have in giant letters (the same size or bigger than the brand logo) the warning labels: Cigarette smoking will cause you to die young! Smoking is highly addictive and deadly! Smoking will give you cancer. You had to look hard to see the brand the warnings were just about all you could see. I think that is great.
The flight was fine. We were in row 2 with an empty seat between us. That was good thing because evidently the designer of the plane seating diagram had in mind people with detachable legs. The flight was fine but debarking was a horse of a different color. They opened the door and the stewardess began getting rained on. We were about half a mile from the terminal and it was raining. Welcome to England. (OK, maybe 30 meters. But the point is we got wet!)
Passport control wasn’t bad. I was glad we did not have a European Union (EU) passport. There were 2 queues, one for EU passports and one for the rest of the world. About 90% of the people were in the EU line with about half the agents and the other 10% (that is us) had the other half of the agents. Our line went quickly.
Then we walked to the exit wall and there were two doorways with signs over them. One said “arriving from EC countries” and the other said “nothing to declare.” Now I was sure I did not have an EU passport but I was less certain about the status of Norway (from where we were arriving). Well being the seasoned traveler I am I stopped and asked a man at the doors with a uniform. We said we were arriving from Bergen and were not sure which door. He first pointed me toward the EU door and then quickly said, “Oh no, Bergen is in Norway” (I knew that) and then said “It is this door.” And pointed to the “nothing to declare” door. We walked in that side and as we walked we could see into the other room (where the other EU line went) it was exactly like our room; large with some tables and with NO ONE there checking anything or asking anything. The people exited the room from both empty halls and into the same hall way and walked together into the next room. I laughed! The man was so serious about helping me know which door to go through.
We got our train tickets from the machine after being told by the man at the window to go use the machine. Then we had a bit of a disappointing lunch. I had a “classic burger” which turned out to be one of those grade school boiled beef patties. Penny ordered a chicken dish and was a bit disappointed that it was an Indian Curry dish.
We had to wait a bit for the train to be opened. It is cold (maybe lower 60s) and the wind is blowing and it is still raining. Our train platform was at the end of the covered section of the station. Penny decided that the opened toed shoes were not a great idea. It is much colder here than it has been in Scandinavia. I may not be dressed warmly enough.
We have to change trains in Peterborough and then it is off to Harlaxton.
We were met at the train station by Ralph who was very nice. We saw Gordon and Susanne and many of the other faculty. It will take some time to remember the names. But I am going to try.
Harlaxton of course has not changed in the big things but many things are much nicer now. Our flat is great. We have tons of room with lots of drawers and such. The bedroom and living room and kitchen are all one big room with a small bedroom with a single bed and a bath with a nice shower are of course separate rooms.
We got a tour of the building and remembered some of the stuff and it brought back memories. We are still trying to find our way around the 153 rooms of the house. After dinner the folks who flew in today from the states pretty much all crashed. A couple of couples, like us, have been in Europe traveling and so our clock is kind of adjusted. We decided to wash some clothes. But the free faculty laundry (one washer and one dryer) were already being used. So we decided to use the student pay laundry since there are no students yet. The problem is that we had to find the laundry. But then we had to find the change machine that we saw by the coke machine. It was tricky finding these things even though we had been by them a couple of times. When we did find the change machine we learned that that it only changes coins: a one pound coin gives you two 50 pence coins. One 50 pence gives you five 10p coins. This is OK for the washer which takes one 50p coin but the dryer takes a 20p coin and the change machine does not give those out. We had a couple but we needed more so I had to buy a coke for 70p. I put in two 50p coins and got a 20p and a 10p in change. Penny had to buy one also so we would have enough 20 p coins. But we have clean clothes.
It feels good to be here and have a room we can spread out a bit in. We start orientation in the morning and I am looking forward to that.
Ray
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
12 Bergen Day 2
Trust the people in the tourist information center. She was right to suggest we go on our boat ride today rather than Monday. We woke to a gorgeous day with clear skies and mild temperatures. After breakfast we decided to exchange our 3:30 tickets for the 10:00 tour. We thought we might have a change in the weather in the afternoon and since it was so nice in the morning we were going to get on with our sightseeing while the getting was good.
We got to the boat about 35 minutes early and were one of the first on and picked out a prime spot on the top outdoor deck where there were lots of plastic chairs. It looked like a great place to take pictures and see the sights. As we pulled out of the harbor we had a great view of the Hanseatic houses along the waterfront. The recorded commentary told us about them again and I noticed that in the same way as the walking tour after briefly mentioning the fact that these merchants were from Germany the always referred to them after that as the Hanseatic merchants. It appeared that they did not want to offend any German tourist who might be in the crowd.
As we left the harbor and picked up some speed we had a review of the principle of wind chill. We moved inside the boat where we had very nice views out the windows and where I could pop out on either side of the boat to take pictures.
A Norway fact: 90% of the populations lives within 6 ½ miles of the coast. This does not mean what you might think of as the coast as you look on the map. Since these fjords are numerous and some very long, the coast line of Norway juts far into the interior sections of the country.
The trip was breathtaking. We cruised along the river-like fjord passing glassy smooth coves that were turned dark, dark green in the shadow from the mountains. Sea gulls imitating ducks paddled on the surface leaving a silver wake that recorded their progress. The waterfront was dotted with mostly lone but sometimes grouped houses along Osterfjorden. Most of the houses were well kept, a few seemed to be needy. I wondered what these people did for a living. I doubt that all of these were summer homes. Clearly some work in industries like forestry and fishing.
We passed one yellow house seemingly very isolated. From the water’s edge a family of a woman and two girls and a grandfather looking gentleman stopped to wave at the boat. The grandfather really got into it. He waved both arms over his head as if trying to stop a train. I waved back.
We had a family from New York which also lived part time in Colorado. The father’s name was Daddy and the brother’s name was Eric. I know this because every 30 seconds or so the sister would say “Daddy! Eric….” You can fill in the blank with any “tattletale” phrase you would like to choose. She had a broken arm and very nearly had a broken neck but I refrained.
The mountains along the fjord were amazing. The closer mountains were dark green and each successively further away peak that was peeking out from behind its neighbor was a bit paler and bluer. The farthest peaks are pale blue and nearly featureless. I have seen paintings that depict this scene and thought that it was an exaggeration but it was not.
After the 4 hour tour (I was thrilled that it did not turn out like Gillian’s 3 hour tour) we walked around a bit and had an ice cream lunch. We avoided the fish market on our walk because well, it stinks.
Rick Steves is back in my good graces. His book recommended a small family run restaurant near the city center but just a bit out of the normal path. First of all we found it and it was still there. We also found the food to be good. I had the Norwegian sausage with boiled potatoes and vegetables. The sausage was rather bland and was vaguely familiar. It then dawned on me that it tasted a lot like the pan fried Spam that my mother used to serve. Penny had the steak, salad and boiled potatoes. Her meat was actually beef steak this time around rather than pork which we received the last time we ordered steak in Sweden.
It has been a good day and we are about to end the vacation and head in the morning to Harlaxton and start the semester. It has been a great trip.
Ray
Quick investment tip: the BBC is all abuzz about the mortgage problems in the US. They also mentioned that Britain is experiencing a decrease in American tourist because of the bad exchange rate. On the other hand: America is on Sale! My advice: Buy stock in the tourist industry.
We got to the boat about 35 minutes early and were one of the first on and picked out a prime spot on the top outdoor deck where there were lots of plastic chairs. It looked like a great place to take pictures and see the sights. As we pulled out of the harbor we had a great view of the Hanseatic houses along the waterfront. The recorded commentary told us about them again and I noticed that in the same way as the walking tour after briefly mentioning the fact that these merchants were from Germany the always referred to them after that as the Hanseatic merchants. It appeared that they did not want to offend any German tourist who might be in the crowd.
As we left the harbor and picked up some speed we had a review of the principle of wind chill. We moved inside the boat where we had very nice views out the windows and where I could pop out on either side of the boat to take pictures.
A Norway fact: 90% of the populations lives within 6 ½ miles of the coast. This does not mean what you might think of as the coast as you look on the map. Since these fjords are numerous and some very long, the coast line of Norway juts far into the interior sections of the country.
The trip was breathtaking. We cruised along the river-like fjord passing glassy smooth coves that were turned dark, dark green in the shadow from the mountains. Sea gulls imitating ducks paddled on the surface leaving a silver wake that recorded their progress. The waterfront was dotted with mostly lone but sometimes grouped houses along Osterfjorden. Most of the houses were well kept, a few seemed to be needy. I wondered what these people did for a living. I doubt that all of these were summer homes. Clearly some work in industries like forestry and fishing.
We passed one yellow house seemingly very isolated. From the water’s edge a family of a woman and two girls and a grandfather looking gentleman stopped to wave at the boat. The grandfather really got into it. He waved both arms over his head as if trying to stop a train. I waved back.
We had a family from New York which also lived part time in Colorado. The father’s name was Daddy and the brother’s name was Eric. I know this because every 30 seconds or so the sister would say “Daddy! Eric….” You can fill in the blank with any “tattletale” phrase you would like to choose. She had a broken arm and very nearly had a broken neck but I refrained.
The mountains along the fjord were amazing. The closer mountains were dark green and each successively further away peak that was peeking out from behind its neighbor was a bit paler and bluer. The farthest peaks are pale blue and nearly featureless. I have seen paintings that depict this scene and thought that it was an exaggeration but it was not.
After the 4 hour tour (I was thrilled that it did not turn out like Gillian’s 3 hour tour) we walked around a bit and had an ice cream lunch. We avoided the fish market on our walk because well, it stinks.
Rick Steves is back in my good graces. His book recommended a small family run restaurant near the city center but just a bit out of the normal path. First of all we found it and it was still there. We also found the food to be good. I had the Norwegian sausage with boiled potatoes and vegetables. The sausage was rather bland and was vaguely familiar. It then dawned on me that it tasted a lot like the pan fried Spam that my mother used to serve. Penny had the steak, salad and boiled potatoes. Her meat was actually beef steak this time around rather than pork which we received the last time we ordered steak in Sweden.
It has been a good day and we are about to end the vacation and head in the morning to Harlaxton and start the semester. It has been a great trip.
Ray
Quick investment tip: the BBC is all abuzz about the mortgage problems in the US. They also mentioned that Britain is experiencing a decrease in American tourist because of the bad exchange rate. On the other hand: America is on Sale! My advice: Buy stock in the tourist industry.
11 Bergen Day 1
Toward the end of our 12 hour train-boat-bus-train tour through some of God’s most beautiful handiwork, we began to question the wisdom of scheduling at 12 hour fjord boat tour on the next day. We decided to check out a shorter 4 hour boat tour. This allowed us to sleep-in a bit.
We ate breakfast and then started out by going to the tourist information office to buy Bergen cards to give us admissions to the things we wanted to see here. We also got our tickets for the 4 hour fjord tour. The lady helping us was very helpful and checked the weather report and said that Tuesday was supposed to be better so we booked the tickets for tomorrow. We have learned that Bergen has more days of rain than any other European city. It rains here more than 300 days a year. So far we have been here two days and it has rained both days. Today however was really a nice day. Although it was cloudy all day and it wasn’t until this evening about 7:00 that we saw part of the sun peak out from behind the gray curtain. It did rain twice, once at lunch time when we were eating fish and chips from the fish market. We could not find a table under one of the tents so we found a high standup round table (one that when you stand up it is the correct height. We ate with one hand as we held umbrellas with the other. Rain does not slow things down here.
But I get ahead of myself. Our first sight of the day was a walking tour of the Bryggen (BREW-gun) area. This is the oldest part of the city which was dominated by a group of German traders who formed an trade alliance called the Hanseatic League and it existed here from 1370 to 1754. The Hanseatic league was a men’s only club. We were TOLD this was because they were very intent on making money and that marriage and children were a drain on finances. How you may ask did they perpetuate themselves? Apprentices, young German boys of 14 or 15 applied to be allowed into the organization. There was a test you had to pass: being Keel Hauled and surviving.
The life for the first few years was tough. We saw the kitchen where these young boys cooked. It was a small room with a long pit in the middle for a charcoal fire and a large oven at one end. There was very little place for smoke to escape so these boys would have spent hours in a very hot and smokey place as they prepared food for the older apprentices and the merchant to whom they were apprenticed. The houses along the waterfront served as their homes and as their shops and warehouses for their goods. The sleeping quarters for these apprentices were very tiny (only slightly larger than our hotel room and accommodated 10 or so kids. The beds were smaller than a twin and they were built into cabinets in the wall (bunkbed like) except they had doors that could only be opened from the outside. So when the merchant put them to bed they stayed there.
These shops are all wooden and they stand and lean against each other. The wooden construction began back when only churches and castles could be made of stone. The problem with the wooden construction is that they have burned down and been rebuilt about once or twice each century. The oldest houses (some of them- there was a fire in the 1950s) date from the 1700s.
We then went into the oldest building in Bergen which is St. Mary’s Church dating from the 12th century. It was originally a Catholic church but switched to Lutheran with Reformation that Luther sparked in the 1400s. The church is small but ornate. The ceilings in places are decorated in the Norwegian style of basically stenciling without stencils. They paint the wood white and then in a single dark color paint a repeating pattern on the wood to decorate it. I mentioned earlier about the houses being yellow and red and green all across Norway. I found out that this was because 300 years ago the white paint was more expensive than the colors yellow and red. So that is what most people used. Now it has just become a Norwegian tradition.
After the fish and chips lunch in the rain we decided to ride the funicular up the 1000 feet tall mountain to have a bird’s eye view of the city. This sounded delightful until I found out what a funicular is. Imagine two train cars holding perhaps 75 people each that are attached to each end of long cable with a big pulley at the top of the mountain. One car is at the top and the other is at the bottom (on the cable) as one goes down it helps to pull the other up and in the middle the track separates into two tracks so that they pass each other. It is very efficient but I began to look at this cable very carefully and wonder about the mathematics of the stress and tension strength of steel cable.
While we were getting our tickets a lady rushed by and tried to get the ticket person to help her with the public pay (10 NOK) toilets that are right across. The ticket lady did not help and the lady looked very stressed. She did not speak much English and no Norwegian. I found a 10 Kr coin and tried to help but the coin was Swedish (left over) and it did not work in the Norwegian toilet. I did have a 20 but it would not work. So I gave it to her to get change. We went on but she soon passed us in line to join her tour group and she looked much more relaxed.
The view at the top of the funicular was expansive. We have been confined to the older part of the city where they segregate the tourists. Bergen is a large 500,000 people modern city once you leave the tourist area. We found ourselves at the top of the mountain with an English speaking tour group and the guide was telling them about the view and city. We listened because we were on the top of the same mountain. She said that Bergen is called the city between the 7 mountains. The problem is that there are nine mountains and no one knows which are the correct seven. All of the mountains have tunnels cut through them which I am sure that has to do with commuting in the winter over the mountains. (By the way, the term mountain is used loosely here. We were on the tallest point around and we were at 1000 feet. But it is only just a few blocks from the ocean front so it does jut quickly out from the sea.)
We wondered through the old cobblestone streets and narrow passages between the buildings. Penny indulged me as I walked (make that squeezed) through an antique store. Image all of the garage sales of the last 100 years having their inventories all put into a shop about half the size of a Quick Trip. There were about 5 rooms and the walkways were just barely wide enough to squeeze through. Stuff was everywhere. From floor to ceiling and piled in piles with no discernable organization. There were lots of things that I recognized as using or having seen in my childhood and that was depressing. The stuff of my life is in an antique store. It was kind of like the movie Back to the Future.
We returned to the hotel because I needed to rest. I lay down but did not sleep long as some loud growling noise woke me up. I was about to blame Penny for snoring but she wasn’t asleep and then I realized I had awakened myself by snoring. Rats. We did take some pictures of this room. The room is clean and functional but it not a lot bigger than the cruise ship room. I can almost stretch my arms across the room. It was our most expensive hotel. Bergen is pricey.
Our nightly where-do-we-eat ritual began. I have decided that you can’t trust anyone about food advice. We all know about Rick Steves but I felt confident that the walking tour guide who lives in Bergen would not steer us wrong. I had heard her tell another tourist about this place to eat which she described as having typical Norwegian food at a reasonable price and further she said it was the kind of place that a young family might go to eat. It is named Pingvinen which is Penguin. We found the place on the map and walked pretty much right to it. When we got there it was a small place that consisted of a long bar with a longer bar facing the window in the opposite direction and about 4 feet between them. There were a few tables on each end. The place was packed and no one was eating but rather all were drinking. The menu was written on a chalkboard and was not very long and since there was no place to sit we decided to go elsewhere.
We have been seeing these Peppes Pizza restaurants so we decided to give that a try and see what Norwegian pizza is like. I ordered the New Orleans pizza: deep disk with barbecued beef, pineapple, red bell peppers and corn. First one to explain why that is a “New Orleans” pizza wins a prize. The sign when we came in said to seat ourselves. The place was crowded and a waitress helped us to find a table which was very nice facing the park area. There had been a chair blocking the entrance into this room. After we had been sitting there awhile we read the sign that had been taped to the table. It said the table was not in service because of a water leak. Evidently they had fixed it because we did not get wet but then again it wasn’t raining much at the time.
The view out the window was of a statue of Ole Bull. That is like short for Oliver not like quaint for Old. That is all I know about Ole. Other than the statue has him holding a violin and the water pouring out from the bottom of his feet is spraying over some guy who is holding a harp of sorts. Someone Google this and tell us about Ole. The base of the fountain/statue is a shallow pool that has a series of 3 foot round stepping stones forming a path across the pool. We had a blast watching the families walk by and virtually every kid under 10 and one 17 or so kid had to walk across the stone path. One kid stepped off accidently. One leg (he had on shorts and sandals) went in to the pool. He got out and went to his mom to report the accident. The leather sandal was wet. Mom evidently reassured him and off they went.
It has been a good day with a very relaxed finish.
Ray
We ate breakfast and then started out by going to the tourist information office to buy Bergen cards to give us admissions to the things we wanted to see here. We also got our tickets for the 4 hour fjord tour. The lady helping us was very helpful and checked the weather report and said that Tuesday was supposed to be better so we booked the tickets for tomorrow. We have learned that Bergen has more days of rain than any other European city. It rains here more than 300 days a year. So far we have been here two days and it has rained both days. Today however was really a nice day. Although it was cloudy all day and it wasn’t until this evening about 7:00 that we saw part of the sun peak out from behind the gray curtain. It did rain twice, once at lunch time when we were eating fish and chips from the fish market. We could not find a table under one of the tents so we found a high standup round table (one that when you stand up it is the correct height. We ate with one hand as we held umbrellas with the other. Rain does not slow things down here.
But I get ahead of myself. Our first sight of the day was a walking tour of the Bryggen (BREW-gun) area. This is the oldest part of the city which was dominated by a group of German traders who formed an trade alliance called the Hanseatic League and it existed here from 1370 to 1754. The Hanseatic league was a men’s only club. We were TOLD this was because they were very intent on making money and that marriage and children were a drain on finances. How you may ask did they perpetuate themselves? Apprentices, young German boys of 14 or 15 applied to be allowed into the organization. There was a test you had to pass: being Keel Hauled and surviving.
The life for the first few years was tough. We saw the kitchen where these young boys cooked. It was a small room with a long pit in the middle for a charcoal fire and a large oven at one end. There was very little place for smoke to escape so these boys would have spent hours in a very hot and smokey place as they prepared food for the older apprentices and the merchant to whom they were apprenticed. The houses along the waterfront served as their homes and as their shops and warehouses for their goods. The sleeping quarters for these apprentices were very tiny (only slightly larger than our hotel room and accommodated 10 or so kids. The beds were smaller than a twin and they were built into cabinets in the wall (bunkbed like) except they had doors that could only be opened from the outside. So when the merchant put them to bed they stayed there.
These shops are all wooden and they stand and lean against each other. The wooden construction began back when only churches and castles could be made of stone. The problem with the wooden construction is that they have burned down and been rebuilt about once or twice each century. The oldest houses (some of them- there was a fire in the 1950s) date from the 1700s.
We then went into the oldest building in Bergen which is St. Mary’s Church dating from the 12th century. It was originally a Catholic church but switched to Lutheran with Reformation that Luther sparked in the 1400s. The church is small but ornate. The ceilings in places are decorated in the Norwegian style of basically stenciling without stencils. They paint the wood white and then in a single dark color paint a repeating pattern on the wood to decorate it. I mentioned earlier about the houses being yellow and red and green all across Norway. I found out that this was because 300 years ago the white paint was more expensive than the colors yellow and red. So that is what most people used. Now it has just become a Norwegian tradition.
After the fish and chips lunch in the rain we decided to ride the funicular up the 1000 feet tall mountain to have a bird’s eye view of the city. This sounded delightful until I found out what a funicular is. Imagine two train cars holding perhaps 75 people each that are attached to each end of long cable with a big pulley at the top of the mountain. One car is at the top and the other is at the bottom (on the cable) as one goes down it helps to pull the other up and in the middle the track separates into two tracks so that they pass each other. It is very efficient but I began to look at this cable very carefully and wonder about the mathematics of the stress and tension strength of steel cable.
While we were getting our tickets a lady rushed by and tried to get the ticket person to help her with the public pay (10 NOK) toilets that are right across. The ticket lady did not help and the lady looked very stressed. She did not speak much English and no Norwegian. I found a 10 Kr coin and tried to help but the coin was Swedish (left over) and it did not work in the Norwegian toilet. I did have a 20 but it would not work. So I gave it to her to get change. We went on but she soon passed us in line to join her tour group and she looked much more relaxed.
The view at the top of the funicular was expansive. We have been confined to the older part of the city where they segregate the tourists. Bergen is a large 500,000 people modern city once you leave the tourist area. We found ourselves at the top of the mountain with an English speaking tour group and the guide was telling them about the view and city. We listened because we were on the top of the same mountain. She said that Bergen is called the city between the 7 mountains. The problem is that there are nine mountains and no one knows which are the correct seven. All of the mountains have tunnels cut through them which I am sure that has to do with commuting in the winter over the mountains. (By the way, the term mountain is used loosely here. We were on the tallest point around and we were at 1000 feet. But it is only just a few blocks from the ocean front so it does jut quickly out from the sea.)
We wondered through the old cobblestone streets and narrow passages between the buildings. Penny indulged me as I walked (make that squeezed) through an antique store. Image all of the garage sales of the last 100 years having their inventories all put into a shop about half the size of a Quick Trip. There were about 5 rooms and the walkways were just barely wide enough to squeeze through. Stuff was everywhere. From floor to ceiling and piled in piles with no discernable organization. There were lots of things that I recognized as using or having seen in my childhood and that was depressing. The stuff of my life is in an antique store. It was kind of like the movie Back to the Future.
We returned to the hotel because I needed to rest. I lay down but did not sleep long as some loud growling noise woke me up. I was about to blame Penny for snoring but she wasn’t asleep and then I realized I had awakened myself by snoring. Rats. We did take some pictures of this room. The room is clean and functional but it not a lot bigger than the cruise ship room. I can almost stretch my arms across the room. It was our most expensive hotel. Bergen is pricey.
Our nightly where-do-we-eat ritual began. I have decided that you can’t trust anyone about food advice. We all know about Rick Steves but I felt confident that the walking tour guide who lives in Bergen would not steer us wrong. I had heard her tell another tourist about this place to eat which she described as having typical Norwegian food at a reasonable price and further she said it was the kind of place that a young family might go to eat. It is named Pingvinen which is Penguin. We found the place on the map and walked pretty much right to it. When we got there it was a small place that consisted of a long bar with a longer bar facing the window in the opposite direction and about 4 feet between them. There were a few tables on each end. The place was packed and no one was eating but rather all were drinking. The menu was written on a chalkboard and was not very long and since there was no place to sit we decided to go elsewhere.
We have been seeing these Peppes Pizza restaurants so we decided to give that a try and see what Norwegian pizza is like. I ordered the New Orleans pizza: deep disk with barbecued beef, pineapple, red bell peppers and corn. First one to explain why that is a “New Orleans” pizza wins a prize. The sign when we came in said to seat ourselves. The place was crowded and a waitress helped us to find a table which was very nice facing the park area. There had been a chair blocking the entrance into this room. After we had been sitting there awhile we read the sign that had been taped to the table. It said the table was not in service because of a water leak. Evidently they had fixed it because we did not get wet but then again it wasn’t raining much at the time.
The view out the window was of a statue of Ole Bull. That is like short for Oliver not like quaint for Old. That is all I know about Ole. Other than the statue has him holding a violin and the water pouring out from the bottom of his feet is spraying over some guy who is holding a harp of sorts. Someone Google this and tell us about Ole. The base of the fountain/statue is a shallow pool that has a series of 3 foot round stepping stones forming a path across the pool. We had a blast watching the families walk by and virtually every kid under 10 and one 17 or so kid had to walk across the stone path. One kid stepped off accidently. One leg (he had on shorts and sandals) went in to the pool. He got out and went to his mom to report the accident. The leather sandal was wet. Mom evidently reassured him and off they went.
It has been a good day with a very relaxed finish.
Ray
10 Norway in a Nutshell
Sunday 19 August 2007
I would like the names and addresses of the people (somewhere between 2 and 200 of them) who spent Saturday night in the street below our hotel window. There was a great deal of merriment going on, at times at the top of their lungs. I thought I might hire someone to go and return the favor about noon, because I am sure they will be trying to sleep (probably sleep it off) around that time of day.
We had set the alarm for 6:00 but were up a bit before that. Packed and ready to go about 7:00 we went down to the breakfast room even though the announced time for the start of the meal was not until 8:00. Penny had read that the Thon hotel’s breakfast rooms are typically always opened with the juice machines available. Not only was that true but they had already put out some cold items like cereal. I had Post Toasties.
At the train station we found our train track and were walking the length of the train to find “Vogan” 1. We found ourselves following a gaggle of tourists with lots of bags and all (and I do mean all) of them talking at once. I quickened the pace and sure enough they were headed to the same car. We got on and found our seats. If we had been behind them we would have waited for several minutes for them to find their seats and store their stuff.
The first bit of the train trip was less than scenic. We traveled through a six mile long tunnel. We stopped at several small towns and the airport but only one person got on our car. We had moved to a different seat because our assigned seat has a wall that separates two windows. Consequently a big part of the view is missing. Naturally the seat I picked out to move to was the one belonging to the man coming on board.
There were lots of other empty seats and we found a nice forward facing one. While sitting in the small viewing area of the train I met a man who was traveling with 3 families from China. He works for an American Company that makes optic fiber cable. He has been to the US many times for his business. He said that part of his job from time to time is to accompany customers from China on tours of the US sights. His company has facilities in Dallas and somewhere in California. He has been most impressed with places like our national parks: Arches, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite. It made me stop and think that indeed Norway is lovely but so are the many places in the US.
It is 10:15 and we have stopped at a station. The scenery started out with fields and farms punctuated by houses and villages. It is growing more hilly and we have begun passing bodies of waters that are heavenly blue in contrast to the nearly uniformly gray skies today. I am not sure whether the waters are lakes or fjords (I did figure out that those I could see the entire shore line are lakes.)
The train is now traveling along the floor of valleys as we climb higher into the mountains of Norway. We have been gliding through consecutive tunnels of trees only to emerge for ever so brief glimpses of waterfalls resulting in streams tumbling down the sides of the mountains and making their way across idyllic red barned farms. These farms are islands in the forests and it would appear that the task of holding back the inexorable forest would be formidable.
What appears to be large round bales of hay are all covered with white plastic making them appear to be giant marshmallows (at least so Penny thought). Throughout the day we say these bales but with the exception of a few sheep I do not recall seeing many animals of any kind other than birds. I will have to ask about that.
The train left the valley floor where we had been following the lowest, flattest path often by a river. We left that easy and broad path and began winding our way up the side of the mountain and the way was narrow but definitely not straight. Now all the farms are below rather than above us as we look out the window. The train spent a lot of time in the tree tunnels and some made of rock. The sights were given a sound track as some young sisters from Massachusetts gasped and oohed as they saw waterfalls and rapids through the brief spaces between the times where we had tunnel vision.
We climbed higher and soon rose above the tree line which at this latitude is around 3000 feet. This did not necessarily help the view as this part of the trip has most of the 200 tunnels we passed through on the 4 hour trip. It also has over 18 miles of snow sheds. Indeed we began to see patches of snow and even a glacier in the distance. The brilliant white of the snow patches kept the grays of the rocks and skies from merging into an indistinguishable blur.
Near the peak of the mountains we stopped in Myrdal and rushed along with almost everyone on board across the platform to catch the Flam railroad which takes you down the other side of the mountain to sea level. The ride that had taken 4 hours to climb up would take us just an hour to go down. Our rush across the platform was not fast enough and the remaining seats were on the aisle. We sat in the midst of 3 Spanish speaking families (from Spain I believe). I so enjoyed the fact that they were having a hoot. There was constant laughter and joking and ribbing each other. One woman handed her camera to what I think was her husband and asked him to take a picture of a waterfall we were passing. The man tries to figure which button to push and she begins to yell “Rapido, Rapido.” He clicks the picture of the waterfall and it turns out to look a lot like the inside of a tunnel we were entering. Everyone in the family laughed and kidded him. One lady stood up to poke fun at him and when she sat back down the movie theatre style seats had folded up and she wound up (unhurt) in the middle of the isle. More laughter broke out.
We had a table on the train so we broke out the picnic lunch we packed. We had a loaf of unsliced bread and we had purchased some plastic knives I had thought we would use them to spread the peanut butter and jam, but it turns out that these little plastic knives are tough. They have a ridge on the back (like half an I-beam) so they had no problem slicing through the tough skinned loaf of bread. We also had coconut shortbread cookies, chocolate, apples, raisins and “gold fish”. The later to our surprise did not have that familiar cheese taste and orange finger residue. They were just fish shaped crackers although they were very tasty. Dinner on the boat portion of the trip looked very similar.
We arrived in Flam and they announced the pier for the boat to Gudsvangen. Penny got in the line for the boat and I went to ask if we were in the correct line and to confirm that we could buy tickets on board. I was half right (which is an improvement from my recent record). It was the correct line but we had to buy tickets inside. I dashed in and got the tickets for the boat and also the tickets for the next leg which was by bus. We are now all ticketed up.
The ferry cruised us through an arm of the Sognefjord where the water on this day was nearly black and the mountains leap from the water’s edge in a very nearly 90 degree angle. There was no sun visible but there were some whiffs of very white clouds bumping into and sometimes clinging to the mountains about ¾ of the way up. The waterfalls here are numerous and they appear to be trying to impress everyone by pretending to be more than they are. As the water plummets down the steep sides it is frothed and splashed and it looks as if there is a huge amount of water in the flow. But when the bottom is reached the water runs the last few feet across the rocky waters’ edge and the pretense is banished and it shown to be the trickle that it is.
At the next change of transportation we rushed off the ferry to where people were putting baggage on the bus and then taking it off because the bus was full. We were assured that they counted the people on the boat and that there would be more buses. As the first bus pulled out a second pulled in and we got on that bus.
The road from Gudvangen to Voss is supposed to be the most spectacular view and ride in all of Norway and perhaps in the world. The first 10 minutes of the hour ride did not impress me and then we turned off of the main road to a cart path going up the mountain. It was a paved cart path but still just about that wide. We started up in this giant 60 passenger bus and on the first and subsequent hairpin turns the road would disappear. I am confident it was still there as the antigravity bus lift has not been invented yet. However the road could not be seen at times as I peered directly down out the side of the bus. We met several cars on this road and they were evidently locals because they either stopped or backed up to just the right spot so that the bus could pass.
The bus stopped at a hotel near the top so we could look back down where we had driven up and the driver told folks we would leave at 6:00 and she meant 6:00. At 6:00 she pulled out and here come running 3 men and she did stop just long enough for them to scramble sheepishly on board.
We arrived in Voss and a few paces form the bus was the train platform and there sat a train with no identifying number. The doors were closed and we decided that had to be the train but no one was getting on. Penny took the bull by the horn and pushed the “open door” button. It opened and we got in and got the pick of the seats. Soon the button pushing frenzy caught on and everyone was getting on.
We arrived nearly on time in Bergen and with a map in hand we trudged into the light rain in search of the tourist information center and picked up some brochures for planning and then we walked another 10 minutes to our hotel.
Ray
I would like the names and addresses of the people (somewhere between 2 and 200 of them) who spent Saturday night in the street below our hotel window. There was a great deal of merriment going on, at times at the top of their lungs. I thought I might hire someone to go and return the favor about noon, because I am sure they will be trying to sleep (probably sleep it off) around that time of day.
We had set the alarm for 6:00 but were up a bit before that. Packed and ready to go about 7:00 we went down to the breakfast room even though the announced time for the start of the meal was not until 8:00. Penny had read that the Thon hotel’s breakfast rooms are typically always opened with the juice machines available. Not only was that true but they had already put out some cold items like cereal. I had Post Toasties.
At the train station we found our train track and were walking the length of the train to find “Vogan” 1. We found ourselves following a gaggle of tourists with lots of bags and all (and I do mean all) of them talking at once. I quickened the pace and sure enough they were headed to the same car. We got on and found our seats. If we had been behind them we would have waited for several minutes for them to find their seats and store their stuff.
The first bit of the train trip was less than scenic. We traveled through a six mile long tunnel. We stopped at several small towns and the airport but only one person got on our car. We had moved to a different seat because our assigned seat has a wall that separates two windows. Consequently a big part of the view is missing. Naturally the seat I picked out to move to was the one belonging to the man coming on board.
There were lots of other empty seats and we found a nice forward facing one. While sitting in the small viewing area of the train I met a man who was traveling with 3 families from China. He works for an American Company that makes optic fiber cable. He has been to the US many times for his business. He said that part of his job from time to time is to accompany customers from China on tours of the US sights. His company has facilities in Dallas and somewhere in California. He has been most impressed with places like our national parks: Arches, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite. It made me stop and think that indeed Norway is lovely but so are the many places in the US.
It is 10:15 and we have stopped at a station. The scenery started out with fields and farms punctuated by houses and villages. It is growing more hilly and we have begun passing bodies of waters that are heavenly blue in contrast to the nearly uniformly gray skies today. I am not sure whether the waters are lakes or fjords (I did figure out that those I could see the entire shore line are lakes.)
The train is now traveling along the floor of valleys as we climb higher into the mountains of Norway. We have been gliding through consecutive tunnels of trees only to emerge for ever so brief glimpses of waterfalls resulting in streams tumbling down the sides of the mountains and making their way across idyllic red barned farms. These farms are islands in the forests and it would appear that the task of holding back the inexorable forest would be formidable.
What appears to be large round bales of hay are all covered with white plastic making them appear to be giant marshmallows (at least so Penny thought). Throughout the day we say these bales but with the exception of a few sheep I do not recall seeing many animals of any kind other than birds. I will have to ask about that.
The train left the valley floor where we had been following the lowest, flattest path often by a river. We left that easy and broad path and began winding our way up the side of the mountain and the way was narrow but definitely not straight. Now all the farms are below rather than above us as we look out the window. The train spent a lot of time in the tree tunnels and some made of rock. The sights were given a sound track as some young sisters from Massachusetts gasped and oohed as they saw waterfalls and rapids through the brief spaces between the times where we had tunnel vision.
We climbed higher and soon rose above the tree line which at this latitude is around 3000 feet. This did not necessarily help the view as this part of the trip has most of the 200 tunnels we passed through on the 4 hour trip. It also has over 18 miles of snow sheds. Indeed we began to see patches of snow and even a glacier in the distance. The brilliant white of the snow patches kept the grays of the rocks and skies from merging into an indistinguishable blur.
Near the peak of the mountains we stopped in Myrdal and rushed along with almost everyone on board across the platform to catch the Flam railroad which takes you down the other side of the mountain to sea level. The ride that had taken 4 hours to climb up would take us just an hour to go down. Our rush across the platform was not fast enough and the remaining seats were on the aisle. We sat in the midst of 3 Spanish speaking families (from Spain I believe). I so enjoyed the fact that they were having a hoot. There was constant laughter and joking and ribbing each other. One woman handed her camera to what I think was her husband and asked him to take a picture of a waterfall we were passing. The man tries to figure which button to push and she begins to yell “Rapido, Rapido.” He clicks the picture of the waterfall and it turns out to look a lot like the inside of a tunnel we were entering. Everyone in the family laughed and kidded him. One lady stood up to poke fun at him and when she sat back down the movie theatre style seats had folded up and she wound up (unhurt) in the middle of the isle. More laughter broke out.
We had a table on the train so we broke out the picnic lunch we packed. We had a loaf of unsliced bread and we had purchased some plastic knives I had thought we would use them to spread the peanut butter and jam, but it turns out that these little plastic knives are tough. They have a ridge on the back (like half an I-beam) so they had no problem slicing through the tough skinned loaf of bread. We also had coconut shortbread cookies, chocolate, apples, raisins and “gold fish”. The later to our surprise did not have that familiar cheese taste and orange finger residue. They were just fish shaped crackers although they were very tasty. Dinner on the boat portion of the trip looked very similar.
We arrived in Flam and they announced the pier for the boat to Gudsvangen. Penny got in the line for the boat and I went to ask if we were in the correct line and to confirm that we could buy tickets on board. I was half right (which is an improvement from my recent record). It was the correct line but we had to buy tickets inside. I dashed in and got the tickets for the boat and also the tickets for the next leg which was by bus. We are now all ticketed up.
The ferry cruised us through an arm of the Sognefjord where the water on this day was nearly black and the mountains leap from the water’s edge in a very nearly 90 degree angle. There was no sun visible but there were some whiffs of very white clouds bumping into and sometimes clinging to the mountains about ¾ of the way up. The waterfalls here are numerous and they appear to be trying to impress everyone by pretending to be more than they are. As the water plummets down the steep sides it is frothed and splashed and it looks as if there is a huge amount of water in the flow. But when the bottom is reached the water runs the last few feet across the rocky waters’ edge and the pretense is banished and it shown to be the trickle that it is.
At the next change of transportation we rushed off the ferry to where people were putting baggage on the bus and then taking it off because the bus was full. We were assured that they counted the people on the boat and that there would be more buses. As the first bus pulled out a second pulled in and we got on that bus.
The road from Gudvangen to Voss is supposed to be the most spectacular view and ride in all of Norway and perhaps in the world. The first 10 minutes of the hour ride did not impress me and then we turned off of the main road to a cart path going up the mountain. It was a paved cart path but still just about that wide. We started up in this giant 60 passenger bus and on the first and subsequent hairpin turns the road would disappear. I am confident it was still there as the antigravity bus lift has not been invented yet. However the road could not be seen at times as I peered directly down out the side of the bus. We met several cars on this road and they were evidently locals because they either stopped or backed up to just the right spot so that the bus could pass.
The bus stopped at a hotel near the top so we could look back down where we had driven up and the driver told folks we would leave at 6:00 and she meant 6:00. At 6:00 she pulled out and here come running 3 men and she did stop just long enough for them to scramble sheepishly on board.
We arrived in Voss and a few paces form the bus was the train platform and there sat a train with no identifying number. The doors were closed and we decided that had to be the train but no one was getting on. Penny took the bull by the horn and pushed the “open door” button. It opened and we got in and got the pick of the seats. Soon the button pushing frenzy caught on and everyone was getting on.
We arrived nearly on time in Bergen and with a map in hand we trudged into the light rain in search of the tourist information center and picked up some brochures for planning and then we walked another 10 minutes to our hotel.
Ray
09 Oslo Day 2
I slept well last night, Penny less well. We were awaked in the middle of the night by a police car with siren wailing driving through our 7th floor room. We woke to a beautiful day in Oslo, Norway. The sky was mottled with white clouds that later turned gray and spit on us for just a little while. Breakfast was in a lovely glass ceilinged room on the second or first floor depending on which side of the “Briney” you live on. Americans start counting on the ground floor with 1 and go up from there. Here the ground floor is “the ground floor” and the next floor up is floor 1. The reception person, perhaps having had the conversation with many other confused Americans, told us the breakfast was on the second floor. The sign in the elevator said it was on the first floor. We found it and it was as previously described.
Penny had researched possible excursions last night so we had a list. We agreed that the Viking Ship Museum was atop the list. We decided to walk and it was quite pleasant walking the streets that on the previous night had been sardine-like. On Saturday morning around 9:00 it was more like a stroll through a quiet country village. We made our way to the City Hall and the Harbor that it overlooks.
In the area near the harbor people were setting up for an Indian festival (as in India). Oslo has a large immigrant population as do most every city I have experienced. In the festival area was a large Panel truck that was being decorated with glass and ceramic tiles or pieces. It was ornate bordering on tacky. But as I saw it I had this vague feeling that I had seen it before but as the sights and memories are running together, I asked Penny where we had seen it. She said yesterday. When we rode the tram back to the hotel we passed this. We could have taken the tram but then would have missed the lovely morning walk.
The public ferry at pier 3 from one peninsula to another where several museums are located was a short ride. As we waited we discussed which side to sit on for optimum photographic opportunities. I said right side, because it would be facing the shore and city. It was facing the city but the city view was largely obscured by the stacks and stacks of container ships and cargo lining the harbor shore. To the left were some beautiful views of Oslo Harbor and islands.
As I sat, on the right, waiting for people to get on the ferry, I saw one kid in a stroller approaching the ledge between the pier and the boat. He was looking over and eyeing the gap between the two. I thought of all the signs in London Tube stations that say “Mind the Gap”. This kid was minding the Gap with apparently a bit of apprehension. His father and older brother picked up the stroller by opposite ends and carried it and passenger across the gap. As he went over his eyes got real wide and he leaned over and looked down at the water. Once safely aboard he grinned from ear to ear.
From the ferry landing to the Viking museum is a lovely, but uphill, stroll though a tidy suburban community by the sea. At the museum we saw and learned some things about the Viking history. There are boats preserved there that are well over a thousand years old. They were discovered around 1900 in some burial grounds. Evidently they Vikings thought that you need to sail over to the other side of death and thus if you were wealthy they buried you with your ship and lots of provisions.
There were some other museums but we opted to return on the ferry and see The Royal Palace, The changing of the guards and tour the City Hall. It is official, we came to Oslo and they closed the city. We went to and all of the way around the Palace trying to find where to get tickets to enter the building. We could find nothing. We pulled out the book and read the fine print. We had seen the hours and prices what we failed to notice was that the summer tours ended on August 12. We did see what I think was the hourly, small ceremony, changing of the guards that is done regularly because otherwise the guards in their dark uniforms with the horse tail hats (See the picture) would surely die of thirst.
We then went to tour City Hall which is supposed to be very nice and a tribute to the labor unions and such. Penny climbed the stairs (I was taking pictures) and read the sign that announced that the Hall was closed until after the city elections.
Plan B. We decided to go back on the ferry to some of the other museums. While waiting on the ferry this time I saw and eaves dropped on, a mother from England and a father from Spain. The younger boy and older girl spoke both English and Spanish with fluidity that almost appeared like random switching. As we waited a boat pulled up from a radio station and began to through plastic water bottles to the ferry waiting crowd. The boy got one and immediately wanted to fill and use it with the water his sister was carrying. Dad told him he had to wash it first. This is where a problem solving skill came into play. Often people are hindered from seeing solutions by “functional fixedness”. An example might be: needing to unscrew a screw and not being able to find a screwdriver. The functional fixedness comes in if you fail to realize that the coin you have (although not usually used for this purpose) can be used to unscrew a screw. This kid was not to be trapped by this for he immediately realized that the drinking water could be used as cleaning water. He put some in the bottle and his father shook it up real well. This is where his problem solving came up short. After shaking the bottle he started to open the lid and drink form the bottle of “washing water”. His sister yelled “stop” and explained the problem and the solution was to throw out that water and refill it.
When back on the other side of the bay we stopped first at the cafeteria order one large cheese burger and fries to split and we sat outside overlooking the ocean and the parade of boats being propelled by, wind, petroleum products and even breakfast (one kayak).
The Fram Museum was fascinating. The Norwegians evidently do not get enough cold way down here just slightly below the article circle. Some of them wanted to spend more time above the arctic circle. The story of how Fredtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen survived for over a year in the arctic without more than what they brought with them was amazing. The Fram is the ship they started on in an effort to reach the North Pole by floating along stuck in the ice pack as it moves (which I did not know about). They left their crew and went on by dog sled. They did not make the pole but they did manage to stay alive and returned home just 7 days before (all of this about 3 years after leaving) his ship and crew made it back. The museum not only has exhibits and pictures but also the actual ship and we were allowed on board to see what it was like.
After waiting on the return ferry for a few minutes the boat came but we were not allowed on because it was full. In my book, not over filling a boat is a good thing. A 70ish Norwegian lady was not pleased with the system of boats because they should have more runs on Weekends. She told this to the ticket taker lady and to the Boat hand gentleman and eventually to the Captain. She was not pleased. She had a bad leg and was attempting to sit on a rail that was far too high for a 70 year old even with good legs. She needed to sit down. She was about to leave the line to sit in a bench and I suggested she sit on the very substantial and lower metal gate. She thought that was a great idea and told Penny that she married a genius. I confess I got the idea for thinking outside the box from the kid and the water bottle.
The lady struck up a conversation and we learned of her grandchildren and children who live in California and have been to Hawaii. We also learned that she thinks Condalesa Rice is a beautiful woman but I am not so sure she likes her politics much. I refrained from talking politics. We also learned that she retired from working at the National Gallery and was working there (but not on duty) at the time the “Scream” paintings by Munch were stolen.
We rode the tram back to the hotel – we missed our stop because it was impossible to see out the right side of the tram because of all the people standing in the aisle. But we got off at another park with more music and we crossed the street and caught the tram going the other direction. We got off and we knew we were in the general area. I grabbed the map and located our position. We were just south of the North Pole. I was staring at the corners of the building trying to locate street names when I saw our hotel. All is well
We stopped at the hotel and grabbed our computer and walked to the train station and got our tickets for tomorrow. Penny has them and they are in her purse. Really! We then went to Burger King and Sat upstairs and used their free internet. Yeah.
We then went to the mall where we got cash, ate at our friendly neighborhood Chinese place. We like it. The food was good and the menu is in English and we did not have to walk far. We stopped at Menys and found food for the train tomorrow. We had been warned that although there is food on the train that it is very expensive. Which would mean “OUCH” so we opted for a picnic.
Off to bed and tomorrow we do Norway in a nut shell. I hope the connections all work out.
Ray
Penny had researched possible excursions last night so we had a list. We agreed that the Viking Ship Museum was atop the list. We decided to walk and it was quite pleasant walking the streets that on the previous night had been sardine-like. On Saturday morning around 9:00 it was more like a stroll through a quiet country village. We made our way to the City Hall and the Harbor that it overlooks.
In the area near the harbor people were setting up for an Indian festival (as in India). Oslo has a large immigrant population as do most every city I have experienced. In the festival area was a large Panel truck that was being decorated with glass and ceramic tiles or pieces. It was ornate bordering on tacky. But as I saw it I had this vague feeling that I had seen it before but as the sights and memories are running together, I asked Penny where we had seen it. She said yesterday. When we rode the tram back to the hotel we passed this. We could have taken the tram but then would have missed the lovely morning walk.
The public ferry at pier 3 from one peninsula to another where several museums are located was a short ride. As we waited we discussed which side to sit on for optimum photographic opportunities. I said right side, because it would be facing the shore and city. It was facing the city but the city view was largely obscured by the stacks and stacks of container ships and cargo lining the harbor shore. To the left were some beautiful views of Oslo Harbor and islands.
As I sat, on the right, waiting for people to get on the ferry, I saw one kid in a stroller approaching the ledge between the pier and the boat. He was looking over and eyeing the gap between the two. I thought of all the signs in London Tube stations that say “Mind the Gap”. This kid was minding the Gap with apparently a bit of apprehension. His father and older brother picked up the stroller by opposite ends and carried it and passenger across the gap. As he went over his eyes got real wide and he leaned over and looked down at the water. Once safely aboard he grinned from ear to ear.
From the ferry landing to the Viking museum is a lovely, but uphill, stroll though a tidy suburban community by the sea. At the museum we saw and learned some things about the Viking history. There are boats preserved there that are well over a thousand years old. They were discovered around 1900 in some burial grounds. Evidently they Vikings thought that you need to sail over to the other side of death and thus if you were wealthy they buried you with your ship and lots of provisions.
There were some other museums but we opted to return on the ferry and see The Royal Palace, The changing of the guards and tour the City Hall. It is official, we came to Oslo and they closed the city. We went to and all of the way around the Palace trying to find where to get tickets to enter the building. We could find nothing. We pulled out the book and read the fine print. We had seen the hours and prices what we failed to notice was that the summer tours ended on August 12. We did see what I think was the hourly, small ceremony, changing of the guards that is done regularly because otherwise the guards in their dark uniforms with the horse tail hats (See the picture) would surely die of thirst.
We then went to tour City Hall which is supposed to be very nice and a tribute to the labor unions and such. Penny climbed the stairs (I was taking pictures) and read the sign that announced that the Hall was closed until after the city elections.
Plan B. We decided to go back on the ferry to some of the other museums. While waiting on the ferry this time I saw and eaves dropped on, a mother from England and a father from Spain. The younger boy and older girl spoke both English and Spanish with fluidity that almost appeared like random switching. As we waited a boat pulled up from a radio station and began to through plastic water bottles to the ferry waiting crowd. The boy got one and immediately wanted to fill and use it with the water his sister was carrying. Dad told him he had to wash it first. This is where a problem solving skill came into play. Often people are hindered from seeing solutions by “functional fixedness”. An example might be: needing to unscrew a screw and not being able to find a screwdriver. The functional fixedness comes in if you fail to realize that the coin you have (although not usually used for this purpose) can be used to unscrew a screw. This kid was not to be trapped by this for he immediately realized that the drinking water could be used as cleaning water. He put some in the bottle and his father shook it up real well. This is where his problem solving came up short. After shaking the bottle he started to open the lid and drink form the bottle of “washing water”. His sister yelled “stop” and explained the problem and the solution was to throw out that water and refill it.
When back on the other side of the bay we stopped first at the cafeteria order one large cheese burger and fries to split and we sat outside overlooking the ocean and the parade of boats being propelled by, wind, petroleum products and even breakfast (one kayak).
The Fram Museum was fascinating. The Norwegians evidently do not get enough cold way down here just slightly below the article circle. Some of them wanted to spend more time above the arctic circle. The story of how Fredtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen survived for over a year in the arctic without more than what they brought with them was amazing. The Fram is the ship they started on in an effort to reach the North Pole by floating along stuck in the ice pack as it moves (which I did not know about). They left their crew and went on by dog sled. They did not make the pole but they did manage to stay alive and returned home just 7 days before (all of this about 3 years after leaving) his ship and crew made it back. The museum not only has exhibits and pictures but also the actual ship and we were allowed on board to see what it was like.
After waiting on the return ferry for a few minutes the boat came but we were not allowed on because it was full. In my book, not over filling a boat is a good thing. A 70ish Norwegian lady was not pleased with the system of boats because they should have more runs on Weekends. She told this to the ticket taker lady and to the Boat hand gentleman and eventually to the Captain. She was not pleased. She had a bad leg and was attempting to sit on a rail that was far too high for a 70 year old even with good legs. She needed to sit down. She was about to leave the line to sit in a bench and I suggested she sit on the very substantial and lower metal gate. She thought that was a great idea and told Penny that she married a genius. I confess I got the idea for thinking outside the box from the kid and the water bottle.
The lady struck up a conversation and we learned of her grandchildren and children who live in California and have been to Hawaii. We also learned that she thinks Condalesa Rice is a beautiful woman but I am not so sure she likes her politics much. I refrained from talking politics. We also learned that she retired from working at the National Gallery and was working there (but not on duty) at the time the “Scream” paintings by Munch were stolen.
We rode the tram back to the hotel – we missed our stop because it was impossible to see out the right side of the tram because of all the people standing in the aisle. But we got off at another park with more music and we crossed the street and caught the tram going the other direction. We got off and we knew we were in the general area. I grabbed the map and located our position. We were just south of the North Pole. I was staring at the corners of the building trying to locate street names when I saw our hotel. All is well
We stopped at the hotel and grabbed our computer and walked to the train station and got our tickets for tomorrow. Penny has them and they are in her purse. Really! We then went to Burger King and Sat upstairs and used their free internet. Yeah.
We then went to the mall where we got cash, ate at our friendly neighborhood Chinese place. We like it. The food was good and the menu is in English and we did not have to walk far. We stopped at Menys and found food for the train tomorrow. We had been warned that although there is food on the train that it is very expensive. Which would mean “OUCH” so we opted for a picnic.
Off to bed and tomorrow we do Norway in a nut shell. I hope the connections all work out.
Ray
Observations from Penny August 21, 2007
Observations, notes, thoughts and other unimportant things from Penny
1. My husband is an amazing travel planner. He is getting us to and from countries, around cities, to sightseeing places, on and off buses, trains and trams – all without knowing the language for the most part.
2. There are many ways to flush a toilet – wave your hand in front of a button, pull up on a knob, push down on a knob, push down on a button, etc. What I rarely see is a lever like we are used to in the US.
3. Other countries are much more visitor friendly than the US. Most of the tourist spots we go to have everything translated into 8-12 different languages. And most of the helpful tourist information places all have people who can speak English and almost any other language it seems. I am impressed and humbled.
4. Everywhere we go people are friendly, helpful and kind. I am sure there must be grumpy people around but fortunately they seem to be elsewhere for the most part. We have overhead a few people being rude or complainers but it is rare.
5. After riding on a night train, my equilibrium seems to be messed up. I am still swaying after being off the train all day. Hopefully a good night’s sleep in a non moving bed will get me back to solid ground. (3 days later, I am still swaying)
6. Bus drivers are amazing people. They seem to be able to drive these huge buses down very tiny lanes with many cars and people milling around and we have yet to see an accident.
7. I have found I can do without food much longer than I can go without water. I have become a constant carrier of a water bottle. Even without ice! (Who knew?)
8. Being able to keep up with emails and people at home are important to me. Although I am thoroughly enjoying my travels, being able to hear from family and friends back in the states keeps me grounded. Thanks for all who have been writing.
9. My husband is a prolific writer. He is thoroughly enjoying writing his daily blog reports. So far no need for me to chime in as what more could possibly be said. I am very appreciative of the time he takes to write it all down. He is letting me read them now before he sends in case I want to edit.
10. I am thoroughly shocked at myself for throwing away our train tickets to Oslo. That is what happens when I keep too many brochures in my purse – but still!!! Needless to say Ray is holding onto the train tickets we pick up tomorrow. Fortunately it worked out okay this time around but we don’t want to push it in the future.
11. I have decided that hotel people assume that people can wash their hands, wash their bodies and shampoo their hair all with the same general soft soap they provide with all these things listed on it. I am glad I brought my own shampoo. They obviously feel like people do not need conditioner because they do not provide that. Again, I am glad I brought my own because my hair is fly away enough right now after a day of sightseeing even when I use conditioner.
12. I brought a travel hair dryer with me which has turned out to be not needed. That is one thing that all the hotels have provided. What I should have brought was my travel iron that I left back in Kansas City. I talked myself out of it thinking all of the hotels would have them anyway and I know that Harlaxton has one for us to use. Well, only the first two hotels had irons. The others had ironing rooms down the hall. That makes it okay but not convenient.
13. We are always learning things. No matter how much Ray and I prepare, we can not figure it all out. We do a lot of laughing at ourselves. We each have our items that stress us and usually the other one is more laid back about it so it equals it out.
14. I have discovered that my husband will walk 15 blocks rather than ride a bus or tram if he is not exactly sure of where to get on or off.
15. Ray and I have found that we tend to walk faster than most other tourists. Surprise, surprise (or our daughters would say that is nothing new). We have learned to communicate with either other though when one of us would like to change the pace that we are currently walking to “treadmill speed” when we really need to step up the pace so we need to get to someplace quickly. Or we say we want “mosey speed” when we really want to walk slow like the other tourists. Those terms mean something to us and we can adjust our speed accordingly.
16. I am a poor sleeper no matter the noise (or lack thereof), weather (hot or cold), tiredness (you would think when I am exhausted that I would just pass out when I hit the bed), etc. After the hotel in Oslo though I will definitely remember to ask for a room away from the street if possible. That hotel had us on a corner room facing two busy streets. Since there is no air conditioning (many buildings up here do not have it), that means the windows are open and the city does not rest until late in the evening.
17. Pigeons seem to be a universal bird. No matter where we are, there are always pigeons.
18. Food notes:
a. I have enjoyed raspberry/blueberry yogurt for breakfast with their fruit salad (blueberries, raspberries and other berries) added to it. Sometimes I even add a little of their granola cereal to that also. Yum, yum.
b. I have enjoyed scrambled eggs every morning. Seems to be one of the universal styles of eggs that they provide on hotel breakfasts.
c. Wonderful whole grain fresh baked breads and good tasting jams are a nice breakfast treat.
d. The coffee seems to be stronger and a little bitter in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
e. I have found I can order food that sound the same as in the US and even order them in restaurants that we have in the US and there will always be something unique and different in the way the food is cooked. I am thrilled that I do not have to “search” for something unique to the area to find those differences. No matter what I eat or where I eat it, it will give me something new to add to my experiences.
19. Tomorrow we fly back to England and head for Harlaxton. I will be happy to not be living out of a suitcase again. It has been great traveling with my husband and getting to see a part of the world that we have not been to before. Ray and I look forward to a wonderful time at Harlaxton and getting to know the students and other faculty.
1. My husband is an amazing travel planner. He is getting us to and from countries, around cities, to sightseeing places, on and off buses, trains and trams – all without knowing the language for the most part.
2. There are many ways to flush a toilet – wave your hand in front of a button, pull up on a knob, push down on a knob, push down on a button, etc. What I rarely see is a lever like we are used to in the US.
3. Other countries are much more visitor friendly than the US. Most of the tourist spots we go to have everything translated into 8-12 different languages. And most of the helpful tourist information places all have people who can speak English and almost any other language it seems. I am impressed and humbled.
4. Everywhere we go people are friendly, helpful and kind. I am sure there must be grumpy people around but fortunately they seem to be elsewhere for the most part. We have overhead a few people being rude or complainers but it is rare.
5. After riding on a night train, my equilibrium seems to be messed up. I am still swaying after being off the train all day. Hopefully a good night’s sleep in a non moving bed will get me back to solid ground. (3 days later, I am still swaying)
6. Bus drivers are amazing people. They seem to be able to drive these huge buses down very tiny lanes with many cars and people milling around and we have yet to see an accident.
7. I have found I can do without food much longer than I can go without water. I have become a constant carrier of a water bottle. Even without ice! (Who knew?)
8. Being able to keep up with emails and people at home are important to me. Although I am thoroughly enjoying my travels, being able to hear from family and friends back in the states keeps me grounded. Thanks for all who have been writing.
9. My husband is a prolific writer. He is thoroughly enjoying writing his daily blog reports. So far no need for me to chime in as what more could possibly be said. I am very appreciative of the time he takes to write it all down. He is letting me read them now before he sends in case I want to edit.
10. I am thoroughly shocked at myself for throwing away our train tickets to Oslo. That is what happens when I keep too many brochures in my purse – but still!!! Needless to say Ray is holding onto the train tickets we pick up tomorrow. Fortunately it worked out okay this time around but we don’t want to push it in the future.
11. I have decided that hotel people assume that people can wash their hands, wash their bodies and shampoo their hair all with the same general soft soap they provide with all these things listed on it. I am glad I brought my own shampoo. They obviously feel like people do not need conditioner because they do not provide that. Again, I am glad I brought my own because my hair is fly away enough right now after a day of sightseeing even when I use conditioner.
12. I brought a travel hair dryer with me which has turned out to be not needed. That is one thing that all the hotels have provided. What I should have brought was my travel iron that I left back in Kansas City. I talked myself out of it thinking all of the hotels would have them anyway and I know that Harlaxton has one for us to use. Well, only the first two hotels had irons. The others had ironing rooms down the hall. That makes it okay but not convenient.
13. We are always learning things. No matter how much Ray and I prepare, we can not figure it all out. We do a lot of laughing at ourselves. We each have our items that stress us and usually the other one is more laid back about it so it equals it out.
14. I have discovered that my husband will walk 15 blocks rather than ride a bus or tram if he is not exactly sure of where to get on or off.
15. Ray and I have found that we tend to walk faster than most other tourists. Surprise, surprise (or our daughters would say that is nothing new). We have learned to communicate with either other though when one of us would like to change the pace that we are currently walking to “treadmill speed” when we really need to step up the pace so we need to get to someplace quickly. Or we say we want “mosey speed” when we really want to walk slow like the other tourists. Those terms mean something to us and we can adjust our speed accordingly.
16. I am a poor sleeper no matter the noise (or lack thereof), weather (hot or cold), tiredness (you would think when I am exhausted that I would just pass out when I hit the bed), etc. After the hotel in Oslo though I will definitely remember to ask for a room away from the street if possible. That hotel had us on a corner room facing two busy streets. Since there is no air conditioning (many buildings up here do not have it), that means the windows are open and the city does not rest until late in the evening.
17. Pigeons seem to be a universal bird. No matter where we are, there are always pigeons.
18. Food notes:
a. I have enjoyed raspberry/blueberry yogurt for breakfast with their fruit salad (blueberries, raspberries and other berries) added to it. Sometimes I even add a little of their granola cereal to that also. Yum, yum.
b. I have enjoyed scrambled eggs every morning. Seems to be one of the universal styles of eggs that they provide on hotel breakfasts.
c. Wonderful whole grain fresh baked breads and good tasting jams are a nice breakfast treat.
d. The coffee seems to be stronger and a little bitter in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
e. I have found I can order food that sound the same as in the US and even order them in restaurants that we have in the US and there will always be something unique and different in the way the food is cooked. I am thrilled that I do not have to “search” for something unique to the area to find those differences. No matter what I eat or where I eat it, it will give me something new to add to my experiences.
19. Tomorrow we fly back to England and head for Harlaxton. I will be happy to not be living out of a suitcase again. It has been great traveling with my husband and getting to see a part of the world that we have not been to before. Ray and I look forward to a wonderful time at Harlaxton and getting to know the students and other faculty.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
08 Oslo Day 1
We rolled into the train station on time at 9:30 a.m. I visited with Amar some more as we stood in the hall and watched the scenery parade the farms and homes of Norway by our window. Amar is from India but has been in Norway as a student for two years. He speaks 3 languages and his brother came to Norway before him to earn his doctorate. He had been traveling for a month in Germany, France, Switzerland, and The Czech Republic.
My first impression of Norway was that the train station felt nearly abandoned (it wasn’t) after leaving from the Stockholm Station. We found an ATM and got 200 Norwegian Krones. I soon discovered that that was not enough to last the day. It is expensive here. But we were well warned about this before coming here. We tried to find someplace to buy breakfast but the muffins and coffee route was just not appealing. Penny suggested we have brunch since it was 10:00 and we made our way to Burger King where we each had a Whopper Combo – total cost 185 NOK or about $25.
We followed the giant “I” signs to the tourist information booth where we took a number and waited to be helped. We got a map with a “you are here” marked and an “it is there” mark as well indicating our hotel. It was a very short walk to the hotel. Our room was not available but there was a luggage room. We were given a key to the luggage room but we had been beaten by 3 or 4 ladies who were crowded in the room and in the doorway with baggage both travel and psychological (just kidding). Some of them left and the door was closed so I thought they had all taken a leave of absence but when I opened the door one was still there going through an open bag in the middle of the floor. I said I would wait and closed the door. A bit later a man came and did not see Penny and I waiting away from the door and he went in and she was still there. She came out with different clothes on. Baggage stored high on the only available top shelf and we were ready to go. I think I am getting a complete understanding of that old saying “the spirit is willing but the body is weak.” I was running on near empty.
Our first sight seeing was the Finnish National Art Gallery. It was within walking distance. Of course we made it longer by listening to my advice. We had been told to go to the main street and turn right. I looked and saw several blocks away a street with a steady stream of traffic. I said that had to be it. How much more Main Street can you get? As we approached the street it began to appear suspiciously like a freeway. I glanced at the map and sure enough we had passed the main street which was a pedestrian way. By the way it was not named “Main Street”. It is Karl Johnson Gat. At the end of the street is Royal Palace and next to that is the Gallery. Our decision to go there first was based on our love of fine art, that and the fact that the admission is free.
I actually quite enjoyed the visit. I did discover anew that I am much more of a realist than an abstract kind of art connoisseur. They had several beautiful landscape paintings of Norway by Christian Dahl and some seascapes by Hans Guide that were just breathtaking. You will have to Google Image them because I was not allowed to take photos. The works of both of these men made me think that perhaps Thomas Kincade was not the original painter of light.
The works of Fredrik Kolstø and Halfdon Støm suggested that Norman Rockwell may have taken some guidance from them. Their paintings were a slice of Norway life: a scene inside a pub with a man taking a great deal of interest in the lady behind the bar while a young boy in the foreground looked forlorn and perhaps forgotten.
There is also work by Edward Munch who is generally too abstract for my taste. They had one of his famous “scream” paintings. There is a whole museum here dedicated to Munch’s work.
We made our way back to the hotel about 1:00 to check and see if your room was ready. No such luck. We returned to a coffee and muffin place which we passed earlier and had admired the giant cups of coffee. We sat and sipped and planned our next move. We decided to go to the tourist information booth to buy a transportation ticket so we could ride the tram out to Vigeland Sculpture Park. Gustov Vigeland is Norway’s greatest (well known?) sculptor. He traded all of his work with the City for a studio and support. He created over 600 bronze and granite statues all of which are scans clothing. But it is a wonderful body of art (no pun intended). He sculpted people of all ages and backgrounds doing all kinds of things. None of them were sexual that I recall. Many of them called to mind love and passion for life and for friends. There was a whole section about kids. It was wonderful. That and the beautiful weather made for a lovely afternoon.
Back on the tram, after making a quick dash to the other set of the tracks after we discovered we were about to head further out of town, we made our way back to our hotel while watching the streets pass by the windows and the people of Helsinki walk through the doors of our tram. I had noticed in Stockholm that, with the exception of the obvious tourist folks, there were very few people above the age of 30 that I saw. This may have been due to the places we went or the Culture Festival that was going on, but Stockholm was full of the young and the beautiful. Helsinki has its share of the same folks but the parade of folks onto the tram included all ages, races, and apparently income. There are a lot of older people around and there are many beggars around.
Our room was ready. It is like living in the Swedish Royal Palace compared to the night on the tag (train). The room is large and has two windows. We are on the 7th and utmost floor of the hotel so the windows are in the slanted roof. I have already once bumped my dead on the ceiling. This does not bode well for the room at Harlaxton which has a similar feature. The room was a little warm when we arrived and there is no air conditioner. But we opened the other window and as I write this at 8:00 it is delightful. I am sure we will have to close the windows later. There is no free internet here but there is a computer downstairs and Penny is down now checking her email. I saw a sign at Burger King in the train station which said they had free internet. I will check that out tomorrow.
We ventured out about 6:00 to find food. There is a 6 or 7 story shopping mall right across the street, in fact our windows face the windows of the mall. We started looking for some relatively inexpensive food there. We found a Chinese fast food place and although it looked good we thought we would walk around the area of the hotel a bit to see if we could find something good and cheaper. Although we enjoyed the 8 block stroll we found lots of bars and pubs (no one was eating only drinking) but no restaurant that looked appealing. We wound up eating Chinese in the mall and it was very good. We walked into the Meny (means Menu) grocery store downstairs in the mall to check out what we might get for picnic foods on Sunday when we make our all day (but none of the night) train trip to Bergen. We then bought a piece of cheesecake to take away from a stand in the mall. Norway has a 24% tax on sit down restaurant food but only a 12% tax on take away food. Lots of folks take out food.
It is not 8:30 but I suspect I will be in bed shortly – I may be up at 4:00.
Ray
My first impression of Norway was that the train station felt nearly abandoned (it wasn’t) after leaving from the Stockholm Station. We found an ATM and got 200 Norwegian Krones. I soon discovered that that was not enough to last the day. It is expensive here. But we were well warned about this before coming here. We tried to find someplace to buy breakfast but the muffins and coffee route was just not appealing. Penny suggested we have brunch since it was 10:00 and we made our way to Burger King where we each had a Whopper Combo – total cost 185 NOK or about $25.
We followed the giant “I” signs to the tourist information booth where we took a number and waited to be helped. We got a map with a “you are here” marked and an “it is there” mark as well indicating our hotel. It was a very short walk to the hotel. Our room was not available but there was a luggage room. We were given a key to the luggage room but we had been beaten by 3 or 4 ladies who were crowded in the room and in the doorway with baggage both travel and psychological (just kidding). Some of them left and the door was closed so I thought they had all taken a leave of absence but when I opened the door one was still there going through an open bag in the middle of the floor. I said I would wait and closed the door. A bit later a man came and did not see Penny and I waiting away from the door and he went in and she was still there. She came out with different clothes on. Baggage stored high on the only available top shelf and we were ready to go. I think I am getting a complete understanding of that old saying “the spirit is willing but the body is weak.” I was running on near empty.
Our first sight seeing was the Finnish National Art Gallery. It was within walking distance. Of course we made it longer by listening to my advice. We had been told to go to the main street and turn right. I looked and saw several blocks away a street with a steady stream of traffic. I said that had to be it. How much more Main Street can you get? As we approached the street it began to appear suspiciously like a freeway. I glanced at the map and sure enough we had passed the main street which was a pedestrian way. By the way it was not named “Main Street”. It is Karl Johnson Gat. At the end of the street is Royal Palace and next to that is the Gallery. Our decision to go there first was based on our love of fine art, that and the fact that the admission is free.
I actually quite enjoyed the visit. I did discover anew that I am much more of a realist than an abstract kind of art connoisseur. They had several beautiful landscape paintings of Norway by Christian Dahl and some seascapes by Hans Guide that were just breathtaking. You will have to Google Image them because I was not allowed to take photos. The works of both of these men made me think that perhaps Thomas Kincade was not the original painter of light.
The works of Fredrik Kolstø and Halfdon Støm suggested that Norman Rockwell may have taken some guidance from them. Their paintings were a slice of Norway life: a scene inside a pub with a man taking a great deal of interest in the lady behind the bar while a young boy in the foreground looked forlorn and perhaps forgotten.
There is also work by Edward Munch who is generally too abstract for my taste. They had one of his famous “scream” paintings. There is a whole museum here dedicated to Munch’s work.
We made our way back to the hotel about 1:00 to check and see if your room was ready. No such luck. We returned to a coffee and muffin place which we passed earlier and had admired the giant cups of coffee. We sat and sipped and planned our next move. We decided to go to the tourist information booth to buy a transportation ticket so we could ride the tram out to Vigeland Sculpture Park. Gustov Vigeland is Norway’s greatest (well known?) sculptor. He traded all of his work with the City for a studio and support. He created over 600 bronze and granite statues all of which are scans clothing. But it is a wonderful body of art (no pun intended). He sculpted people of all ages and backgrounds doing all kinds of things. None of them were sexual that I recall. Many of them called to mind love and passion for life and for friends. There was a whole section about kids. It was wonderful. That and the beautiful weather made for a lovely afternoon.
Back on the tram, after making a quick dash to the other set of the tracks after we discovered we were about to head further out of town, we made our way back to our hotel while watching the streets pass by the windows and the people of Helsinki walk through the doors of our tram. I had noticed in Stockholm that, with the exception of the obvious tourist folks, there were very few people above the age of 30 that I saw. This may have been due to the places we went or the Culture Festival that was going on, but Stockholm was full of the young and the beautiful. Helsinki has its share of the same folks but the parade of folks onto the tram included all ages, races, and apparently income. There are a lot of older people around and there are many beggars around.
Our room was ready. It is like living in the Swedish Royal Palace compared to the night on the tag (train). The room is large and has two windows. We are on the 7th and utmost floor of the hotel so the windows are in the slanted roof. I have already once bumped my dead on the ceiling. This does not bode well for the room at Harlaxton which has a similar feature. The room was a little warm when we arrived and there is no air conditioner. But we opened the other window and as I write this at 8:00 it is delightful. I am sure we will have to close the windows later. There is no free internet here but there is a computer downstairs and Penny is down now checking her email. I saw a sign at Burger King in the train station which said they had free internet. I will check that out tomorrow.
We ventured out about 6:00 to find food. There is a 6 or 7 story shopping mall right across the street, in fact our windows face the windows of the mall. We started looking for some relatively inexpensive food there. We found a Chinese fast food place and although it looked good we thought we would walk around the area of the hotel a bit to see if we could find something good and cheaper. Although we enjoyed the 8 block stroll we found lots of bars and pubs (no one was eating only drinking) but no restaurant that looked appealing. We wound up eating Chinese in the mall and it was very good. We walked into the Meny (means Menu) grocery store downstairs in the mall to check out what we might get for picnic foods on Sunday when we make our all day (but none of the night) train trip to Bergen. We then bought a piece of cheesecake to take away from a stand in the mall. Norway has a 24% tax on sit down restaurant food but only a 12% tax on take away food. Lots of folks take out food.
It is not 8:30 but I suspect I will be in bed shortly – I may be up at 4:00.
Ray
07 The night “tag”
I had another practical lesson in the difference between theory and practice. You may have thought I would have learned this lesson and moved on, but you would be wrong. The theory was sound. I wanted to maximize our tourist days so we would travel between Cities at night. This worked, in retrospect, fairly well as we cruised from Helsinki to Stockholm. While there were some night time interruptions we did get some sleep and we were clean and ready to go when we hit Stockholm.
The same theory was in play for our trip from Stockholm to Oslo: take the night train, sleep on the train, and be ready to go when we arrive at 9:30. This is not how the theory worked. After Amar found another place to sleep we were able to spread our bags on the minute floor and prepare for bed. We got into bed. I took the middle bed (I thought about the upper bed so that the middle one could be folded out of the way and give Penny more head room). But when I tried to climb up I could not figure out how to get into the bed from the ladder. We gave up and managed not to bang our heads on the low ceilings.
A night on a train is full of sounds which at first appears to have a rhythm but the sounds and rhythm changes as you pass under bridges and go through stations and take corners. The movements are unpredictable and sometimes violent throwing me into floor twice (I made that part up). When I finally did get to sleep, the train stopped somewhere, perhaps to wait as an oncoming train made its way by on the pass by line or perhaps they stopped to ask directions. But whatever the reason, the resulting stillness and silence woke me up and I lay there trying to figure out why we stopped.
We got up about 7:00 and got dressed and brushed teeth and such. We put up the beds so that we have a bench seat on the bottom. The beds were not very comfortable as beds and they were torturous as a couch.
We made our way down to the Bistro “car 34 where are you” across treacherous between cars passage ways where the doors opened in diverse ways and the plates of metal floor slid over each other under your feet as the train swayed and turned. We reached the snack area but they did not take credit cards and we had planned our Swedish money a bit too closely. We had only about 40 SEK left and it was back in the suitcase. I had asked at the station if they accepted CC and they had assured me they did.
Breakfast will be in Oslo and will be delayed.
This is the best part of the train experience. We have been sitting and watching as the Norwegian country side rolls by the windows. One of which is very dirty and cannot been seen out of well. The land is pretty. The grain in the farm fields has either been gathered in or lay drying in neat rows of yellow plants punctuated with lighter colored stripes where the grain had formally been growing.
The houses in the villages and farms have mostly been wooden with rust red tile roofs. The houses are painted in bright (but subdued brightness) reds, yellows, greens and blues. Very nice indeed.
Ray
The same theory was in play for our trip from Stockholm to Oslo: take the night train, sleep on the train, and be ready to go when we arrive at 9:30. This is not how the theory worked. After Amar found another place to sleep we were able to spread our bags on the minute floor and prepare for bed. We got into bed. I took the middle bed (I thought about the upper bed so that the middle one could be folded out of the way and give Penny more head room). But when I tried to climb up I could not figure out how to get into the bed from the ladder. We gave up and managed not to bang our heads on the low ceilings.
A night on a train is full of sounds which at first appears to have a rhythm but the sounds and rhythm changes as you pass under bridges and go through stations and take corners. The movements are unpredictable and sometimes violent throwing me into floor twice (I made that part up). When I finally did get to sleep, the train stopped somewhere, perhaps to wait as an oncoming train made its way by on the pass by line or perhaps they stopped to ask directions. But whatever the reason, the resulting stillness and silence woke me up and I lay there trying to figure out why we stopped.
We got up about 7:00 and got dressed and brushed teeth and such. We put up the beds so that we have a bench seat on the bottom. The beds were not very comfortable as beds and they were torturous as a couch.
We made our way down to the Bistro “car 34 where are you” across treacherous between cars passage ways where the doors opened in diverse ways and the plates of metal floor slid over each other under your feet as the train swayed and turned. We reached the snack area but they did not take credit cards and we had planned our Swedish money a bit too closely. We had only about 40 SEK left and it was back in the suitcase. I had asked at the station if they accepted CC and they had assured me they did.
Breakfast will be in Oslo and will be delayed.
This is the best part of the train experience. We have been sitting and watching as the Norwegian country side rolls by the windows. One of which is very dirty and cannot been seen out of well. The land is pretty. The grain in the farm fields has either been gathered in or lay drying in neat rows of yellow plants punctuated with lighter colored stripes where the grain had formally been growing.
The houses in the villages and farms have mostly been wooden with rust red tile roofs. The houses are painted in bright (but subdued brightness) reds, yellows, greens and blues. Very nice indeed.
Ray
06 Stockholm Day 2 and a bit of “OH DEAR”
Before I get started with Stockholm day 2 I have an observation. There are lots of the non-language specific signs around; the kind with the red circle and slash telling you not to do something. On the cruise ship the sign above the toilet, sorry head, had pictures of bottles, cans and a banana with a line through it. I thought banana? Well today in one of the bathrooms I went in had pieces of banana in the urinal. Who would have thunk it?
Day started out OK. I took my shirt down to the ironing board in the hall of the hotel – not in the room. We went down to a very nice breakfast where we learned that pancake is the Swedish word for crepes. They were good. We shared a table with a father and daughter from Nottingham, England which is very near Harlaxton.
We then went to train station to drop off our luggage in a locker. Then we walked along the water front to get a Royal Canal Tour. After the boat ride It was not clear what was royal about it. We did pass by the Palace, but other than that….? It was a very nice tour. Some of the memorable sights were Bjorn Borg’s house, a group of children sailing small sail boats. Most were about 7 I would guess. Penny pointed out that I watched most go by without taking pictures. Sometimes I forget.
We then walked back up the waterfront to near the train station where the City Hall is located. This is an impressive building. It is where the Nobel Prize Banquet is held. We took a guided tour. There were tours in 6 languages. I am constantly amazed and saddened by how much of the world speaks multiple languages except me. Tonight they were having a major award dinner there. Not the Nobel but rather the Swedish Water Award. This honor is given annual to a person who contributes to some aspect of improving some aspect of water conservation or management or the like. This year it is being award to an American from Stanford. We learned many things from our guide:
A. The main hall where the dinner is served will hold 1200 people. When the dinner begins the wait staff serves everyone within 3 minutes. That is a lot of hash slinging.
B. The main hall was built in such a way as to make it feel like it was clearly not a factory or industrial kind of job. It was built around 1900 and the feeling of many was very much anti-technology. The architect created this impression by
a. having the workmen pick at the front of each brick so that it did not look uniformed
b. building the main room in a non-rectangular shape
c. there are pairs of columns on one side and single columns on the other
C. On Saturdays from 2 to 4 anyone who has made a reservation can have a civil wedding performed in the wedding room. You can choose between the long ceremony which takes 3 minutes and the short ceremony which takes 1. It is free. Amy and Candace where did we go wrong?
After the City Hall I had another of my not so brilliant ideas. I suggested we walk to the nearby train station and catch the city bus to our next destination which was a bit too far to walk. Rick Steves (why do I trust this guy) said to take bus 47 from the station. Now that sounds easy but the station is about 2 large city blocks. Where do we go to catch this bus? We went in to ask and we had a very hard time finding anyone who knew. We went to 2 wrong information places before we found the one that could tell us; up the stairs and outside. We did this and as we got outside there was bus 47. I looked at the driver and he could tell I wanted on but he motioned to go around the corner – where the bus stop was. This took over an hour to ride the bus to Vasa Museum which would have take about 20 to 30 minutes to walk. But we conquered the city buses.
The Vasa Muesum was really fascinating. It was one of the largest sailing ships ever built. It sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628 in the Stockholm bay. The raised the ship in 1961 (all dates are approximate). The ship and much of its contents and story are in the museum. We went to a very nice documentary film about the ship and the salvage. While sitting in the film a family with small kids were seated in the row behind us. At one point the 4 year old asked Mom. “why can’t they change it to the kids channel?”
After the Vasa we walked up the road to the Skansen living history museum. This was near 3:00 and we decided to eat lunch. The cafeteria was open and the food was good. We tried to sit outside but the birds and the bees chased us back inside – literally for one bee.
The museum was begun in the early 1800’s to preserve and protect the Swedish (and at that time that would include Finland) history. They moved and restored buildings from all over Sweden and Finland. There are homes of wealthy families and some from very modest means. There are homes as old as the 1600s. Most are from the 1800s. We watched and learned how flax is made into linen. It was labor intensive. There was a very nice old Lutheran Church. We saw people spinning yarn. It was a very pleasant day walking through old towns wooded areas and flower gardens.
This is where the story makes a plot twist. We sat down and Penny decided to pull out our train tickets to check the time or something. But alas there were no tickets in her purse. She thought they were there. She thought back and she had thrown out some material we did not want (tourist stuff) back at the church while she was waiting for me to take pictures (she does a lot of that). So we made our way back across the very large park to the church. The trash was still there in the can but alas no tickets. Where could they be? She remembered taking some more stuff we did not want out of her purse back at the hotel before we left and she put it on the desk and left it there. Were the tickets picked up in that material? We found a nice lady at the information area who helped us by calling the hotel and we asked if anyone found them. No. She then called the railway office and we were put on hold for 15 minutes so they said but we gave up and decided to go to the train station ourselves and see if they could reprint our tickets.
We went out to get back on bus 47 and found the bus right away. When we had taken the bus out our Stockholm Card was still valid and we just showed it and we sat down. I got on the bus and tried to buy a ticket and he nicely said “get off my bus. You have to buy a ticket first.” After a bit of wandering around trying to find where to buy a ticket I stopped at a small kiosk and asked where to go and she said here.
We made it back to the train station and the same nice lady was there. She remembered us but said she could not reprint the tickets, they were like cash. But she went to talk to her supervisor who came back with a computer printout with our ticket information which he had stamped and written a note on which read in Swedish, “please let these morons on the train because they can’t keep track of their stuff and we would very much like them out of the country” (my paraphrase).
New tickets in hand we had about 3 hours to kill so we wandered back down the waterfront where we ran into a bagpipe band near the city hall. We thought they might be going to perform at the Water Awards. But after they tuned there bagpipes (not something I would recommend listening to) they began walking the opposite directions. We followed at a discrete distance and they were going to the Annual Scottish something or other which had a big Velkommen sign over the portico where the guests were dining. I suspected that despite the sign we would not be welcomed because I am sure that the lost ticket information had spread quickly.
We wound up back at the park and festival and found a bargain dinner at a small café. Toasted open faced ham and cheese sandwich with salad and coffee. It was a beautiful evening. We walked back to the train station. We tried to find a free toilet but after some walking (did we tell you we do a lot of that) we gave up and paid the 85 cents to use the toilet. We then gathered our luggage from the locker and found our way to platform 11 (which we had scouted earlier). And waited for our train.
We discussed the fact that I had booked a second class sleeper and that we had bed numbers rather than a cabin number. I assured Penny that I had booked a room on the train for just the two of us. When the train arrived we found car 38 and got on and found the room with beds 13 and 14. It also had bed 15 but that was for when they sold it as a 3 person room. This was what I thought until Amar showed up with a ticket for the upper bed. It was a bit awkward. The room is tiny, we had bags and he had a large backpack. Neither Amar nor we knew what to do but Penny was a great sport and said we would work it out. We were beginning to settle in a bit and that was when the conductor came to check tickets. He saw the 50 somethings and Amar the 20 something. He came to our rescue and a very relieved Amar was assigned a different bed. We have our private room in a second class cabin and we are somewhere between Stockholm and Oslo. It is 12:50 and I am going to sleep. Maybe. The bed is moving and it is a bit noisy. Why was this a good idea? Sorry Penny.
Ray
Day started out OK. I took my shirt down to the ironing board in the hall of the hotel – not in the room. We went down to a very nice breakfast where we learned that pancake is the Swedish word for crepes. They were good. We shared a table with a father and daughter from Nottingham, England which is very near Harlaxton.
We then went to train station to drop off our luggage in a locker. Then we walked along the water front to get a Royal Canal Tour. After the boat ride It was not clear what was royal about it. We did pass by the Palace, but other than that….? It was a very nice tour. Some of the memorable sights were Bjorn Borg’s house, a group of children sailing small sail boats. Most were about 7 I would guess. Penny pointed out that I watched most go by without taking pictures. Sometimes I forget.
We then walked back up the waterfront to near the train station where the City Hall is located. This is an impressive building. It is where the Nobel Prize Banquet is held. We took a guided tour. There were tours in 6 languages. I am constantly amazed and saddened by how much of the world speaks multiple languages except me. Tonight they were having a major award dinner there. Not the Nobel but rather the Swedish Water Award. This honor is given annual to a person who contributes to some aspect of improving some aspect of water conservation or management or the like. This year it is being award to an American from Stanford. We learned many things from our guide:
A. The main hall where the dinner is served will hold 1200 people. When the dinner begins the wait staff serves everyone within 3 minutes. That is a lot of hash slinging.
B. The main hall was built in such a way as to make it feel like it was clearly not a factory or industrial kind of job. It was built around 1900 and the feeling of many was very much anti-technology. The architect created this impression by
a. having the workmen pick at the front of each brick so that it did not look uniformed
b. building the main room in a non-rectangular shape
c. there are pairs of columns on one side and single columns on the other
C. On Saturdays from 2 to 4 anyone who has made a reservation can have a civil wedding performed in the wedding room. You can choose between the long ceremony which takes 3 minutes and the short ceremony which takes 1. It is free. Amy and Candace where did we go wrong?
After the City Hall I had another of my not so brilliant ideas. I suggested we walk to the nearby train station and catch the city bus to our next destination which was a bit too far to walk. Rick Steves (why do I trust this guy) said to take bus 47 from the station. Now that sounds easy but the station is about 2 large city blocks. Where do we go to catch this bus? We went in to ask and we had a very hard time finding anyone who knew. We went to 2 wrong information places before we found the one that could tell us; up the stairs and outside. We did this and as we got outside there was bus 47. I looked at the driver and he could tell I wanted on but he motioned to go around the corner – where the bus stop was. This took over an hour to ride the bus to Vasa Museum which would have take about 20 to 30 minutes to walk. But we conquered the city buses.
The Vasa Muesum was really fascinating. It was one of the largest sailing ships ever built. It sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628 in the Stockholm bay. The raised the ship in 1961 (all dates are approximate). The ship and much of its contents and story are in the museum. We went to a very nice documentary film about the ship and the salvage. While sitting in the film a family with small kids were seated in the row behind us. At one point the 4 year old asked Mom. “why can’t they change it to the kids channel?”
After the Vasa we walked up the road to the Skansen living history museum. This was near 3:00 and we decided to eat lunch. The cafeteria was open and the food was good. We tried to sit outside but the birds and the bees chased us back inside – literally for one bee.
The museum was begun in the early 1800’s to preserve and protect the Swedish (and at that time that would include Finland) history. They moved and restored buildings from all over Sweden and Finland. There are homes of wealthy families and some from very modest means. There are homes as old as the 1600s. Most are from the 1800s. We watched and learned how flax is made into linen. It was labor intensive. There was a very nice old Lutheran Church. We saw people spinning yarn. It was a very pleasant day walking through old towns wooded areas and flower gardens.
This is where the story makes a plot twist. We sat down and Penny decided to pull out our train tickets to check the time or something. But alas there were no tickets in her purse. She thought they were there. She thought back and she had thrown out some material we did not want (tourist stuff) back at the church while she was waiting for me to take pictures (she does a lot of that). So we made our way back across the very large park to the church. The trash was still there in the can but alas no tickets. Where could they be? She remembered taking some more stuff we did not want out of her purse back at the hotel before we left and she put it on the desk and left it there. Were the tickets picked up in that material? We found a nice lady at the information area who helped us by calling the hotel and we asked if anyone found them. No. She then called the railway office and we were put on hold for 15 minutes so they said but we gave up and decided to go to the train station ourselves and see if they could reprint our tickets.
We went out to get back on bus 47 and found the bus right away. When we had taken the bus out our Stockholm Card was still valid and we just showed it and we sat down. I got on the bus and tried to buy a ticket and he nicely said “get off my bus. You have to buy a ticket first.” After a bit of wandering around trying to find where to buy a ticket I stopped at a small kiosk and asked where to go and she said here.
We made it back to the train station and the same nice lady was there. She remembered us but said she could not reprint the tickets, they were like cash. But she went to talk to her supervisor who came back with a computer printout with our ticket information which he had stamped and written a note on which read in Swedish, “please let these morons on the train because they can’t keep track of their stuff and we would very much like them out of the country” (my paraphrase).
New tickets in hand we had about 3 hours to kill so we wandered back down the waterfront where we ran into a bagpipe band near the city hall. We thought they might be going to perform at the Water Awards. But after they tuned there bagpipes (not something I would recommend listening to) they began walking the opposite directions. We followed at a discrete distance and they were going to the Annual Scottish something or other which had a big Velkommen sign over the portico where the guests were dining. I suspected that despite the sign we would not be welcomed because I am sure that the lost ticket information had spread quickly.
We wound up back at the park and festival and found a bargain dinner at a small café. Toasted open faced ham and cheese sandwich with salad and coffee. It was a beautiful evening. We walked back to the train station. We tried to find a free toilet but after some walking (did we tell you we do a lot of that) we gave up and paid the 85 cents to use the toilet. We then gathered our luggage from the locker and found our way to platform 11 (which we had scouted earlier). And waited for our train.
We discussed the fact that I had booked a second class sleeper and that we had bed numbers rather than a cabin number. I assured Penny that I had booked a room on the train for just the two of us. When the train arrived we found car 38 and got on and found the room with beds 13 and 14. It also had bed 15 but that was for when they sold it as a 3 person room. This was what I thought until Amar showed up with a ticket for the upper bed. It was a bit awkward. The room is tiny, we had bags and he had a large backpack. Neither Amar nor we knew what to do but Penny was a great sport and said we would work it out. We were beginning to settle in a bit and that was when the conductor came to check tickets. He saw the 50 somethings and Amar the 20 something. He came to our rescue and a very relieved Amar was assigned a different bed. We have our private room in a second class cabin and we are somewhere between Stockholm and Oslo. It is 12:50 and I am going to sleep. Maybe. The bed is moving and it is a bit noisy. Why was this a good idea? Sorry Penny.
Ray
05 The Cruise Part 2
Well, I kept my promise. I did not wake up at 4:30. It was 12:30 and 2:30. At 12:30 Penny gently nudged me and asked me to roll over; something about noise I was allegedly making. I contend there is no proof of this. At 2:30 we both agree that there was a lot of banging going on. The ship had begun to rock and first the door to the bathroom that I left open began to bang. I closed and lashed that and then after getting back into the warm bed and beginning to drift off to sleep there was another loud thump. It was the ladder in the closet used to climb into the upper berth if they were being used. (How do you like all the nautical terms?)
There was one other noise that I could not figure out for a while. Every once in awhile there was this loud noise like someone was rolling a cannon ball down a bowling lane. It lasted about 3 seconds. I thought how rude those other people were. Then I went to the head and when I flushed I heard the same sound. I thought, AHH I guess that is OK for the other folks to do.
After that I slept fine until Penny and I got up for breakfast. We had researched the cost of breakfast on the ship and had decided to forego the cost of the buffet breakfast and grab some food at one of the small coffee shops. They did not mention in the brochure that all of those were closed in the morning. So we wound up back at the buffet; more sandwich stuff for breakfast. There were also several fish things that I skipped. We sat at the stern of the ship and looked out as we came into Stockholm.
After breakfast we went and packed and then sat up on the deck and watched the islands of the Stockholm archipelago float by. If you are keeping score Stockholm wins the archipelago wars. The score is Stockholm 24,000 and Helsinki 6,500.
The islands were beautiful and the skies were blue. There were coves filled with tethered sail boats, private homes belonging to the moderately to exorbitantly wealthy, and business of various sorts. It was just amazing.
We docked at the peer and made our way off the ship. I am not sure if I mentioned this but in Finland at the airport the man at customs just stamped our passports and waved us through. He did not ask how long we were staying or anything else. In Sweden no one checked our passports at all (no stamp – rats). There was just a junction in the walkway with one direction for “nothing to declare” and the other for those with declarable items. The problem is that I never was informed about what might be declarable. So we followed EVERYONE else through the green line. I guess illegal immigration in Scandinavia is not an issue.
Stockholm
We took the bus to the Central Bus/train station and with our trusty map made our way to the Rica Kungsgatan (Kings Garden) Hotel. The hotel has only an entrance to the elevators on the ground floor. You have to go up to the 4th floor reception and the rooms are on floors 4 to 7. A very nice lady told us our room was not ready but that we could store our luggage. We gathered the items we thought we might need (like umbrellas) and put our bags in the store room and headed across the street to McDonalds for a coke and to finalize our plans. Behind the counter were three blond, blue-eyed 16ish girls. Now they were either identical triplets or the gene pool is very shallow here in Stockholm. I could not tell them apart.
Our plan was to go to Sweden House, the main tourist information office, at the Kungsgatan Park. Now do you remember what that means? Well this park indeed was at one time the King’s vegetable garden. Now it is a mall of activity. We have arrived in Stockholm on the first day of the Stockholm Cultural Festival. The park was filled with activities as were many of the other places we wondered during the day. Among the things we saw were
A) Music videos on large screens
B) Two or three large music stages. One had the largest drums I had ever seen. We were not there for the performance but were for the sound check. The volume was working just fine.
C) There were some silver clad youth doing a modern, abstract (at least to me) dance performance as we waited to get on the tour bus.
D) There were people pretending to be cat burglars and climbed up and out of a third storey window in Stortorget, the main square on Gamla Stan Island where the Royal Palace is located. The act was really funny. They were trying to avoid breaking the windows on the bottom floors as they repelled down the side of the building. One poor fellow had trouble with a “plumber’s crack” and ultimately wound up inverted and minus his pants. It was funny.
E) There were people juggling, and others taking people’s money in a game of “which box is the ball under.”
We then took a bus tour. We were there early so we got on first and got a front row top level seat. This was very good for picture taking and also very funny to watch the pedestrians and the look of fear in their eyes as the bus made its way through the narrow streets and the hair pin turns. I would have wagered good money that the bus was not going to make it through some of the places or around some of the corners. The driver sometimes had to make the corners by going up on the sidewalk. Now when he did this of course he was going very slowly and as the engine in the bus is in the back the people in the street often did not hear the bus if they, oh let’s say, were reading a map and walking. The driver was very kind and refrained from blowing his horn. So one of the people would look up or turn around and be nose to nose with the front of a bus sharing the sidewalk with them and wanting to take more. I did not know that people could show that much of the white’s of their eyes. We have really enjoyed the city bus tours in Helsinki and Stockholm. It is a great way to drive by the sights and get a lay of the land perspective.
After the bus tour we opted to forego the ice cream lunch and to not try to walk across Stockholm to find the perfect Swedish food. We ate at TGIF Fridays. We sat outside as the whole back of the restaurant opened up to the Park. I went to bathroom and back out the non-existent back wall onto the patio. This was, I am confident, the reason that my brain decided to ignore the fact that the front door was not open but it was very clean glass. I walked smack into it. No harm, my knee hit the glass first.
We then walked to Gamla Stan and used our Stockholm card to tour the Royal Apartments. (We had a lot of discussion about the most prudent use of our 24 hours of free access. Penny wisely suggested that we not worry about it. She is a wise woman.
This palace is used by the royal family only for state occasions and for office space. They have another palace someplace outside of Stockholm. The palace was, well, palatial. They told us that it was one of the largest palaces in Europe. The royal family lives well.
Sweden for centuries has been a highly egalitarian society, at least as far as the Royal family goes. The oldest child of the King (male or female) becomes head of state. So the current successor is Crown Princess Victoria. She is about 30 and there are pictures of her all over the Palace. One room is like a family photo album.
We went to the Cathedral where the current King and Queen were married. It is a classic looking catholic church although it was Lutheran. I say this because it no longer serves as a church. It is just a museum for state occasions.
While we were there we downstairs to see the crown jewels. The jewels were not as heavily guarded as the British crown jewels. This made me wonder if they may have been replicas.
After leaving the palace area, the navigator (yours truly) got turned around and we went to the wrong side of the island. Man did we look like tourists. We had maps in hand and were stopping and staring at every street corner where the names of the streets are on the sides of the buildings. When you can’t easily recall a name because it is in an unfamiliar language, you spend a lot of time looking back and forth between the map and the street signs. We wondered through narrow streets and stone houses crammed together with their shoulders touching. We stumbled upon the main square in the old city and this is where we saw the cat burglars.
We did make it back to the hotel. Checked in and caught our breath and then walked to the bus station which shares a building with the train station. We had not seen the train information and we wondered around and found the ticket office. It is very high tech and there is a “take a number system.” This would not have been a problem except we could not figure out how to get a number. We had wanted to confirm our reservation and to make sure we knew where we were going for the next day. We gave up on the take-a-number thing and went to the general information lady (who was very nice). She not only was able to print out our tickets for the sleeping compartment but also was able to validate our Eurail pass. (I forgot to tell you that the cruise people did not ask for our Eurail pass and thus we have an extra day to use our pass.) We did all of this the day before so as to make sure all was in order and to get the lay of the land at the train station. This plan-ahead idea will come back to haunt us in our next installment of this episode: stay tuned.
We found the lockers for our luggage storage the next day and walked out the front of the station and found our way back to the hotel leaving a trail of bread crumbs. We ate Fillet Mignon at a small restaurant near the train station. Someone look up “Fillet Mignon” for me. In Stockholm, this evidently means small pork medallions. We both enjoyed the meal.
Amy called on Skype and we talked for a while. It was good to see and chat with her. Now it is really late and I am off to bed.
Ray
There was one other noise that I could not figure out for a while. Every once in awhile there was this loud noise like someone was rolling a cannon ball down a bowling lane. It lasted about 3 seconds. I thought how rude those other people were. Then I went to the head and when I flushed I heard the same sound. I thought, AHH I guess that is OK for the other folks to do.
After that I slept fine until Penny and I got up for breakfast. We had researched the cost of breakfast on the ship and had decided to forego the cost of the buffet breakfast and grab some food at one of the small coffee shops. They did not mention in the brochure that all of those were closed in the morning. So we wound up back at the buffet; more sandwich stuff for breakfast. There were also several fish things that I skipped. We sat at the stern of the ship and looked out as we came into Stockholm.
After breakfast we went and packed and then sat up on the deck and watched the islands of the Stockholm archipelago float by. If you are keeping score Stockholm wins the archipelago wars. The score is Stockholm 24,000 and Helsinki 6,500.
The islands were beautiful and the skies were blue. There were coves filled with tethered sail boats, private homes belonging to the moderately to exorbitantly wealthy, and business of various sorts. It was just amazing.
We docked at the peer and made our way off the ship. I am not sure if I mentioned this but in Finland at the airport the man at customs just stamped our passports and waved us through. He did not ask how long we were staying or anything else. In Sweden no one checked our passports at all (no stamp – rats). There was just a junction in the walkway with one direction for “nothing to declare” and the other for those with declarable items. The problem is that I never was informed about what might be declarable. So we followed EVERYONE else through the green line. I guess illegal immigration in Scandinavia is not an issue.
Stockholm
We took the bus to the Central Bus/train station and with our trusty map made our way to the Rica Kungsgatan (Kings Garden) Hotel. The hotel has only an entrance to the elevators on the ground floor. You have to go up to the 4th floor reception and the rooms are on floors 4 to 7. A very nice lady told us our room was not ready but that we could store our luggage. We gathered the items we thought we might need (like umbrellas) and put our bags in the store room and headed across the street to McDonalds for a coke and to finalize our plans. Behind the counter were three blond, blue-eyed 16ish girls. Now they were either identical triplets or the gene pool is very shallow here in Stockholm. I could not tell them apart.
Our plan was to go to Sweden House, the main tourist information office, at the Kungsgatan Park. Now do you remember what that means? Well this park indeed was at one time the King’s vegetable garden. Now it is a mall of activity. We have arrived in Stockholm on the first day of the Stockholm Cultural Festival. The park was filled with activities as were many of the other places we wondered during the day. Among the things we saw were
A) Music videos on large screens
B) Two or three large music stages. One had the largest drums I had ever seen. We were not there for the performance but were for the sound check. The volume was working just fine.
C) There were some silver clad youth doing a modern, abstract (at least to me) dance performance as we waited to get on the tour bus.
D) There were people pretending to be cat burglars and climbed up and out of a third storey window in Stortorget, the main square on Gamla Stan Island where the Royal Palace is located. The act was really funny. They were trying to avoid breaking the windows on the bottom floors as they repelled down the side of the building. One poor fellow had trouble with a “plumber’s crack” and ultimately wound up inverted and minus his pants. It was funny.
E) There were people juggling, and others taking people’s money in a game of “which box is the ball under.”
We then took a bus tour. We were there early so we got on first and got a front row top level seat. This was very good for picture taking and also very funny to watch the pedestrians and the look of fear in their eyes as the bus made its way through the narrow streets and the hair pin turns. I would have wagered good money that the bus was not going to make it through some of the places or around some of the corners. The driver sometimes had to make the corners by going up on the sidewalk. Now when he did this of course he was going very slowly and as the engine in the bus is in the back the people in the street often did not hear the bus if they, oh let’s say, were reading a map and walking. The driver was very kind and refrained from blowing his horn. So one of the people would look up or turn around and be nose to nose with the front of a bus sharing the sidewalk with them and wanting to take more. I did not know that people could show that much of the white’s of their eyes. We have really enjoyed the city bus tours in Helsinki and Stockholm. It is a great way to drive by the sights and get a lay of the land perspective.
After the bus tour we opted to forego the ice cream lunch and to not try to walk across Stockholm to find the perfect Swedish food. We ate at TGIF Fridays. We sat outside as the whole back of the restaurant opened up to the Park. I went to bathroom and back out the non-existent back wall onto the patio. This was, I am confident, the reason that my brain decided to ignore the fact that the front door was not open but it was very clean glass. I walked smack into it. No harm, my knee hit the glass first.
We then walked to Gamla Stan and used our Stockholm card to tour the Royal Apartments. (We had a lot of discussion about the most prudent use of our 24 hours of free access. Penny wisely suggested that we not worry about it. She is a wise woman.
This palace is used by the royal family only for state occasions and for office space. They have another palace someplace outside of Stockholm. The palace was, well, palatial. They told us that it was one of the largest palaces in Europe. The royal family lives well.
Sweden for centuries has been a highly egalitarian society, at least as far as the Royal family goes. The oldest child of the King (male or female) becomes head of state. So the current successor is Crown Princess Victoria. She is about 30 and there are pictures of her all over the Palace. One room is like a family photo album.
We went to the Cathedral where the current King and Queen were married. It is a classic looking catholic church although it was Lutheran. I say this because it no longer serves as a church. It is just a museum for state occasions.
While we were there we downstairs to see the crown jewels. The jewels were not as heavily guarded as the British crown jewels. This made me wonder if they may have been replicas.
After leaving the palace area, the navigator (yours truly) got turned around and we went to the wrong side of the island. Man did we look like tourists. We had maps in hand and were stopping and staring at every street corner where the names of the streets are on the sides of the buildings. When you can’t easily recall a name because it is in an unfamiliar language, you spend a lot of time looking back and forth between the map and the street signs. We wondered through narrow streets and stone houses crammed together with their shoulders touching. We stumbled upon the main square in the old city and this is where we saw the cat burglars.
We did make it back to the hotel. Checked in and caught our breath and then walked to the bus station which shares a building with the train station. We had not seen the train information and we wondered around and found the ticket office. It is very high tech and there is a “take a number system.” This would not have been a problem except we could not figure out how to get a number. We had wanted to confirm our reservation and to make sure we knew where we were going for the next day. We gave up on the take-a-number thing and went to the general information lady (who was very nice). She not only was able to print out our tickets for the sleeping compartment but also was able to validate our Eurail pass. (I forgot to tell you that the cruise people did not ask for our Eurail pass and thus we have an extra day to use our pass.) We did all of this the day before so as to make sure all was in order and to get the lay of the land at the train station. This plan-ahead idea will come back to haunt us in our next installment of this episode: stay tuned.
We found the lockers for our luggage storage the next day and walked out the front of the station and found our way back to the hotel leaving a trail of bread crumbs. We ate Fillet Mignon at a small restaurant near the train station. Someone look up “Fillet Mignon” for me. In Stockholm, this evidently means small pork medallions. We both enjoyed the meal.
Amy called on Skype and we talked for a while. It was good to see and chat with her. Now it is really late and I am off to bed.
Ray
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
04 The cruise
14 August 2007
You have heard the old Finnish saying, “if you don’t like the weather then wait 5 minutes.” After the morning deluge the skies cleared and the temperature returned to a delightful 26 degrees (everyone get out their Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion tables). The problem of course is that after the morning rain the humidity was about a gazillion percent. Many of the buildings apparently are not air conditioned, which makes sense since it is only hot about 20 minutes a year and all of them have been this week according to a man we chatted with in line at the cruise ship. His wife said she had been on a 3 week holiday and all of it had been above 26 degrees.
The trek from the hotel took about 30 minutes not including the 15 minute break to eat our ice cream lunch at our favorite Helsinki ice cream shop and to watch people in the Esplanade Park.
Lessons learned from people watching in Helsinki.
1. No tourist from any country (including yours truly) can walk and read a map at the same time (at least not safely).
2. If you have a long skirt you should check to see that the back is not tucked into something. (If you have not see the old Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn movie “Bringing up Baby” go immediately to Blockbuster and rent it for tonight.)
3. It is apparently Finnish law that if two or mothers are pushing their babies in prams at the same time they must walk side by side and force people into the street coming the other direction.
4. Reindeer Hats (the kind with the antlers) are never in fashion.
We got on the cruise ship and found our small, functional, clean room.
The room has between 1 and 4 beds depending on how many people are staying. The non used beds fold into the wall. Only one of the 4 was down and there was only 1 towel in the bath. Now having vast previous experience with cruise ships (1 trip) we thought that we would inform someone and they would come and put things right for us. We went to the information person and told him of our plight. He was very helpful. He told us to pull the bed down when we wanted to use it and that the towel was located on the bed.
We had purchase the smorgasbord dinner when we bought our tickets for the cruise a couple of months ago. We received our voucher when we checked in and thought we were ready for the 5:30 seating. On our search to find the information guy we happened to go by the buffet place and there was a que getting tickets or reservation or something. We decided to check and see if we needed to do anything further. We were on the reservation list but we did not have a table assignment until we checked in. We got a nice table by the window and could watch as we pulled out of Helsinki. The trip through the archipelago was very beautiful. Many of the Islands are just rocks sticking up. A few have houses and some have lighthouses. One that was perhaps the size of a city bock had a lighthouse, a house and a radio tower. The house looked like it had been built by blasting out a hole in the rock. I could not help but wonder what kept the sea out of the living room. Nowhere was the sea wall more than a few feet above the sea level. I wondered about tides and storms. I also thought about the task of supplying the residents of this rock. Obviously there was no well for water or electrical or natural gas lines. Everything had to be “shipped” in. This is not the island but you get the idea.
Dinner was very good. The smorgasbord was expansive. I passed on the head-and-all boiled shrimp, some kind of fish roe and the all-you-can-drink beer, but I had plenty to eat. Smoked salmon, baked cauliflower, a gratin potatoes, chicken skewers, roast beef, turkey and several other items (small portions of course). Dessert was sorbet, cake and some “the kid in front of me got three big servings so I thought it might be good” vanilla flan kind of thing.
After dinner we sat on deck for awhile and then inside in some cubbyholes with windows and planned our Stockholm adventure. We picked up brochures at the information desk and consulted Rick Steves’ book, but I am questioning everything he says now. We decided to get the Stockholm card which gives us transportation on buses, subways and some tours. Also free admissions to the main sights we want to see. A nice man from Korea sat down while I was waiting for Penny to return from getting more information from the information desk. Our conversation was limited to the very few words of English that he knew and to my zip Korean. (Jill where were you?). Despite the lack of much common vocabulary we discovered some things about each other. He is with a group of 50 Koreans and they had been to Moscow, Helsinki, and were going to Stockholm and then back to Korea.
It is about 9:30 and Penny is sleeping as I write this (I think). It has been another long day. Somebody remind me about what vacation means. Penny reminded me that each of the 3 nights so far that our sleeping facilities have gotten smaller. This cabin is rather tiny. We know that on Thursday night we will be living inside a match box (anyone seen “Tenth Kingdom”) as we take a sleeper train from Stockholm to Oslo. She is hoping our hotel in Stockholm is at least somewhere between ship cabin and train compartment sizes. I suspect it will be bigger than the ship cabin but like the ship we will not have a window in Stockholm (we decided to save money on the cruise and hotel by opting out of a window.)
Off to bed. I solemnly swear I will do my best not to wake up at 4:00 AM. I hope.
Ray
You have heard the old Finnish saying, “if you don’t like the weather then wait 5 minutes.” After the morning deluge the skies cleared and the temperature returned to a delightful 26 degrees (everyone get out their Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion tables). The problem of course is that after the morning rain the humidity was about a gazillion percent. Many of the buildings apparently are not air conditioned, which makes sense since it is only hot about 20 minutes a year and all of them have been this week according to a man we chatted with in line at the cruise ship. His wife said she had been on a 3 week holiday and all of it had been above 26 degrees.
The trek from the hotel took about 30 minutes not including the 15 minute break to eat our ice cream lunch at our favorite Helsinki ice cream shop and to watch people in the Esplanade Park.
Lessons learned from people watching in Helsinki.
1. No tourist from any country (including yours truly) can walk and read a map at the same time (at least not safely).
2. If you have a long skirt you should check to see that the back is not tucked into something. (If you have not see the old Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn movie “Bringing up Baby” go immediately to Blockbuster and rent it for tonight.)
3. It is apparently Finnish law that if two or mothers are pushing their babies in prams at the same time they must walk side by side and force people into the street coming the other direction.
4. Reindeer Hats (the kind with the antlers) are never in fashion.
We got on the cruise ship and found our small, functional, clean room.
The room has between 1 and 4 beds depending on how many people are staying. The non used beds fold into the wall. Only one of the 4 was down and there was only 1 towel in the bath. Now having vast previous experience with cruise ships (1 trip) we thought that we would inform someone and they would come and put things right for us. We went to the information person and told him of our plight. He was very helpful. He told us to pull the bed down when we wanted to use it and that the towel was located on the bed.
We had purchase the smorgasbord dinner when we bought our tickets for the cruise a couple of months ago. We received our voucher when we checked in and thought we were ready for the 5:30 seating. On our search to find the information guy we happened to go by the buffet place and there was a que getting tickets or reservation or something. We decided to check and see if we needed to do anything further. We were on the reservation list but we did not have a table assignment until we checked in. We got a nice table by the window and could watch as we pulled out of Helsinki. The trip through the archipelago was very beautiful. Many of the Islands are just rocks sticking up. A few have houses and some have lighthouses. One that was perhaps the size of a city bock had a lighthouse, a house and a radio tower. The house looked like it had been built by blasting out a hole in the rock. I could not help but wonder what kept the sea out of the living room. Nowhere was the sea wall more than a few feet above the sea level. I wondered about tides and storms. I also thought about the task of supplying the residents of this rock. Obviously there was no well for water or electrical or natural gas lines. Everything had to be “shipped” in. This is not the island but you get the idea.
Dinner was very good. The smorgasbord was expansive. I passed on the head-and-all boiled shrimp, some kind of fish roe and the all-you-can-drink beer, but I had plenty to eat. Smoked salmon, baked cauliflower, a gratin potatoes, chicken skewers, roast beef, turkey and several other items (small portions of course). Dessert was sorbet, cake and some “the kid in front of me got three big servings so I thought it might be good” vanilla flan kind of thing.
After dinner we sat on deck for awhile and then inside in some cubbyholes with windows and planned our Stockholm adventure. We picked up brochures at the information desk and consulted Rick Steves’ book, but I am questioning everything he says now. We decided to get the Stockholm card which gives us transportation on buses, subways and some tours. Also free admissions to the main sights we want to see. A nice man from Korea sat down while I was waiting for Penny to return from getting more information from the information desk. Our conversation was limited to the very few words of English that he knew and to my zip Korean. (Jill where were you?). Despite the lack of much common vocabulary we discovered some things about each other. He is with a group of 50 Koreans and they had been to Moscow, Helsinki, and were going to Stockholm and then back to Korea.
It is about 9:30 and Penny is sleeping as I write this (I think). It has been another long day. Somebody remind me about what vacation means. Penny reminded me that each of the 3 nights so far that our sleeping facilities have gotten smaller. This cabin is rather tiny. We know that on Thursday night we will be living inside a match box (anyone seen “Tenth Kingdom”) as we take a sleeper train from Stockholm to Oslo. She is hoping our hotel in Stockholm is at least somewhere between ship cabin and train compartment sizes. I suspect it will be bigger than the ship cabin but like the ship we will not have a window in Stockholm (we decided to save money on the cruise and hotel by opting out of a window.)
Off to bed. I solemnly swear I will do my best not to wake up at 4:00 AM. I hope.
Ray
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
03 Helsinki
13 August 2007
Wasn’t it Ben Franklin who said “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Ben was a moron! It just makes you tired. We were up at 4:00 and took a van service to the airport at 5:20 because we watched the 5:15 shuttle bus pull out as we were waiting to check out. But that was OK. The van was very convenient.
Heathrow check-in was unexpectedly smooth perhaps because of the unspeakable hour of the morning. We made it through security and without much of either a line or a hassle. But my anxiety ramped up a bit (maybe my sister Peggy and I have some of the same travel genes) when I went to locate the gate on the big “where’s your gate board” and our flight was listed but under gate it flashed “to be posted at 6:50.” You wouldn’t think this was a cause for alarm but our boarding pass said we had to check in at the gate no later than 7:05 for our 7:30 flight. Not a problem so far right? Then I saw the big notices giving the estimated walking time to the various gates from where we were standing. Some of them were 15 minutes. The old my glass is half empty mindset kicked in and I began to think: what if the walk traffic gets backed up on the moving walkway? What if the wheel on my well packed suitcase comes off? What if I blow out a tennis shoe or get mugged or there is an earthquake, etc.
Fret not we made it with time to spare. The Finnaire flight went very well. The passenger in the row behind me talked on the cell phone in some language I did not recognize (which would be all of them but English, French and Spanish) but then he talked to his seatmate in a rather thick English accent and was not thrilled at all with British Airways. Evidently he had flown BA 14 consecutive times (he repeated this several times for emphasis) and they lost his luggage each time. Nice man but I think a dozen or so would have been my “let’s try a different airline” point. Breakfast was a tomato and basil omelet with a side of ham, broccoli and a potato mush stick kind of thing (tasted a bit like the potato pancakes my mother used to make from the left over “I made far too many” mashed potatoes. Penny and I enjoy, but would rarely order, unusual breakfast foods. It was very tasty.
We landed in Helsinki about 12:30 local time and gathered our luggage and stopped at the tourist kiosk and confirmed information for catching the Finnaire bus from the airport to the central railway station (I know it was a bus). The ride was comfortable but the windows had some kind of dark horizontal stripes that prevented me from seeing out very well. We had a short 10 minute walk (not including the obligatory pauses on the corners to consult the map and look ever-so-much like all of the other tourists) to the Sokos Hotel Presidentti where we were greeted by a very nice lady and we checked into this lovely room.
We got our bearing, sighed, tore out the Helsinki portion of the guidebook, got the camera and then headed out for the walk to market square to catch the bus tour of the city. Headphones provided a running commentary with sound effects in about 8 languages. I chose English. To prove I was paying attention, some Helsinki facts.
1. There are more saunas (pronounced sow-nuhs) than there are people in Finland. Most Finns take at least one sauna a week.
2. Finland has the highest per-capita library cardholders in the world.
3. Helsinki makes some 85% of all the world’s icebreaker ships.
4. Virtually every person in Finland has a cell phone (most are Nokia – pronounced KNOCK-key-uh)
Our bus took us past most of the major sights including the oldest Evangelical Lutheran church
Wasn’t it Ben Franklin who said “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Ben was a moron! It just makes you tired. We were up at 4:00 and took a van service to the airport at 5:20 because we watched the 5:15 shuttle bus pull out as we were waiting to check out. But that was OK. The van was very convenient.
Heathrow check-in was unexpectedly smooth perhaps because of the unspeakable hour of the morning. We made it through security and without much of either a line or a hassle. But my anxiety ramped up a bit (maybe my sister Peggy and I have some of the same travel genes) when I went to locate the gate on the big “where’s your gate board” and our flight was listed but under gate it flashed “to be posted at 6:50.” You wouldn’t think this was a cause for alarm but our boarding pass said we had to check in at the gate no later than 7:05 for our 7:30 flight. Not a problem so far right? Then I saw the big notices giving the estimated walking time to the various gates from where we were standing. Some of them were 15 minutes. The old my glass is half empty mindset kicked in and I began to think: what if the walk traffic gets backed up on the moving walkway? What if the wheel on my well packed suitcase comes off? What if I blow out a tennis shoe or get mugged or there is an earthquake, etc.
Fret not we made it with time to spare. The Finnaire flight went very well. The passenger in the row behind me talked on the cell phone in some language I did not recognize (which would be all of them but English, French and Spanish) but then he talked to his seatmate in a rather thick English accent and was not thrilled at all with British Airways. Evidently he had flown BA 14 consecutive times (he repeated this several times for emphasis) and they lost his luggage each time. Nice man but I think a dozen or so would have been my “let’s try a different airline” point. Breakfast was a tomato and basil omelet with a side of ham, broccoli and a potato mush stick kind of thing (tasted a bit like the potato pancakes my mother used to make from the left over “I made far too many” mashed potatoes. Penny and I enjoy, but would rarely order, unusual breakfast foods. It was very tasty.
We landed in Helsinki about 12:30 local time and gathered our luggage and stopped at the tourist kiosk and confirmed information for catching the Finnaire bus from the airport to the central railway station (I know it was a bus). The ride was comfortable but the windows had some kind of dark horizontal stripes that prevented me from seeing out very well. We had a short 10 minute walk (not including the obligatory pauses on the corners to consult the map and look ever-so-much like all of the other tourists) to the Sokos Hotel Presidentti where we were greeted by a very nice lady and we checked into this lovely room.
We got our bearing, sighed, tore out the Helsinki portion of the guidebook, got the camera and then headed out for the walk to market square to catch the bus tour of the city. Headphones provided a running commentary with sound effects in about 8 languages. I chose English. To prove I was paying attention, some Helsinki facts.
1. There are more saunas (pronounced sow-nuhs) than there are people in Finland. Most Finns take at least one sauna a week.
2. Finland has the highest per-capita library cardholders in the world.
3. Helsinki makes some 85% of all the world’s icebreaker ships.
4. Virtually every person in Finland has a cell phone (most are Nokia – pronounced KNOCK-key-uh)
Our bus took us past most of the major sights including the oldest Evangelical Lutheran church
which stands in opposition to the Russian Orthodox Church nearby.
The Lutheran’s won as nearly 85% of the population are Lutheran and a “good 1%” are Orthodox.
We stopped at the Lutheran “Church in the Rock” which in 1969 was built by blasting out the rock and building the church rather than excavating the rock. It has rock walls. The ceiling is made of a 13 mile long coil of copper rope with glass surrounding it. It is quiet stunning.
We stopped at the Lutheran “Church in the Rock” which in 1969 was built by blasting out the rock and building the church rather than excavating the rock. It has rock walls. The ceiling is made of a 13 mile long coil of copper rope with glass surrounding it. It is quiet stunning.
We also stopped at the monument to Finland’s most famous composer Jean Sibelius. I am embarrassed to say that I was not aware of this. The abstract sculpture looks to many to be pipes from an organ but is supposed to represent the many trees which are so much of the Finnish landscape. I believe the commentary said that 65% of the land is forested.
After the tour we walked around the market square where there was a very tempting display of fruits and lots of some kind of mushroom.
After the tour we walked around the market square where there was a very tempting display of fruits and lots of some kind of mushroom.
We then decided to take a ferry to the Helsinki zoo which holds the world record for the most apparently empty cages. But the ferry was delightful and the walk around the island where the zoo is was delightful. I almost got in trouble with my wife when two young ladies started making eyes at me on the ferry. How young, you ask? I am not for sure but they may have been two. One of them waved hello or bye-bye, I am not sure which but evidently the gesture is inverted here. The hand was held palm up which might have been “give me give me” in the US.
We narrowly avoid a transportation disaster as we boarded the wrong ferry going to –who knows where. As we saw the crowd boarding at the other pier we realized our mistake and arrived in time but at the end of the line so we had to take a seat inside the glassed in (thus a bit warm) seating area rather than the breezy top deck.
After the zoo is where things began to deteriorate – Penny asked where I wanted to eat dinner (lunch had been an ice cream cone). I chose a restaurant from Rick Steve’s guidebook. It was a long walk but I thought since I was planning on overeating at the Finnish buffet that it would be OK. We were passed by several trams (which were free with our Helsinki card that we had purchased) but on we trudged. Just so you will know Rick Steves’ has been moved down a notch in my list of guidebook folks. Either Rick Steves’ directions need improving or the restaurant we were trying to locate is closed. The map said we should be starring at it but alas there was no restaurant to be found.
This is where I made a tactical error. I was still determined to eat something that could not easily be found in US. We walked past many “ravintolas” that were Chinese, Thai, kebabs, an American something or other, Italian. We walked 500 miles in a serpentine route heading back toward the hotel and found nothing but the same ethnic foods you can find on the plaza in Kansas City.
We made it back to the hotel about 8:30 (still bright daylight) and changed sweaty clothes and found in the guidebook a traditional Finnish restaurant about 3 blocks from the hotel – but when we got there the prices were for traditionally wealthy Finnish folks. We opted to keep looking and walked a bit further. We found one place with Finnish food but they were closing at 9:00. It was 8:59. We stopped at one burger place but the outside smoking section was crowded with smokers and the inside area was about 105 degrees. More walking and we decided on a place near the hotel that had outside seating that was busy but the inside was cool and not busy. We sat down and although the service was slow (relaxed?) the food was good. I had grilled chicken with garlic potatoes and grilled veggies some of which I could not identify. Perhaps they were grilled peppers of some kind – very taste. Penny had a vegetarian pasta. We each had a diet coke (very small with ice that cost about $4.75. Speaking about beverages, we have stopped at several places for bottled water and the only brand we can find is one called Novelle and it is a mineral water that has a bit of a bite to it. I am OK with it but Penny does not care for it at all.
As we ate dinner we could see out the front window to the large plaza area. Two sisters (perhaps 4 and 6) were playing a game as they waited for their parents. The game brought back childhood memories. Did any of you play red-light green-light? The name was perhaps different but the rules were the same. One girl hid her eyes while the other stood 40 feet or so way. The second girl could advance but had to stop and stand still if the first girl was looking. If the first girl saw her moving she had to go back and start over again.
14 August 2007
I woke up about 4:30. Now this is something unusual for me. I am not sure if the time change, the racing thoughts, or the slightly warmer than comfortable room is at work. But after tossing and waking up Penny a couple of time she suggested I shower. I did. The tub/shower here in the hotel requires a small step ladder to get into. It is up in the air with a very high side. However, it is very clean with plenty of hot water.
We made our way to the 3rd floor where the included breakfast is served. There we found a smorgasbord of food, cultures and languages. Nothing two different from what you might find to eat in KC, perhaps not on a breakfast buffet however. There was a large selection of cold cuts and tomatoes, lettuce and pickles and people were eating sandwiches. I did try the rye porridge which was next to the scrambled eggs. It had the look and consistency of malt-o-meal but a distinctly different taste (like rye shockingly enough.) The berry salad in my yogurt was good but there were berries that I believe are the ones that were described in Rick’s book as “explosive little red berries”. I have been looking forward to trying the European sausages that I remember. Next to the bacon were sausages but I was disappointed to find that these came direct from Vienna.
About 8:30 a.m. we headed to the market square area to catch the water bus to Suomenlinna harbor fortress which has been called the Gibraltar of the North. We watched a wide screen video describing the history of the fort. We also walked around the islands. It was very quiet and peaceful.
Make a note to yourself: When in Finland if the weather report says partly cloudy, take an umbrella and buy a life vest. While we were watching the movie it began to rain. As we waited for the waterbus I was reminded of the Garth Book lyric that says “and the thunder rolled.” I did not see much lightening but man did the sound of the thunder echo. When the boat arrived, a couple of people got off and those of us waiting to get on the boat rushed from the cover to the pier. Just as we got there, a whole group of Oriental tourists started slowly getting off. Each would come to the door look out and stop and then open the umbrella (which at least most were carrying) paused again and then slowly rambled off. It was a long process as the rest of us stood in the rain. We were a bit damp.
Back on the mainland we decided to just go to the hotel. The rain was steady but not hard. The streets were full of folks. The mothers were pushing babies in the strollers which all had rain covers that encased the babies.
We got to the corner where Stockman’s “if Stockman’s doesn’t have it you don’t need it” department store is located and we decided to cut through the store to stay out of the rain for a block. It is a huge store. We made it back to the hotel and have dried out mostly and it is no longer raining. We will check out shortly and walk to the pier.
Helsinki has been wonderful and almost feels like home even though we have only been here 25 hours or so. We have seen much of the center of the city and walked most of that.
Ray
We narrowly avoid a transportation disaster as we boarded the wrong ferry going to –who knows where. As we saw the crowd boarding at the other pier we realized our mistake and arrived in time but at the end of the line so we had to take a seat inside the glassed in (thus a bit warm) seating area rather than the breezy top deck.
After the zoo is where things began to deteriorate – Penny asked where I wanted to eat dinner (lunch had been an ice cream cone). I chose a restaurant from Rick Steve’s guidebook. It was a long walk but I thought since I was planning on overeating at the Finnish buffet that it would be OK. We were passed by several trams (which were free with our Helsinki card that we had purchased) but on we trudged. Just so you will know Rick Steves’ has been moved down a notch in my list of guidebook folks. Either Rick Steves’ directions need improving or the restaurant we were trying to locate is closed. The map said we should be starring at it but alas there was no restaurant to be found.
This is where I made a tactical error. I was still determined to eat something that could not easily be found in US. We walked past many “ravintolas” that were Chinese, Thai, kebabs, an American something or other, Italian. We walked 500 miles in a serpentine route heading back toward the hotel and found nothing but the same ethnic foods you can find on the plaza in Kansas City.
We made it back to the hotel about 8:30 (still bright daylight) and changed sweaty clothes and found in the guidebook a traditional Finnish restaurant about 3 blocks from the hotel – but when we got there the prices were for traditionally wealthy Finnish folks. We opted to keep looking and walked a bit further. We found one place with Finnish food but they were closing at 9:00. It was 8:59. We stopped at one burger place but the outside smoking section was crowded with smokers and the inside area was about 105 degrees. More walking and we decided on a place near the hotel that had outside seating that was busy but the inside was cool and not busy. We sat down and although the service was slow (relaxed?) the food was good. I had grilled chicken with garlic potatoes and grilled veggies some of which I could not identify. Perhaps they were grilled peppers of some kind – very taste. Penny had a vegetarian pasta. We each had a diet coke (very small with ice that cost about $4.75. Speaking about beverages, we have stopped at several places for bottled water and the only brand we can find is one called Novelle and it is a mineral water that has a bit of a bite to it. I am OK with it but Penny does not care for it at all.
As we ate dinner we could see out the front window to the large plaza area. Two sisters (perhaps 4 and 6) were playing a game as they waited for their parents. The game brought back childhood memories. Did any of you play red-light green-light? The name was perhaps different but the rules were the same. One girl hid her eyes while the other stood 40 feet or so way. The second girl could advance but had to stop and stand still if the first girl was looking. If the first girl saw her moving she had to go back and start over again.
14 August 2007
I woke up about 4:30. Now this is something unusual for me. I am not sure if the time change, the racing thoughts, or the slightly warmer than comfortable room is at work. But after tossing and waking up Penny a couple of time she suggested I shower. I did. The tub/shower here in the hotel requires a small step ladder to get into. It is up in the air with a very high side. However, it is very clean with plenty of hot water.
We made our way to the 3rd floor where the included breakfast is served. There we found a smorgasbord of food, cultures and languages. Nothing two different from what you might find to eat in KC, perhaps not on a breakfast buffet however. There was a large selection of cold cuts and tomatoes, lettuce and pickles and people were eating sandwiches. I did try the rye porridge which was next to the scrambled eggs. It had the look and consistency of malt-o-meal but a distinctly different taste (like rye shockingly enough.) The berry salad in my yogurt was good but there were berries that I believe are the ones that were described in Rick’s book as “explosive little red berries”. I have been looking forward to trying the European sausages that I remember. Next to the bacon were sausages but I was disappointed to find that these came direct from Vienna.
About 8:30 a.m. we headed to the market square area to catch the water bus to Suomenlinna harbor fortress which has been called the Gibraltar of the North. We watched a wide screen video describing the history of the fort. We also walked around the islands. It was very quiet and peaceful.
Make a note to yourself: When in Finland if the weather report says partly cloudy, take an umbrella and buy a life vest. While we were watching the movie it began to rain. As we waited for the waterbus I was reminded of the Garth Book lyric that says “and the thunder rolled.” I did not see much lightening but man did the sound of the thunder echo. When the boat arrived, a couple of people got off and those of us waiting to get on the boat rushed from the cover to the pier. Just as we got there, a whole group of Oriental tourists started slowly getting off. Each would come to the door look out and stop and then open the umbrella (which at least most were carrying) paused again and then slowly rambled off. It was a long process as the rest of us stood in the rain. We were a bit damp.
Back on the mainland we decided to just go to the hotel. The rain was steady but not hard. The streets were full of folks. The mothers were pushing babies in the strollers which all had rain covers that encased the babies.
We got to the corner where Stockman’s “if Stockman’s doesn’t have it you don’t need it” department store is located and we decided to cut through the store to stay out of the rain for a block. It is a huge store. We made it back to the hotel and have dried out mostly and it is no longer raining. We will check out shortly and walk to the pier.
Helsinki has been wonderful and almost feels like home even though we have only been here 25 hours or so. We have seen much of the center of the city and walked most of that.
Ray
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