Mom and Dad's Christmas Present From the Boys

This is the Christmas Present that we gave Mom and Dad. Dad said he liked it and Mom said that this is something that she will always look back onto and that she really really REALLY enjoyed it.

Jaymeson's Blog and Nolan's Sick

Hello its Jaymeson speaking again. Today we got up a bit late and Nolan was sick. We had to hurry to get to church on time while Nolan and Mom stayed at home. After church Dad, Weston, and I all went to Sainsbury's (a store kind of like pick and save) and we got hamburgers and sausages for supper and lunch. We then ate lunch (although Nolan didn't as he was feeling under the weather) and then took naps as I was a bit sick and Weston was acting sassy. Then, after we took our naps, I finished up my homework, Weston played video games, and since Nolan was sick, he lay on the couch. Mom was doing her work and dad was cooking hamburgers for supper. Then, after I finished my homework, I went outside to see how dad was doing and I then figured out what England in January looks like. This is what I saw.

 

 

This pic was taken out of our barn door

This pic was taken right outside our door

Here's dad cooking us some sausages



 Dad insisted that I take another pic of him, this time, with his beer 

This pic was taken by our grill

Well that's all for now see you all soon!!!


-- J in the UK

(PS)

As I am posting this opposite Nolan (remember he's sick), I read him the above and asked if he liked that. He said yes, but last night when the baby sitter was here I showed Weston, Nolan, and Clarie (our baby sitter) a funny youtube video, and now Nolan told me that he would like to show everyone the video and Weston has also agreed to that.

Oslo, Norway

Saturday, December 29, Day 4

The ferry arrived in Oslo, Norway promptly at 9:45am-with a fresh blanket of snow on the ground--the snow I'd seen falling the previous evening; it was also foggy and misting out.  But it was warm (35ish, I'd say).

There was a ~20 minute walk to our hotel, and the entire way, the kids were infatuated with the snow.  Really!  We're from WI!  Have you never seen the stuff before??  Put it down and pull that suitcase!  And stop throwing snowballs!  (These are happy times!)

Kids climbing snow hill and carrying snow boulders.  "Shouldn't you be carrying a suitcase, young man?" 

"Put that snow down and help your father!  Yes, YOU!!"

  The streets were deserted--I don't know if they don't know what to do with snow, or where everyone was.  We pulled the luggage in the street-that's how deserted it was.  Kids were soaked by the time we got to the hotel, go figure.

Dumped our bags at the hotel, but still too early to check in, so we walked (now significantly easier to walk--without dragging bags!!) to the place where we were to pick up the Oslo card.  (Kids still playing in the snow.  How come they don't play with any of their toys that long?  Or read that long?  Or practice piano that long??)

While we were getting the Oslo card, kids found a snow hill to play on.  I think they have snow radar.

  And it was closed.  They have more than one "outlet" to pick them up at, and this particular branch was closed.  We were right next to the Radhus (City Hall), so we went in.

Oslo's City Hall/Radhus

The city halls in Scandinivia are not just utilitarian municipal buildings.  This particular City Hall is where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year.  The King of Norway attends the ceremony.  (The prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine and literature are awarded in Stockholm on each December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.  Alfred Nobel lived most of his life in Sweden, and when he died, Sweden and Norway were under the same government, although separate entities.  In his will, Nobel indicated the Peace Prize was to be given by Norway, and the other prizes to be given by Sweden, although no one knows why.)

Inside City Hall-stairs on the right is where recipients walk down to receive their prize.

J walking down the stairs to receive his peace prize for keeping peace with his brothers.



This is a picture of a picture of President Obama receiving the prize.  Note the stairs on the right-looks different from my photos, as the hall is filled with a stage and lots of people.

  We walked in and checked it out (free).  We then walked a short distance to Nobels Fredssenter, aka Nobel Peace Center, a museum devoted to the Peace Prize.

The Nobel Peace Center Museum. (Kids put the snow down to take picture. Thanks, boys.)

  This was very awe-inspiring and humbling.  J enjoyed it, and attacked this museum with his usual gusto.  I'd like to find a museum he doesn't enjoy.  They had a children's activity to do, and W and N did this.  J started to do it, but the activity took away too much from him reading every word in every exhibit, so he abandoned it.

Each one of these screens told about Peace recipients.

  (Just a side note--W and N's school is focusing this semester on the 60s. Last semester it was robots and automation.  Every night they come home and tell me all about the Beatles, titles of songs, names of the members, 60s dances--the twist--why Penny Lane is titled Penny Lane, where Lennon was shot.... on and on and on.  The school brought 3 presenters in for an assembly on recent history.  They held up a pic of Mother Theresa, and asked if anyone knew who she was.  Only W raised his hand and could tell them who it was.  He said he knew who it was only because of the Nobel Museum.  Guess he was paying attention.  He also knew who Bill Gates was, and only 4 people raised their hand for that one.  School goes through 5th grade, btw.)

From there we went to Akershus Slott and Festning (Akershus Castle and Fortress).  It was not open, despite what it said on the website.  We did manage to walk around the fortress for awhile, and the kids were able to play in the snow while they tagged along.  About this time, I got tired of constantly telling them to get out of the snow and stay dry (we are going to an Ice Bar later--do you want your wet pants to stick to you???), and caved and let them build a snow man.  They named him, "Ozzy," for Oslo.

"Ozzy"

We returned to the hotel, checked in, got some dry clothes.

Hotel Briston, Oslo, Norway

Kids' room.  Ours adjoined.

 We had 4:00 reservations at the Ice Bar, just down the block from our hotel.  There are Ice Bars in most of the large cities, a novelty.  This one had timed entries, for a slot of 45 minutes.  We checked in, and got our capes and gloves, more to keep our warmth in and the ice cold, than to warm us, then they let us into the bar.  This year it is a Nautilus theme.  They completely re-do the bar every year.  With your admission, you get your own ice glass(!), and one drink.  We all thought it was neat.



Notice the words "in" the ice above my head.  Walls were flat, but there were all kinds of things within the ice.

A seating area--the banquette and cocktail table made of ice



N sitting on a funky ice chair





One of the Ice Bar's walls.  The circles are filled in, and the entire wall was smooth.

The bar--of ice, of course.  The bottles are in ice "holders".

W with his ice glass.  "Cheers!"

Bottom's up, boy!

We then went to dinner at the Mona Lisa.  We'd just ordered our food, and there were not a lot of people in the dining room, as it was probably only 6pm (Europeans eat later, so 6 pm is like eating at 4).  Waiters were lighting candlabras, etc.  J quietly says, "There's a fire starting over there."  G and I just think it's the candles lighting up, but alas, there really was a fire starting.  One of the candleabras had lit a silk flower arrangement on fire, which spread to some napkins.  There really was a fire starting!!  Always listen to your children.  N and J had pizza, W had spaghetti bolognaise, G had farafelle pasta with lobster sauce, and I had reindeer with lingonberries and venison sauce.  Good stuff.

Pasta dish

Reindeer with lingonberries and venison sauce

Sunday, December 30, Day 5
The breakfast at this hotel was perhaps the best.  Complete with a variety of smoothies to choose from, yogurt parfaits, smoked salmon, regular salmon, and all the fruit and veggies, meats and cheeses, pastries and breads from the other breakfasts.  They also had Norwegian brown cheese at this breakfast-only place I saw it.  It was very good, had sweet undertones in it.  Tasty.

After breakfast, we went to Oslo Central Station to get our Oslo Card.



We walked through a market-y area to get to Central Station.  N  liked this Viking troll.

 Then we hopped on the tram to Frognerstaten, which was the end of the line for one tram line.

End of the line

 We got out, and walked to Korketrekkeren, where we rented sledges (old fashioned sleds on runners).  I wasn't sure if W and N should go sledding at this particular place- I'd heard that you could really pick up some speed due to the steepness, but I'm glad we did it.  And so are they!!



Korketrekkeren this way--->

They call 'sleds',  sledges.  Both in Norway, as well as in the UK.

Where we rented our sledges from.  It's a little foggy out.

  Korketrekkeren means "corkscrew", and there were ~13 turns going down the hill.  We only made it down the hill three times, that's how long the way down was--nearly a mile!  It drops some 400 ft, so its pretty steep. When we got to the bottom, you picked up your sled, walked to the tram, and got on to ride to the top again.  There were seven tram stops between the bottom of the hill, and the top of the hill.  One of these seven stops is Holmenkollen, which is a famous ski run; a lot of tourist souvenirs have Holmenkollen on it, as skiing is more popular than sledding.  Korketrekkeren is higher than the ski hill.  The sledding hill was used in the 1952 Olympics for the luge and bob-sledding track, but was started in the 1800s--they'd sled after 7pm by moonlight.  You can read more about Korketrekkeren by clicking here.  It's pretty interesting.  There were quite a few times you were actually airborne--W and N were counting.  I was trying to steer, as we were going fast, and there are a lot of turns, as well as people wiping out in front of you.  The sides were built up around most of the track, but there were a few areas where there were some steep drop-offs-you wouldn't want to coming flying around a curve and go off the edge!!  On the third run down, I took W, and G had N.  At the bottom of the hill, there was an area of slush, maybe 18 inches deep.  Quite a large area.  I'd been able to avoid it the other times, but this time we were going too fast, and hit the bump just before it wrong--made us airborne, and landed right in the slush!!  We were soaked and cold, but the trams on the way home were warm, thankfully.  W did not complain of being cold even once.



We're gonna go sledding!!!



While we were changing out who was in the pictures, the kids took the opportunity to quickly play in the snow.  Are you seeing a theme here??

"Put down that snow and smile"

We returned to the hotel, and showered up.  The radiant floor heating felt wonderful on our cold feet!!!  We ate dinner at our hotel.  Kids had some FABULOUS burgers, and were excited to get French fries, which they haven't had in awhile.  UK always has what they call chips, but what are like big steak fries.  These were like "regular" French fries.  G had the lutefisk, and I had reindeer again.



More reindeer



Lutefisk-traditional Norwegian dish, served with its traditional sides.  Clockwise from top:  Potatoes, white sauce, bacon, and peas.

Lutefisk is a white fish prepared in lye.  Doesn't sound good, but it actually was.  You can read more about Lutefisk here.

Monday, December 31, Day 6
We took a taxi to Central Station to catch our 0732 train from Oslo to Stockholm, Sweden, and had a bag breakfast from the hotel on the train.

Please stop by again and read my next entry, which will continue on our adventures in Stockholm, Sweden.



 

We're back!!!!

     Happy New Year to all.  We made it home from our excursion to Scandinavia, and have now completed our first weeks in the New Year.  Always difficult, yet welcome and reassuring, to return to the schedule of day-to-day rhythms of everyday life after the hustle-bustle of the holidays and travelling.
     There is a lot to write about, and I will be unable to do in one fell swoop, so will break our journey up into portions.  A lot of pictures and rambling; just bear with me, and thanks for listening!  Here we go.

Tuesday, December 25, Christmas.  We'd told the kids they could not get up before 5am, and promptly at 5, they were up, and reluctantly, so were we.  How do they manage to wake up that early??

Patiently waiting!!

  We opened gifts, Father Christmas was good to us, and stayed home for the day.

Dividing gifts into piles--where's Mom and Dad's pile???

N received a pirate ship from Santa

W with his wrapped gift for G and I

J giving gifts of Cadbury (main brand over here) candy bars to his bros 

  W received a camera, which he used to take some 300 pictures during our trip, and at least one video.  Interesting to see the things he finds worth taking a picture of.  Sometimes very different from what I take a photo of, and I have to ask him, "Why did you take a picture of that?"  Always an intriguing answer.  The kids did a neat gift for us this year.  One night when G and I'd went out to dinner and we had a babysitter, they did a skit, and the babysitter videotaped it.  It was really rather neat.  It will be nice to look back at it one day.  One of our neighbors stopped off a gift, and we went over for a bit later, and also delivered some goodies to another neighbor.  We skyped with both families.  Kids played with their new toys/gadgets (J put together N's new pirate ship), and G and I did last minute packing and reviewing of our itinerary and travel documents.  By the way, Christmas pudding is not so good.  Chocolate is much better, particularly good chocolate!

Roast Chicken Christmas Dinner

Sides of Brussel sprouts, parsnips and potatoes

Tissue paper crowns are always in the Christmas crackers, along with little jokes, or stickers, or other small prize.  You gotta wear the crown--even at work Christmas party, etc.  They do the Christmas crackers for every celebrated Christmas meal, even the kids' school lunch Christmas dinner and corporate Christmas parties.

Wednesday, December 26, Day 1
Our trip was an independent tour.  We arranged our flights to and from the beginning/end of the tour.  We were able to choose if we wanted to travel Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, or the reverse order. 



Scandinavia, ready or not, here we come!!!

The trip is planned as a 10 day trip, but you can add on extra day(s) in any of the cities if you'd like.  We chose to add on two extra nights (one in Stockholm, one in Helsinki), as our return flights were a better price if we returned home on Sunday.  Also, travelling over the holidays, opening hours could be somewhat limited, especially on NY Eve/Day.  So we added on the two days to hopefully see a few more things.  We could also add the option of city bus tours in each city, and/or "city" cards.  City cards get you into various attractions for free, and is also your public transport ticket--good on metro, train, tram, bus, subway.  And of course there were options as to the time limit on these city tickets--24, 48, 72 hours.  So plenty of options.  The tour company arranged the hotels, breakfasts, inter-city transfers, and any of the add-ons from above (extra nights, city cards, city tours).  Our itinerary was entirely up to us, and you weren't with a group, which appealed to us.  We really needed the ability to be able to "read" the kids, and adjust the itinerary as needed, particularly with a 6 and 7 year old.
     Our flight departed from Manchester, which is 30-40 minutes from our home.  Flight departed at 10:15 am.  We ate breakfast at the airport--you'd think a good idea.  Kids of course choose pancakes.  We usually let the kids order what they want, and don't really pay too much attention.  Pancakes come, and they are served with at least 1 cup of blueberry compote/mess poured on the top, as well as bananas.  Needless to say, there was blueberry mess EVERYWHERE.  Faces, hands, pants, shirts, undershirts, table, many napkins......and there was more still on the pancakes.  So a mess.  And we hadn't even left the airport! !@#$%^&*!!!!!
     Things got better.  We arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark at 1:10pm Danish time.   The Danes are one hour ahead of the UK, so it was just under a 2 hour flight.   At the airport, we picked up our Wonderful COPENhagen Card, then caught the train (free with our cards) to Copenhagen Central Station, which was about a 15 minute train ride.  Then there was a ~10 minute walk to the hotel, The Square.




The Square, Copenhagen

Kids' room at The Square Hotel, Copenhagen.  G and I's room adjoined, and looked the same, but only 1 large bed.

Elevator doors were unique here.  You opened a hinged door, rather than a sliding door, to enter the elevator, as N is demonstrating.  Once you were in the 'vator and closed the hinged door, the typical elevator sliding door closed within the elevator.

Copenhagen had bikes EVERYWHERE.  Even has double-decker bike racks!  Here is a pic of one parking area for bikes, as viewed from our hotel window.  Nearly 40% bike to work.  I saw people biking with heels on, biking with a 2 or 3 year old sitting on the bike rider's lap, etc.  The mailpeople were even on bikes, with a little cart in front for the mail.  Also with baby carriages in the front of the bikes.

Still looking out our hotel window--bike rack from above photo, and many buses!  Public transport also big over here.

Weather was pretty good for us.  I'd say 35-40 for most of the trip, so good for walking in the cities.  (Thermometer above is in C.)  Helsinki was colder--the only place we wanted to get inside and minded walking outdoors.  You noticed when you stopped walking, as you got cold! 

  A dump-off of the luggage, and a walk to Nationalmuseet (National Museum) (free), which was a history of Denmark.  The Danes work 37 hrs/week, and receive 5-6 weeks of vacation/year.

Copenhagen's Nationalmuseet

Thought this bowl and its explanation (below) were interesting.

Explanation for above photo

When we were through at the museum, we walked about, and landed at Nytorv ("New Town") for dinner.  We had an appetizer sampler (more for G and I), and bruschetta for the kids.  J chose roast pork with red cabbage (roasts, esp Sunday roasts, are very popular over here), W had minced beef served with fried eggs, gravy, and potatoes, N had weiner schnitzel, G had halibut and potato with vegetable, and I had the salmon.

Nytorv-where we had dinner our first evening in Copenhagen.  Notice the candles in red holders near the entrance on the bottom left of the picture.  Businesses that were open put candles outside their entrance if they were open.  Day and night.  Also, Denmark's flag is flying on the right of the entrance.

Appetizer sampler.  Top right one had some roe.

Rough photo, but it depicts W's minced beef, gravy and egg.

N's weiner schnitzel and peas--eat up!

    Meal bill was 996 Dkr (Danish krone), which is approx $160.  Everything in Scandinavia is pricey, and we knew that going in.  I'd heard stories about families who visited and ate fast food the entire time due to the cost, coat checks that were $17, families who had a snack of 2 pieces of pizza and cokes for $200.  But you do need to eat, and we wanted to partake in some of each countries native dishes during our trip.  (Which we did, just not so much at this meal, though I was impressed with the kids' choices.)

Pedestrian area downtown.  All the cities still had their Christmas decorations up, which made things a little more colorful and exciting.

Carlsberg beer originated in Denmark



As we were walking about downtown, we passed a toy shop that sold Legos ("invented" in Denmark).  They had some neat and big things made of Legos in the window.  Here's R2D2.  Behind, facing the interior of the store is a Viking. 

Lego creations.  Not sure who the one on left is, kids probably do.  The girl on the right rotated, and was unbelievable.

Lego soldier

 

Lifesize Lego Santa Claus

     On the way home, I wanted to stop at Rundetarn (Round Tower), whose website listed it would be open that evening.  It was to open at 7pm.  It didn't.  After waiting about, we went to Plan B, which was Tivoli Gardens, which was approx 3 minute walk to our hotel.

Tivoli main entrance

Decorated nicely for Christmas



"Swans" swimming in the pond

Taj Mahal

More at Tivoli

This is kinda hard to see, but it's a laser light show over the pond, that was set to music.  We all enjoyed it.

There's also a large pirate ship in the pond (not shown in this pic) that is all lit up, and a nearby pirate ship ride-the audio from it was really neat, and the ride's movement mimicked a raging sea, as you were in your own boat as the ride's car.

"J, read me a story, please."

Guess not-text in what I'm assuming is Danish.



Evening's fireworks



  I'd wanted to go at night, so it worked out well for us.  Tivoli is a big, 20 acre amusement park created in 1843, that has lots of lights, so is beautiful when viewed in the evening.  It also has fireworks each night at 9pm.  Kids thought that was neat.  Then back to the hotel, and to bed.

Thursday, December 27, Day 2
We celebrated Grandma's bday, and Lisa's anniversary by sleeping in, as we'd gotten to bed later.  Then up to the 6th floor for breakfast.  All of the breakfasts were good, though some better than others.  One observation is that they all had sliced cucumbers, red and yellow pepper slices, and lettuces, which was different for me to see at breakfast.  Also all the various sausages and deli meats, cheeses, mueslix, various yogurts, dried and fresh fruits, breads, pastries, various types of eggs--we always had great breakfasts to start the day on.  It was hard coming home to our typical daily breakfast after nearly 2 weeks of good breakfasts!
    We had a bus tour of the city scheduled for 11am.  You know the ones where they show all the highlights of the city.  This one was a guided one, and it was very good.  The guide was wonderful.  I don't know how those bus drivers do it though.  Some of the streets are so narrow, and they get down them.  There was a traffic jam at one point of our bus tour, so our driver took a risk by going down a pedestrian area, and the guide said it'd be fine as long as we didn't meet another vehicle, even a parked one (which there shouldn't be, as it was a pedestrian area, but if our tour bus was going down it, vehicles must go there in small numbers).  It was probably about a 1/2 mile, and luckily we did not meet any vehicles, but I would not want to be a bus driver!!!  N did not get much out of the bus tours.  He always made sure he sat next to me, and would put his head down on my leg and sleep through the entire tour.  On the other hand, J would get enough out of the tour for himself, as well as for N.  He had to be the first in line, so he'd get the best seat on the bus--front row--and would be upset if he got the 2nd row.  He always really enjoys his bus tours, and lists it as one of his favorite things of our trip.
     This particular city tour was 2 1/2 hours, and was really fabulous.  The only negative of the tour was that the weather was not cooperating--rain--so a lot of our pics are not the best.  Some of the things we saw:  Tivoli Gardens, which we'd visited the night before, and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (museum).

Canal District

We drove through the colorful canal district, past the National Museum (Nationalmuseet, which we'd also seen the previous day) and past Christiansborg Palace, home of the Danish Parliament.



Christianborg Palace, as viewed in the rain

  We saw the Old Stock Exchange, Kongens Nytorv (King's New Town), the Royal Theatre, home of the  Royal Ballet.  We saw the harbor district of Nyhavn (New Harbor), and Amalienborg Palace - winter residence of the Royal Family.

Amalienborg Palace--standing in the large courtyard in the center of the 4 palaces.  Notice the pairs of red guard shelters at the entrances of the 2 visible palaces

Guards up closer

Replacement guards marching down street to Amalienberg for changing of the guards, done every 24 hours

Getting closer

Turning the corner in unison



Facing each other-bullets are in the little bag on their backs



Turning

And marching again

New guards in, old out

With the new guard

  It's actually 4 different palaces, buildt around a huge courtyard.  One houses the Crown Prince and his wife and 4 children, who employ 30 people.  We saw the changing of the Danish Royal Guard here (lots of guards-some for each palace).  Kids were happy to see this, as we'd missed seeing it at Buckingham.  Soldiers looked the same, except blue uniforms, rather than red.  W really liked this, and took a video of it with the new camera from Santa.  The guards work for 24 hours straight-on for 2, off for 4.  Most of these guards are ~18 years old.  Serving in the military is mandatory for 1 year (I think-forget now), and these guards will guard for 8 months.

 On we went to Gefion Fountain and The Little Mermaid, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale.  (HCA was born in Odense, another Danish city, rather close to Copenhagen.)

Gefion Fountain (minus the water)

Gefion up closer

The Little Mermaid

 We also passed Rosenborg Castle, where the Crown Jewels are protected by the Royal Guard.  These guards are in army fatigues though.

Rosenborg Castle

    After seeing the highlights, it was ~1:30pm.  We walked to Frihedsmuseet (free), which is a small museum telling of the Danish Resistance against Nazi occupation, 1940-1945.

Frihedsmuseet/Danish Resistance Museum

TNT

 The museum was small, but very powerful in its topic, as well as its exhibits.  No tour guide here, but the exhibits were very well done.  J lists this in his top 2 things he enjoyed on our trip.  (Enjoyed not a good word choice here....)  They had some really  moving exhibits here--one had a pic of Jews at a concentration camp with x's on their backs.  They had various underground recording and communication devices, underground newspapers, wire taps, spy gear, etc.  Lots of artifacts.  The Danes were able to send some 7000 Danish Jews to neutral Sweden.
    From there, we walked to Rosenborg Slot (Castle-free with card).  Didn't have much time there, so only had time to see the country's crown jewels and the throne room.

Rosenborg Castle--can see the red guard towers if you look closely

More changing of the guard

  And we got to see the changing of the guard here too as a bonus.  Only 1 guard changing though, not nearly as exciting as earlier in the day.  Less impact in number, as well as their uniform not being as formal either (these guards in army fatigues).  Kids liked it anyway.
     Walking back, we went past Rundetarn, and this time it was open!!  (Free with Copenhagen card.)

Pic of Rundetarn from the previous evening

Inside Rundetarn, on I think turn 5

This is basically a huge spiralling cobblestone ramp (no steps) built in 1642.  It goes up 880 ft-going around 7 times to the top lookout observatory.  It was built so the kings/queens could go up to the top, but of course they wouldn't want to walk, so it was built so their horse-drawn carriages could take them to the top.  We were able to walk to the top and get some photos of the city at night.

Shopping area lit up with Christmas lights

Tivoli, as seen from the Round Tower

Copenhagen from the Round Tower as the sun sinks

  While we were there, we could see Tivoli setting off fireworks, though it wasn't 9 yet--maybe 6ish.  We continued walking home, and ordered pizza (we were tired!).  The helpful hotel man helped us decipher the menu.  One thing about this trip is that each country spoke a different language, though most people spoke English as well.  English was usually the second listed language choice, though in Finland, the language choices were Finnish first, Swedish second, and third was English.  Menus usually had sub-titles in English.  Store/restaurant sign names were mixed--some in the native language, others in English.  Each country also had a different currency, though the kids did not have to deal with the money.

Friday, December 28, Day 3
This day we were the first ones to eat breakfast (also the only day we were the first!!).  We checked out of The Square, and stowed our luggage.  We took the train 20 miles west of Copenhagen to Roskilde, population 46,700.  Roskilde was Denmark's capital before Copenhagen was, and is the burial place of many of its monarchs.

Christian I's Chapel/Chapel of the Magic--built in the 1400s by Christian for himself, his queen and their descendants.  He and his wife are buried in the floor, behind the large pillar, 2 of their sons are buried in Odense.  The 2 large burial chambers here are from Christian 3 and Frederik 2.  The base of the large pillar is from the 1100s.

Front of the altar at Roskilde Cathedral
Altarpiece was made in 1560; candlesticks from the 1600s--found in a room in the southern wing by a churchwarden in 1860.  The Bible is from ~1916.

You can see the back of the altar at the rear of the photo.  In the front is burial chambers of Christian 5 and Frederik 4 with their queens.  Underneath (really the basement) are other tombs of MANY kings/queens.  You can look at all of them.  Each one different, dependent on the style of the day and the architect.

The Glucksburger Chapel/Christian 9's Chapel
Originally he and queen were buried in Frederik 5's chapel in oak coffins.  There was then a competition to build a double coffin for Christian 9, and the above was designed.  It was then felt this would ruin the balance in the Frederik 5 Chapel, and so this new chapel was built.  The sculptor of the 3 statues here also carved The Little Mermaid.

Unique animated St George slaying the dragon 24 hr clock-complete with wailing dragon; Peter is sounding the hour on the bell

    We walked from the train station to Roskilde Domkirke (Roskilde Cathedral-free with Copenhagen card), which was started in 1170.  Various parts have been added at various times, 14th and 15th century, and some from the 18 and early 19th century.  Most of the additions are for various burial chambers of royalty.  The latest royalty buried here is from 1972, and is actually outside the cathedral in its own building.  Interesting that so many countries still have monarchies.  The kids initially weren't so keen on touring a cathedral, but once they got inside and saw how grand it was, they did find it interesting.  Even W had the camera going.  As all of the cities we toured were capitals, and all were in Scandinavia, there were a lot of "repeat" museums.  They all had a national museum telling of their countrys past, and artifacts of their early people, all had old cathedrals, most had Viking ship museums (Vikings came from Scandinavia), all had elaborate City Halls for touring,  all had design museums and maritime/naval museums, all had open air museums, all had a few castles.....  I tried picking a representative of each type of museum once during our trip.  And I tried to get unique museums-ones that weren't "repeats" in each city.  Kids would never handle 5 cathedrals and 7 palaces, and 4 city halls, etc.  Nor would we have time.  I tried to go to each city's national museum-just to learn the history of each--monarchy and political system, who they gained their independence from, etc.  Of course timing and logicistics entered into the equation as well.  (We never got to tour an entire palace-just made it as far as the throne room, and saw the guard changing.)
     Roskilde Domkirke was our representative cathedral.  The cathedral itself is very impressive.  Perhaps moreso is that the cathedral houses the remains of 39 of Denmark's monarchs.  Most lineages have a chapel off of the main cathedral (which accounts for the various additions in different centuries), varying in the degree of lavishness, and some are beneath the cathedral (basement) and are visible through windows inside the church.  You could really see the progression of architecture and style through the years by how each chapel/tomb was adorned, how large the chapel was, and the scupltures in the chapel.  Also in the cathedral was a unique clock from the early 1400s.  The quarter hours are striked by Kirsten Kiemer on a bell, and the hours are marked by St George on horseback charging at and slaying a dragon.  The dragon actually "howls", and Peter Doever sounds the hour on a large bell while Kirsten shakes her head.  We got a great color 45-50 page guide of the cathedral with our free admission.  80% of Danes are Lutheran, by the way.
     From Domkirke, we walked to Vikingeskibshallen (Viking Ship Museum).  The museum had 5 boats found in Roskilde harbor that were re-assembled from the wreckage, excavated in 1957.

Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark

Viking ship "skeletons"

Viking ship remains

 It is speculated that the ships were sunk intentionally at a narrowing of the sea entrance to Roskilde to protect the city.  This was our sample Viking Ship museum for our trip.
     Next, we took a brief stroll through Sankt Jorgensbjerg quarter, which is a whole cobblestone neighborhood of old straw/thatch-roofed houses. 

Row of thatched roof houses in neigborhood

Thatched roof houses.  Look at the coral-colored house's roofline-not straight, but bowed.  I think that's a Dutch style??

Thatched roof cut out around the windows

Then, it was back to the train station to get back to Copenhagen, grab the luggage and get on the bus to the harbor to catch our ferry.  Interesting note that they did not check our passports on entrance to Norway or Sweden or Finland, though they did check in Copenhagen, and again when we returned to Manchester.
     I've never been on a cruise, and have only ridden on "small" ferries.  I'd been told the ferries were like cruise ships, but of course you still don't really know what to expect.  They're right, the ferries are like cruise ships!!!  Just like the Love Boat.

Our ferry from Copenhagen, Denmark to Oslo, Norway

Our very spacious cabin.  Luckily/unluckily, we have to have two rooms, so we had a second cabin identical to this, which allowed us to spread out some (lots of luggage to put in this sprawling accomodation!!), as well as have two restrooms.

Copenhagen as we were departing

  Our ferry was super big.  Kids were welcomed on board by the ship's mascot, there were 11 decks, 4 restaurants ,a cafe, a coffee bar, 4 bars, a couple of night clubs, a casino, theatre, shops, kids' stuff....  The stats say it can hold 1870 passengers with 702 cabins, and 320 cars.  We had 2 of those cabins.  (There's some rule/law that says how many people can be in a room--I'm assuming based upon square footage, though I'm not sure.  So whenever we travel over here, we've had to get 2 rooms.  Also, family passes are always 2+2 for museums or such, and you can get family rooms for 2+2, but never anything for the families with 3 or greater kids.)  We try to get them adjourning, so G and I can be in one room, and kids in the other, but this is not always possible, whereby G and I divide and conquer.)  Our cabins were on separate floors, which wasn't so much fun.  We divided and conquered.  Everyone tucked into bed, and I looked out our window at 10:15pm, and it was snowing out.

     Stay tuned for my next entry, which will be Day 4, when our adventures will continue in Oslo, Norway.