Sunday, September 10, 2006
Oslo - My Top Three
The first stop on our honeymoon was Oslo, Norway. And even though the airline lost my bag, I still really enjoyed the city. Here’s my top three list.
One. The Vikingskiphuset or the Viking Ship Museum. This museum has two excellently preserved Viking ships. The reason they are so well preserved is that the boats were never used as they were burial boats. There is also a third boat that isn’t as well preserved.
Two. The folkemuseum or the Folk Museum. This was our first experience with an open air museum in Scandinavia. The museum has collected buildings from through out Norway and reassembled them in one location. There are old buildings from all over Norway.
Including an 800 year old Stave Church.
Three. Frognerparken with Vigeland’s sculptures and museum. I took so many photos here that the park is going to require a post of its own. Basically Oslo bribed Gustav Vigeland to come back to the city by offering him a big studio and an even bigger park to display his work in. The results were amazing.
Once I get all my photos of the park uploaded, I’ll post all about the park and museum.
One. The Vikingskiphuset or the Viking Ship Museum. This museum has two excellently preserved Viking ships. The reason they are so well preserved is that the boats were never used as they were burial boats. There is also a third boat that isn’t as well preserved.
Two. The folkemuseum or the Folk Museum. This was our first experience with an open air museum in Scandinavia. The museum has collected buildings from through out Norway and reassembled them in one location. There are old buildings from all over Norway.
Including an 800 year old Stave Church.
Three. Frognerparken with Vigeland’s sculptures and museum. I took so many photos here that the park is going to require a post of its own. Basically Oslo bribed Gustav Vigeland to come back to the city by offering him a big studio and an even bigger park to display his work in. The results were amazing.
Once I get all my photos of the park uploaded, I’ll post all about the park and museum.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Jet Lag / First Pictures
It's the middle of the night and I'm wide awake. So, I thought I'd take advantage of this time and have my first look at the pictures that I took. This is the first time I've seen them other than through the tiny little screen that is on the camera and they turned out pretty good.
I took a little over 1200 pictures! Geez... That's nearly twice as many as our last trip. Obviously I won't be posting all of them. But, tonight, I have posted 24 that are available in a single set on Flickr.
Here is the link.
I took a little over 1200 pictures! Geez... That's nearly twice as many as our last trip. Obviously I won't be posting all of them. But, tonight, I have posted 24 that are available in a single set on Flickr.
Here is the link.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Home Again!
Ah, it's good to be home again.
We got up early to catch our 7:25am flight from Helsinki to Frankfurt. But, the flight was delayed getting into Frankfurt because Frankfurt was so busy. By the time we landed, we only had about 30 minutes to make our connecting flight. But, since this was a flight to the US, we had to go through another round of screenings and inspections and the line was very very long. It was a madhouse. Passengers were yelling at the security people, the security people were yelling back, and passengers were yelling at each other. Ugly.
We did managed to skip ahead a bit by saying that our flight was already boarding, but we still had to wait in line for about 20 minutes. When we finally got to the screening station, they found my contact lens eye drops (all liquids forbidden). I told them I needed the wetting drops for the dry-air plane ride and actually put a couple drops in my eyes to prove they were not explosives. They let me keep them. We then franticly ran to our departing gate, only to find that they were holding our flight because about a quarter of the booked passengers still had not boarded yet. The plane ended up waiting nearly an hour before finally taking off.
Other than that, it was a smooth and uneventful flight back. I did see a rather large forest fire in the Canadian Rockies, a beautiful look at Rainier, and we practually flew right over the west rim of Mt. St. Helens.
We got up early to catch our 7:25am flight from Helsinki to Frankfurt. But, the flight was delayed getting into Frankfurt because Frankfurt was so busy. By the time we landed, we only had about 30 minutes to make our connecting flight. But, since this was a flight to the US, we had to go through another round of screenings and inspections and the line was very very long. It was a madhouse. Passengers were yelling at the security people, the security people were yelling back, and passengers were yelling at each other. Ugly.
We did managed to skip ahead a bit by saying that our flight was already boarding, but we still had to wait in line for about 20 minutes. When we finally got to the screening station, they found my contact lens eye drops (all liquids forbidden). I told them I needed the wetting drops for the dry-air plane ride and actually put a couple drops in my eyes to prove they were not explosives. They let me keep them. We then franticly ran to our departing gate, only to find that they were holding our flight because about a quarter of the booked passengers still had not boarded yet. The plane ended up waiting nearly an hour before finally taking off.
Other than that, it was a smooth and uneventful flight back. I did see a rather large forest fire in the Canadian Rockies, a beautiful look at Rainier, and we practually flew right over the west rim of Mt. St. Helens.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Tallinn
Tallinn was everything that I had hoped for, and as a bonus we got some wonderful sunny weather (and great pictures too). It's a small Medieval walled city with many winding cobbled stoned streets that end with open squares, impressive buildings and large churches. We got there a little before 10am and walked around town until nearly 3:30pm with only a short break for lunch. The old town reminds me of Rothenburg, Germany, with the stone walls and towers. But, there is one noticeable difference. Tallinn is still getting a feel for the tourist trade compared to mature Rothenburg. Although there were plenty of restaurants, cafes and nick-nack stores, there wasn't any of the riff-raff carts and most notably no ice cream stands. There is much fix-up in progress. We saw much street repair, building painting, etc. Estonia was under Soviet rule for over 40 years during the cold war. It was the first time that I had ever visited a former Soviet town. Aside from some rough edges, it wasn't that much different from anywhere else in Europe. A very nice town well worth the visit.
Tomorrow is our last full day on our trip. We were going to do some train hopping, but have decided to just explore Helsinki some more. Sunday is the, ugh, long flight home. Despite the flight, it will be good to be back home again.
-ge
Tomorrow is our last full day on our trip. We were going to do some train hopping, but have decided to just explore Helsinki some more. Sunday is the, ugh, long flight home. Despite the flight, it will be good to be back home again.
-ge
