In typical MT headed fashion, food has taken front stage. There was one restaurant/bar that we had lined up on our itinerary before we even got here, and we went there twice (more later). Last night we found some fish and chips, at a place simply called Icelandic Fish and Chips, that rivaled the ones we found in Falmouth.
Some appropriate street art from Reykjavik
Translation: Iceland is cool , no, cold. Iceland is one of our favorite stops by far!
Another view of Reykjavik
We have been bundled up since we got here, but the weather is mostly sunny and we are prepared. We just really like Reykjavik, though, with it’s abundance of beauty, innovative art, incredible food, and small city atmosphere. There is even a bit of a frontier feel to it (think Alaska).
We discovered yesterday that it was a religious holiday in Iceland – Ascension Day – so many things were closed. Today is our own personal holiday, Tami’s Birthday, so we have some fearsome shopping ahead of us. Maybe I can even find some chocolate cake somewhere.
It is very apparent we are farther north than we are used to. The darkest it gets is kind of duskish. Even at 2 am, our hotel room is quite light – at least no stubbing toes in the dark! It is also on the chilly side. We have been quite comfortable walking around all day in a long sleeve shirt, sweater, and coat. And that is on a sunny day in the middle of May. I would guess that it is in the 40′s when we head out, and maybe gets into the 50′s in the “heat” of the day.
We have also noticed that while the water tastes very good here, anytime you turn on the hot water you smell sulfur. Geothermal is a major source of heat, hot water, and power here. I have even heard of a restaurant that cooks its food directly over geothermal steam. We are curious how the first settlers stayed warm, because there sure are not trees anywhere around.
In many ways Iceland feels like Seattle. Not only is the weather reminiscent, but it is clear that people are very outdoorsy. There are many more shops selling outdoor clothing than shops selling high fashion. So Tami should not expect any Christian Dior or Gucci for her birthday! It also seems true that everyone here actually does wear those Icelandic sweaters that you always hear about. I think just about every other store sells them, and just about every other person on the streets is wearing one. For the cheap tourists there is even a T-shirt you can buy that looks like a traditional Icelandic sweater. (Keenan, be afraid, be very afraid.)
We will have to do a separate blog about the food here, if you dare to read it. The menus can be, umm, unusual.
It was once again quite a production getting from one place to another—Copenhagen to Reykjavik. We took the train to Kastrup Airport (Mike and I keep thinking it says Catsup on the signs) with plenty of time to spare, so we had a bit of a wait for our flight. We were finally on our way, though, and it was fun catching our first glimpse of Iceland after many miles of ocean. The shore was completely black from lava and we then passed over some snow covered ridges.
View from the bus
As we neared Keflavik Airport, the terrain had switched to brown and barren, with some buildings visible along the coast. The airport is quite small with not a lot of flights so we soon had our bags and needed to find a way into Reykjavik, which is about 30 miles away. The only real option is the shuttle bus, which was fine, but we sat on the bus for 30 minutes before we finally headed out! And believe me, there’s not a lot to see or watch sitting in front of Keflavik Airport. We were just very antsy to get on our way and see more of Iceland.
We drove through lots of empty land that looked a lot like Eastern Washington, or even the lava fields in Idaho, with brown, snow-streaked mountains in the distance. As we finally neared the coast, we saw a few sparse settlements, and then finally more civilization as we hit the outskirts of Reykjavik.
Moonscape views on the drive into Reykjavik
The shuttle bus was nice because it dropped everyone right at their destination, so we took quite a circuitous route. But then the bus pulled into the parking lot of a rental car lot and the driver told everyone with certain destinations, including ours, that we would have to get off the bus and into one of two minibuses because the streets were too narrow for the big bus. So most of us got off that bus and onto our minibuses, which took us only a little farther on to our hotel for the next few days. At last! We were in Reykjavik! And it was cold!
It is far enough north here that it never really gets dark at night, and there is broad daylight until very late. While we did not finally get to our hotel until nearly 6 pm, we had lots of time to wander and acquaint ourselves with the town. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, which will be the subject of a separate post, but also put some more miles on our feet just exploring the town. The hotel was also a pleasant surprise because while it looks pretty non-descript from the outside, it is filled with a lot of interesting art and our room is very comfortable and spacious.
Evening stroll- notice the long shadows
One small part of the art in our hotel
We spent a few hours on Sunday at Tivoli. I had always heard of Tivoli Gardens so I thought of it as primarily a large garden park. I had never realized that it was also quite an amusement park. We had a delightful time at Tivoli, and soon realized that this is where Copenhagen families go on a sunny Sunday. The park was bustling but that was a lot of the fun.
There were many teenagers there on their own to enjoy the rides, screaming as they should as they were thrown and dropped and tossed on the various rides. Little kids were running around swinging their plastic swords and enjoying sticky sweets. Couples wandered hand in hand, old and young. And everyone enjoyed the many choices of food and drink, including ourselves.
It was a great relaxing break for these two intrepid tourists. Here are a few sights to enjoy.
Tivoli
Tulips at Tivoli
The Merry-Go-Round
One of the fun rides
The octopus ride
After several days in Copenhagen, I have struggled to think of what my major impression of this city is. It’s a city of bicycles, it’s a city of old canals lined with colorful merchant buildings, and it’s a city of many young people. That could easily describe Amsterdam as well, but Copenhagen is different than Amsterdam. Perhaps Copenhagen feels ultimately a little calmer, yet it is also an energetic city; it feels a little more subdued, but it is still vibrant. Regardless, we are enjoying our time here.
Our room
Our first day of wandering in cold, windy weather with scattered showers was picturesque but tiring. Returning to our hotel with its warmth and soft bed was so inviting—I ostensibly pulled out my book for a break from touristing, but it was really just an excuse to take a little nap. Mike ventured out to explore our neighborhood, Vesterbro, a little more, and came back with the makings for dinner, which included TUCs, salami, aged Danish cheese, and oranges. Just the thing!
One of our dinners-- amazingly inexpensive caviar and TUCs!
We also enjoyed spending some time watching TV for the first time in weeks. At any given time, we can usually find two or three channels with English language shows. History Channel is usually on, and there are a variety of other American shows that pop up here and there. They have Danish subtitles, which is amazingly close to Swedish. We have also found a few soccer games, but the main sport televised here is hockey. The Giro d’Italia is running right now, and we, especially Mike, are astounded and dismayed that we can’t find any coverage at all! These are big cycling countries, but we can only assume that the hotel just doesn’t get the right channel.
Our neighborhood in Vesterbro
One of the many cafes equipped with blankets for patrons
Our stormy introduction to the city did make us wonder if our weather luck on this trip had completely turned, but the next morning dawned with mostly sunny skies and when we hit the sidewalks for another day of exploration, we felt renewed and refreshed. It is a perennially windy city, but at least with the sun out it feels much warmer. We seem to have been either a day behind or a day ahead of bad weather at each stop. I won’t question why, just enjoy!
The Round Tower
Some notable sights we have seen include the Round Tower, which was built a long, long time ago. Sorry, we have seen so many different old, old places that I lose track of the details of each one. The tower is remarkable in that it consists entirely of a brick-paved ramp ascending to the top of the tower, which we climbed. One thing I do remember about the history of it, though, was that it was a place that was used for royal ceremonies many centuries ago, and on one such occasion, a visiting king rode his horse all the way to the top, followed by his queen in a carriage. There was a great view from the top.
The spiral staircase inside the tower
View from the Round Tower
Typical scene in Nyhavn
Nyhavn is Copenhagen’s old maritime merchant area, so it is lined with the old merchant buildings. We took a canal cruise that started here and toured much of the waterfront area of Copenhagen. Very nice, especially with the sun shining. I have to give credit, too, to the ship’s lecturer because he clued us in to not only a half-price cruise, but also some of the other lesser known sites, such as the Round Tower, that we saw.
View from the canal trip
Let me just close with one of many pictures of Mike guiding with his map-reading. I particularly like this picture because of the couple in the background also checking their map. What you can’t see is the woman who is also about to wander into the picture, also referring to her map.
Mike checking the map during our wanderings, as is another couple
Today we decided to rent some bikes from our hotel and go for a ride around town. These were typical Copenhagen city bikes, NOT like anything we are used to riding. They are made out of lead, and would really rather sit still than actually take you anywhere. You get on and the bike just kind of goes “Oh, really?”.
We did eventually get moving, but then had some trouble figuring out the gears. We finally figured out that you have to stop pedaling to get the gears to shift (all 3 of them). Unfortunately we only figured that out AFTER climbing the only hill in Copenhagen.
Bikes here are a preferred means of transport, which means they are everywhere. One thing we noticed is that in addition to mostly being upright cruisers, most of the bikes are beat to hell. I suspect that the majority, at least in the city, are parked outside on the street at night, which means they take a lot of weather abuse, and also means you want to have a beat bike so nobody steals it. Many are cheap bikes to start with – I noticed that the grocery store down the street sells bikes along with the cucumbers.
Many streets have a special lane just for bikes between the street and the sidewalk. This does mean that as a pedestrian you have to learn to watch out for bikes as well as cars before you step off the sidewalk, and DON’T mistake the bike way for a sidewalk or you’ll get cussed out good, if not run over. Tami had to yank me back more than once to keep me from getting killed. Of course I’m not exactly the most observant person. (What Mike fails to mention here is that these bike lanes are a bit like a freeway. You can’t just stop in the middle of them or make sudden changes or turns. He nearly got me run over by the oncoming hoard of cyclists when he made a sudden decision to stop at yet another cycle shop and did not give me but a half second of warning. The cursing was in Danish, though, so I have no idea what they were all saying.We survived. -T)
There are also quite a variety of bikes. In the picture above as well as here are what back home is known as a “Dutch bike”. No idea what they call them here. Cool idea, but I would not want to have one someplace hilly. Even empty that’s got to add some real weight. (And yes, there are two different people on bikes in that picture.)
-M
Vi är i Sverige nu. Well, we were in Sweden a couple of hours ago but I wanted to use some of the little bit of Swedish that I remember. We made an expedition to Malmö for the day and it was a wonderful trip.
Mike and I both have Swedish roots so it was a big goal of ours to make it to Sweden. We took a couple of quarters of Swedish lessons at the Nordic Heritage Museum a year or so ago, but unfortunately we don’t remember much. I see words on signs and think, “hmm, that looks familiar.” I really should have brushed up before we came. Keenan helped me with the numbers, but I should have done more. No matter, everyone speaks English, but it would have been fun to try some Swedish. It’s too bad Keenan couldn’t have been here with us since he is studying Swedish at the UW. Nästa gång!
It was so easy to get to Sweden—we just caught a train from the Copenhagen Central station and we were in Malmö in 30 minutes. There is now a bridge that runs between Denmark and Copenhagen and the train runs on the bridge. The first building we saw once we crossed into Sweden was a big IKEA. What fun it would have been to check that out!
As we crossed the bridge, we noticed a forest of wind turbines rising out of the water. Very bizarre! We did not have very high expectations of Malmö. A woman in the tourist center said there really wasn’t much there, but now I realize that she was Danish and this was Sweden we were talking about!
Malmö was a pleasant surprise of old buildings nicely preserved, lots of open squares and pedestrian streets, plenty of interesting shopping, and a beautiful, modern sense to the city that works well with the history. We found quite a few shops with furniture and home furnishings that really show-cased modern Scandinavian design and style. We were just drooling over many items we saw and were also so impressed with some of the inventive design of many household items. Why don’t we see more of these types of things? It was like IKEA on steroids and beyond. We loved it.
One thing we find amusing about these Nordic countries is their love of outdoor cafés. They are everywhere, but it is also still quite cold, so most of the cafés have blankets on the chairs so you can bundle up. We usually opt for going inside to stay warm!
While Denmark and Sweden are not nearly as expensive as Norway, they are still quite pricey and we are finding that a good way to avoid breaking the bank is to eat lunch out and then have a small dinner of crackers or bread, cheese, meats, and fruit in the room. Lunch in Malmö was some typical plates of fish, rye bread, and pickled onions. I had salmon and Mike had two kinds of white fish. They were delicious!
Salmon- yum!
Our lunch stop also had an extensive whiskey collection and we thus discovered a Swedish whiskey. The bartender steered us to the government liquor store where we found a bottle to bring back—just half of our allowance! Kevin, Melinda, and Keenan—we also spotted the OP Anderson. The amazing thing is that it was actually cheaper in the US!
OP Anderson- look at all those bottles!
Our day in Sweden went quickly and we soon found ourselves back in the train station trying to figure out how to spend the rest of our Swedish kroner—it’s becoming a part of our travel: how to spend our remaining pounds, euros, kroner. Not usually a problem, but it’s a fun puzzle to make sure you don’t take out too much, and then find a way to spend what you have.
-T
It was an odd feeling to walk across that gangway for the last time, but at 7:30 in the morning, we were also half asleep. Cruise terminals are actually pretty weird because they are such bare-bones, basic buildings. Copenhagen was no different—it looked like a temporary building and was nothing more than a big room with everyone’s baggage laid out and stacks of city maps by the exit. It was well-organized, though, so we immediately found our bags and exited the ‘building’.
The other thing about cruise terminals is that they are usually in the middle of a very industrial area, as was this one. We knew we could walk to a train station so we bypassed the taxis. Within a few feet we were all alone and trudging along the blue path in a very desolate area, but we did find the minimal train station fairly soon. As we stepped onto the upper platform, a huge blast of wind swept Mike’s hat off and onto the track. Welcome to Copenhagen!
There was no place to buy tickets on the platform, but another passenger told us we had to go back to the 7-Eleven to get tickets. For which we had no money! There was no cash machine at the terminal and we do not have the computer chip credit cards like they have in Europe and that are the only kind you can use in the machines. So off Mike went to get tickets. He came back with tickets in hand only because of the kind generosity of a stranger in the 7-Eleven! With no Danish cash and a non-functional credit card, he was kind of out of luck, so we were so fortunate to have someone buy the tickets for him.
So we finally made it into the Copenhagen Central train station, where we were able to get some cash, and we continued our trudge to our hotel. It was cold, windy, threatening rain. It was a long way to the hotel from the train station. It was so early on a Saturday morning that we were the only ones in the street. We were looking for the address of our hotel, 66 Vesterbrogade. Addresses were scarce, but we did pass 38, then a long time until 62, and then suddenly we were at 72. Huh? So back we went. We could look up and see a big sign for a hotel on the side of the building, but no doorway. Then we realized that the entrance was inside a small driveway off the street. We had to be buzzed in and climb a flight of stairs to check-in. We stuffed Mike with all the luggage into the very small elevator and I know I was wondering what we were in for. But the desk clerk was extremely friendly and helpful, and while our room was not ready (not surprising at 8:30 am), she was full of ideas for places we could see, how to get there, and stored our bags while we did some exploring. We had arrived.
-T
The view from our room, overlooking the castle
Today was a half day stop in Oslo, Norway. I woke up early at 5:30 to the sight of the fjord leading to Oslo slipping by the window. This far south in Norway, the fjord is not very steep sided. It was a very grey, misty morning and the view was very reminiscent of home and Puget Sound. When the ship docked, we found ourselves directly overlooking the castle. It was right across the street from the ship—what a nice view we had!
We could leave the ship at 7:00 am and had to be back on the ship by 1:30. We did not sign up for any tours, as usual, so we saw no reason to be off the ship too early since nothing was going to be open until 9:30 or later. After leaving the ship, we walked through the castle grounds and then headed for the famed city hall, which is where the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony is held.
The murals lining the main hall are quite beautiful, and we also really enjoyed the series of carvings on the exterior of the building that illustrate many Norse myths.
From there, we made a series of literally jaw-dropping observations on the streets of Oslo. We were looking at restaurant prices! The lecturer had prepared us the day before for the high prices, but I guess you just don’t believe it until you’ve seen it for yourself. So here we go: a McDonald’s burger- $20, basic burger in a restaurant- $28, nicer burger in a restaurant- $40. Pretty much any lunch entrée was at least $30 to $40 or more. You would easily drop $100 for just a very basic, minimal lunch. Sheesh, it was truly astounding.
Other items in stores were also expensive, but not to quite the same extent. We figured that restaurant prices were 3-4x the prices we’re used to and other items were 2-3x our prices. We didn’t even get any money out. We just wandered around looking at prices! And then decided to just eat lunch on the ship and save ourselves a bundle. Will Copenhagen be this expensive?????
Oslo was a nice city with some nice, old architecture, but also lots of modern buildings. There are lots of statues and sculptures and great building decorations. The 17thof May (Norwegian Independence) celebration is just around the corner and there was a military tattoo apparently going on in honor of that. We kept hearing a tattoo band playing somewhere in the streets, but we just never got any closer to it. We did see lots of kids wearing red pants with Norwegian flag patterns on them. We had fun speculating on what the pants were for, and never found out the truth.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...
I've been meaning to tell you...
We can guess what this says, but thought it would be more fun for everyone to contribute what they think it says!
Back on the ship, we found time to attend the Copenhagen lecture since we will be spending a few days there. I also had to hurry up and finish the book I had checked out from the library. Hard to believe I only managed to read three books in over two weeks—what’s the matter with me! We also had to pack our bags and get them out in the hallway by dinner time.
It’s a little sad to realize that this portion of the trip is over, but we are also very excited about the next stage. As I was packing, I came across three of my favorite purchases, which others might find kind of odd. Ever since I was a kid I have always had a thing about flags from other countries and places. Can’t explain it but there it is. I like to collect unusual flags from places we have been and research them before we go so I know what I want to look for, so here’s a picture of the three flags I picked up on this trip, top to bottom:
Cornwall, Normandy, Amsterdam
Cornwall, Normandy, Amsterdam. I’m getting enough now that we need to design a new scheme for flying them all.
It took about three hours to travel the entire way out of the fjord that leads to Oslo. It was very pretty and again reminded us so much of the northwest. It was funny to me at one point because as I was out on our balcony watching the scenery go by, our neighbors, the ones who needed bundling, were out exclaiming about how fantastic the scenery was. And it was, don’t get me wrong, but they had clearly never seen such scenery and it is just what we have at home, so we suddenly felt like we were home again!
Heading to the North Sea
Just like home
As we exited the fjord and entered the North Sea, we hit some high winds, gusting to 65 knots. We got some good motion going on the ship and some great choppy waves. It made walking around problematic, and at one point they even closed the outdoor decks. For a while we were quite heeled over at times—I took a picture of a glass of water to try and show the angle of the floor.
It would have been fun to see what the pools were doing—they really got sloshing pretty well in some of the other active, but milder, weather we’ve had. We enjoyed the drama, but there were probably others who were not so enamored.
We have also noticed today that there are a bunch of new people on the ship. How can we tell? Well, my first clue was when I realized that many of the people standing around us as we entered the dining room did not have silver hair! And we also started noticing a lot of different languages, many of them Russian or Eastern European sounding. It seems odd that they are joining the ship before Copenhagen, but we also know there are a fair number of empty cabins. I think the tone of the cruise will change quite a bit from here on. Well, and we’re leaving, so obviously there will be more food available!
-T