Copenhagen & Norwegian Fjords Cruise

9/7/12 Today we are at the Scandic Copenhagen Hotel which has been provided free to us by Royal Caribbean because we are doing back to back cruises. It is a very nice place with good internet, so if my battery holds out, I will get this posted today. That means I have to be brief - and quick with this report. We arrived in Copenhagen last Friday and had an apartment reserved through www.airbnb.com. It was a very basic apartment but clean and with everything we needed, especially a good bed (we had jet lag). Here is the living room with the bedroom behind and to the left:

The small, but very clean and well-equipped kitchen was quite handy:

It was on a pedestrian street where there was a park right across the street and with shops and outside restaurants right next to it.

There was a stage set up between our place and the park and both nights there was free (and good) musical performances, many of the songs were in English, as most Danes speak excellent English.

Just a short distance away was a "lake" which was really like a big river, with lots of old, picturesque buildings on the banks and also good walking paths on each side.

We were just a short distance from the Radhuspladtz, which is the City Hall Square and ther main part of town. Here is City Hall:

There was a big crowd outside, and then we realized that people were waiting for weddings to take place in there. Here is a waiting bride, groom and friends:

In Copenhagen, there are many old and archtitecturally interesting buildings and lots of great fountains like this one:

The very famous and fun amusement park called Tivoli, with great restaurants and new rides, is right across the street:

As we walked down by the Gammel Strand, we saw this canal boat. We took this trip the last time we were here and it is very good and not too expensive. You catch it at Nyhavn.

Then we took the Metro to the Carlberg Brewery, but the tour is now in a new building, is self-guided, expensive, and all you get is 2 tiny beers at the end. We so enjoyed it in 1997 when it was in the old buildings, and now we do NOT recommend it!

You still can walk through the stables and see the Jutland horses which pull the beer wagons:

They have a HUGE collection of full beer bottles from all over the world:

Here is a quote on the beer hall wall at the brewery:

Here is Elaine with the Carlsbery elephants which are over at the original brewery buildings:

When we got on the Vision of the Seas, our friends Marcia & Lawson Albritton and Lisa Romine had us over to take pictures in the Grand Suite, which we had never seen before.

In the Diamond lounge, we reconnected with Jim and Peter, from one of our other cruises. They are so much fun!

Our first port was Bergen, Norway, where these old historic buildings called the Bryggen, are a UNESCO heritage site:

They are very close together too:

There were lots of beautiful sweaters for sale, such as this, but they were VERY EXPENSIVE:

Our new friends, Don & Kathy Mueller, were also in town:

The fish market is a big tourist draw. Here is some of the dried cod which has always been an important product here:

This picture was taken to prove how expensive things are here. This shrimp lunch plate costs 150 Krona. There are 5 krona to the dollar so this costs $30!!!

We did our own 5 mile walking tour and stopped to see the very sturdy art nouveau theater:

They also have this beautiful lake, with a fountain in the middle, flower beds on the banks, flanked by lots of art museums, similar to our Smithsonian arrangement:

On our way back to the ship, we saw this outside a restaurant. What a menu!

Then we sailed several hundred miles north to the Geiranger fjord. Unfortunately, the weather was awful and we had 30 foot waves overnight! Very rough - the roughest we have ever had. Here are some pictures as we sailed up the fjord:

This is the waterfall called the Seven Sisters:

This is the little town of Geiranger. Too bad the weather was so cold and rainy that we stayed on the ship!

Life at the Cannell/Daly Farm, Winnebago, IL

Blog Update From Farm Today I will take a break from organizing and packing for our upcoming trip so I can update you on what has been happening at the Cannell/Daly Farm. Here is the farm house where Elaine spent part of her childhood years:

And here is a view from the front porch showing our lovely parking spot, not far from the house and with some of the corn fields on our other side:

Besides doing some fixing and cleaning in our rig, we have been having some social times with the Daly Family. Here are a few of them gathered around the kitchen table:

From left to right are Elaine, her brother-in-law Dennis Daly, her sister Georgeanne Daly, Georgeanne’s grandson Alan, and Alan’s Mom, Lana. Georgeanne’s son, Tom is in the background. When people aren’t socializing inside, they can be found out on the front porch:

Here is Lana with her oldest daughter, Lea

Several days last week Elaine and I went into Rockford with Georgeanne, as her guests, and were able to work out at the local YMCA. The Y is located right near a nice park on the Rock River, so afterwards, we went for a nice walk on the riverbank path. Here are some ix of the large, nice homes along the river:

There was also this unique rock sculpture called Rock Guardians:

Last weekend we went out to breakfast with Georgeanne and Dennis to a place in Wisconsin (only about 15 miles from the farm):

Dennis drove us to a nearby farm where the farmer decided he was an artist and put some of his equipment up as art pieces:

Tuesday evening Lana took Georgeanne, Elaine and me to Anderson Gardens in Rockford, which is a Japanese Garden where they have evening music concerts on the lawn in the summer. First we walked around the very lovely gardens:

There were very large koi in the lake at the gardens:

In the middle of the lake was a fairly large turtle:

The weather was perfect, and we enjoyed walking over some of the bridges over the lake:

There are even several waterfalls:

Elaine had fixed a very nice picnic lunch/dinner for all of us, which we enjoyed, and it included the last of our lobster (which we brought back from Maine in the freezer).

The musical group wasn’t that good, so we left at intermission and drove over to the rehab hospital to visit Mary Sue, Elaine’s sister who is recovering from hip replacement surgery. I haven’t taken a picture of her yet, because I have been waiting for her to feel like she is in a bit better shape, so it doesn’t feel like an intrusion. I will try to include one next time. Last night there was a big party here because Lana & Tom’s daughter, Lea is going off to college tomorrow. It was jointly put on by them and the parents of one of her classmates named Arthur, so the cake was for them both:

Here is a picture of Lea (in the middle) with a school friend (left) and her sister-in-law (right).

The party was fun, we met some of the friends, and there was lots of good food. Tonight we will be eating it again because there were lots of leftovers! Wednesday we will be leaving our rig here, driving our car to a hotel in Chicago, and staying overnight there because we have an early flight on Thursday to Copenhagen. We have rented an apartment there for 2 days, then we will board the Vision of the Seas for a 5 day Norwegian fjords cruise. Once that gets back, we stay one more night in Copenhagen at a very nice hotel provided free by Royal Caribbean because we are doing 2 cruises back to back. Then we board the Brilliance of the Seas which stops at some islands off the coast of Scotland (Faroe Is.) and then several days in Reykjavik, Iceland, before we get back to Newark. We fly back to Chicago on Sept. 21, stay overnight again, then drive back to the farm for Elaine’s sister’s reunion. Next report on this blog will probably be from a foreign country!!!