Scandinavialog (pics added)

[Velvet]

The sun rises in the northeast and sets in the northwest here in summer, I'm actually fairly close to midnite sun land, though I shant get there.

Actually got lost because of the sun before I figured that out. I was in Rokskilde looking for the info booth. I found it on the city map and knew I had to go east to get there. It was 5 or 6pm so I looked at the sun and reasoned the direction it lay must be west. Got lost. Remembered where I was. Read the suns position as north. Got found.

[snarfmaster C]

you sure the sun doesn't rise in the southeast and set in the southwest? that would make a lot more sense, considering the sun is never directly above a latitude beyond the tropics. i'm pretty sure it's not north of scandinavia. midnight sun has the sun hovering at the horizon in the south, does it not? rising southeast and setting southwest? correct me if i'm wrong, i haven't been too far north - just thinking this out.

[bouche]

eek. i guess i was confusing the sun with time-zones.

[questcequecest?]

moose, perhaps he's so far north he has to look over the pole to see the sun.. thereby facing north, but looking past the pole to the south. (??)

reunite pangaea!

oh, and thanks for the logs velvet. great read!!

[snarfmaster C]

moose, perhaps he's so far north he has to look over the pole to see the sun.. thereby facing north, but looking past the pole to the south. (??)

where's bradm with his clickable text when you need him.

reunite pangaea!

indeed!

hey - that's what should be written on velvet's tshirt! excellent :cool:

[Douglas]

Always great to read your travel logs, Velvet. Thanks for taking us all along with you...enjoying the ride!

[headymamamyrna]

I love reading the travel logs especially in this weather and we have to stay in our airconditioned homes all day with the blinds down!

I can't wait for the next one.

[Velvet]

Y'know mooose, I think you're right.

Perhaps I'm still lost. Bradm, am I still lost?

Hey, I'm just walking out the door to go visit here: http://www.egeskov.dk

Type to y'all later!

[Velvet]

Scandinavialog, Stardate 080206

My cousin Ditta took me into town today for some sightseeing. Though Lissi tells me Ditta was excited for days for me to show up, she wears that constant state of apathy peculiar to early teenagers, although she mixes it up with the occasional story of how much of a badass she is. She told me (of course) that Odense was "boring" and that there was "nothing to do here but walking around" and I might actually be inclined to believe her except that I thought it was a rather charming place to be "walking around".

Odense is the home of Hans Christian Anderson, famed childrens author. Of course we all know of The Little Mermaid and a few others but people 'round these parts are shocked if you don't know them all. I guess it's sorta like running into a person that knows I'm Just A Bill but has never heard of A Noun Is A Person Place Or Thing. Different cultures I guess. Anyway, suffice to say the town is all a-giddy about being Anderson's birthplace.

We very briefly checked out the town museum and went to Hans Christian Anderson's house. Didn't go inside; don't think I needed to, but we saw a little play featuring vignettes of his stories in the courtyard. We left when Ditta got overtly visually bored. Checked out some statues and had a slice of pizza (they liberally pour white sauce on top), bought some camping fuel (a perfuntory search had me worried that I wouldn't find the right kind) and hopped back on the bus. At one point Ditta grabbed my arm to pull me off the bike path (I accidentally walk on the bike paths all the time) and tore the hell out of some of my road rash in doing so. The pain brought me dangerously close to a reflex punch.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store as I had been instructed to cook dinner. I was going to make lasagna but couldn't find cottage cheese or my secret ingredient (try explaing cottage cheese to someone in a foriegn country) so I resorted to my other specialty, cheeseburgers.

Spent the remainder of the evening poring over photo albums of my grandmother's family and books and trinkets from Lissi's extensive travels. Another good relaxing evening.

[Velvet]

Scandanavialog, Stardate 080306

Lissi had to wake me at 6:30 when she left for work so I could wake up Nils Peter for school at ten after seven 'cuz she says he won't wake up by himself. We're talking about a sixteen-year-old kid here. I puttered about and made breakfast and just as I went to wake him he came out of his room and hit the shower. I coulda killed him. wakingupbeforesevenonmyvacationforalmostnothingandhaveitbefornothingafterallgeezlouise

Luckily it gave me a good start to my day though, and I was going to need it.

I had decided to take a day trip to Egeskov Castle in southern Funen. I had picked up some rough brochures at the tourist information booth the previous day so I had a vague idea on how to get to the castle via rural bike paths. I found a cool dirt path through the woods in the middle of town and spied a nice bench to smoke a joint around 8am. Almost done and already a bit skittish from the occasional passing cyclist, I was wholly unprepared for what I was about to hear. One hundred percent, all the way, no question about it, a lion roared right beside me. I froze and almost had a heart attack at the same time. Veeeerrry slowly I turned around and there was nothing. Slowly I got up to investigate and sure enough I saw through the bushes not four metres away was a nice big lion. He slowly turned his head towards me as Lissi's statement from last night rang in my memory: You're going that way? That's near the zoo.

Awesome start.

It was so nice to ride with marginal wind and no luggage. I sailed through the prettiest towns and loveliest landscapes until an hour-and-a-half later I reached the castle just as it was opening.

Egeskov castle was built in 1554 and is a real-live castle with a moat and everything. The grounds are exquisite with many gardens (the Kitchen Garden was quite stunning), game woods, a big bamboo maze, the whole tamale. The owners have been (and still are) great collectors, and as such there are several museums onsite as well. You got yer horse-drawn buggy museum, yer doll museum, yer Falck museum ('Falck' is written on all rescue vehicles in Denmark and it all started 150 years ago with a guy named Falck who made it his business, as in livilihood, to rescue people and things), but there were two museums that really blew me away. The bicycle/motorcycle museum was extrordinary. Three buildings full (and I mean full) of unbelievable two wheelers from all the way back. We're talking mint restorations of everything from those bikes with the huge front wheel to the first Harleys to one-of-a-kind pieces...it's impossible to adequately describe here. An interesting bonus was lots of them had a button you could press to hear that particular machine rev up (I think all of them were in running order). A few notable cycles include a 1929 Harley that was custom designed for use by the RCMP, a bicycle from nineteen-oh-something that was still in the packing crate and had never been opened or assembled, and the exact model of Yamaha moped that my brother had when we were kids, collectible because as soon as they were produced Denmark banned mopeds with more than two gears and only like six of these were imported to Denmark.

The thing that really impressed me the most was the antique car museum. Okay, you got a rich dude that likes cars, he's gonna have a dozen or two choice cruisers, right? Man, we're talking way above that. There was well over a hundred of the most incredibly collectable automotive pieces imaginable, and each was restored to brand-spanking new. I mean cars from 1899 on up. A 1965 Ferrari, a 1937 racer that would go 260kms/hr, a Caddy from 1908, the earliest Studebacher made, there was a 'ladies model' from 190? in it's original colour, pink, with the pretty lace curtains, before vehicles had steering wheels; they had hand-levers. There was a first-year REO Speedwagon, Model T's, Model A's, manoman. There were also about ten airplanes and fighter jets, a really old British double-decker bus, a 1954 motor home, an old hot-air balloon, the winning solar-powered car from Australia; it was amazing, and totally world class. Then, you can go to the attic and see the hundreds of vehicles that they have yet to restore. I really couldn't believe it, and I took way too many pictures.

The Count who owns the castle still lives there, a fact that astounds me in it's sheer largess, so only part of it is available to the public. There is the impressive yet creepy trophy room, including at least two critters that still hold size records, the yellow room decked out in flawless original Victorian furniture, the music room, towers, guest room, Superman's suit. From the first Reeve film. One of the rare flying suits. Stands out like a Superman suit in a 500-year-old castle. There are toys in the attic - that's where the toy collection lives. Also in the attic is a very large creepy doll of a boy. Legend has it that if the doll is ever moved the castle will burn down the next Christmas. It hasn't been moved in hundreds of years. All in all an extremely impressive day trip.

I rode back to Odense and had to wait out two huge rainstorms along the way. When I got back I had a beer and we went for all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, and I was starving. Afterwards we went to a free concert in the town square. A pretty famous Danish guy, and it was pretty damn good too. Sometimes it reminded me of The Hip. There was easily 6,000 people there and lots of people were singing along to every song. Two great things: you're allowed to bring your own beer and lots of it, and the lawnchairs were all at the back.

I like Denmark.

Stats:

Time: 2:58.19

Average speed: 21.9

Distance: 64.55

Maximum speed: 43.0

Total distance: 174.55

Edited September 10, 2006 by Guest

[Velvet]

Scandinavialog, Stardate 080406

Today is Ditta's fifteenth birthday. Oddly, this family has a tradition of having breakfast birthday parties, and as Nils Peter has to leave for school at 7:45 the party was at 7am. There was a nice spread laid out and the waving of Danish flags and presents and a cake-like thing and as soon as it was done Ditta went back to bed, Nils Peter went to school, and Lissi and I got in the car and headed south.

We took a ferry to the Danish island of Als, where my grandmother was born. Our destination was to visit a distant relative of mine (I would deem him my 4th cousin - his grandfather's sister was my grandmothers mom) who Lissi hadn't seen in fifteen years. I have a very short knowledge of my family tree so this was quite a trip for me. His late father had written up and extensive family history with photos and we went over it in detail. Finally we found the pages where my Grandmother, her parents, and three of her siblings moved to Moncton. There were several interesting tidbits: my great aunt Alma (who I knew well) was at one time married to a relative (bearing the same last name) as the man my grandmother would marry. My great-grandmothers maiden name was Matzen, and her mom's was a variation of Nicholson. Also, my grandmother was born in Germany, not Denmark! That's a political rather than geographical revelation though, as I learned that southern Denmark belonged to Germany from 1864 until 1920, when following WWI they were allowed to vote for their citizenship, and my grandmother was born there in 1913 (as it was put to me, "We are the true Danish, for we chose Denmark."). It was really, really great for me, and the people were so nice. For lunch we had herring in mustard sauce and soft-boiled eggs, and if you know me well you'll find that funny. The most curious thing of all was how much my cousins wife (who should be no blood relation to me) looked like my mother. Strikingly so, Lissi mentioned it as well. Perhaps there's more to learn.

So now I'm sitting on the side of the road about 12kms outside of Middlefart. This is where Lissi dropped me off so I could continue my trip north towards Norway. As I unloaded the bike I noticed the front tire was flat. Lissi didn't know where we would find a bike shop so I assured her that with my pump and spare tube aboard she could hurry on home where she was to have dinner with her sister. I pulled all my gear into the shade, smoked a joint and set to work.

Uh-oh.

You experienced bikers out there know where this is going. Hell, you've seen this coming the whole last paragraph just like I shoulda. Y'see, tires generally don't just go flat. Especially when they're being transported on a bike rack on the back of a car. Something must have hit the tire to make the tube blow, and if something hit well enough to make the tube blow, well it must have damaged the tire itself too.

There's a good 1.5cm gash in the side of my tire. Luckily it's my front tire, which takes almost no weight. Maybe if I give it some air I can get moving and take it nice and POW. Nope. So here I sat needing a replacement tire and then a replacement inner tube for a good two minutes. Then, a nice guy named Douglas stops his bike and asks me in a Scottish accent what the problem was. "Well," sez he, "Thereøs a bike shop and a campground back in Middlefart (the wrong way), and both up ahead as well. Middlefart is about 12kms, the other way is definitely farther." "Hmmmm," I surmised, "It'll take me a while to walk 12kms, do you think they would still be open when I get there?" "The campground would." Very droll. So he checks my tire and he checks his tire and he delivers the following verdict: "Our tires are the same size. I will ride home to Middlefart and if I get to the bike shop in time Iøll buy you what you need. If not I have an extra at home. You can wait here and I'll bring them back in my car. I'll be about forty-five minutes."

Okay!

Later now:

So an hour later (bastard!) he shows up as promised with the tire and tube from the shop. He installed it for me and would take no more than what it cost. Oddly, he asked me if I was from "Wyoming or somewhere". I replied no, Canada, and we had a great old chat. I headed off around 6:30pm and made it to the nearest campground, where I curruntly am lightening my load an ounce at a time (I brought a 26er of rye with me from Canada).

Today:

Time: 1:02.39

Average speed: 17.7

Distance: 18.52

Maximum speed: 38.0

Total distance: 193.07

[Velvet]

Scandinavialog, Stardate 080506

I woke up to a gorgous day, cooked myself a little brekky and packed all my gear up. I do like these new panniers, and I notice most other cyclists have the same ones, but you have to essentially empty them and repack them every night/morning.

Got on the road heading north and hit the wind. Hard. There was a steady punishing gale of easily 25-35km/h straight in my face, and it showed no signs of letting up. Now Denmark is pretty darn flat; nowhere does the country rise to 200m. But something I realised after my last bicycle trip, it's not the hills but the wind that will kill ya. Not since I've landed in Denmark have I had the wind at my back. The best I've got so far is dead on my side, mostly it's been straight at me, or almost so. And what a difference it makes. Not just physically, but psychologically as well. With a wind like I had today it's essentially like riding uphill all day, and that can really punch your morale right in the face. And the whole time you can think of nothing but the wind. Doesn't help that everywhere you look you see the back of a windmill, and it's whipping around so fast you think it'll take flight. I have a feeling that my next two days (at least) will be the same.

And it's a shame too, because of how much it slowed me down today. Aside from the fact that you are forced to drive slower, you need to take a lot more breaks too. There's no coasting; every minute on the bike is pedalling hard. Anyway, I was headed for Arhus, Denmark's second largest city, and I wanted to spend the afternoon at the two cathedrals and the Viking museum, all of which are free (have I mentioned how attractions, and well everything here is really expensive?). By the time I got within twenty kilometres of Arhus it was almost 4pm, so I forced myself to get there by 5pm and hopefully something would still be open. I made it by ten to five and found the tourist information booth. Spent the next ten minutes finding out that everything I wanted to see closed at 5pm. I checked out the cathedrals anyway, and though I would've gotten a lot more out if them by being in them, it's still neat to hang out by a church that's been in service for a millenium. If that wind had been behind me all day I woulda been just coasting nice and fast and easy and had made it to Arhus in plenty of time to check out everything I wanted to see. It woulda been a breeze.

I tried to make the best of it and got lost (on purpose) in the windy (that's windy as in 'not straight') cobblestone streets lined with old houses and shops. It's a really pretty city, and given the time I could easily stay a few days. But that's not in the cards. Last night's plan had me going another twenty or forty kilometres, but I was too tired and late for that. I spotted a campground 8kms north on my map and rambled.

Just as I was leaving the city limits I saw a park with lots of people in it; obviously something was going on. I turned in and saw the park was filled with young people chilling out listening to djs. I asked someone what was up. "It happens one day a year, it's called The Chill Out Festival. Djs play chill music from noon 'til 9pm and everybody just chills out." Cool, I could use some chilling out. I bought a beer and sat on the grass and listened to good ambient music for an hour or two. It was awesome, and people really seemed to be having a good time. I grabbed a flyer and see it happens here today and Copenhagen tomorrow and that's it. Lessee...Pete Gooding (Cafe Mambo, Ibiza), Lulu Rouge, Steve Harvey, and a bunch of locals. I dunno, maybe some of you know those names so there it is.

When I left the park the wind had finally settled down to a whisper, though still blowing my way, and I made it to the campground in no time.

It was a long day though.

Today's brutal stats:

Time: 5:07.21

Average speed (and no, I'm not just being lazy) 16.2

Distance: 83.36

Maximum speed: 41.0

Total distance: 276.43

Edited September 10, 2006 by Guest

[Velvet]

Scandinavialog, Stardate 080606

After a good long ride I tend to have a good long sleep and last night was no exception. An added bonus was some cool dreams featuring my recently departed cat, Studebacher Hoch. I awoke to another beautiful day and hit the road. The wind was mercifully at my side for most of the day so it was dramatically less frustrating. Later in the afternoon I veered off track to drive through a national park, taking a good half-hour break in the forest. For the rest of the day there was virtually no wind at all. I took advantage and drove as far as I could. I felt like I finally hit my stride this afternoon, but it could be my body has just been waiting for the wind to die down.

Stats:

Time: 5:31.16

Average speed: 18.9

Distance: 104.11

Maximum speed: 47.5

Total distance: 380.54

Notes on Denmark:

-A lot of the manhole covers are triangular.

-Alcohol is available everywhere. Beer and hard liquor are available in the corner stores and drinking in public is very common. The drinking age is 16 to buy beer, 18 or more to go to bars, and I think 21 for hard liquor. There's little signs at the stores to discourage underage drinking and smoking, it's a silhouette of obviously young children and they're chugging and smoking. It looks like it's straight out of Mad Magazine or something.

-Bikes are hugely popular, and there are bike paths with individual lanes and signage and lights virtually everywhere, on every street. So far I've shared the road with cars maybe 10% of the time, and the drivers are absurdly conscientious of cyclists. It seems we own the roads here. Trains and buses seem busy too, and no surprise with gas around $2 a litre.

-Nobody wears bicycle helmets. I wasn't wearing one either when I wiped out in Copenhagen. I'm wearing one now. Well, not now, I'm in the library.

-Most things here cost double as compared to Canada. Can of soup $3, chocolate bar $3, cheeseburger $8, etc. Get this: at a corner store a 500ml Pepsi is $3.50 while a bottle of Carlsberg is less than $2!

-People don't jaywalk or speed.

-The people here are very friendly and helpful and almost everyone speaks English.

-There's a bird I hear constantly - I'm told it's a pigeon, and it has the greatest call that I'm totally gonna rip off for a song: daw-dah-do boom-boom, daw-dah-do boom-boom. It's even in 4/4, daw-dah-do is quarter note triplets and the boom-booms are eighth notes, with an eighth note rest at the end. I think it's like C-F-Bb Eb-Eb.

-The countryside is quite lovely and at times reminds me of New Brunswick, which makes me feel that in some ways Canada might have reminded my grandmother of home.

-There used to be a Danish mile, and it was around seven kilometres.

-There are windmills everywhere (the new Mercedez-Benz kind). I mean there is not a vantage point where scanning the horizon won't find several of them. I'm sure I've seen a thousand already.

-They like their camping here. Pretty much every city and town has campgrounds right in town.

-The most common architecture looks just like all the pictures I saw at my grandmothers house. The homes here are primarily very old, and they all share the same style. When looking through pictures a few days ago at my 4th cousin's place, we could always tell if the shot was taken here or in Canada by looking at the houses in the background.

Breifly, it's very nice here, and Canada would do well to adopt their biking sensibilities, the public drinking laws, and their gas prices.

I think tomorrow will be my last day in this country.

[ggrtrhhrtgg]

I wonder, if we were not so dependable on motorized vehicles, then would we be able to drink in public?

[Birdy]

not to self promote, but velvet, just reading your log from stardate 080306 about the car museum, if youre into that, you should really venture down to chatham sometime and check out where i work. chatham is self-titled The Classic Car Capital of Canada and is home to the RM Classic Car Exhibit, restoration house and auction company. The stuff inside our exhibit will surely blow you away and definately touring our restoration shop will too. Watching craftsmen fab up cars that parts havent existed for over 50-100 years for is absolutely amazing. we are, and this isnt even a pat on the back, recognized and awarded as one of the top restoration facilities in north america. if youre ever in the neighborhood, that is.. it would be a cool stop for you. nice logs.

[bradm]

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store as I had been instructed to cook dinner. I was going to make lasagna but couldn't find cottage cheese or my secret ingredient (try explaing cottage cheese to someone in a foriegn country) so I resorted to my other specialty, cheeseburgers.

You might have tried asking for ricotta cheese.

Aloha,

Brad

[Dr. J]

I wonder, if we were not so dependable on motorized vehicles, then would we be able to drink in public?

Dunno. I spent the better part of last summer in Europe and it struck me that the European approach to alcohol is quite different than that of North Americans. Somewhat akin to our different approaches to hockey (that's an observation, not a judgement).

"Some drink to remember

Some drink to forget..."

On a different note - so glad I got a computer back before this journey ended. Always a great read. Thanks for taking the time to share, Todd :thumbup:

[ollie]

I love picturing the domestic scenes in my head. I think they would make for a great family sitcom. And I love the name "Nils Peter"!

Really good stuff Todd... thanks for sharing your vacation with us.

[StoneMtn]

[color:blue]Some ancestral humour to share with your new Scandinavian friends, Todd...

1) The Norse god Thor decided to become a mortal for a while and went down to earth. He met a beautiful girl and they spent the evening together. In the morning Thor decided to reveal his identity to the woman. "I'm Thor" he said. "You're thor!" she said, "Lithen buthter, I'm tho thor I can hardly thit down!"

2) Q. Where did the teacher send the Viking when he got sick in class?

A. To the school Norse!

3) Q. What do Erik the Red and Smokey the Bear have in common?

A. They have the same middle name.

4) A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."

[gentlemonkey]

Awesome Logz, V.

I hope to one day travel to Poland and Germany to see where my grandparents came from; as well as learn some more about my European roots and family tree.

I'm reminded of the novel/movie- "everything is illuminated". Man, I loved that movie.

[Velvet]

just saw that movie

[Booche]

Sweet log.

[bradm]

Sweet log.

I'll bet that's not the first time you've said that.

Aloha,

Brad

[Velvet]

Sorry, I only had a second or two left, but I saw that movie just before I left Canada.

A quick update:

I´m having a hard time finding an internet cafe where I can upload my logs from the Alphasmart. I´m in Oslo right now at the Oya Rock Festival. There´s free internet here.

Saw The Scream today (the painting, not the movie)!

[Freak By Night]

I thought The Scream was stolen and never recovered?