berlin

Gack, my computer and connection are so slow... finally, here come a few more pictures from our weekend trip to Berlin. It was interesting, comparing our Berlin trip to that of the undergrads we've met -- we remember life before the Wall came down, whereas they really don't. Bruce and I soaked up the Wall museums -- most very powerful and meaningful. Great city, too! Berlin was the first place on this trip where I got off the train and thought, "Ahh, now, THIS is a real city!"

After an overnight train, we arrived in Berlin at 6am Friday morning. Here was our first view out of the big window of the Central Station.












Not too long after our arrival, we took a walking tour of the
city. Here is a church near the Museum Island (we think
it's the Berliner Dom?)... the brownish piece in front
bearing the cross is the top of the church, currently being refurbished.














The Altes Museum (Old Museum), on Museum Island, where a lot of Berlin's museums are conveniently located. We didn't actually go into this museum, but it looks cool. It holds the Classical Antiquities and the Greek Collection.








the Neue Wach, or New Watch -- a monument to women who have lost their sons in any of the wars or battles. Note that above the actual sculpture is an intentional opening to the sky -- during inclement weather, rain and snow will fall on the sculpture of the mother holding her deceased son.







Brandenburg Gate by (overcast, rainy) day. (you will see an evening picture later.)












The Holocaust Memorial -- which is better expressed in a 3D photograph, if I could. This is a corner property filled with a grouping of blocks of various heights, ranging from a few feet tall to, I would guess, 20 feet tall. There is an uneven walkway in between all of the blocks. It is supposed to denote confusion as you walk through.













A local chocolatier creates sculptures of Berlin landmarks out of chocolate. This is the Kaiser Wilhelm church, near where we stayed. Note the detail! :)















A section of the Wall and the "death strip" has been preserved. (Unfortunately, as the Wall Monument will be changed over the coming years, the sandy desolation of the strip will be turned into a park. Sad, as it COMPLETELY destroys the effect of what it must've felt like.)






The death strip as seen through a hole in the wall.












An evening (nearly 10pm) picture of Brandenburg Gate. The sky looked fabulous, despite the on-and-off rain.













And yet another view of the gate. This time, you're seeing it from the Reichstag (the national government bldg). One of the very touristy things to do in Berlin is to climb up to the top of the dome -- we were part of the last group they allowed in that night.










Here, we were on top of the Reichstag building, and looking over at the glass dome that we had climbed up into (via a series of ramps). Look at the people for a sense of scale...










The real Kaiser Wilhelm church (not the one made out of chocolate). Our first non-rainy day in Berlin!! The spire itself got bombed out in 1943, and the modern-looking spire to the right is currently used.















A reflection in the church window... there's a Mercedes building nearby.















This picture exemplifies a lot of what we like about Berlin -- variety of buildings, and balcony gardens! There are no rooftop gardens in this picture, but Berlin also has its share. (This is in comparison to Copenhagen, where the majority of buildings are either very touristy-pastel such as Nyhavn, or post-Cold War look such as where we live...)








Sunset on the Danish countryside, as we took the train back to Copenhagen.

more copenhagen

Just as the title says!

Here's a cute little alcove off the Stroget, the main shopping street of CPH.












The Raadhus (city hall) with raadhuspladsen (plaza) at our back. First time we came through the plaza a few weeks before, there was a Thai festival going on.










View from the front steps of the Raadhus. Nope, nothing touristy here. We don't see any McDonald's or Burger King, or 7-11... nope.











If you look really closely at the side of this building, note the
working thermometer! It does indeed work! The numbers
max out at 28 degrees celsius, which equates to about 82 fahrenheit... that tells you something about the weather here. I'm feeling at home, temperature-wise. But you have to look at the same building again in the next picture...














This entire trip, I've heard that the Danes are known for not wanting to stand out. But read the side of the building: "Carlsberg: Probably the best beer in town." Come ON, this is your national beer! :) This statement on the side of the building just exemplified the "non-stand-out" stereotype I've heard...






We're finally inside the Raadhus! Now, after the half-hearted beer statement, there's a banner on the wall stating that CPH is the coolest city in the world. (however, it's small print, so they were a bit understated...)









Raadhus garden













Twenty-nine years ago, Bruce was here with his family and took a picture sitting on Hans Christian Andersen's knee. I had to take one this trip, as a comparison point. He is even color-coordinated.














Vor Frue Kirke -- a Lutheran church in the downtown area. I don't know that I've ever been to a Lutheran church before -- I've seen many Catholic churches, and the stark difference in styling was interesting. Very interesting to note the similarities to Unitarian churches.









From the bridge walk into the quieter neighborhood of Christianshavn










We were now on the other side of the canal and able to look into the opera house. I don't know what these gold/blue/purple orbs are, but they look cool.











The next day, we went to the north suburb of Lyngby to the Open Air Museum (Frilandsmuseet). This is a collection of several old buildings from several regions of Denmark depicting life as it was from centuries past -- some with staff dressed in period clothing acting the part.






Oh, what a fabulous business opportunity it would be to SELL NAP. Where do I sign up...

















The thatch on this particular building looked a bit shaggy, so we asked about it. Shaggy on purpose, actually. This building represents the island of Laesoe, off the northeast coast of Jutland. Apparently they use seaweed to make a lot of their thatch, causing the shagginess.







That does it for this batch... !!!

stockholm

(attempt #2 at this post -- round 1 had to be abandoned when network outages where we live got too bad)

Two weekends ago, now, we went up to Stockholm. Check out the following pictures...


Our hotel was 2,5 mi outside of Stockholm in the suburb of Bromma (cheaper). We were also walking distance from the Royal Residence, so we decided, when we arrived, to walk over. This was part of the walk -- a nice view over a bridge.










The front of the Royal Residence.













The Residence was closed for the day, but the grounds were open for wandering -- that we did. Note the greenery is not cut entirely evenly.
























The next day, we visited Gamla Stan, Stockholm's Old Town. Sadly, this is the only old part of the city which has been preserved. And luckily, we got there before 10:30, which is when all of the tourists infested. (However, I do recommend the ambiance of Cafe Art -- cool and away from crowds!)














Plaza in Gamla Stan.
















This is the aforementioned Cafe Art.













View across a Stockholm canal. Stockholm is set on over 26,000 islands. That's a lot of bridges...











The only artwork in our hotel room was a painting of a bunch of music stands. ??? Interesting, as if they knew who was coming...










Sunday, we walked around non-touristy parts of the city, including a park outside of the city limits. All of our ducks were in a row...











This is one of the metro stations. Not all of them were this interesting...












Another canal view, closer to museums and historic buildings. To our right is the Parliament building (to which we'd made a special trip, and only when we'd gotten there did the signs tell us it was closed to visitors until October...)









And finally... our tour of Stockholm ended with a walk around Haga Park, just north of city limits. This is where several locals seem to run/walk/exercise. Short bus ride from town.

fodterapi

Have I found a genetic link?

Some of you know about My Feet. I have weird metatarsals that are slightly S-shaped, rather than the normal straight... as structural abnormalities go, it's one of the more common ones (Z-feet, skew-feet, whatever you choose...) As you might imagine, this causes different "wear patterns" than the usual, typically creates bunions, and just is overall biomechanically bad for someone as active as I am.

In my time in Denmark, I have seen several "fodterapi", or foot therapy clinics. It's unclear to me whether they are podiatrists/physicians, or whether they are glorified pedicurists, when I look in the window. But it has me wondering -- since my Scandinavian father also has (had, surgically corrected) a structural foot issue, is there some sort of link?

Or are the Nordic folks just more in tune with their feet?

o canada

(yes, I'm slow on the update. our internet connection here is not the most stable... the weather looks more even today, so I'll try to do a lot!)

Tuesday, July 1, was Canada Day. We had no plans, but one of the Canadian students dropped by and asked if we wanted to join him and a few of the others for a trip to the harbor to sit and enjoy the day's nice weather. Why not... a way to meet a few more of the other students, to see more of the downtown sights we hadn't seen...

This is the classic Copenhagen shot of Nyhavn, or "new harbor". The first floor of all of the buildings are restaurants overlooking the harbor -- all very expensive, and not very good, according to the local who was with us that night.










At the end of Nyhavn, this is the "bus" coming in to take people across the canal to the Christianshavn neighborhood.











The Queen's Residence was a few blocks north, so we wandered up there to take a look. This is one of the guards.
















The gardens outside the Queen's Residence.



















Bruce's artsy waterfront photography (note the reflections) from the water's edge, also at the edge of the gardens. Looking across toward the city opera house. Much better than most city postcards, in my opinion!









And here's part of the group, L to R: me, Katie (North Carolina), Zini (North Carolina), Erin (Toronto), Christina (Germany). We ended the evening sitting on the steps of a church meeting u with some of the guys who'd bought a few pizzas, where Erin sang O, Canada! for us in French! (upon my prompting!!!)