Uncategorized

Here is a short video of some clips I took while on my trip to Scandinavia. It shows some of my favorite things that I saw in even more detail than in photos.

On my second day in Copenhagen, I started the day off by going on a bike tour of the city.  We rode all around the city and got to see a lot of the well-known places and buildings that I had not been able to get to the day before.  On the tour there were a few older couples from the US who were traveling together and they were very friendly and “adopted” me during the tour.  At the end, they told me that they had a reservation for dinner at a Michelin star rated pizza restaurant for that night and kindly invited me.  Unfortunately, I had to get on the ferry to Oslo later that afternoon, so I would not be able to make it, but it was such a nice offer!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After the bike tour, I had just enough time to visit the Denmark Design Museum and a cathedral that was on the way (the largest dome in northern Europe).

Afterwards, I boarded the ferry, which was more like a cruise ship, and enjoyed drinking my bubble tea on the top deck while reading a book.  Because the sun doesn’t set until much later in Scandinavia, I was able to sit up there until past 8 and the sun was still high in the sky.  Then, I decided I should go inside to eat dinner and spend the rest of the evening relaxing in my room.  It had four bunk beds that folded down, so I had quite a selection of sleeping locations!

I arrived in Copenhagen very early in the morning, so I sat at a cafe in the central station for a bit and had a hot chocolate and cinnamon bun while I got my day planned out. After I stored my luggage at my Airbnb I decided to go out and explore a few places that were quicker stops.

I first went to the Church of Our Saviour because it’s tower is known as one of the best views of the city. The steeple is quite unique, as it spirals around, and you can actually walk up the spiral to the very top.

Next, I stopped by the National Library, which is also called the Black Diamond. It’s a pretty cool building but a quick stop before I continued on to the Denmark Architecture Center, which was right next door. There, I went through the exhibits and saw some interesting building models.

The next thing on my list was a tour at Rosenborg Castle. It was actually right next to my Airbnb, so very convenient, and while it is a small building it was interesting to hear about the history of the royals using it as a summer home. In the armory we got to see the Crown Jewels and lots of other expensive-looking things.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

For the rest of the afternoon I relaxed for a bit and then ventured out to try a nearby bubble tea place and walk around a shopping area.

At night I went to Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park in the city center. I didn’t go on any rides, but I walked around and then went to the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra concert, which happened to be on that night. It was really good! Once it got dark enough they did a light show over the little pond in the park, which was actually really cool. They used smoke machines and lasers to create 3D designs, which I had never seen before.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After a long day I slept very well but was happy with all I was able to fit in, since my time in each place is pretty short.

Today I wanted to fit in a few more of the must see sights so I got up and went to the City Hall. I took the guided tour and went up in the tower. This is where the Nobel Prize banquet is held each year, so it was interesting hearing about that event- I even learned that all 1300 guests (including the royal family) get served dinner in under 8 minutes in order to keep the food warm! It was a really interesting and beautiful building and then after I was able to get a ticket to go up in the tower for beautiful views of the city.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

My next stop was the Vasa Museum, which is about a huge warship that sailed out in the harbor in the 17th century for about 20 minutes but then sank. It was brought back up over 300 years later and was in relatively good condition, so it is now displayed in its own museum. This was a really great museum and I spent more time than I expected there. It really was incredible how big this ship was and the story behind it is so interesting!

My last stop of the day was Skansen, an open-air folk museum that showcases life in Sweden throughout history. It reminded me a bit of Sturbridge Village with all the buildings you can go into with tradespeople doing their trades. But, all of the buildings at Skansen are historic buildings that have been transported from all over Sweden. It was cool to walk around and go in the buildings, but my favorite part was the folk dance performance that I watched. They had live fiddlers and performed several traditional Swedish dances, which was really fun to watch!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After visiting Skansen I just had a couple hours left in Stockholm, so I rode the ferry back to the Old Town and walked around a bit more before getting my luggage from the hotel and heading to the bus station. I’m taking the overnight bus to Copenhagen, so stay tuned for what I get to do tomorrow in another city and country!

The next day we left Christchurch and headed north to Kaikoura.  I had been there a couple of times before, but had never done a whale watch.  Kaikoura is well known as a great place to see whales, so we were all very excited.  Before our cruise we stopped at Point Kean, where there is a fur seal colony that you can find laying out on the rocks by the ocean.  Sure enough, we saw several seals enjoying the sun and some were even up on the boardwalk by the car park.  We got pretty close to them and could take some pictures before it was time to get lunch at Cooper’s Catch, a fish and chips shop, and head to the “whaleway” station for our cruise.

At the whale watch, we watched a briefing video about safety and the types of whales found in the area.  Then, we went down to the marina and got on our boat.  We sat inside for the most part while the boat was moving because it can go and stop pretty fast, so you can easily get thrown around.  We went out into the ocean and then stopped for everyone to go outside and look for signs of whales.  The skipper used an instrument that kind of looked like a long extended funnel to listen underwater for whale sounds.

Pretty quickly one of the crew saw a spout of water in the distance, so the skipper drove the boat over and we got to watch the whale while it was breathing at the surface.  The whales come up and will breathe and blow water up for 5-10 minutes and then dive back down.  So, after watching for a few minutes, the crew was able to see the whale’s body language and tell us when it was about to dive, which is when their tail will come up and make a great photo.  It was so cool to watch since their movement looks like it’s in slow motion, and this was something we’d never seen before.

Then, we drove off to another location and looked out for more whales for the rest of the two hours.  We ended up seeing three Sperm whales and a Humpback whale.  There were reports from other boats that there was a Southern Right whale, which is pretty rare, but when we went over there we didn’t see anything.  We did see more fur seals as we went back to the marina, and the whale watch was still an amazing experience.

After getting some ice cream for an afternoon snack, we headed north to Picton, where we would be catching the ferry to the North Island the next morning.

Today was pretty boring.  We drove for pretty much the whole day.  I mean, there aren’t really that many good places to stop in the middle of Nevada.  We ended up staying in a hotel just outside of California called the Nugget.  The Nugget, much to my dismay, does not give you free chicken nuggets!  What’s up with that??  But, it does have a really cool pool.  It had a regular pool and a hot tub as well as individual bubble pools that you could sit in and an area that had a cool waterfall!  Lindsey and I had a lot of fun playing in the pool and under the waterfall.

Today we left Custer State Park.  On the way out we saw a lot of animals including bison, pronghorns, and burros.  Go to this link (http://youtu.be/UxwVGypdPRE) to see the video of the encounter that we had with the burros.  They actually stuck their heads in the car looking for food.  One tried to eat the trash bag that was hanging on Lindsey’s seat!  Here is a picture of the burros sticking their heads in another car:

When we got to Cody, Wyoming we checked into the hotel and went to a chuckwagon dinner.  This is a dinner that cowboys would traditionally have but it was held at a restaurant.  You served yourself and ate at picnic tables.  After you finished eating there was a performance of cowboy music.  Three cowboys sang and played guitars for a bunch of songs- not exactly my taste.

After the chuckwagon, we went down the road to a rodeo.  This was very fun.  I liked it but couldn’t help feeling bad for the calves and horses that they were trying to tie up and ride.  Here is a picture from the rodeo.  It’s hard to get pictures because everything goes by so quickly.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After being so hot for so long during the hike we went to the air conditioned visitor’s center and watched a video to cool off.  It was kind of interesting but a little boring.  Lindsey said that it felt like she was in science class..

On the way out of the Badlands we saw some really cool animals.  First we saw a herd of buffalo and one was very close to the car!  Next,  we went to a place that had a bunch of prairie dogs.  They are so cute!  See the slideshow to see some pictures.

Next, we drove to Custer State Park (still in South Dakota, who knew there was so much stuff here?).  We stayed in a room in another lodge style hotel but it wasn’t nearly as nice as our cottage that we stayed in the day before.

After we got to the hotel we drove to Mount Rushmore to have dinner.   We saw Mt. Rushmore and took lots of pictures.  We even went on a short hike near it.  After this we had dinner at the café there.  Lindsey and I had Presidential Root Beer!  After this we watched a video about Mt. Rushmore at the outdoor amphitheater and saw the monument lit up at night.