Friday 28 March 2008

Sweden - Day 7


March 18, 2008
Goteborg, Sweden

Today the skating starts - World's 2008 - that's the real purpose behind this whole trip. The Original Dance this afternoon and the Opening Ceremonies and Pairs Short tonight. We're SO PROUD of our Sk8trgrl!!

Wednesday 26 March 2008

Sweden - Day 6


March 17, 2008
Goteborg, Sweden

Well, we're situated quite comfortably in the Hotel Lorensburg, about a block from the Scandinavium, where the skating events will be held. We have heard from Charles, who had at that time arrived at the airport and Colleen and I returned the rental car to their downtown office. Our hotel rooms are very nice and the hotel staff are wonderful. I'm quite certain we are going to like it here very much.

Sweden - Day 5

March 16, 2008
Copenhagen

Just a quick note to let you know we're back from Aero and situated in a hotel just outside of Copenhagen. Tomorrow we'll head across the bridge to Sweden, explore Lund, and then head north back to Goteborg.

Aero is amazing. It's a town preserved to its medieval appearance and very interesting to see. We took a drive in the countryside as well and enjoyed it immensely. Our B&B last night (Pension Vestergade 44) was great and we had a terrific supper at Mumm's Restaurant.

Gotta move on, 'cos this is a free computer in the lobby (internet access in our room is not free and we're cheap!!).

Bye for now. We'll be in touch again from Gotheburg.

Sweden - Day 4








March 14, 2008
Denmark

Today was our Denmark day. We left our B&B bright and early this morning and headed across the countryside to Frederiksborg Castle, the grandest castle in Scandinavia. After we toured the castle, we headed back to the highway and drove to Svendborg to catch the ferry to Aero. the town of Aeroskobing is everything Rick Steves said it is. We were greeted at our Pension by Susanna, who welcomed us like old friends and served us a pot of tea in the library.

She recommended Mumm's, a restaurant around the corner, for dinner, where we were greeted as 'The Canadians'. Apparently, not many Canadians make it to this little corner of Denmark. We had a little walk around the town after dark tonight, but plan to have a better look in the daylight. Then we're catching the 2:55 ferry back to Svendborg and then we'll hi-tail it back to Copenhagen for the night.

We'll probably have internet there, but in case we don't or are too tired to email, our plan is then to cross the bridge to Malmo on Monday morning, visit Lund for a while and then head back to Gothenburg (we have to return the rental car by 5 on Monday). We'll get established in our hotel and probably meet up with Charles and Michele who will arrive on Monday as well.

Sweden - Day 3





March 13, 2008
Karlstrup, Denmark

Hello from Karlstrup, Denmark. After buying Colleen's Norwegian sweater and visiting a sculpture park and a museum where there were two excavated Viking ships we headed to the Kon Tiki Museum to have a look. I sure wouldn't want to head off across the Pacific ocean on that craft. We had a wonderful trip from Oslo to Copenhagen on the ferry - it really is like a mini-cruise. It wasn’t as opulent as a real cruise ship, but it sure was a long way from the “William Carson” to Newfoundland. We landed this morning at 9:30 and spent the day exploring Copenhagen. We started with the Little Mermaid and then went to the Royal Palace. From there was went to Rosenborg Castle to see the crown jewels.

Then the rain stopped and we went on our walking tour. We started at the City Hall and walked
along a pedestrian street (Stroget - the first pedestrian-only shopping street in the world) to New Harbour. Cheryl and Marilyn had a look around while Colleen and Paul walked back to the car and drove down to pick up the other two. Then we drove out of the city and found our bed and breakfast for tonight (Friday). They directed us to a couple of possibilities for supper and we
chose a Chinese buffet. When we saw the Thousand Islands Dressing at the salad bar we just HAD to tell them!!

Now we’re back at the B&B and getting ready to settle down for the night. Tomorrow we’re
going to Fredricksborg and then on the Aero where we have another B&B booked. After that it’s
back to Copenhagen and then across the bridge to Malmo and back to Goteborg.

Sweden - Day 2




March 12, 2008
Oslo

I really can't quite believe we sat in downtown Oslo, Norway tonight and had dinner in a street-side cafe. Our trip today, as always, was not without its stresses, but all-in-all went remarkably smoothly and according to schedule.

We had a very nice breakfast at our hotel in Goteborg this morning (it only seems like a week ago!!). Then we got in the car and set out to find the Hotel Lorensburg, where we'll be staying next week. That was quite easy, so we then set off for Oslo. We ventured off the main highway in order to visit a couple of small communities along the coast. They were certainly worth the extra effort. Very picturesque and much more like visiting a different place. The hotels and restaurants and cities are not that different from other places, but we got a real chance to see rural Sweden today and it was beautiful and very interesting. We visited Lysekil and Smogen and found them very interesting. We then visited Tanumshede and saw Bronze Age carvings in a huge rock there (3000 years old!! - the carvings, that is, not the rock)

Then we fired up the laptop and began our trek to Oslo. Our only faux pas was to drive through the 'do not stop' lane where we were supposed to stop and pay a 'city toll'. We asked the hotel desk clerk what we should do and she said to forget about it. So we'll try to do that. It may come back to bite us when we return the rental car next week.

Tomorrow we're planning to see a real Viking ship and the KonTiki in museums here in Oslo. Then it's off to the ferry dock to catch our cruise to Copenhagen.

Sweden - Day 1

Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Goteborg, Sweden

Discovered when we got back to the Nice Hotel (honest - that's its name!) that there is wireless internet access here at the hotel so I'll expand a little on our email sent earlier this evening.

When we arrived at Syracuse airport we were subjected, because of the recent changes in our tickets, to a VERY thorough security search. Then when we got to the gate they informed us that the Syracuse-NY flight was overbooked and all they could do was change our itinerary so we would not fly out until 7:30 p.m. (instead of 2:30) and then fly to Chicago, then Frankfurt, then Goteborg. With no alternative, we agreed. In return, United offered us each a return ticket anywhere in the continental US. Then, 10 minutes before our original flight left, it was determined that there were, in fact, 4 seats on that flight so we were very quickly booked on that flight, back on our original Copenhagen-Gothenburg flights and had the Chicago-Frankfurt foolishness cancelled. So we flew here on our expected flights, but it was not easy.

As I said, the Hotel Nice is spartan but clean and comfortable. We picked up the rental car (a Volkswagen Passat) and did some driving around the city, finding our hotels, the arena, etc. We investigated the dining room at the hotel Charles will stay at next week and gave up the notion due to a lack of cash - pretty pricey!! We ate, instead, at a little Greek restaurant about a block from Charles hotel and a couple of doors from the hotel we're in now.

We're going to pick up some groceries tomorrow morning and then head out for Oslo. The city driving has not been fun - partly because the laptop can't be used in the car once its battery runs down. Neither of the car-chargers we brought will work. The GPS was a tremendous help while it was working, but once the laptop dies the driving is very difficult.

The countryside driving should be easier, though and we're expecting to see some very interesting sights tomorrow.

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Gananoque, Ontario, Canada