After obtaining bicycles we were suddenly freed to explore pretty much any part of Copenhagen rather easily and quickly. Bikes have a way of getting flat tires, though, and last week I got one. The plan was for me to go to the bike shop and get it fixed while my wife and kids went to visit a place on the map called Kongens Have. I would meet up with them after my tire was repaired.

After wandering around the edges of Kongens Have for a while taking pictures I realized that the fancy building near the center was actually Rosenborg Castle. I first read about Rosenborg in Music & Silence. Stumbling upon it here, basically unplanned, was a pleasant surprise.

The park around the castle is just as impressive, if not more so, than the castle itself. It includes lots of very different (to American eyes anyway) tree-lined paths, flower gardens, statues, and other curiosities.

We didn’t go into the castle as the highlight is supposed to be the crown jewels (which you can view in photographs on the internet) and at US$15 per person with an extra $5 fee if you want to take pictures it didn’t seem worth it.

My favorite part was finding picture angles that were unusual (like from the bottom where Rapunzel’s hair would hit you, or with the moat in view with The Ugly Duckling floating on the water, or with some of the amazing trees framing the castle). I hope you enjoy them.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: bikes, castle, copenhagen, living in copenhagen, pictures, rosenborg. Comments Off on Rosenborg (Kongens Have)

First off, I must admit to no longer being a big fan of amusement parks. I used to love them as a kid, but as an adult the rides seldom do much for me. Lines, crowds, and steep prices do nothing to make matters better.

Tivoli Gardens was much better than most of my amusement park experiences of the past couple of decades. It had something of a charm that is lacking in most others. The lines were surprisingly short. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a ride. We got there right when the park opened and went on every ride by about 4 p.m. I didn’t think we’d get on everything before midnight so the short lines were a big shock. The kids went on most rides three or more times.

It is said that Walt Disney was inspired to create Disneyland when visiting Tivoli. Personally, I like Tivoli better. Everything is reasonably close together, there are no lines, and old trees and gardens throughout give a much less synthetic feel to the place.

Another thing that is different when compared to American amusement parks is the lack of warnings and instructions. You aren’t told to “please remain seated…” fifty million times throughout the day and warning labels aren’t affixed to every thing in sight. The ancient fun house at Tivoli is practically a death trap, but no one seems to care. I like that.

Be careful when eating or paying for things at Tivoli. We asked for tap water with our meal. At other places we had eaten at in Copenhagen there was no charge for non-bottled water. We were surprised when our bill included a charge for the water. More than US$12 is what we paid for four glasses of water out of the tap! We were warned that if we used a credit card at our meal we would be charged an additional 5.75%. They didn’t warn us at the gate, and we were charged 3.75% for using a card to pay for admission. Our card company is going to charge another 2%.

To me the most interesting ride was the Star Flyer (although The Odin Express had the best name for a ride). I think the kids liked the Rutschebanen Roller Coaster which is almost 100 years old and includes a brake person on the ride with you. The Star Flyer is similar to many of the merry-go-round swing rides found at fairs and amusement parks in the U.S. The big difference is that instead of going 20 or 30 feet in the air, you go over 260 feet in the air. Not only does this make for a strange sensation, but you have the most incredible 360 degree view of Copenhagen imaginable. This ride is really fantastic and one of a kind.  

Posted on July 7th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: amusement parks, copenhagen, living in copenhagen, pictures, tivoli. Comments Off on Tivoli Gardens

Gothenburg has Scandinavia’s largest mall. The thing is absolutely huge. But malls aren’t fun to take pictures of so I didn’t. The shopping spills out of the mall and into countless, cute, cobblestone streets. Unless you are earning a living in Swedish Kronors or Norwegian Krones I can’t imagine really wanting to shop here as those of us with U.S. dollars can’t get much bang for our buck.

Gothenburg reminded me a bit of San Francisco, and the above picture may give you one indication of why.

In front of the opera house flew the four Scandinavian flags. Maybe someday, when the U.S. dollar is worth something I will get to take another trip to see Norway and Finland. Right now things in those two countries are even more expensive than Denmark and Sweden.

Gothenburg has a canal that rings the city center. We took an hour long canal tour which was very nice. We plan to do the same in Copenhagen this coming Sunday.

Gothenburg was filled with very cool statues and parks. The batteries in my camera died early in the day so I don’t have many pictures of them though.

This was the only picture I got off from our canal tour before my camera’s batteries needed recharging. After the tour we walked around the Haga area which was very pretty before scrambling back to the train station to head back to Copenhagen.

The train took us back through beautiful countryside with occasional views of the ocean. Towns included Kungsbacka, Varberg, Halmstad, Helsingborg, and Malmo. We may head back over the border at some point to visit Malmo from more than the seat of a train.

Posted on July 4th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: goteborg, gothenburg, Malmo, pictures, sweden. Comments Off on Last day in Sweden

Gothenburg was a really nice place on many levels. As noted in a prior entry, we stayed at the Hotel Barken Viking, an actual boat in the harbor. We later learned on a canal tour of the city that the Viking can no longer physically leave the harbor because bridges have subsequently been built which are lower than its height.

The above photo is of my kids in the lobby of the hotel. You can find more pictures of the ship on their blog.

If I look really thin and sickly in the above picture it is because I was. Although I had a great time anyway, I’d love to do this trip again now that I’m no longer sick, jetlagged, and tired but unable to sleep. I had not slept for over 30 hours when this shot was taken. And the last time I had slept was for only a few hours.

You can’t really trust the reviews in guidebooks or on sites like tripadvisor as the Viking was totally restored and remodeled in May of 2008. We were told that it used to be somewhat hostel like, with small rooms, shared bathrooms, etc. The rooms are now larger than they used to be. They are also nicer and each has a really nice bathroom (made completely out of wood). The prices are also higher now and a free pass to the amusement park is not included in most rooms.

Breakfast is included though (and is very good!). The scrambled eggs at breakfast were, by far, the best I’ve ever had. I didn’t realize scrambled eggs could have flavor like that. I wish I knew the secret ingredients.

The staff at the Hotel Barken Viking were all very nice and helpful. They all speak perfect English (as does everyone in Sweden it seems). The Danes speak good English as well, but the Swedes are even better.

In other non-English speaking foreign countries when you ask someone if they can speak English you either get a blank stare, a “no,” or an answer of “a little.” In Denmark the answer is usually “yes.” In Sweden it is usually “of course.” And they aren’t kidding.

To say hello in Sweden you say, “Hey.” You shouldn’t stop there though (unless you speak Swedish), or the reply will be a load of Swedish. I found that saying, “Hey, do you speak English?” was the best greeting as it started in Swedish, but didn’t result in a response in Swedish.

Morning came after a nice 10-hour sleep on the Viking. The above is a view from the porthole in our room. The room smelled so good. I don’t know if the nice smell was due to the new remodel or if it will always smell like that, but all hotels should be so pleasant to the nose.

I actually have quite a few more pictures from Gothenburg so our less-than-two-day trip to Sweden is going to turn into a five-day blog with tomorrow’s final installment.

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: goteborg, gothenburg, hotell barken viking (hotel barque viking), pictures, sweden. Comments Off on Gothenburg, Sweden (Göteborg)

I’m pretty sure my Mom is clamoring for more photographs from Metaltown 2008 in Goteborg, Sweden. So, Mom, this post is for you.

Just kidding. Actually, my Mom, and anyone else who knows me (expect probably David, Eric, and John), should ignore this blog entry and come back tomorrow for something more to their tastes.

You’ll want to click on these images for a bigger view or right click on them and save them to your computer if you want to use them as desktop images. My wife is looking forward to seeing these on a daily basis as our home PC desktop background. 😉

Compared to concerts in the U.S. the Swedish crowd was well behaved on average. I unintentionally ended up in the mosh pit for Dark Tranquility before fading into a more enjoyable position. Some bands had no mosh pit and others only had a small one develop for certain songs. This was a welcome change as you could be up front without being uncomfortable. That’s not to say the crowd wasn’t enthusiastic. Near the stage the crowd was very engaged without being rude to their neighbors–something some U.S. concert goers have failed to learn.

I always imagined that of the Gothenburg scene bands Dark Tranquility and In Flames would be about equally popular in their hometown. It turns out that In Flames is far more popular.

Most bands started and finished within a minute of their scheduled start and end times. For some unknown reason DT left the stage with more than 5 minutes available to them.

Just before landing in Copenhagen last week, DT’s “The Wonders at Your Feet” came on my ipod. Needless to say a large smile crossed my face at the poignancy of the timing. They did play that song at Metaltown too (although not as the opener as they did when I saw them in Eugene, Oregon).

As you can tell from this shot of Finntroll, the wind was extreme on this day. 😉 (not really–sometimes one must make their own extreme wind)

Soilwork actually played between Dark Tranquility and Finntroll, but I wasn’t very close to the stage so the pictures are nothing special; I am not posting them here.

Few things in life are quite as fun as men in skirts. Finntroll, like Amon Amarth later, seemed to be having a great time. Finnish metal, or at least Finntroll’s version of it, is quite different than the Swedish variety.

Had Opeth been playing next, as scheduled, I would have vacated my prime Finntroll position to get a good spot for Opeth. As it was I stuck it out to the end of their set which was enjoyable from beginning to end. If you like heavy, melodic music and haven’t listened to Finntroll before I strongly encourage you to check them out.

This was the time slot I was waiting for since Opeth was due to play. I suppose as fill-in bands go you can’t do too much better than Satyricon. Satyricon, hailing from Norway, made the balance of acts go to 2 from Norway, 2 from Finland, and 5 from Sweden.

The only band that spoke in English between songs was Dimmu Borgir (from Norway). All the songs were in English (except a couple of songs by Satyricon and Finntroll who have lyrics in Swedish even though they are from Finland). Some of the bands spoke a lot between songs (like Opeth does and which is rare for non-Scandinavian metal bands). However, it was all in Swedish (I think) so I couldn’t understand a word.

Satyricon had a few really good songs (near the beginning and at then again to wrap up their set with “Mother North”). The rest seemed a little too similar and needed more variety in sound, but maybe I would feel differently if I were more familiar with them. I don’t have any of their CDs but do have a few of their songs on my ipod. I also hear them pop up on Pandora.

I have recently gotten into Amon Amarth. They did not disappoint at Metaltown. In fact, they jumped into my top 10 favorite bands with their performance.

Another interesting thing about Swedish fans in comparison to fans in the U.S. are the number that wear ear protection. In the U.S. I’d guess less than 10% of the audience wear ear protection. At Metaltown 2008 I’d guess that percentage at over 50%. Even after I made it back across the river I could hear Nightwish fine once I pulled my plugs out.

I thought my camera ran out of batteries after the above picture. Lucky for you, I tried it later, and it still worked.

The Dimmu Borgir t-shirts people were wearing had some interesting slogans on them. Just in case my Mom is still reading this, I will not post them here. 😉

Last, and least in my opinion, was Nightwish. Actually, In Flames was last, but see yesterday’s post for information on that.

Tomorrow we will resume our regularly scheduled program. Sorry Mom.

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 under Denmark, Other. Tags: amon amarth, concert photography, dark tranquillity, dimmu borgir, goteborg, gothenburg, metal, metaltown 2008, opeth, pictures, satyricon. Comments: 1