Scandinavian Cruise

Max and I decided to take our first cruise this year, to Scandinavia! It was just for four nights, which was about the upper limits of what I was willing to deal with should I be nauseous the whole time. (I really enjoy traveling, my stomach does not). It turns out the seas were very calm, so I had no problems. I think we might have gotten lucky, according to the experienced cruisers we dined with.

The voyage started in Oslo, Norway. We chose to arrive in Oslo the night before so we would have some time to explore the city before we boarded the cruise ship. The first place we went to see was the Vikingshiphuset or Viking Ship Museum. The museum houses three viking ships (Oseberg, Gokstad, and Tune) from the ninth century.

These ships were found in burial mounds in the Olso fjords, nicely preserved by the blue clay of the mounds. They once contained the bodies of royal and other wealthy persons along with everything needed to carry them into the afterlife (jewelry, horses, wagons, slaves, etc.), according to the beliefs of the time.

We walked from the museum through a fairly residential neighborhood to catch a ferry back to downtown. From there we walked to the Nasjonalgalleriet (National Gallery) were we saw some paintings by Norwegian artist including those by Edvard Munch. (You may recall his most famous painting, The Scream). Overall, Norwegian art revealed a darker, more tumultuous aspect of life and was actually very interesting.

Oslo is a beautiful town. Really, really expensive, but beautiful. (According to Business Week, Oslo is currently the second most expensive city in the world behind Tokyo...I think we can attest to that). Everything was pristine and so tidy. It was a great place to start out on our cruise.

We sailed overnight from Olso to Copenhagen, Denmark. When we docked, Max and I headed out to Rosenburg Castle, built as a summer residence by King Christian IV. This is also where he chose to spend his final days. The basement contains an amazing collection of crown jewels.

We took ourselves on a self guided tour through Copenhagen, making a stop by the statue of Hans Christian Andersen, author of such tales as The Ugly Duckling, Princess and the Pea, and The Little Mermaid. It turns out the real, non-Disney version of The Little Mermaid is a lot darker than I had realized!

We already knew that the Den Lille Havfrue (or The Little Mermaid statue), symbol of Copenhagen, was going to be in Shanghai, China during our visit. We did catch a glimpse of what Max and I are calling her less popular cousin near the dock of our curise ship. You get the gist of it.

We pretty much ended our tour of Copenhagen in the Nyhavn quarter (above). The boat filled canal was lined with colorful buildings and lots of cafes. It was a very lively, cheery place and it was a lot of fun. Off to Tallinn, Estonia now!

On the way to Tallinn, which took a whole day at sea, we celebrated Max's birthday! He's celebrated some birthday's in a variety of unusal places, but the Baltic Sea was a first and it was a good one.

I was probably most excited to visit Tallinn. It was some place I thought would be different, less traveled, a little "off the map" if you will. I should have realized that when our cruise ship pulled up next to another cruise ship that this would not be the case.

Tallinn was definitely different than the rest of what we had seen of Scandinavia. Both the upper and lower towns of Tallinn are emcompassed by the city wall. (Part of city wall is pictured above). Walking within the bounds of the wall gave us a feel for the more Old World style of life, especially with the people dressed in medieval clothes, playing up the part. I started wondering where all the normal citizens were.

There seemed to be souvenir shops everywhere and most carried the same things. I expected the city to be much cheaper than the rest of the places we had been to, but I was wrong about that as well. I suppose one of the easiest ways for a young country to start gaining some wealth is through tourism. At a glance, the city outside the walls seemed to be fairly modern and is probably where most of the "normal" citizens I was looking for lived.

We ended our cruise in Stockholm, Sweden. The city was still reeling from the wedding of Princess Victoria just four days earlier. Stockholm was a blur for us. Due to our flight schedule, we did not have much time to spend there. We ended up taking a panoramic bus tour, highlighting many of the more "important" sights. We would not have seen as much of the city as we did had we decided to do the tour on our own, espeically since Stockholm is spread out over 14 different islands!

Our tour took us by Stadshuset (City Hall) where the annual Noble Prize banquet is held (above), and by the apartment of Elin Nordegren, wife (or ex-wife now?) of Tiger Woods. Housing seems to be a big problem in Stockholm. There are no apartments for rent, so people must buy them, and often the cost is driven sky high through bidding wars. The government has even discouraged foreign students from studying in Stockholm because there is no room to put them!

Scandinavia is blessed with such natural beauty and I know we didn't even see the half of it. Traveling around this area via cruise ship was a good way for us to see some of the cities and some of the seascape too. (I was really hoping to see a whale, but despite my whale calls, we had no such luck). Either way, this was a unique trip for us. Instead of focusing on one city, as we tend to do, we broadened our scope to a sampling of an entire region. We were able to see that this part of Europe is distinctly different from the rest of the continent, culturally, economically, historically and we're glad we had the opprotunity to experience it.

Summer's (Almost) Here

It's already June, but it has been relatively cool and rainy here. I think we had one day in the 90's so far, but that's been all. I'm not complaining (since, like most of Europe, we don't have air conditioning), it just seems that the summer weather is taking it's time getting here. BUT, the summer produce is appearing in full force at the local market. I'm thoroughly enjoying the in season fruits, such as strawberries. These strawberries were some of the best I've ever had and were worth blogging about...(I don't think Max thought I actually would). It's like someone injected an extra intense dose of natural flavoring in them. So good. It's the small things like these that also make our stay here memorable.

Visitors, We Love Having Them

My cousin Susan and her husband Dave came to visit us on their tour through France which started in Bordeaux and ended in Paris! We were lucky enough to have them for a couple of days, and were able to squeeze in a day trip to Geneva together. Here they are in the North Tower of Saint Peter's Cathedral, overlooking Lake Geneva.

We were able to get really close to the Jet d'Eau, a giant water fountain spurting from Lake Geneva. (See previous posts for more pictures of the fountain). We were lucky the wind direction decided to stay rather constant that day, and not blow fountain water on us. The mist behind this swan is from the fountain.

We took a stroll by the citys' flower clock only to be sorely disappointed. I had built up this clock a little bit as being something pretty cool, but this is what we saw when we got there (top photo). It looked like a bunch of weeds, or like the orginal flowers had been bombed by something. Apparently this new look was created in the name of biodiversity. This (bottom photo) is what we remember the clock looking like. Sometimes, the original is just better.

That night after Susan and Dave left for Paris, we met up with some of Max's co-workers from Granville who were in Chambery for business. It was really nice to see them and to catch up with them. We had a lot of fun that week and it felt so quiet after everyone left town. *Sigh* But, it's never that quiet for too long...