Cuz We Said So

Europe 2010, Day 10: Berlin

Another night train, and we are in Berlin!  We arrived at our hotel on Kurfürstenstraße early this morning to drop our bags, and were happy to discover that they were already ready for us to check in.  Most of the big things we want to see here are located closer to the central train station, where we’ll be leaving from tomorrow night, so today we stayed around the hotel.  Lunch: tagliatelle at the nearby Mövenpick restaurant

Exploration: the Berlin Zoo, oldest and largest in Germany.

Dinner: Thai curry at a Vietnamese restaurant, then zabaglione for dessert at an Italian restaurant down the block.

 

  

Tomorrow: the history of Berlin, then off to Paris, friends Rip and Daniel join the party, and a concert in Nantes.

Europe 2010, Day 9: Munich

Another relatively quiet day today in Munich.  It’s Monday, so most of the museums and the like are closed.  This morning, we walked from the hotel to the Frauenkirche and Marienplatz, which Russell hadn’t seen before, and admired the New Town Hall there.  (“New” in this context means built between 1867 and 1908, and distinguished from the Old Town Hall, which dates from the 1300’s).  Now Russell is on a train to Salzburg (so he can check Austria off his list of visited countries) and I’m hanging out here in the München Hauptbahnhof (central train station) catching up on some reading and writing.

 

 

Europe 2010, Day 8: Munich

Overnight: the night train from Copenhagen.  Based on the experience, I’d say night trains are a fun way to travel—so long as you are neither claustrophobic nor insomniac.  The cabin space is very tiny—a cube six feet on a side serves as room for two—and the night is full of loud noises and the occasional rough movement.  If you can easily get back to sleep, you’re in good shape.  If you can’t?  Catch a plane.

 

Today: arrival at and recon of München Hauptbahnhof, then a city tour out to Nymphenburg Palace and the Olympic Park area, home to the Olympic Tower and the headquarters of BMW, with its excellent BMW Museum.

 

This evening: a visit to the City SB Waschcenter to do laundry, so that we have sufficient clothes to make it through the end of the trip.

  

Europe 2010, Day 7: Copenhagen

A nice easy day as we packed up, had another ridiculously good breakfast at the hotel, and made our way into Copenhagen to kill some time before our train leaves this evening.  Went for another walk around town, and visited the Royal Botanical Garden, but missed the visiting hours for the greenhouse by a few minutes. 

 

Europe 2010, Day 6: Copenhagen

This morning we took the train from Malmö across the Oresund Link and into Copenhagen, and walked past Tivoli (an amusement park) to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (an art museum) to see their impressive collection of ancient Greek and Roman statues.  Afterwards we headed back to Wagamana for lunch.

In the afternoon, we met up with Mads, a friend of Rip’s, who I met in Houston a few weeks back, and who kindly volunteered to show us around Copenhagen.  He took us down to the harbor, past the Royal Danish Library and the Copenhagen Opera House to the statue of The Little Mermais at Langelinie.  Then after some coffee at a nearby coffee shop, he took us for a walk through Freetown Christiania, an anarchist commune in Christianshavn, before guiing us back to the central station for the trip to Malmö—and dinner.

Picked up some snacks (including a bottle of cactus-flavored sparkling water) on the way back to the hotel.  Legs=so very tired.  Doing a lot of walking in Europe, unsurprisingly.

Europe 2010, Day 5: Stockholm to Copenhagen

Caught the train to Copenhagen this morning, and enjoyed the light onboard breakfast, and the wonder of seats with power outlets.  Almost to Copenhagen, that is.  We’re actually staying in Malmö, Sweden, just across X from Copenhagen, so we hopped off the train a stop early, and spent most of the rest of the day exploring the central shopping district.

Random Observations:

• For a train trip this length, first class is definitely the way to go, even for a daytime trip.  The seats in 2nd class are four wide instead of three wide, and particularly when the train is packed (as this leg was today) it looks a bit cramped.
• Almost without exception everyone we've spoken to in Scandinavia speaks English at least as well as I do.  (English is taught in the schools from the fourth grade onward.)
• Licorice flavored—sorry, I mean liquorice flavoured— candy is big here.  Other product flavors we’ve seen that are relatively rare in the US include wild black currant and cactus (as flavors of sparking water) and elderberry flower (as a variety of tea).
• The twelve-year-old in me also notes that several of the candy brands sound rather inappropriate to English ears.  Firklover and Plopp come to mind as examples.
• Unusual food item spotted at the store: mayonnaise, aioli, and other condiments sold in in tubes like toothpaste.

Europe 2010, Day 4: Stockholm

Today’s festivities included a trip into the Old Town, past the palace, to the Nobel museum, dedicated to the prizes awarded in Stockholm instead of Oslo (those other than Peace, in other words).  Had lunch at the chokladkoppen across the square, broccoli and blue cheese quiche and white hot chocolate, of which I greatly approved.

In the afternoon we rode the gondola up the outside of the Ericsson Globe for a panoramic view of the city, then made our way to the Moderna Museet, where we saw an exhibit of the works of Lee Lozano (1930–1999), who the museum assured us explored “themes of power, sexuality, and violence” in her work, which we learned means she painted many, many pictures of penises.

Europe 2010, Day 2: Oslo

Yesterday’s outing to the Nobel center was dedicated to peace, love, and flower power, but today’s trips to the World War II Resistance Museum at Akershus Fortress and the Viking Ship Museum in Bygdøy featured enough blowing things up, invading, and pillaging to balance things out. 

I’ve read a lot about World War II over the years, but I knew very little about Norway’s involvement, so learning about the Nazi surprise invasion and occupation, the resistance movement that rose to challenge it was worthwhile.  As always, the war is always a grim reminder of how good we have it these days, even during harder times.  As for the Vikings, the museum had ships that were remarkably well-preserved; the Oseberg ship, for example, was buried in the year 834.  It’s rather amazing to think that 30+ people would climb into what is essentially an oversized rowboat and sail all the way from Norway to Greenland.

We also visited the Kon Tiki museum and saw the raft that Thor Heyerdahl sailed from Lima to Rapa Nui in 1948, as well as Ra II, the papyrus boat he sailed from Morocco to Barbados in 1970.  Both looked more like props from Gilligan’s Island than something you’d actually use to cross an ocean.  Small wonder Heyerdal had a hard time convincing people it was possible.

Our last stop was the Vigeland Sculpture Park, home to the work of sculptor Gustav Vigel.  Easily the best place in Oslo to see many, many naked statues.  Not my cup of tea per se, but a good display, and a pleasant day (if chilly) for a walk in the park.

Dinner at Brunello’s Pizzeria.  I can recommend the Gorgonzola pizza. 

Europe 2010, Day 1: Oslo, Norway

In Oslo today, the first day of a two-week European rail tour extravaganza.  Got about two hours of sleep on the flight over, between the two meal services and assorted other distractions, so a seriously jet-laggy day all around.  A whole lot of coffee and a relatively early turn-in should take care of that.

One thing I was looking forward to on this trip was escaping US politics for a couple of weeks--so naturally, the first place we go here is the Nobel Peace Center, currently decked out in giant images of the sitting US president.  The exhibit was well done, showing the evolution of race relations in America from the days of segregation and the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. through the election of President Obama.  The permanent exhibit was good too; I liked the display of Nobel’s will, which outlined the charter for the prizes that bear his name, and the LCD wall with pictures and bios of past winners.  One thing that struck me: the degree to which some Peace awards stretch he scope of the prize, as if the committee wanted to honor people whose great works didn’t fit the scope of the other prizes Nobel assigned.  Normal Borlaug’s work was a triumph of biology, for example (he developed dwarf wheat and arguably helped feed millions) but there’s no Nobel prize for Biology. 

Dinner was at Brasserie 45, on the way back to the hotel.  Catfish: good.  White chocolate mousse with mixed berries: fantastic.

Random observations:

• Lots of unfamiliar candy brands in the airport stores, including some unusual gum flavors (Eucalyptus and Salty Licorice, hmm.) 
• Lots of winter sports on TV.
• Oslo may be one of the most expensive cities in the world, but it hasn’t hit me yet; dinner was pricey, but I wouldn’t say more so than a nice tourist friendly restaurant anywhere else.  Maybe it’s rent that makes it pricey.
• Overall first impression: Minnesota with mountains.

Tomorrow: Vikings.

The Future of Airline Travel?

Frequent flyers should check out Andrew Lark’s post on Air New Zealand's futuristic new interior design, on its way to a 777 or 787 near you—if you’re in New Zealand.  I’d like to think this is a preview of things to come in the US market, but with our domestic carriers doing as poorly as they have in recent years, it’s hard to say when, or if, they’ll make the investment.