Tuesday, July 21, 2015

AND IN SUMMARY..........

WE LEARNED 

Danish in Denmark

Progressive Green traffic light for Pedestrians

Yellow traffic light indicating green light coming

Strollers connected to bicycles

Strollers with umbrellas for both sun and rain protection

A different cobble stone for every street

Fantastic storm drain covers

There are mechanical sidewalk cleaners



We loved our trip and hope you enjoyed sharing part of it with us



But we miss our great Northwest and are on our way home




See you all soon!



Love, Becky and Beth

Sunday, July 19, 2015

HAGEN DAZ EQUALS COKE IN HAGEN EQUALS KOBEN HAVN?

 Another beautiful sunrise welcomed us to Copenhagen as we docked!





We were up and moving by 6……breakfast at 6:30…….bags out last night at 10pm…..we were packed and ready to depart Nautica by 7:30am. Picked up our luggage and popped into a taxi and were at our hotel The Radisson Blu by 8:30am. They had our large room  (in the modern style) ready for us when we arrived.



YAHOO!!!! That is when we tried the wifi and realized that we were NOT in a great wifi spot after all. 

Copenhagen is a lovely city and is most famous for the fun fun place Trivoli Gardens which was the basis of the idea by Walt Disney for Disneyland! The real little Mermaid also lives here....


As we left the hotel for our tour of the city, we realized that we had missed the tour (two mixed times). It was worked out that we would tour tomorrow and were free today.  So we decided to jump a train and head to Malmo, Sweden, and avoid the Sunday crowds of Copenhagen!!!!

                              WE DID IT !!!!  WE DID IT ALL BY OURSELVES!!!!


MALMO

Detective Anita here we come! We read a series of Malmo detective books prior to Norway/Sweden trip in 2014. Jo Nesbo is another author of great Swedish books which we have read.   We encourage you to explore all  the Scandanavian mystery writers.

BOOK LIST
Meet Me in Malmo (1) - Torquil MacLeod
Murder in Malmo (2) - Torquil MacLeod
Missing in Malmo (3) - Torquil MacLeod

More books listed on the right side (scroll down) of our Norway blog.  CLICK HERE

We headed to the Train Station, wandered around, watched people purchase tickets electronically, finally realized that we have to purchase a "family" ticket to save our $$$. A grumpy Swede handed over the ticket and off we went to our "adventure"!!!

Copenhagen Train Station

Our trip to Malmo was great and I encourage you all to read the books. Malmo was one of the cities that we have seen is not “facade”. The back streets were just as beautiful as the numerous squares we visited.


Malmo Train Station

MALMO BEAUTY
(including the two beauties who visited on 19 July)
















COPENHAGEN


Back to Copenhagen after a great day at Malmo. Today our last day, was a tour of the city with a cute fun visit to the LITTLE MERMAID, Amalienborg Palace of the Queen, the Maersk Foundation donated Opera House and of course the "commune" Christiania and TIVOLI with all of it's own personal excitements. Lovely town, lovely people, strong allegiance to their Queen and her family and to their flag. Pretty impressive!
















WOW WHAT A GREAT CITY!

Saturday, July 18, 2015

GDANSK, POLAND -- DATES UNCLEAR



                                      LUSCIOUS LOVELY FOR WHAT IS AND ONCE WAS


                           
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

Since the 900’s Gdansk has been “in the news”. War here, war there. Those bad guys and then those other bad guys. 

Gdansk is our next to last stop.  It is glorious, remarkable, extraordinary -- but just when the fantastic and gorgeous streets and buildings were created is unclear. The sun is actually shinning. A promise of 77 degrees...Almost completely destroyed in World War II, Gdansk has restored it facades, offers a bit of this and a bit of that. There are many lovely lovely restorations..the Old Town is terrific and a great walk. We attended a private mass at St Marys Cathedral, one of the largest brick churches in the world.

The main drag is a pedestrian street lined with exceptional buildings of no more than 5 stories.  The top story is usually a decorative pinnacle of some sort, sometimes with carvings or guilded drawings.  Sure likes luscious and lovely but maybe not what was.  We hear the city was leveled during WWII.  (The lovely deep burgundy 5-story across from the coffee shop says 1953!)

The builders and citizens have done a great job at re-purposing what was demolished.  The cafes have gargoyle water drains framing the entrance to their shop.  Often it seems the door itself was recovered from a pile of rubble and completely renewed to former glory.   One patio had several panes of carved shields as its fencing.  All together a marvelous puree of old and new.  Artfully accomplished and wonderful to behold.










We also enjoyed a coffee and very limited wifi at a Costa Coffee shop as we tried to post our  Russian sights. 



AND ANOTHER FACADE OF WHERE DO THE REAL PEOPLE



NOTE: BECKY TOOK THE TIME TO FOCUS HER PHOTOS ON SOME SPECIFICS OF THE OLD TOWN IN GDANSK...

DOORWAYS








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