In Transit - Gothenburg to Stockholm

Early day today -- 7 AM train from Gothenburg to Stockholm.

I love to people-watch, especially when I'm touring new places.  It's usually as much fun as the destination itself.  But not when you become involved in the action.

In school we practiced fire drills.  An orderly and efficient transfer of a large number of people from one place to another place, yet with a sense of urgency.

The inter-city train approached the platform at Gothenburg Central.  The platform was full.  The train was on-time.  Dad and I, having had a quick bite of what passes for "breakfast" at the B&B, were anxious to climb aboard, get settled, and maybe get a little more food in our bellies from the cafe car.

The train slowed, then stopped.  The doors opened.  So did the floodgates.

Out of nowhere, a large group of elderly tourists swarmed the door to our assigned train carriage.  They literally shouldered their way to the front of the queue led by a shrill-voiced diminutive older woman who was shouting and pleading with her group. The language was not one I understand, but I imagined that she was a modern day cowpoke, a disastrously inept one, like Barney Fife on a horse. About 20 of them, all wearing hats, cameras slung around their necks, and dragging huge luggage -- the great, big hard-sided aluminum jobs.

It became immediately obvious that few of the elderly tour group could lift their massive bags.  If they couldn't roll them they couldn't move them, and there were three steep steps from the platform into the train car.  I watched a couple of the men in the group step forward to try and lift the bags into the train, with poor results.  Yelling and carrying-on ensued.

Finally another guy on the platform and I, as a pure matter of self-interest, stepped forward to haul the aircraft-grade aluminum behemoths into the train.  Baggage in, the members of the gray-haired brigade mounted the train.  And stopped.  They wanted to rearrange their luggage in the luggage racks at the end of the car.  Despite earlier experience, they still couldn't lift the things.  Being frustrated, I just grabbed their luggage and started heaving it into the racks willy-nilly and shooed them to their seats.

Most passengers finally found their seats.  And the train started to move.  Progress, albeit late.  Our on-time train was now 7 minutes late pulling out of the station!

The fun didn't end there.  Apparently some of the group were assigned seats in the adjoining car.  Hilarity ensued as the tour leader marshaled a pair of the men to extract bags from the baggage storage and haul them through our car to the next.  The leader and her assistant then marched up and down the car to instruct various people to exchange seats.  And maybe to dance the Lambada in the aisle as they did so.  It took about 20 minutes for that dance to subside.

I mentioned that my Dad and I were still hungry.  We opted instead for a couple of beers -- thank God the cafe car agreed to sell them to us so early in the morning!

Tips to tour groups and those who encounter them:

• Only travel with a bag that you can comfortably lift and carry, unassisted, for short distances.
• Tour groups should alight trains last.  Let the "regular" folk enter and sit first.  Faster for all.
• Make darn sure you get off the train ahead of the tour group

Next stop - Stockholm, Sweden -- the Vasa Museum, our stay in a house boat hotel "in the heart of the city", a royal wedding and much more!!

Gothenburg, Sweden - One Day Only

A museum in Göteborg at twilight. We weren't able to visit it.

  

We left the wonderful city of Copenhagen early in the morning on the first of our multi-leg train journey, this time via a high-speed train to Gothenburg, Sweden. At some points along the journey the train exceeded 200 km/h, which is a lot in American. Take that Amtrak! Congress should be ashamed. 

 

We planned a single night in Gothenburg (also spelled Gothenberg, Göteborg, Gotenberg, Gotenburg) mainly so Dad could have his pilgrimage to the Volvo Museum, one of his anticipated trip highlights. I was looking forward to the museum, too. 

 

We arrived in comfort at a little before Noon after having made a train change in Malmö, Sweden. We sought out our B&B (no hostel this time), Le Mat B&B. Google Maps is a really useful app to point and guide you to the right place, but it's not perfect. Case in point - we arrived at the location for the B&B, and even saw a sign on the building for it. What neither Google Maps, nor the hotel's booking confirmation, revealed is that the proper entrance for the place is actually around the corner. The B&B is on the fourth and fifth floors of an office building. Weird, I know. Thing is, we entered the back entry where there was just a small entryway, and elevator and a winding staircase. No signage in or out of the elevator. So, because he's old, I had my Dad wait in the entryway while I climbed the stairs, level by level, until I finally found a door with a tiny little sign above the doorbell which said "L.Mat". I tried to text my dad to take the elevator to the right floor, but he doesn't have phone/text service over here. So down the stairs I went. 

 

Safely in the elevator and to the door, we rang. There was silence and a long wait. Finally a woman answered the door, looking annoyed. We asked if this was the right place and she said that it was, but that we had come to the wrong door. She led us the length of the building to the reception area and had us check in.  Our room was basic (we knew it would be) and did not have any windows (we saved $10 that way). Toilet and shower was just down the hall. That said, everything was scrupulously clean and we were OK with the location. 

 

    We left the hotel shortly afterwards (but we always take advantage of a place to pee for free when in Europe!) We walked around a corner to the local döner establishment which sells burgers, kebabs, falafel, etc. and had lunch - kebab for Dad and the world's worst hamburger for me. From there we took a public bus to the Volvo Museum. It was a long bus journey, as the museum is located amid Volvo's offices in the shipping/manufacturing district on the outskirts of the city. We passed giant Maersk shipping containers piled 6 high. And there we were, the Volvo Museum!            

 

 Old Volvos, specialty Volvos, and an exhibit showing the progression of the models through the present day. There was even an exhibit about Volvo heavy equipment, buses and concept cars. Of note, it was Volvo which developed and employed the first three-point seatbelt. The three-point seatbelt is crediting with saving more lives in an automobile than any other safety innovation.

 

But my favorite exhibit was this:

A full-size Volvo XC90 SUV made entirely from Legos!

 

Lots of fun at the Volvo Museum and we spent most of the afternoon there, followed by the 35-minute trip back to the B&B. We took a little break and then decided to find some dinner. We settled on Texas Longhorn Steakhouse. Dad and I each had the "belly buster ribeye." There were bigger options, trust me, both this one (translated from grams) was about 10 ounces and very, very good. I had quality steak fries, and my Dad had what he described as an "honest to God real baked potato, baked in the oven slowly and without foil!"  We wanted dessert, but neither of us had room.  Bellies busted. And we have generous ones. 

 

Not much else we could do, as we returned from the Volvo Museum at about the time other attractions were closing. Thus ended our Gothenburg odyssey. Onward to Stockhom, Sweden next!

Our Final Day in Copenhagen - Tivoli

We saved the best for last in Copenhagen.

  Tivoli - one of the oldest amusement parks in the world and widely recognized as the major source of inspiration to Walt Disney and his parks. We got to Tivoli a little early, so we stood around near the gate, surrounded by school children on a field trip. First time in a while I have felt tall in a crowd of people!

On entering the park we we met by uniformed workers, immaculately groomed grounds, and exotic birds of all sorts just wandering around, like this peacock.  Later in the day I was chased away by a goose (or a gander) for some infraction I'm still not sure I committed. The weather in the morning was gray and chilly, but by the end of the day the skies cleared and we put away our jackets.  

The other thing we saw on entering Tivoli was a pallet of beer kegs. A pallet of kegs ... of beer. Lots of beer.  I almost grabbed a keg and ran for it.  But in the end you only really rent beer anyway (think about it) so I decided that a Danish prison wasn't worth it.      We wandered the park for much of the day. Past Hans Christian Andersen's Castle, the giant frigate in the middle of the central lagoon, under and around terrifying and tame rides and roller coasters.  We had an early dinner at one of the restaurants in Tivoli, Faergekroens Bryghus. it features the classic open-faced sandwich, the smørrebrød, and it's own microbrew. It's really wrong to call it a sandwich. It's really a thick piece of buttered dark bread piled high - in my case - with layers of roast beef, potato salad, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions and a whole bunch of other stuff, too.  The "sandwich" was awesome. The house brew was nasty. 

Views of Tivoli

    Fortunately Dad and I had enjoyed much better beer, by the liter, at the park's German Bierhaus, earlier in the day!  You see, he and I had decided that we could either ride a few rides or have a liter of beer and a pretzel (it wouldn't be safe to do both, trust me.) it wasn't a tough choice.        

  The entrance fee to Tivoli is 99 Danish kroner, roughly equivalent to US$15.00. After that, you buy ride tickets (25 kroner each, about $3.75) for the rides you want to try. The "better" rides can cost up to 3 ride tickets.  There are plenty of things to do without riding the rides. There are concerts, marching bands, exhibitions, and the beauty and whimsy of the gardens themselves.        After our day at the park we returned to the hostel for our last night before leaving early the next morning for Gothenberg, Sweden. I convinced my Dad to have one more drink in the Generator's bar before retiring. Unfortunately, I think that his second liter of beer for the day retired HIM...

Dad has the uncanny ability to hold any beverage upright while snoring heavily.

  Stay tuned for my next report from Gothenberg, Sweden!

Day 3 in Copenhagen - Christiansborg Palace and the Canals

Our third full day in Copenhagen saw us enjoying the delights of Christiansborg Palace and the serenity of a one-hour canal tour of the city.   

Christiansborg Palace has a long history for the Danish monarchs and its origins extend even before then. The Danish royal family ceased using the palace as its residence in 1794, but continues to use it to this day for royal receptions, for the throne room and for other state occasions.     

views of the state reception rooms

    As you can see in the picture, top left, the monarch requires that all tourists wear blue booties over them shoes to protect the floors of the reception rooms. The dining hall, top right, has a ginormous table that can seat your entire extended family for Thanksgiving. The taller throne is the Queen's. The chandelier, bottom right, was purchased from the Swedish royalty, who then asked to borrow it so they could copy it and replace the chandelier - classy seller's remorse?     We also toured the ruins under the Palace. It's a fairly new exhibition and is really neat. It reminded me strongly of the exhibition I saw a year or so ago in Montreal.   

    After a happy few hours enjoying palace life, my Dad and I decided to take a seat for a guided tour of the city by water.     

  We took a boat similar to this one all throughout the harbor and canals of the picturesque city of Copenhagen.      Lots of great information and great pictures, too! Also a great chance to rest our sore tootsies! Dad has recorded more than 10,000 steps each day of our trip; I'm averaging closer to 17,000. That's not because I'm shorter. It's because I tend to go out for a bit after dinner while Dad (being more the wiser), relaxes and prepares the travel itinerary for the next day.       

    This section of the city is known as Nyhavn. It is part of a collection of canals that one of the previous monarchs (I forget which one) had built because he liked the way Amsterdam and its canals looked. Nyhavn was an easy walk from our hostel and is an area full of cafes, shops, street entertainment, and fantastic people-watching!     This is one of the most photographed parts of the city, according to the canal tour.            We made it back to the hostel in time for the early happy hour, and then we went down the street to a hamburger gastro-pub. Can't remember the name of it, and, unfortunately, the burgers weren't that memorable either. The name was a play on words with "buns" and the waitresses wore short-shorts. Think Hooters, except we weren't aware of the theme until after we sat down and ordered.      Stay tuned! The next installment will cover the famous Tivoli Gardens and our last full day in Copenhagen!     NOTE: for those of you following by email subscription, any videos I post will only work if you access them via the website - www.vacaken.com.

Day 2 in Copenhagen - Kronborg Castle

Our first full day in Copenhagen saw us leaving the city for most of the day and traveling north, about 45 minutes by train, to the seaside city of Helsingor, Denmark. Visible across the strait was the Swedish town of Helsingborg. Many ferries between the two, and the ferries left from just outside of the train station.  

  The Kronborg Slot ("castle") is located about a ten minute walk from the station, along the waterfront. Now a little side story about the train trip to reach Helsingor: Helsingor has an alternate name in English: Elsinore. Well, using the English setting on the ticket machine wouldn't pull up the Elsinore stop; you had to use the Danish spelling. Also, the train schedules posted are damnably hard to decipher, unlike the clear-as-day ones I encountered in Germany a few years ago. For instance, some trains give you the ultimate destination of the train, but it's a city name that's not even listed on the departure board - you are expected to know Danish geography in order to determine which direction you need to go in!    

  The only bad thing about the walk was the cobblestones. I've mentioned before (my loyal readers will say many, many times!) cobblestones in Europe can kill your feet and legs. It's like off-roading in the middle of a city.   The weather was pretty nice, in the 60s and partly cloudy.         We finally arrived at the castle - the castle which was the setting for Shakespeare's (fictional) tragedy of Hamlet. Pretty cool-looking castle, and right on the strait separating Denmark from Sweden (the strait connects the North Sea with the Baltic.)  

    The castle has undergone several renovations since it's beginnings as the medieval castle "Krogen" prior to 1574, most notably by King Frederik II from 1574-85, in 1629 after a large fire and in 1658 after the Swedish captured and looted the castle. Today the castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.       

Views of Kronborg Slot

  We really enjoyed ourselves at the Kronborg castle, and the property was sure to play up its link to Shakespeare. There were pithy t-shirts you could buy, and even fake (obviously!) Yorick skulls available for purchase.   A train ride back saw us safely to our hostel, just in time for the early happy hour (4-5 PM). We each enjoyed big one-liter mugs of Carlsberg lager. Later we wandered to the hot dog stand because Dad couldn't "stand" waiting to have his first Scandinavian hot dog! He claims that it was the best hot dog he has ever eaten, and that's going well back into the early twentieth century!   I know you won't be able to wait for the next installment, all about Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, and our big boat adventure!!!  

Happy Update - Blogging issues fixed!

I appear to have resolved my technical difficulties and I should now be able to present the blog as I'd like! To test it out, here's a video clip from way back in Iceland, in the geothermal national park:           It's not the best clip in the world, but now I know I can take some (better) video and upload it for your pleasure!   I can now resize and manipulate photos, arrange them as I please, and wrap text. I can also add links, tables, and so on!    Here's a hot dog stand from Copenhagen  Hot dogs are a favorite treat over here  I had my first one in Iceland, but my Dad didn't get his until Denmark.     I can now provide useful links for you, too.  For example, in my last post I told you about the hostel, Generator Copenhagen. Click here.   Well, that's enough playing around. Next stop, Kronborg Castle!      

Copenhagen, Day One - The Generator Hostel

We got into Copenhagen late. Our WOW air flight was delayed by almost two hours, so we didn't arrive at our hostel until the mid afternoon. Interestingly, the flight attendant apologized for the delay by blaming it on "system issues from a few days ago." Could it be that the fledgling air carrier was still affected by the same delay that saw us leave Boston three hours late just three days earlier? 

Yes, I said hostel. I convinced the Old Man to try it out. Accommodations for the two of us for four nights totaled $300, which is almost as cheap as you can get in Copenhagen without getting stabbed. 

 

Our hostel was the Generator Copenhagen, located near to the pretty Nyhavn section of the city. It was also convenient to a metro station (Kogens Nytorv - about 7 minutes by foot) and to a metro/S-Tog station (Norreport - about a 10-minute walk).  

The Generator Copenhagen is part of a chain of 6-8 other Generators, including ones in London and Berlin. The Copenhagen establishment has a huge bar area, a two-level comfy sitting area in front of three large TVs, a computer room, a multipurpose area, and a few cozy "chill zones" where you can just, well, relax! One of them is a room full of colorful hammocks. Should've taken pics for you, but somehow I didn't. Padre may have, but he's currently snoring loudly into my ear as we ride a train. 

 

Here's what our bunks looked like:

I had the top bunk. Below the bed are giant lockers-on-wheels where you can secure your things while sleeping or for when you're on the town. The were really neat and were plenty secure. That's my locker in the picture. My Dad's is to the left, tucked under the bed with a padlock on it. He had forgotten to bring his combination lock from home, so he bought a simple key lock from the front desk, for about $4.00 U.S. 

 

I went out that first night in Copenhagen and returned to the Generator to join Dad for happy hour in the hostel's bar from 9-10 PM. I have to give the Old Man some credit. He could have gotten away with it and I would have been none the wiser. He had dutifully locked his rolling locker before taking a nap, and he locked the key in the locker. With his pants. And his shoes. He had to walk, barefoot, down to the front desk, wearing nothing but a t-shirt and shorts. Half-blind because his glasses were locked up, too. 

 

He asked the clerk if they had any bolt cutters. "Yes," he replied kindly. "Does this happen a lot?" asked the Old Man. "Well, you're the first today,  but you won't be the only one! Would you like to buy a new lock while you're here?"

 

We enjoyed almost our entire stay at the Generator. We met lots of great people (all ages stayed at the hostel, and some families with small kids, too) and our ever-changing allotment of roommates were generally considerate and friendly.  Until the last day. This guy and his girlfriend had the two bunks opposite ours. When Dad first met the guy, he ranted about politics and his love for weed. Two or three times later that night, at around midnight, 2AM and 4AM, he would get up, loudly sort through his things, turn lights on and off, and - worst of all - he would wake up his girlfriend and talk loudly with her for ten minutes before she could get him to shut up. This was the downside to a shared room, but overall my Dad and I would each stay at a hostel again. I took the guy's picture so he will live in infamy for eternity on my blog. 

 

 Eight bunks in our room, though there were also 6-, 4- and two-bunk rooms available for more money. Our room had two showers, a bathroom and a separate sink, with two more showers and bathrooms just down the hall. 

 

Stay tuned for the next installment, when your intrepid heroes explore Kronborg Castle in Helsingor (Elsinore) the setting for Shakespeare's "Hamlet!"

 

 

In transit - Reykjavik to Copenhagen

Still having massive issues with posting. Arrived in Copenhagen and we're having fun. One castle, one palace, one boat tour, and one great time!!

Here are a few pics to whet your appetite until I can resolve these technical difficulties ....

More to come, I swear! 💀=Yorick. Think Hamlet. We went to the castle that was the setting for the play. Padre kept referencing MacBeth as we took the train. Finally, when we arrived, he said, "oh, Hell," and realized his silly mistake. 

Also, if you're a Facebook friend of my Dad, send him a private message asking him how much a lock costs in Denmark, and can he verify the price? Trust me, the answer will be worth it!

I hope to have the blogging issue resolved. It used to take me an hour, tops, a day to write, edit, photo-ify and paginate an entry. Now it's been taking me several hours of effort. I need to find a solution for you, my loyal readers, so that I won't have to deny you my witty prose!

Reykjavik, Day Two - The Golden Circle

Early morning for us, and a long day! We booked a "Golden Circle" tour of some of Iceland's best known natural attractions. Why is called the Golden Circle? One theory is that you follow Iceland Route 1, the ring-road, around the island. Combine that with Gullfoss ("golden waterfall" - one of the impressive stops on the tour) and you have your Golden Circle. 

Our guide and driver was Dooley of Iceland Horizon Tours. We had a minibus and about 15 people in our group. The Old Man was likely the senior member. 

The drive took us out of Reykjavik and through rolling lava fields. These were flows from a few thousand years ago (all of Iceland is a volcanically created island). Nothing grows on these lava fields except for moss. According to Dooley, in another thousand years or so berry bushes will begin to grow in in this flow area, as berry bushes have on other parts of the island. Even other parts are fully tillable and sustain farms and the singular breed of Icelandic horse. 

No native trees on Iceland, if you don't count the waist-high bushes. The trees you see were imported and planted. It's a long term project. 

After a brief stop at a shopping center, where Padre got a little lost in the "woods," we embarked on a 45 minute journey to the first of two waterfalls - the Flaxi. 

It's a pretty cool waterfall, with a fish ladder, even. Everyone in the tour group oohed and ahhed. But the Flaxi was a tease. Cool as it was, it didn't hold a candle to Gullfoss, our next stop. 

THIS is a serious waterfall!  In my opinion cooler than Niagra because the waterfall is stepped. If you look carefully at the picture, there are at least three falls within the entire awesome display of nature. 

We walked the path you can see in the lower left of the picture. You can beg either one of us for additional pics. It was absolutely spectacular. It was also very wet. No mammals were harmed in the production of this blog. 

By the way - I'm still having loads of issues posting the blog. Back in 2011, when I posted my first entries, the apps worked. In 2012 and 2013 they worked fine and got better. Now I'm using a combination of three different apps, cutting and pasting in between, and I still can't properly edit, size or arrange the photos. Infuriating. 

Onward! The tour continued to Iceland's national park. The cool one (people - a geothermal joke - some chuckling please!) Volcanic and seismic activity evidenced by geysers. Or, more precisely, Geysir, the one after which all others are named!

Unfortunately, Geysir doesn't spout off too much anymore. It didn't blow while we were there, and it's becoming inactive. 

Fortunately Geysir's cousin has become increasingly active, erupting every 5-10 minutes ( and about every 3-4 minutes while we were there!) The ground around the whole area is hot. There are signs warning people not to stray from the brick path, that in some places the ground is 80-100 degrees Celcius. That's wicked hot to you and me. 

Geysir wasn't the only game in town, nor its erupting cousin. There were also bubbling calderas of volcanically heated water, random hot springs, and periodic geysers. 

The tour broke for lunch at the national park. Most people ate in the visitor center, but Dad and I economized by buying some bread, sausage and cheese at the Bønus Supermarket.

Oh, we had Kit Kats and Rolos, too. 

The last stop of the tour was the intersection between North America and Europe. The meeting of the tectonic plates. Iceland actually grows by 1-2 inches per year as Europe and North America slowly distance themselves from one another. 

It was also at this particular spot that the Vikings of Iceland formed the oldest parliament of them all -- in the tenth century and it still meets today (but somewhere else.) the Vikings did not know that the area was also a major stress point in the Earth's crust. 

The area is beautiful and centrally-located.  That's why it was picked as the meeting place. 

The wall to the left of the picture is part of the tectonic plate (not sure whether the European or North American). The tour came to a close shortly thereafter, with a 30 minute drive back to Reykjavik. 

Dad and I dined at an Italian restaurant, but we hit the sack relatively early. Our shuttle bus picks us up at 3:30 AM tomorrow for the airport and onward to Denmark!