Scandinavia
Days 7-17
Denmark
Danmark 
Day 7: Friday, May 29
We ended up in Vejle (pron. vie-lay) after coming off the night train to Kolding. From
Vejle, we went to Billund, the home of Legoland! That's the only reason
we spent any time in Denmark in the first place. Otherwise, we might have just
gone through it on the way to Sweden and/or Norway.
Anyway, we got to Legoland around 10 or so (after a bit of
scrambling around getting Danish money from the ATM, and then change for a
locker, and just all kinds of things). It was pretty cool (i.e., neato.. it was actually
pretty warm that day) at Legoland. We took a lot of video
of the place, but I can only transfer still photos to the
computer (at this stage in my life, anyway). They have
diaramas or models based on parts of Europe, including canals
with working locks that boats go through, ferries that accept
moving trucks and go across the "river," and other attention
to detail that makes you wonder what these people did before
Legoland existed to give them something to do. Here's a
general (and representative, I think) European landscape done by the Lego-gineers.
I also captured a photo of a model that's based on Cochem, where we
stayed on the Mosel River. Compare it with the real thing;
they do a pretty good job, eh?
After Legoland, we ended up in Århus, which isn't too bad of a city. We spent a
few hours there since it was nice enough and the ferry to Sweden didn't leave till around
midnight. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves (he recommends
it because most things are under 40 crowns, which is about $6.50 or so). After Århus,
we took a little train to Grenå where Grandpa Isachsen was waiting at the station for us. We drove
with Grandma and Grandpa to the ferry dock, and then took a shower as soon as we could.
(We spent Day 17 in Denmark too, but it was just in transit.. you can read about it
down there)
Sweden
Sverige 
Days 8, 9, 10: Saturday, May 30; Sunday, May 31
I lumped these all together because we spent most of our time at Leif's house.
We landed at Varberg around 5 am, but we didn't get up till 6, then had a buffet breakfast
on board. We finally made it over to Leif's place which was really nice (as was Leif,
that rascal). For those who don't know, Leif and my Grandpa are cousins.
On Saturday, we just kind of chilled with Leif, Asta, and their son Rune. Linda and I
walked down to the water just to check things out. Not too much happened the rest
of the day until we went to Åkulla Ranch, run by Leif's daughter and her family
(including his lovely granddaughter Madeline). We drove around the property which is
quite nice this time of year. For dinner (which we ate around 10pm or so), we had
fresh shrimp and big crawfish. Tasty!
Sunday, we went on their motorboat
and tooled around the Swedish islands for
a while, watching a million jellyfish swim around the boat. Later, we played pool with Grandpa
and Leif. There was some crazy story about Grandpa trying to find his hotel in Paris once, and then
asking some French woman who offered to bring him to her house. Leif made some comment, and
then we were giggling for the rest of the night. It didn't help matters that Grandpa and Linda
missed hitting a full rack three or four times in a row. Crazy.
We also checked out a fort in Varberg
built by the Norwegians. I'm not sure which day we went there
(I'll have to check the diary again), but I know that we brazenly
drove way past the "no cars past this point" sign. I said
Leif was a rascal, didn't I?
Norway
Norge 
Days 10-17
Day 10: Monday, June 1
We were still in Sweden in the morning. We drove from Leif's place
up to Stromstad, where the ferry goes to Sandefjord, Norway. I actually drove
about 100 miles of the way, all by myself (I changed with grandpa when we stopped
to get cinnamon rolls and gas at Uddevalla, just north of Göteborg, where they
have the Saab factory, you know).
In the afternoon, we made it into Sandefjord, where they
have a whaling monument and supposedly the best maritime museum (at least in Norway).
We saw the monument, but we were on the way to Larvik, so we just drove through. We
didn't do too much in Larvik (Grandpa's home town), though stopped at a convenience store
for milk and bread. It was a holiday, so no other stores were open -- not even the ATM's
worked, if you can imagine that.
Day 11: Tuesday, June 2
We went to Damgarten, the horse ranch owned by Knut (another of Grandpa's cousins). It was
raining pretty hard, so we rode the horses on the inside practice track. We also got acquainted
with his pigs, geese, and baby cows. Straight from Knut's, we went to the mall (which is on
Knut's father's old land) where we had lunch and then got stuff at the grocery store.
Later, we went to Westre Haulsen (sp?) where they have the Jon Arne Isachsen Birthhouse (they
don't have a museum like at the Beethoven one). We saw the places where Grandpa and his
brother and cousins used to play way back when. We went to Knut's house and had tea with
Knut and his wife, and then we went back to the ranch where Linda rode a horse for an hour.
No pictures yet, but if I ever figure out how to upload video...
Day 12: Wednesday, June 3
We kinda hung around Larvik some more, going to the bakery and then downtown. Later on,
Grandpa took us to a scenic fishing hole. There's a bridge
looking the other way at the fishing hole, which is near the city of Kvelde. There's a sign there that says Holmfloss, which I guess is the name of the fishing hole, or something.
Shortly thereafter, we dropped in on Walter
(Knut's brother) where we had some of his birthday cake.
Day 13: Thursday, June 4
We were driving up to Oslo, but along the way we stopped in Drammen to see Spiralen.
Spiralen is a mountain that they dug through (to mine the rock or whatever was in it), and
to keep it looking nice from the outside, they dug it in a spiral manner. When they
finished, they made it into a park / nature preserve, and you can now drive up the spiral.
When you come out at top, you can enjoy the view, you can go
hiking on the many trails, of you can sit down and have a nice meal.
Or you can do all three if you're so inclined.
We finally made it into Nøve's (Nirva? still not sure how to spell her name.. sorry!)
house in Oslo after getting a little lost. We met her daughters (with Walter.. it's a long story)
Ada and Hjørdis (pron. yur-dis) as well. Grandma and Grandpa hung out with Nøve
while Linda and I hit a couple of museums in Oslo with the sisters. One museum was all
about Thor Heyerdahl (the Kon Tiki guy), a native of Larvik. Another museum had the boat Fram
in it whose skipper took the boat to both poles. At the North Pole, you'll find
polar bears, whereas the South Pole has penguins.
Later that night, the sisters took us (and their 14 year old dog) Vigeland Park where they have
lots of statues and pretty flowers.
Day 14: Friday, June 5
This day had our whirlwind tour of Oslo. We were warned that Ada can run tourists ragged
with her fast paced tours of the city. It wasn't too bad, though, considering we'd been running
around with our backpacks and in the rain other days. Our first stop was the Akershus Complex,
where I "met" the queen. We then went to the Parliament building,
the art museum, and the King's palace. Down the alley was the
Royal 7-Eleven. We hooked up with Ada who
bought shrimp off a boat, and then we all took a little ferry to the other side of the fjord (bay)
to Bygdøy. We hung around the Folk Museum, which is very similar to Hessenpark in that
they have old buildings there. After a picnic by the stave church, we left and went to the
Viking boat museum. We then drove up the hill to the Holmenkollen ski jump
where there's a really nice view of Oslo and the fjord.
Day 15: Saturday, June 6
Ada and Hjørdis took us to the train station where we caught the train from Oslo to Bergen.
After going up to around 4500 feet, and passing little train stations along the way, including
some picturesque (and snowy!) mountains, we
got off in Myrdal where we immediately got on the famous Flåm train. We enjoyed the views and everything, like of this
waterfall,
and then took a speedy ferry
to Bergen. There were all kinds of nice views from the boat, as you
might imagine, including this scary one that looked like
a face on a mountain. We made it into Bergen around 8:30, and after getting settled, we walked
around just a little, looking at the central park area
where they have a fountain in the middle
of the water and strange statues of
babies all around
(maybe they were ones that didn't make it into Vigeland Park?).
Day 16: Sunday, June 7
This was our big day in Bergen. Unfortunately, after hearing all kinds of things about
the fish market, we found out the fish market isn't open on Sundays. Ah, well. But
we did see the oft-photographed Bryggen area (my
mom even has a jigsaw puzzle of Bryggen). Walking around there, we saw a moose!
We went up the funicular train, which is pretty nifty, and got a really nice view of
Bergen, even nicer than the view of Oslo, I think. And up there
at the top of the hill, we saw a real live troll!
Day 17: Monday, June 8
This was just a day of travel, pretty much. We enjoyed a hot dog in Stavanger,
but that's about all we did.
Norway: Bergen; 8am ferry to Stavanger; train to Kristiansand; ferry on choppy North Sea to...
Denmark: Hirtshals; train to Hjørring; midnight train to Fredericia (day 18, 3am-6:30am in Fred. station)
And then back on to Germany
Okay, if you don't want to go back to Germany, you can go
back to Europe, day-by-day.
