Jess arrived home on August 18, which was great. A week later off to Copenhagen we go....
8/24/10
Arrived in Copenhagen (Kobenhavn) which translates from Danish to English as "Merchants Harbor", got here late in the afternoon. Finding our way from the airport (via train) to our hotel was very easy. Hotel du Nord is just down the road from the Central Train Station. Less than a 5 minute walk and we were ready to check in to our room. The room was clean, large and comfortable. No wireless connection (which is why I am only just now getting around to blogging.) Unpacked, and we were out the door. 5 minutes walking and we were at Tivoli Gardens and City Hall Square. City Hall Square is in the Center of the city, we did a quick walk around there to orient ourselves for the next days plans. Took some pictures, the Bull and Dragon Fountain, the stele that marks the exact center of Copenhagen. And a "soccer" game, it was weird, there could not have been 10 feet between the 2 goals. Then we walked over to Tivoli, a wonderfully fun place to visit, said to be the oldest amusement park in Northern Europe. Tivoli was opened in 1843/44. It is said that Walt Disney visited Tivoli early in 1950 and it was the inspiration for Disneyland. It is very easy to make the correlation between Tivoli and Disneyland. It is broken into areas that represent different parts of the world. And very reminiscent of Disney in the 50's and 60's remember E tickets? You pay individually for all the amusements/rides at Tivoli, so we passed on doing any of that, we just walked around and enjoyed the people and sights. There is a hotel just inside the park that is built to look like the Taj Mahal. There is also a lagoon with a pirate ship docked that is a restaurant so of course we had to have our first dinner there. We had really lovely BBQ ribs. After dinner we continued walking through the gardens, there was an Orchestra playing Waltz Music on one of the many outdoor stages. They have a theatre in the park and the SF Ballet was in performing Swan Lake. We finished the evening in one of the cafes in the park having dessert. Jess had this amazing Belgian Waffle with powdered sugar and I had "aebleskivvers" kinda like donut holes, with jam on the side yummy! Did you know that in the rest of the world they eat waffles for dessert never for breakfast.
8/25/10 A brief history of Copenhagen
Copenhagen was founded around 1000AD on the island of Slotsholmen by Sveyn Forkbeard, son of Harald Bluetooth Forkbeard. The first Danish King to strike coins with his image on them. He ruled Denmark, Norway and England for 5 weeks before his death in 1014. In 1160 the village of Havn (Harbour) was given to Bishop Absalon by Vlademer 1 and he built the first castle on the spot. In 1416 King Erik VII moved into the 2nd Castle built in Havn and in 1443 Copenhagen was named the Capitol of Denmark.
Woke up a bit on the Cranky side on this day because no sleep the night before. Turns out our hotel is located in the former Red Light District and there are still 2clubs just down the road. One is a Maxim club and I don't know the name of the other one, but loud drunk men coming out all night and singing, thought they would move on but they did not.....Our first stop this day, city hall, first you do a self guided tour around the interior of the building, its simply a beautiful space and there are lots of areas that are open to the public. Best find, public library located inside the building, it only consisted of two rooms, but it was the original public library and looked more like a private library in a large home. Then we met our guide for a walk to the top of the clock tower. 360' up there are amazing panoramic views of the city. After we made our way to the bottom of the tower, we went into another room to see the "World Clock". It's an amazing piece of work, we were able to see all of the workings of it as well as the clock it self. Leaving City Hall we walked over to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a museum on the same level as the British Museum, but nowhere near as large, so it is easy to view everything you want to see in one day. Lunch in the "Winter Garden" of the museum, which is a solarium basically with a cafe in it, really yummy pannini's followed by a "Sarah Bernhardt" cookie, it was amazing, almond, chocolate, pomegranate mix. Time to move on to Christiansborg Slot (Slot = Castle), the fourth castle to have been built on the site of the first castle built by Bishop Absolon in Havn. It was very cool as we were able to go under the castle and see some of the remains of the Bishops original castle as well as the second castle built on the site called Copenhagen Castle. We were able to finish by touring the reception rooms of the castle. They were amazing, unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos in them.
8/26/10
Took the train to Helsingor (about an hour or so away from Copenhagen), Helsingor is Elsinore in English, very easy walk from the train station to the Fredericksborg Slot. This is the Castle that Shakespear used in Hamlet. The Castle was originally built as a fortress to assist with the collection of taxes from the boats entering and leaving the Baltic. Lucky for us pictures are allowed. As a castle it was definitely not superbly over done as we have come to expect, it was a little on the dark side. The most incredible thing in the castle was the Great Hall, the largest in Northern Europe. After a bite to eat that included an attack of bees, forcing us to take our food and go indoors :(, we took the train further on to Hillerod. Another castle to visit, much more like what we are used to seeing. Ornate, amazing, all the Royal portraits were great fun to see up close and then the gardens. A stunning walk through the baroque gardens ended our day. There was no train from there to Copenhagen so we took a bus from Hillerod to Farum and caught the train back to the city. Great tip if you are ever in Copenhagen, 24 hour train ticket, gets you on all the "inter city" public transportation so we never had to pay another fee once we bought the original ticket out from Copenhagen to Helsingor. Picked up hot dogs from one of the many vendors once we reached the city, their buns just have a hole drilled through them and they drop the hot dogs right into them.
8/27/10
Jessie stayed sleeping while Adrian and I went to do a bit of walk-about. Visited the "Latin quarter" so called because everybody there spoke Latin back in the day. In the Latin quarter is a church that has the "Round tower" attached to it. The tower was originally built for Frederik as an observatory, one of the oldest in Europe. The top of the tower is reached by walking up a ramp (no stairs), utilized by a king on Horseback and his queen in carriage to reach the observatory. While we were in the church they were replacing the candles for services. It is amazing to me how frequently the Danish still use candles, just gives everything a lovey look. Back to the hotel to pick up Jess for lunch and a walk down the shopping street. Longest pedestrianized shopping street in Europe. A walk along the canal and an ice cream to end the day, my flavor was Banana Split so delicious. The weather was lovely the entire trip.
8/28/10
Of course I had to jinx us the day I said that the weather had been perfect. Not that we really had bad weather, but on this day it did rain on us off and on all day and the temperature had dropped. We walked from one side of the city to the other. We went to Rosenberg Castle, toured the treasury and saw the Crown Jewels. Incredibly beautiful items. Then we walked through some of the palace itself, the rooms were amazing. Then we walked over to the Amalianborg Slots complex, a complex of 4 palaces that the current royal family live in. First we did a tour of the queens reception rooms, this is where she entertains guests. The palace is also used as a guest house. Then over to the palace that houses apartments for the queens sister and younger son when they are in town. There was a display on the life of the current queen Margarthe II in preparation for her 70th birthday coming up. By this time Jess and I were starving so we found a cafe, got a bite and then Jess informed us that she was tired and heading back to the hotel. Adrian and I walked on to the fort located near the harbor. We walked back toward Vesterboro (where our hotel is), of course, we never just go directly back. So we took the circuitous route that allowed us to stop at the Russian Orthodox Church and a stop into the marble church with its wonderful domed ceiling. The dome has frescoes showing the apostles. We finished up by walking along the Strodet (the shopping street) and stopping in at a Bakery to pick up some desserts for tasting. We should have taken pictures of the bakery but forgot. 5 different little goodies to try. Most of them involved some sort of chocolate and/or creme. They were a great way to end our stay in Copenhagen. Such a wonderful week.
9/4/10
Put Jess on the plane today to go back to London, so sad to see her go, school starts Monday though.
9/5/10
Today Adrian and I are off to the Burren just for a day of hiking and enjoying mother nature.
Hope you are able to enjoy all of the photos we have loaded.
Keep well everyone!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/?saved=1
Monday, September 6, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Dana visits
This month my friend Dana came for a quick visit and Jessie came home. This made for a lovely week. We took Dana to some of the traditional spots we take people i.e. Bunratty, the Cliffs and Adare. We did go someplace we had not been before, Birr Castle and Gardens was amazing.
The castle has been inhabited by the same family for the last 400 years, which of course meant that we could not go into the castle, but.... The "Demsne" is open to the public with 5 miles of walking trails and we walked every bit of it. Tomorrow we are off to Copenhagen so I should have some good posts for you all after Wedensday night.
Keep well, oh and I have added a new stream to my pictures called "Nature" have really enjoyed taking nature pictures this summer.
Keep well and enjoy the photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/?saved=1
The castle has been inhabited by the same family for the last 400 years, which of course meant that we could not go into the castle, but.... The "Demsne" is open to the public with 5 miles of walking trails and we walked every bit of it. Tomorrow we are off to Copenhagen so I should have some good posts for you all after Wedensday night.
Keep well, oh and I have added a new stream to my pictures called "Nature" have really enjoyed taking nature pictures this summer.
Keep well and enjoy the photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/?saved=1
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Crazy Busy Summer
It has been a very busy summer and as most of you know, it included a 6 week stint at home. It was great being home and seeing everybody we were able to see. Sad not to be able to see everybody, but we did get a lot of visiting in. Michael finally done with College was probably the highlight. And then coming home in July, we have gone to the city of Cork for a weekend since we have been back and that was lovely. I was a little dissapointed though because the point of going was to check out the English Market. The market was lovely and the butchers and fish mongers there were amazing. But, unfortunately, the thing I was looking for, more variety in the produce did not exist. Same produce I can get down here in our Limerick market. It was a lovely weekend though and Cork is a great walking city, we really enjoyed going all around the city.
Yesterday, two of my girlfriends and I decided it would be a really good idea to hike Croagh Patrick. Yes, we are insane. That said, I now know what those people who scale Everst feel like when the reach the top. Now, I know that our climb was nowhere near the Everst feat, but for us, and especially me it was. 2,510 feet straight up, very rocky, very steep climb that took 4 hours, lots and lots of breaks along the trail. The fun thing about that though is lots of other people taking breaks and you get a chance to chat with them. And on the last 45 minutes worth of the trail, those folks that are coming down are encouraging to carry on because you are almost there. It supposedly takes the average person 2 hours up and 1.5 hours down. It took me 4 hours up and 2 down, I am quite happy with those stats. Did not think I was actually capable of doing the entire climb. Of course,the climb up is brutal, and the climb down surprisingly equally brutal, feels like it takes forever. It is incredibly hard on the knees and today not only are my knees screaming but my calves and hips. I would say I am just overall stiff but again, I am ok with that.
Croagh Patrick is a pilgrimage site here in Ireland.
The tradition of pilgrimage to this holy mountain stretches back over 5,000 years from the Stone Age to the present day without interruption.
Croagh Patrick is renowned for its Patrician Pilgrimage in honour of Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint. It was on the summit of the mountain that Saint Patrick fasted for forty days in 441 AD and the custom has been faithfully handed down from generation to generation. The Black Bell of Saint Patrick was a highly venerated relic on Croagh Patrick for many years. It is now housed in the National Museum in Dublin.
On 'Reek Sunday', the last Sunday in July, over 25,000 pilgrims visit the Reek. Reek apparently means mountain.
Individuals and groups come from all over the world and include pilgrims, hill climbers, historians, archaeologists and nature lovers.
There is a tradition of climbing the mountain in your barefeet or on your knees. We did see one young man who had indeed done the climb up and down in his barefeet. Hopefully whatever he was asking for will be granted to him.
Lori, Pauline and I were very proud of ourselves, although we were well prepared, sandwiches, plenty of water, even bandaids, but we did forget the whiskey for the summit. We agreed that we would remember the next time, but this morning when I got up I figured I am not certain I could ever do the climb again, knowing what it's like. We'll see.
Enjoy the photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/
Yesterday, two of my girlfriends and I decided it would be a really good idea to hike Croagh Patrick. Yes, we are insane. That said, I now know what those people who scale Everst feel like when the reach the top. Now, I know that our climb was nowhere near the Everst feat, but for us, and especially me it was. 2,510 feet straight up, very rocky, very steep climb that took 4 hours, lots and lots of breaks along the trail. The fun thing about that though is lots of other people taking breaks and you get a chance to chat with them. And on the last 45 minutes worth of the trail, those folks that are coming down are encouraging to carry on because you are almost there. It supposedly takes the average person 2 hours up and 1.5 hours down. It took me 4 hours up and 2 down, I am quite happy with those stats. Did not think I was actually capable of doing the entire climb. Of course,the climb up is brutal, and the climb down surprisingly equally brutal, feels like it takes forever. It is incredibly hard on the knees and today not only are my knees screaming but my calves and hips. I would say I am just overall stiff but again, I am ok with that.
Croagh Patrick is a pilgrimage site here in Ireland.
The tradition of pilgrimage to this holy mountain stretches back over 5,000 years from the Stone Age to the present day without interruption.
Croagh Patrick is renowned for its Patrician Pilgrimage in honour of Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint. It was on the summit of the mountain that Saint Patrick fasted for forty days in 441 AD and the custom has been faithfully handed down from generation to generation. The Black Bell of Saint Patrick was a highly venerated relic on Croagh Patrick for many years. It is now housed in the National Museum in Dublin.
On 'Reek Sunday', the last Sunday in July, over 25,000 pilgrims visit the Reek. Reek apparently means mountain.
Individuals and groups come from all over the world and include pilgrims, hill climbers, historians, archaeologists and nature lovers.
There is a tradition of climbing the mountain in your barefeet or on your knees. We did see one young man who had indeed done the climb up and down in his barefeet. Hopefully whatever he was asking for will be granted to him.
Lori, Pauline and I were very proud of ourselves, although we were well prepared, sandwiches, plenty of water, even bandaids, but we did forget the whiskey for the summit. We agreed that we would remember the next time, but this morning when I got up I figured I am not certain I could ever do the climb again, knowing what it's like. We'll see.
Enjoy the photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
St. Patricks Day 2010
St. Patricks day is celebrated very differently here in Ireland than in America. There are indeed parades, lots of folks have off work and kids do not have school.
Last year we went to the parade in Doolin a very small village near the Cliffs of Moher, because we had freinds in from the States. It was great fun to watch the parade and St. Patrick was running around kissing all the women.
This year Adrian was off from work (his regularly scheduled day off) and so we decided we would check out the Parade in Limerick. Promptly forgot the camera so I took a few shots with my phone not the best but at least you can see the parade. All of the Shops along O'Connell street and the rest of the parade route were closed. A family near us told us that the shops would open after the parade. People are much quieter as they watch the parade go by and there aren't as many marching bands here as we would have in the states. But, you do get to see the parade on the day rather than the Saturday before. The Irish celebrate more of the religious side of St. Patrick and I have yet to find corned beef brisket for sale in the markets here. You can buy corned beef in a "tin" - its like one of those pressed hams. So I think Corned beef and cabbage pretty much an americanization of the traditional Boiled Ham and Cabbage meal here.
Enjoy the shots.
Last year we went to the parade in Doolin a very small village near the Cliffs of Moher, because we had freinds in from the States. It was great fun to watch the parade and St. Patrick was running around kissing all the women.
This year Adrian was off from work (his regularly scheduled day off) and so we decided we would check out the Parade in Limerick. Promptly forgot the camera so I took a few shots with my phone not the best but at least you can see the parade. All of the Shops along O'Connell street and the rest of the parade route were closed. A family near us told us that the shops would open after the parade. People are much quieter as they watch the parade go by and there aren't as many marching bands here as we would have in the states. But, you do get to see the parade on the day rather than the Saturday before. The Irish celebrate more of the religious side of St. Patrick and I have yet to find corned beef brisket for sale in the markets here. You can buy corned beef in a "tin" - its like one of those pressed hams. So I think Corned beef and cabbage pretty much an americanization of the traditional Boiled Ham and Cabbage meal here.
Enjoy the shots.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Visit to Jessie
We flitted over to London very late Friday night and then spent two days touring a couple of spots in London with Jess. I think we cut into her homework/study time and though we felt slightly guilty we were selfishly happy to have the time to spend with her. I think London is so far Number 1 in my top ten places to visit.
The museums are free (this is a big plus when converting dollars to pounds). Jess loves going to the museums there and was a great sport on Saturday she selected 1 museum specifically per parent. Of course we both enjoyed both museums. We started out the day at the Imperial War Museum, which displays information from WW1, WW2 up through lots of the modern conflicts. Part of the museum is dedicated just to the experience the London children had during WW2 and the blitzkrieg. It was amazing to see and heartwrending to read some of the things. Also, as an American you know that children were evacuated to the "country", but, did you know that children were evacuated to all over the world including the United States for the duration of the war. There was a display by 2 children that were fostered in Dayton, Ohio. It was amazing to read about and understand the war from that perspective. Then, there was an experience of going through a recreated trench including what the trenches would have smelled like - I can tell you it was disgusting, I am very grateful to have never experienced anything like it. They also have a "bomb experience" which was frightening and reminded me a little of the earthquake experience they used to have at the Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. They had displays of bombs, planes, rockets and other incredible pieces of war paraphenalia. We did not make it to the top floor which housed the holocust portion because by the time we went through the main exhibit it had been 4 hours and I needed a break. I do want to go back and visit the holocaust portion which Jess says is amazing. After a break for lunch at a lovely Italian Restaurant we headed over to the British Museum, home to the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. By far the museum that has most grabbed me out of the ones we have been in. They had some amazing things in there which you'll see from the pictures Adrian took, we said we would review what we quickly saw in the 4 hours we spent there and pick one or two exhibits to spend much more time in on another visit. We ended the evening at one of Jess's favorite restaurants - Maxwells. Very good food and then she was off to do homework so we made an early night of it.
Sunday morning we were up and unfortunately the two places I most wanted to go to do not allow tourists on Sunday (being churches and all) so next trip for certain will include visits to Westminster Abbey and St. Pauls Church. We did take Adrian over to the Tower and walked through more of that then Jess and I had previously done. The Tower is one of my favorite sites and I think we see something new everytime. Of course you can't take a lot of pictures in it but the crown jewels are incredible and learning the stories of some of the crowns and the jewels in them is fascinating. After leaving the Tower we went to lunch and then took a ride on the eye. As much as I detest ferris wheels I thought I would bite the bullet and take the ride for Adrian, but, I must admit, the eye gives spectacular views and it is not scarry at all, felt very safe in it. After that we walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Gardens and then to dinner near our hotel. That ended our trip as Jess had to get back and work on an essay that was due today and we had a 6:30am flight back to Shannon.
Enjoy the pictures.
The museums are free (this is a big plus when converting dollars to pounds). Jess loves going to the museums there and was a great sport on Saturday she selected 1 museum specifically per parent. Of course we both enjoyed both museums. We started out the day at the Imperial War Museum, which displays information from WW1, WW2 up through lots of the modern conflicts. Part of the museum is dedicated just to the experience the London children had during WW2 and the blitzkrieg. It was amazing to see and heartwrending to read some of the things. Also, as an American you know that children were evacuated to the "country", but, did you know that children were evacuated to all over the world including the United States for the duration of the war. There was a display by 2 children that were fostered in Dayton, Ohio. It was amazing to read about and understand the war from that perspective. Then, there was an experience of going through a recreated trench including what the trenches would have smelled like - I can tell you it was disgusting, I am very grateful to have never experienced anything like it. They also have a "bomb experience" which was frightening and reminded me a little of the earthquake experience they used to have at the Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. They had displays of bombs, planes, rockets and other incredible pieces of war paraphenalia. We did not make it to the top floor which housed the holocust portion because by the time we went through the main exhibit it had been 4 hours and I needed a break. I do want to go back and visit the holocaust portion which Jess says is amazing. After a break for lunch at a lovely Italian Restaurant we headed over to the British Museum, home to the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. By far the museum that has most grabbed me out of the ones we have been in. They had some amazing things in there which you'll see from the pictures Adrian took, we said we would review what we quickly saw in the 4 hours we spent there and pick one or two exhibits to spend much more time in on another visit. We ended the evening at one of Jess's favorite restaurants - Maxwells. Very good food and then she was off to do homework so we made an early night of it.
Sunday morning we were up and unfortunately the two places I most wanted to go to do not allow tourists on Sunday (being churches and all) so next trip for certain will include visits to Westminster Abbey and St. Pauls Church. We did take Adrian over to the Tower and walked through more of that then Jess and I had previously done. The Tower is one of my favorite sites and I think we see something new everytime. Of course you can't take a lot of pictures in it but the crown jewels are incredible and learning the stories of some of the crowns and the jewels in them is fascinating. After leaving the Tower we went to lunch and then took a ride on the eye. As much as I detest ferris wheels I thought I would bite the bullet and take the ride for Adrian, but, I must admit, the eye gives spectacular views and it is not scarry at all, felt very safe in it. After that we walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Gardens and then to dinner near our hotel. That ended our trip as Jess had to get back and work on an essay that was due today and we had a 6:30am flight back to Shannon.
Enjoy the pictures.
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