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.