Category Archives: Uncategorized

Stockholm – Hustle & Bustle

Let’s start with a travel tip. I’m always a little leery of package schemes and deals aimed at visitors, but the Stockholm Card is the exception and a great deal. This is a real godsend, which, if you keep busy, offers significant savings. It is also hugely convenient to not have to dig for cash or use a credit card everywhere you go. Besides giving you free passage on all of Stockholm’s public transportation you also get free access to over 75 major museums and major historical sites.

Our public transportation map after 6 days.

Stockholm is a big and busy city, not big and busy in an otherworldly sense like Hong Kong, New York or London. There are no skyscrapers and the church spires are still the tallest structures in town. There are no giant cloverleaf overpasses like arteries in some huge beast, but Stockholm is spread out over 14 islands with a complex overlapping transport system that incorporates ferries, buses, trams, subways, bridges, walkways and roads that tie the whole thing together.

The City Food Market

The City Food Market

Shopping on Drottninggatan

In Blasieholmen

On the ferry to Djurgarden

In Blasieholem

On the ferry to Djurgarden

On the dock in Skeppsholem

Hotorget Square

Across the water towards Ostermalm

Across the water towards Ostermalm

Kiosk in Djurgarden

Clock near Kungstradgarden

Old Tram Sign

Building in Ostermalm

Walking in the old city.

Near T-Centralen

Outside T-Centralen

Gamla Stan

Gamla Stan, or “Old Town”, is our favorite part of the city. It is situated on the island of Stadsholmen and is one huge warren of narrow medieval streets and heritage sites. The Royal Palace, museums and 17^th century churches are just steps from each other. The entire atmosphere is of a bygone era.

Stortorget was the site of the old Stock Exchange is now a lively square in the heart of the old town but in 1520 it was the site of the Stockholm Bloodbath when the Danish King tricked the Swedish Regent and beheaded more then 80 Swedish noblemen in this very square.

Stortorget

The Hotorget Flea Market

No trip would be complete without a flea market. The square at Hotorget is a flower and produce market all week but every Sunday it transforms to a great little second hand market. Just try to keep Wendi away. I dare you.

Sinking Expectations or The Very Short Voyage of the Vasa

When the Vasa was designed by two Dutch brothers in 1628 it was the largest and most heavily armed war ship in the world. With this vessel the Swedes hoped to strike fear in their enemies and control all trade on the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately, there was no engineering, as we know it, at the time and all construction was essentially done by trial and error. The massive ship proved to be just a whisper too tall and slightly too narrow. It was a lovely sunny day on August 10^th in 1628 when the Vasa set out on it’s maiden voyage. In a slight breeze it listed a little to starboard, took in water through the gun ports and sank to the bottom of Stockholm harbor where it lay until being rediscovered in 330 feet of water in 1956. After a complex salvage operation and a 17 year conservation project the Vasa now sits proudly in it’s own especially designed museum.

http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/The-Ship/Life-on-board/

Where are all the Norwegians?

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Two French Tourists

I received a comment the other day asking, “Where are all the people?” and I suppose that’s fair. I’m clearly more interested in art and architecture then I am in documenting the lives of complete strangers. That been said I would probably take more pictures of people here if we had met any Norwegians. In point of fact, with the exception of Jon who was kind enough to pick us up at the airport the day we arrived, we haven’t met any Norwegians. I know they’re here somewhere. Perhaps the gal in the supermarket is Norwegian, although her English is so perfect, maybe not. The fella at the local snack bar is Scottish. We met a potter in Bergen who is English, went to school in South Dakota and married a Norwegian. Maybe we can meet him? All the bartenders are English, who along with their neighbors in the Emerald Isle are clearly the world’s most avid drinkers. All the waitresses are Swedish, who since the oil boom have turned into Norway’s poor relations. And almost all the tourists are Asians, with a slight smattering of Spaniards. Oh, I almost forgot, the girl in the Tourist Bureau is Norwegian but she’s moving to Budapest in two weeks so she doesn’t really count. There are no festivals here this month and a lot of shops are closed. We have been told that’s because all the Norwegians have fled to Spain where they are assured of sunshine. Even small cities have direct flights to Malaga, Alicante, Majorca and the Canary Islands to help facilitate the mass exodus.

A Swedish Waitress

Once we were in Liechtenstein and asked a waitress if she was local. She laughed and said that she was Portuguese and that if we wanted to meet any Liechtensteinians we would need to go to the bank, that being both their workplace and spiritual home. That’s somewhat problematic now. With the advent of ATMs we haven’t needed to go into a foreign bank since we were in Turkey over 25 years ago. Perhaps we should go into the Sparbank in Bergen and ask, “Where the hell are all the Norwegians?”

In A Nutshell

The Flamsbanen

We took the world famous Flamsbanen as part of the “Norway In A Nutshell” tour, which is billed as the world’s most beautiful train ride. It runs from Myrdal on the mountain plateau down to Flam on the banks of the great Sognefjorden.

Myrdal Station

Amazing Vistas

Kjosfossen Waterfall

Arriving in Flam

Cruise Ship docks at Flam

It’s Party Time

It’s Party Time

Our entire train was filled with a huge tour group from Sichuan Province China. Wendi and I were the only non-Asians on the train. I love these people. In Norway for just 16 days but the rumpus never stops.

Chan “The Ringleader”

The party began when they handed around dehydrated fish nuggets of some kind that we were encouraged to share. They devoured them. Truly the most God Awful things I have ever put in my mouth, I can still taste them.

Breakfast

The men cracked open a quart of single malt scotch at 8:15am and had drained the bottle in less then an hour.

Look Mountains

And talk about equipment, they were a legion of picture takers. I think they must all be product testers for Sony or Samsung. And they were fascinated with snow-covered mountains. Every time the mountains came into view the entire group would leap to that side of the train and take hundreds of pictures. We were certain the car was going to tip over.

Making Memories

The Borgund Stave-Church

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Borgund Stave-Church

This church is located at Borgund in Lærdal beside the Sognefjord and is the world’s best preserved stave church.

Borgund Stave-Church

These medieval wooden Christian church buildings were once common in north-western Europe. It is believed, that at one point, there were between 750 and 1000 stave churches in Norway. Today there are only 28 remaining. In the Middle Ages, when people in Europe were building great cathedrals in stone, Norway developed similar construction techniques with timber. Norway had a very long tradition of wood construction for buildings, art and the production of ships. The roof structure is essentially an inverted ship hull.

Come On In

The North Door

The decoration of stave churches is a fascinating blend of Christianity and Viking era symbols with several runic inscriptions on the church walls and the distinctive “Dragon’s Heads”, similar to those found on Viking ships, jutting out from the gable peaks. The main doorway has vine-scrolls on the pilasters and serpents and dragons on the side panels and lintel.

The Main Doorway

Runic Inscriptions & Animal Masks On the South Door

Medieval Stone Altar. The Altarpiece Was Painted In 1654.

The timbers used to construct this church were felled in the year 1180. There are two factors that have accounted for the church’s longevity, it is constructed entirely on a stone foundation so that none of the wood touches the ground and also the timbers were “seasoned on the root” which draws the tar to the surface thereby preserving the wood beneath.

Root Seasoned Wood

More Useless But Interesting Facts

St. Andrew’s Cross:

St. Andrew’s Cross

The diagonal cross-braces are named after St. Andrew who was crucified on a diagonal cross, supposedly at his own request, as he deemed himself unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus had been. Who knows? But one thing is clear, the whole idea captured people’s imagination. The symbol has been used on the flags of Scotland, England, Grenada, Jersey, Logrono, Vitoria, Amsterdam, Breda, Potchefstroom, Kateijk, Valdivia, Tenerife, Galicia, Jamaica, Burgundy, the Imperial Russian Navy, the state flags of Florida and Alabama, as well as, the former Indian princely states of Khairpur, Rajkot, and Jaora, just to name a few. And of course, there is the much debated Confederate flag. Although the original designer, Willian Porcher Miles, insisted he changed it from an upright cross to a saltire so that it would be more a heraldic device then a religious symbol.

Vestlandet – Gateway to Norway

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I should begin by saying that to call Norway beautiful is an understatement on the magnitude of referring to Angelina Jole as “kind of attractive”. This place is crazy beautiful. If you like vistas of verdant forests and unspoiled tranquil inlets with villages and towns huddled on the water’s edge this is the place for you.

Our Exchange

People are always curious where we end up when we do these exchanges. We are very lucky to find ourselves in a lovely traditional Nordic country home.

We are situated on Radoy, a relatively small island just north of Bergen in the county of Vestlandet.

The Neighborhood

Walking distance of the house.

On The Road

The whole region consists of a plethora of small and medium sized islands. As the crow flys, nothing seems that far away, but unlike the birds, we are bound to the earth. Driving around means relying on a hugely circuitous network of very narrow country lanes, an assortment of bridges, both large and small, and a system of ferries that range from big ocean going vessels to tiny tow barges. The whole area reminds me of a joke we would hear as kids about an old farmer from Maine explaining to a lost tourist, “you just can’t get there from here.”. To hurry is futile. It’s all very exciting as the teeny weenie lanes wind up, down and around, past incredibly picturesque farms and homes perched on impossibly steep hillsides and tucked into snug little coves and harbors.

Rich or poor, it’s nice to have your own little island!

Plunder In The Tundra

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Iceland is a small and very remote place, smaller then Washington State with about 320,000 Icelanders. By comparison, Washington has just fewer than 7 million. The country’s remoteness has created some interesting results. It has been said that the Icelandic language has remained so unpolluted that, with the exception of new words, early Icelanders could understand you today.

Incest Prevention

Incest Prevention App

With such a small population in Iceland, most share common ancestors, and almost everyone is distantly related to each other. A genealogy database called “The Book of Icelanders” has been created. Worldwide, it is unique in its completeness. In light of the closeness of the population “Incest Prevention” is apparently a concern. Software developers have created a Beta version of an anti-incest app that can keep residents from becoming kissing’ cousins. The apps motto is ” Bump in the app before you bump in the bed.”

The Gods

Odin

Since Marvel Comics have brought Norse mythology to the big screen most of us are somewhat familiar with the impossibly hunky Thor and the evil conniving Loki, but interest in the old Norse Gods doesn’t end with the movies. Icelanders will soon be able to publicly worship Odin’s entire clan at the first major temple to the Norse Gods since the Vikings pillaged the known world more then a thousand years ago. The domed 3,800 square foot Pagan Worship site began construction last January at a cost of about a million dollars. The temple, which will align with the sun and incorporate the Golden Ratio, is being built into Öskjuhlíð Hill overlooking Reykjavik and will house about 250 worshipers at a time for various services including marriages and funerals, but no sacrifices, animal or otherwise. Iceland has approximately 2,400 pagans, but for you Yankees out there, don’t be too quick to judge. Conservative estimates suggest that America has just under 400,000 pagans, making us the reigning champs in the pantheon of pagans.

SAD Cars

Grizzly

We rented online from SAD Cars. We assumed it stood for Scandinavian Auto Division or some such thing. We never imagined that it really meant “sad cars”. The car looked like a crime scene on wheels, as if an angry customer had attacked it with buckshot and a baseball bat. Grizzly, our stoner service representative, assured us that it ran great and a little vibration in the front end was nothing to be concerned about. The pre-rental damage diagram had so many circles, arrows and Xs on it you could barely see the illustration of the car. The only positive thing we can say is that we didn’t have to push it to start it. And we’re off.

The Blue Lagoon

Your flight arrives at 6am and no hotel will let you in until at least 2 or 3pm so most people spend the day floating around in the Blue Lagoon. Touristy? Sure. Spendy? You bet. But, oh so comfy.

The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon

The Golden Circle

This is a nice one day circular route through SW Iceland that gives most tourist with a limited time frame a nice sample of the Icelandic countryside.

Pingvellir National Park

Pingvellir National Park

Pingvellir National Park

Strokkur Geysir – Geothermal Field in Haukadalur

Pingvellir National Park

Pingvellir National Park

Wreak-Ya-Vek (Hey nobody can it spell anyway)

I don’t know how else to describe Reykjavik except funky.

Leif Eriksen stands guard outside Hallgrimskirkja

The Midnight View From Our Window

Corrugated Iron Is The Siding Of Choice

Corrugated Iron Is The Siding Of Choice

#8

Sleep Deprived and Kind of Smelly.

Although we enjoyed Iceland a lot it should be noted that it’s not to everyone’s taste. The sun sets at midnight and is up again at 3am, but it never really gets dark. The bars in the capital don’t get hopping until 12 and don’t close until 4:30 am, which does make for a lot of drunken idiots roaming the streets all night. Which may account for the fact that, with the exception of tourists, we didn’t see anyone in the capital over 35 years old.

Oliver Maria Schmitt

In a newly published travelogue, the German author Oliver Maria Schmitt is not impressed with Iceland’s weather, nature, geology, food or culture. He was especially annoyed with the inhabitants, which he characterized as depressing, disgusting and obnoxious. Oliver went on to describe Iceland as an island of death and gloom, filled with darkness and depression, as depressing as East Germany. High praise indeed. While disgusted with the stench of sulphur and the desolate landscapes, he was equally bothered by the weather, “An awful, endless storm which alternates between rain and snow, something which would suck the will to live out of any sane person. However, the inmates don‘t seem to care in the least”. He goes on to characterize the inhabitants as self-important idiots and whale-hunting retards. I am barely scratching the surface here as the disillusioned German traveler’s scathing comments go on for pages and I can assure you that not everyone appreciates the humor in the satirist’s remarks. Some prominent commentators on Icelandic politics and culture have referred to the Oliver as unfunny and insulting. Unfortunately, there is some truth in his comments, which makes the satire that much funnier.

Sunday Morning Baggage Drop Off At Keflavik Airport

Still tourism in Iceland has doubled since 2009 from 600,00 to 1.2 million visitors annually, but according to Jon Kaldal of Iceland Magazine, “We Icelanders are not likely to pick up any new bad habits from the hordes of visitors. We are already famous for our love of late-night revelry, promiscuity, and lack of discipline, to name just a few things that blight our behavior in general.” Please don’t be dissuaded, Iceland is indeed barren but amazingly beautiful, with ever changing weather, seemingly designed for the rugged outdoorsman. By the way the showers do smell like rotten eggs.

Loose Ends

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As always we’ll finish up this year’s adventure with some of the loose ends that didn’t seem to fit anywhere else.

Air shaft in our Madrid hotel.

I find this clock emblematic of the kind of public respect you see in Austria. It’s only about 8′ off the ground, easily accessable to any passerby, it’s in perfect working order, the glass is unbroken and it is not covered in grafitti or dents. Amazing. Call me cynical, but I think in an outdoor public space is most countries you’d need an armed guard to protect this timepiece. Within a week it’s demolished frame would be dangling from a frayed cord.

Neumarkt train station

The Non-Stop in Budapest is permanently closed.

McDonalds in Innsbruck, Austria

Gerloczy Hotel in Budapest. I love this logo.

At the Gardens in Salzburg everybody lines up to do this.

At the Mirabellgarten in Salzburg everybody lines up to do this.

Stress Points

I have no idea.

Am I the only one who finds this shop a little odd? They sell brushes, nothing but brushes., but all kinds of brushes. They have house painting brushes, artists brushes, clothes brushes, horse brushes, make up brushes, shoe brushes, hair brushes, household scrubbing brushes, giant brushes and tiny brushes, floor brooms and dust brooms. Anything with bristles, but only things with bristles.

Outside the Brush Shop in Budapest.

I love this fountain.

This is part of an art project at the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg that creates awareness of the Honorary City Titles program in which the Nazi state gave honorary titles to certain German and Austrian cities for their support of the Nazi Party. In 1938 Graz, Austria was awarded the title of Die Stadt der Volkserhebung, “City of the Popular Uprising”, for their pro-Nazi demonstrations before the Nazi annexation of Austria in March of 1938.

Die Stadt der Volkserhebung, “City of the Popular Uprising”

The design evolution of the Nazi SS logo. The slow progression from soft to sinister.

Hungarian FBI Most Wanted Poster

Thank you all for tuning in. Auf Wiedersehen

The Most Beautiful Village In Austria

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We asked our new Austrian friends, Hans & Angelica, if there was anything we had missed. They told us that we must see Hallstatt. In their estimation, it is one of Austria’s most beautiful villages, so off we went.

Hallstatt

A very small town with a population of less then 1000, Hallstatt is situated on the southwestern shore of Hallstättersee. There is evidence that people have lived here and mined salt since 800 BC. The world’s first known salt mine is located on the hill above town. Hallstatt has been named a World Heritage Site and is amazingly idyllic.

Hallstatt

Hallstatt Town Square

The Hallstättersee

Hallstatt

Funicular to the salt mine, ice caves and observation point.

Hallstatt

Another Useless but Interesting Fact:

Chinese Hallstatt Stock Photo

“A family walks in the Chinese replica of Austria’s UNESCO heritage site, Hallstatt village, in China’s southern city of Huizhou in Guangdong province June 1, 2012. Metals and mining company China Minmetals Corporation spent $940 million to build this controversial site and hopes to attract both tourists and property investors alike, according to local newspaper reports.” REUTERS/Trrone Siu

Check it out

99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall

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The Beer Man

People come to Europe on extended vacations for all sorts of reasons. I read in Conte Nast about a man that spent months on the continent searching for the perfect Sachertorte. Another fellow spent his entire summer holiday seeking out every topless beach in Europe. Noble as these quests may have been, they didn’t inspire me. I came thirsty for a premium beverage. Alas, I never found the perfect beer. Try as I may, once I thought I had finally discovered the Holy Grail of Hops, that beer would be followed by one that was equally as good and most often even better. You can only imagine the pain and disappointment. Undeterred, I trudged on for hundreds of kilometers and four countries. I have tried beer on mountain tops where it was as cold as a well diggers posterior and at beachfront cabanas were it was as hot as Hades on a sunny day and I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that the best beer will always be the next beer.

More Useless But Interesting Facts

The Andy Kaufman Routine:

The highly repetitive and ultimately boring nature of “99 Bottles of Beer” means that only a child or a lunatic will actually finish it. Comedian Andy Kaufman exploited this fact in the routine early in his career when he would actually sing all 99 verses. Kaufman was deliberately provoking the audience. Once they realized that he actually intended to sing all of the verses, catcalls, booing, and sullen silence were common responses. Toward the end of the sketch, Kaufman would feign recognition that the audience was not enjoying the material, and he would leave the stage with only 5 or 6 “bottles” to go. At that point, the audience would begin calling for him to return to finish the verses.

“Infinite bottles of beer on the wall.”

Mathematician Donald Byrd wrote this song “Infinite bottles of beer on the wall, take one down and past it around, now there are infinite bottles of beer on the wall.” Repeat. “To Infinity & Beyond”.

I’ve got to go.

The Wendi Files – Austro-Hungarian Version

The Bavarian Shuffle

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Munich

The first stop on our swing through southern Bavaria was Munich. It’s a big place, Germany’s third largest city, with a population of around 1.5 million. Although it’s an old city, 1158, it feels very young and is presently undergoing a huge facelift with new construction and restoration everywhere. Munich may be one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany but it’s not all business, people are having a pretty good time here.

An afternoon beer garden

Construction is everywhere.

The Lowenbrau Beer Garden

Candy Shop

The plaza was full of huge rolls of plastic straws. Art?

Ice Cream Vendor

Walking Men

The Olympiaturm was built for the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Marienplatz

The Rathaus at Marienplatz

Marienplatz is the central plaza in the old town and like most everything in central Munich it is overfowing with tourists.

Marienplatz

The Rathaus in Marienplatz

Probably the largest tourist attraction in Munich is the Glockenspiel located on the Rathaus in Marienplatz.Every day at 12 p.m. and 5 p.m in the summer mass crowds of tourists and locals fill the plaza to watch this low-tech marvel chime and re-enact two stories from the 16th century. Consisting of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures, the whole show lasts somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes. At the end of the show, a very small golden rooster at the top of the Glockenspiel chirps quietly three times, marking the end of the spectacle.

Glockenspiel

Urban Surfing

The Grandstand

Despite being many hundreds of kilometres from the nearest ocean, Munich has a reputation as a surfing hotspot, offering one of Europe’s best waves. The Bavarian capital is the birthplace of river surfing and has been the center of surfboard riding on a stationary wave since the early 70s. Up to 100 surfers daily hit the Eisbach wave in the city’s Englischer Garten. Munich has produced the best river surfers and has around 1,000 active surfers, while 10,000 people have tried it at some point. An annual surfing competition is held on the standing wave.

Urban Surfing In Munich

Hans der Kunst

Hans der Kunst

Hans der Kunst – Closed Christmas & New Years

Hans der Kunst was constructed from 1933 to 1937 as the Third Reich’s first monumental structure of Nazi architecture and as Nazi propaganda. The museum was opened on July,18 1937 as a showcase for what the Third Reich regarded as Germany’s finest art. The building’s original purpose can still be seen in such guises as the swastika-motif mosaics in the ceiling panels of its front portico.

Hans der Kunst – 1937

Opening Night

We were there to see a great exhibition called “Mise en scene” by American photographer and filmmaker Stan Douglas.

Lenbachhaus

Lensbachhaus

The Lenbachhaus is a great museum with outstanding art and a terrific cafe. It was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between 1887 and 1891. The building has been remodeled, modernized and expanded many times over the years but some of the rooms of the villa still have kept their original design.

Lensbachhaus Courtyard

If money is what we use to keep score then Gerhard Richter is an MVP. He held the auction record price for a painting by a living artist at $37.1 million until last November when the Balloon Dog (Orange) by Jeff Koons sold for $58.4 million at Christie’s, and knocked Richter off his perch. The museum has 8 large scale Richter abstracts and up close, they are amazing.

Gerhard Richter 7′ x 7′

Ludwig’s Houses

Further south near the Austrian border we stopped by three of Mad King Ludwigs most popular castles.

Neuschwanstein Castle – Disney’s Inspiration

Hohenschwangau Castle

Alpsee from Hohenschwangau Village

King Lugwig of Bavaria was an enigma. Even before he died, the king was already somewhat of a legend. He once told his governess, “I want to remain an eternal mystery to myself and others”. With his palaces the king built an ideal fantasy world and refuge from reality. He conducted no matters of state and strangers were barred from his palaces during his lifetime. Called the Moon King, he stayed up all night reading alone and slept during the day. Although engaged twice, Ludwig never married or took a mistress. His hugely expensive and eccentric interpretation of his role as king was ultimately his downfall. From 1885 foreign banks threatened to seize his property. The government viewed Ludwig’s actions as irrational, had him declared insane and deposed him in 1886. The very next day both he and his psychiatrist died under mysterious circumstances at Lake Starnberg. The shy dreamer palaces have been visited by over 60 million people since his death. Due to tourist revenue over the past thirty years these properties are now firmly in the black. It seems that tales of craziness, murder, deception and an obscene amount of money will work every time.

King Ludwig II

Linderhof Palace

Schloss Linderhof

Construction was completed on Ludwig’s Schloss Linderhof in 1878. It is the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the only one which he lived to see completed. We took the tour and enjoyed every minute.