München and Neuschwanstein Castle

Robin and I recently went to München. For me it was a business trip, but we stayed a few extra days to absorb the great capital of the German state of Bavaria. We stayed in a town by the name of Ismaning, just outside of München on the way to the Airport. This was where the office was located. Ismaning was conveniently connected to both the airport and München via the S8 U-Bahn. Our first day in München was spent wandering around the city. We took a tour of the The Residenz (German word for residence). The Residenz is the largest downtown palace in Germany and serves today as one of the finest room decoration museums in Europe. This place was ornate! We ended our day at the The Hofbräuhaus am Platzl, a beer hall. If you ever go you need to know the the song "In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus, eins, zwei, g'suffa!" ("There's a Hofbräuhaus in Munich—one, two, drunk!"). Robin and I enjoyed a liter of beer, pretzels, and talked to a few of Canadians, an American and a chap from the UK who stepped on an airplane for the first time a few weeks ago. I guess you could say this was a bit of a tourist attraction. The Canadian couple we met were from Toronto, and the guy was here to drive Audi's on the autobahn. He actually got to drive an Audi R8 on the Nürburgring!!

Robin I went to see Neuschwanstein Castle. This was an all day adventure, as it was a two hour train ride from München towards the Alps. Neuschwanstein Castle (New Swan Stone palace) is a 19th century Bavarian palace. Located near Hohenschwangau and Füssen in southwest Bavaria, the castle was built by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner, the King's inspiring muse. It also served as the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland. The Castle was magnificent, placed on a hill top, over looking town, at the base of mountains. It snowed the day before we went, which added to the fairly tale look of it all. The pictures don't do it justice.

This trip was great since we got to see different things from the last time when i was here (about 7 years ago). I did take Robin to a couple of the places that I saw previously, kind of interesting to say I was here 7 years ago, in this exact spot! Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to go to the BMW museum or factory. Some how we ran out of time (or interest). I'll save that for next time, I think the BMW experience will be open by then!

For more picture click here

Rush in Stockholm

Robin and I went to see Rush tonight. I was Robin's first time to see Rush and the first time both of us stepped foot inside the Stockholm Globe Arena.

We had fairly good seats, section A11, rad 8, plats 59 and 60. However I think we were seated around every amateur drummer in the crowd. It was good show, and they made a few shout outs to Canada which was cool. At one point Geddy Lee pulled out a video camera and pointed at the crowd say he was making a video for back home in Canada. He got the crowd to shout out "HELLO Canada". To my surprise there was some video footage of Bob and Doug McKenzie as well.

The Flåmsbanna

Off to Flåm and the scenic Mydra to Flåm railway aboard the Flåmsbanna, one of the steepest railways in the world (apparently). This is clearly a tourist attraction as, there were hundreds for grey hairs and Japanese tourist lined up to catch the train. Well, there wasn't much to see as it was raining and completely fogged in. We did have a great view of a colourful Spaniard who loudly "oooooh'd" and "ahhhh'd" at every chance he could. I believe he has mocking the the rest of the people (a Spanish tour group) who still decided to take picture even though you couldn't see anything on account of the fog. Since it was such lovely weather (raining), we decided to hike to a waterfall (more water). When you're wet might as well keep it that way.

The second day in Flåm was awesome, the clouds broke and it was completely cloudless. We headed of for a monster hike, 6hrs, i have no idea how many kms. It was from Østerbø to Vassbygdi. The view were breathtaking, the pictures just don't do justice.

The third day, Robin and I kayaked on the Aurlandsfjord, with our German tour guide. It was just the three of us, so we were able to do more kayaking than the group normally would, and we had an opportunity to talk about pre and post german unification. She grewup in the eastern part of german. You might thing I'm nuts but I drank water from a river, or runoff steam, and I didn't get sick. To top it off the water was tasty!

Of course you can see more pictures here.

The ice planet of Hoth

We arrived in Voss by train from Stockholm via Oslo. Voss is situated on the main road and railway line from Oslo to Bergen, about 100 kilometers east of Bergen. This is where we met up with friends Julie and Joel, and made our home base for the next two nights. Not much going on in the sleepy town of Voss, except for some guys ripping up the street on dirtbikes and four wheelers. Reminded me of rural any where in Canada. We also stumbled upon some teenagers filming each other grinding a rail on skis in front of the church. Ahh only in Norway.

The next day we set off for a hike in Finse, which is at the highest point along the Olso to Bergen railway at 1222m. Finse was the location for the ice planet Hoth in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Can you imagine, I was at the site of the legendary battle of Hoth, and walked the very same earth as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and those crazy Imperial walkers things.

It was cold, 5C cold, and on the verge of raining when we arrived. I didn't bring bring gloves, so i was forced to purchase some at the local and only bike shop. Infact I think this was the only shop, as there are no roads that lead here, acess is by train. I payed a kings ransom for these gloves, seems thy have a captive audience there. We hiked out to the glacier, two hours out, two hours back. The scenery was beautiful, but desolate. The hike was cold and wet, i think it rained the entire time. The entire time we were out there, I had to remind myself, this is August, yes, this is August. We returned to Voss, had a sauna, dinner, and called it a day.

Norway in nutshell

• Aug 17 - 22:30 caught the train to Oslo
• Aug 18 - 03:00 train stops in a train yard
  
• Aug 18 - 03:30 train connects to another bunch of cars heading to Oslo
  
• Aug 18 - 09:30 arrived in Olso
  
• Aug 18 - 10:30 caught the train to Voss
• Aug 18 - 16:00 arrived in Voss, Norway
  
• Aug 18 - Met up with Julie and Joel
• Aug 19 - hiked the ice planet of Hoth from Star Wars (Finse, Norway), more detail here.
• Aug 20 - Mydra to Flåm aboard the legendary and scenic flåmsbanna
• Aug 20 - Arrive in Flåm
• Aug 21 - 6hr hike from Østerbø to Vassbygdi, gorgeous!
  
• Aug 22 - Kayaked the Aurlandsfjord
• Aug 22 - baord the high speed catermeran to Bergen, great view of the fjords
• Aug 22 - Arrive in Bergen
• Aug 23 - Ulriksbanen cable car to the peak 642m, and hiked down
• Aug 23 - tour around Bryggen (the old warf)
  
• Aug 24 - Train from Bergen to Oslo
  
• Aug 24 - Arrive in Oslo and off to the Scandic hotel
• Aug 24 - visit the Vigeland Sculpture Park
  
• Aug 25 - viking ships and a Stave Church
• Aug 26 - Edvard Munch Museum, and goodbye Oslo, hello Stockholm.
  

Raggare

Raggare, what's that? This is Raggare:

Raggare love old American cars, they love James Dean, and most importantly they love to drink beer in their old cars and cruise down the boulevards. Raggare is an interesting subculture found mostly in Sweden and other Nordic countries. The cars are an important part of the subculture, especially V8-powered cars and other large cars from the across the pond. Popular sources of influence seem to be anything from the 1950's like rockabilly music and the clothes and hairstyle associated with this time period.

This collection of Raggare formed the night of August 11. Apparently there was a classic American car show that day in Stockholm (i was totally unaware). That night was cruise night, people lined Sveavägen for what I would think was Raggare heaven. Mind you there were normal people with their classic cars too, typically with well maintained, or restored cars. But every time you saw rolling wreck from the 50's, it was typically piloted by a Raggar. What a great night, and to think I stumbled upon this quite by accident.

Uppsala, Birka, Gripsholm and a football match

Saturday, July 21st, 2007. Friends from Ottawa - Ben and Amelie are up visiting us.

Gripsholms Slott is located in Mariefred on Lake Mälaren, about 60 kms west of Stockholm. It was first built in the 1500's by King Gustav Vasa (on the site of a fortress from the 1300's with which he used as building materials) and later expanded in the 17oo's by King Gustav III. With almost 100 rooms that you can walk through in the castle that contain original furniture and decor, it was one of the most amazing things I (Robin) have seen! It even has a dungeon. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but some pics are here of the outside.

At 6pm, Djurgården vs Elfsborg football match started at Stockholm Olympic stadium. Djurgården had a thrilling come from behind win. I own a Djurgården jersey and looked like one of their biggest fans! I also tried to sing along with all the songs too. It was fun! There was a lot of energy in this crowd of 12,000.





July 16-19th, 2007: On Monday, my sister Maryrose and her husband Mauro arrived in Stockholm off the heels of their France trip. They saw the sights in Stockholm, and being inspired from their travels in France they cooked up a delicious 'coq au vin' one evening. Maryrose and Mauro were tired of palaces and opted for the unique viking experience of Birka, possibly the oldest town in Sweden. We had a great tour of the island and the grave mounds. There are something like 3000 grave mounds on this little island. I was a bit unprepared and didn't charge my batteries for the camera, and it died mid trip, as a result I didn't take that many pictures. What pictures I took are here.

July 14th, 2007. A forty minute commuter train from Stockholm and you are in Uppsala. This was a Saturday destination for us. Uppsala is a quaint little university town, with a canal that cuts through it. Ok, it isn't that small it's the fourth largest city in Sweden and home of some famous people. Most notable are, Carl Linnaeus and Anders Celsius, not to mention there is a Slott's factory (they make mustard) here as well. Speaking of slotts (i.e. castles), Uppsala has a fairly nice one, with a fantastic garden around the corner. Interestingly enough, the King of that castle had some canons pointed at the Domkyrka (Scandinavia's largest church) as he didn't trust powerful bishops of the time. It was a religious, economic and political centre. When I say religion I mean Norse paganism, human sacrifice, the worship of gods like Thor, Odin and Freyr. Just outside of town is Gamla Uppsala, or old Uppsala in English. It is here you can find the site of the Royal burial mound from the 5th and 6th century. Historians believe that this site may have been used as early as the 3rd century. We closed this day with a nice dinner at a restaurant down by the canal, see pics here.