Day #12: Berlin!

Well, I'm not good at suspense (and let's be honest, you'd skip to the end anyway to peak; I know I would), so I'll go ahead and tell you that I made it safely to Berlin.

When I left you at the end of yesterday's episode, I found out that both my Plan A and Plan B for getting to Berlin were fully booked. Leaving me unsure of how I was going to get to the German capital.

I decided the best course of action was to get to Copenhagen, the source of my bottleneck. Not only was it a transportation hub, it was also a familiar city so I was somewhat familiar with its layout and (more importantly) its train station.

As I sat on the train to Malmö from Stockholm, the thought occurred to me, if Malmö/Copenhagen was the problem for me, if I were able to just get to Hamburg (a north German town famous for, well, you know...), they had hourly trains to Berlin. Based upon that, I started look at train connections from other, more western, Danish towns. It turns out, that if I could make it to Odense, the biggest town on the island west of Copenhagen, I could catch a train to Fredericia, which is on the main penisula of Denmark. From Fredericia, there was a train to Hamburg, and from Hamburg I could get to Berlin. The only drawback? To make it all work, I'd have to take the first train from Copenhagen to Odense, and that left at 6am. (grumble, grumble, grumble).

So after 5 hours of sleep at the hostel (which was neatly cut in half at 2am by the drunken entrance of, what I believe from what I could recollect in my half-awake state, part of an American minor league baseball team), I headed to the train station and caught the train to Odense. When I made it to Fredericia without incident, I noticed on the departure board that there was a train going to Berlin. I quickly made my way to the information desk and reserved a seat. Praise the Lord! My time of arrival in Berlin? 2:27pm. Which is the exact same time it would have been had I been able to get on the straight from Copenhagen train. And when we arrived, that train had not yet come in. So my piecemeal way was faster. Ha. How's that for working out?

That left me time to wander a little around East Germany after I checked in at my hostel. I was able to visit the highly conceptual Jewish Museum in south Berlin. It is devoted to the history of the German jews, with a heavy emphasis on the Holocaust. While for the most part, the unconventional architecture of the building interested me more than the displays, there was one case that stuck with me. It displayed a little stuffed monkey, that's all. The placard next to the display case told the story that a father had given the monkey to his son right before they were separated into different concentration camps. That was the last time he saw his son and both his wife and son were murdered in the camps. Simply heartbreaking.

Day #11: Disaster!

Its no secret that I am a fan of the sitcom Frasier. There is one episode later on in the series where Frasier and his brother Niles are planning their father's wedding. The day of the wedding dawns and we see the lovely (and meticulously prepared) reception room. Suddenly, Niles burts in one side door while Frasier runs in from another side door. "Frasier!" Niles says. "Niles!" Frasier responds. "Disaster!" they both say together. It turns out both of them had discovered problems with the wedding that would lead to their father being married at a vet's office, ruining they're carefully prepared plans.

And that's how my day went. The original plan was to spend two days in Stockholm, catch a train to Malmö, Sweden, and then take a sleeper train to Berlin. Thus, I would arrive in Berlin the morning of the third day and it would be good.

But when I went to the train station in the morning to make those reservations, disaster struck. I was cleared through Malmö, no problem. BUt when it came time to book the sleeper train, I was informed it was booked full. Stunned, I left the ticket counter. I wasn't sure what to do next. I stumbled over to the free tourist info computers to check flight prices, but at this late hour, the prices were astronomical.

At this point, you might wonder what the big deal was, so I spend another day in Stockholm. I have all this time left, right? Well, not quite. I recently confirmed a reservation in Swtizerland to stay a week at L'Abri, a type of Christian education center starting September 19th. So I have a defined two week period to get through Germany and Austria.

My next move was to consult my time table schedules to see what other train arrangements could be made. And that's when I discovered I no longer had my daypack with me. I must have set it down when I mooned away from the ticket counter. No matter, I was there only five minutes ago, it had to be nearby. But it wasn't. A wave of panic spread over me. While nothing in my daypack was 100% essential, there were several helpful items.

I went up to a side counter and asked if anyone had brought a bag up. She asked me to describe it and soon disappeared behind a door, only to re-appear with my bag! Hallelujah! I was saved. Although, I think I might have been a bit effusive in my thanks. When I called the ticket lady my hero, I think she blushed.

After finally sitting down to consult the train timetable, I determined I would go on my day of planned sightseeing, come back early to check to see if anyone had cancelled, and, if not, reserve a seat on the next morning's first train to Berlin out of Copenhagen. (Malmö is less than 30 minutes from Copenhagen.) So I went sightseeing at Stockholm's palace complex, seeing the royal armory, the crown jewels, royal apartment, and changing of the guard.

I returned to the train station 45 minutes before my train to Malmö was scheduled to depart and headed to the ticket line. Sure enough, still booked full. Expecting this, I unleashed Plan B. BUt at this time, I was informed that the early morning train from Copenhagen was also fully booked. Disaster! As Frasier and Niles might say.

It seemed like everyone was fleeing Scandianvia for Berlin and I was caught in the middle of it. I couldn't do anything else but hop on the train to Malmö and figure out a Plan C. The next train from Copenhagen was in the afternoon, getting me to Berlin too late. So I ended day 11 in Copenhagen, waiting to go to the train station early the next morning to play my last card.

Will I make it to Berlin? Will my carefully constructed itinerary beyond destroyed beyond redemption? Will I be stuck in Scandianvia . . . forever?

Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion!

Day #10: Stockholm

I awoke in Stockholm, the beautiful capital of Sweden. Home of ABBA, Bjorn Borg, and ligonberry jam.

My day began by purchasing a Stockholm Card, which allows access to all the city's museums and public transportation for an upfront fee. With all I wanted to see, I'm sure it will be worth the upfront expenditure. My first stop was the Nordic Museum. Originally designed to chronicle the history of all Scandianvian people, they gave up along on the way and now focus only on Swedes. Housed in a Danish Renaissance style castle (compare to the picture of Frederiksborg Palace), the Nordic Museum has a number of fascinating exhibits. My favorite was Dining Throughout the Years, an exhibit on the eating habits of Swedes over the years. Check out this setting from the 1600s, when Sweden was in its heyday. They would use (and re-use) the swan's neck, head, and wings as a centerpiece, while putting the goose roast where the swan's body should be. Imagine rolling this out at your next dinner party!

From there, it was a short stroll to the Vasa museum. Built in 1628 during Sweden's war against Poland and the Holy Roman Empire, the Vasa was to be the first two cannon-deck ship built in Sweden. Everything from as big as the size of it to as small as the intricate carvings was designed to convey the power and might of the King Gustavus Adolphus. The boat was launched with great fanfare from Stockholm and managed to sail all of 20 minutes when a gust of wind caught it sails and tipped it over, sinking the ship. It lay in the Stockholm harbor for 333 years before it was re-discovered, raised, and restored. Over 95% of the ship you see is the original parts, meticulously replaced by craftsmen. Pretty neat.

Last stop of the day was at Skansen, the original culture park in Europe, where you don't have to go to all of Sweden, all of Sweden comes to you. The most interesting part was a demonstration of traditional glass blowing techniques. I sat mesmerized as the glassblower took a lump of ghot glass and made a little cat out of it!

Day #6: More Oslo

Today was a lot more relaxed day. I slept in a little after yesterday's quick sprint through the fjords (although, small confession, I did sleep quite a bit on the train both coming and going). After breakfast at the hostel, it was on to downtown Norway. My first stop was City Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. I thought it'd be cool to do a tour there. But it was closed for renovations. Fine, the Oslo City Hall was only built in 1950, so it barely counts as historical anyway.

Undaunted, I went on to the National Gallery to view art. While the National Gallery did have an understandably heavy emphasis on Norwegian artists, it did have a smattering of "big name" artists, including a couple of Monets I thought were lovely.

The National Gallery is most famous for being the home of famed Norwegian painter Edvard Munch's most acclaimed painting, the Scream.

The Scream is the very embodiment of the phrase, existential angst. Munch was famous for this, and similar type pictures, that portrayed the darker, uneasy side of human nature. Then, after a nervous breakdown, he went to a psychiatrist, got better, and started painting happier works. Somehow, the happy Munch never produced a popular painting thereafter. Go figure.

After the National Gallery, I hopped a train to Frogner Park. In 1921, the City of Oslo. struck a deal with Gustav Vigeland, Norway's greatest sculptor who then lived in Italy. In return for a studio and state support, Vigeland would spend the rest of his days sculpting and installing pieces in the city park. And boy did he ever. Over the next two decades, Vigeland sculpted 192 bronze and granite statutes (which were compirsed of over 600 figures, all nude) that stand in the park today. The centerpiece of the park is a 50 foot monolith.



The monolith consists of 121 different people, all seemingly striving to the top (with some succeeding more than others). Vigeland died just after it was installed and left us no explanation of what it means or the message he meant to convey. After 30 minutes of staring at it, I'm stumped. What do you think?

After Frogner Park, my last stop in Oslo was the Norwegian Resistance Museum, chronicling Norway's occupation under the Nazis. One thing I learned at the museum was that Hitler was obsessed with Norway's perceived strategic value. He stationed 400,000 soliders, arimen, and seamen in Norway, convinced the Allies were going to use it as a stepping stone to attack the German homeland.

After going through the museum, it was time to head to the train station to be whisked off to my next destination: Stockholm.

Day #7: Norwegian Fjords

Whew, what a day! It started early in the morning when I woke up at 4:30am. I made a quick call home for my weekly Sunday (for them it was still Sunday!) phone visit before hopping on a tram downtown in order to catch a 6:35am train out the the fjord.

Just looking outside the train window, you could tell we were climbing ever higher by the change in scenery. It went from city sprawl, to pastoral countryside, to rocky ridges over the course of the enxt several hours. Right before we got to my station, we stopped at the highest point on the Oslo-Bergen line. That station was 1,222 meters (or a little over 4,000 feet) above seal level.

We arrived at my stop at Myrdal at 11:41, just in time for a quick bite to eat and a look through the gift shop. I had left my rain coat at home as the weather in Oslo did not look like rain at all, but 5 hours away in Myrdal, it had started to rain. In the giftshop, they had a rain coat for sale, so I quickly snapped it up. Considering it rained for the whole rest of my trip, that was the best 229 kroner I ever spent!

After a while, the smaller train to Flåm came. The town of Flåm is situated at the end of an arm of the fjord, so it is right at sea level. The upshot is that it is quite the quick descent down the mountain! The highlight was about halfway down when the engineer stopped the train to let us out to take pictures of an impressive waterfall.

After our hour long descent was over, we arrived in Flåm and so I hopped on the 1:20 boat to Gundvagen. From there, it was two straight hours of taking pictures in the fjord. I think I took over 200 pictures (not counting, of course, the 50 or so pictures I took for Asian tourists using their cameras)! The fjord was cloudy and it was lightly raining, but I think the weather did not spoil the day. Rather, the clouds lent an air of majesty and mystery to the fjords . . . but maybe that's just me.

Upon arrival in Gundavngen, I was supposed to catch a bus back to the rail line at Voss. But when we disembarked form the boat, there was no bus to be found. I started to get a little worried since I had little turnaround between getting to Voss and hopping on my train. After 15 anxious minutes, the bus finally arrived and, because there were so many people going to Voss, a shorter bus as well.

I opted for the smaller bus, which proved fortunate, as it took us up a side road over 12 different switchbacks for one final view of the fjord. Or, at least, what we could make out throught eh fog and the clouds! Thankfully, the bus dropped us off in Voss in enought ime to get on the train back to Oslo.

5 hours later, I arrived in Oslo and got on a tram back to the hostel, getting back just after 11pm. Needless to say, I went straight to bed after that day!

Day #6: Oslo

First off, I'm goign to have to apologize for not having any pictures. The internet cafe I'm in has all of their hard drives locked away, so I canæt upload anything.

The day started off with a bang, wake-up call over the intercom by the captain at 8am. After a shower and a continental breakfast buffet, I disembarked into Oslo. After a quick stop at the tourist information center, I headed out to the Bygødy penisula. Most accessible by ferry boat across the harbor, Bygødy is home to several different interesting museums.

I started off at the Norwegian Folk Museum. My guide book describes this kinf od folk museum as culture on a lazy susan, which proved to be a pretty accurate description. The Folk Museum was a big park with different types of buildings representing different parts of Norwegian culture. From ane arly sod and wood house to a modern day example of a Pakistani immigrant apartment, this place had it all.

The next stop was the Viking Ship Museum. Scientists were excavating a burial mound in Norway when they came across a local chieftain buried in his warship. On different digs, they found two additional boats. All three are in the museum and constitute the best preserved Viking boats in existence today. The ships were almost perfectly preserved. Its amazing to think that the boats I saw were once used to terrorize othe rparts of Europe!

After a little hike, it was on to the Kon-Tiki museum! This museum was on my must-see list since I had read Thor Heyerdahl's book about the Kon-Tiki in high school. The background for those who donæt know is that Norwegian THor Heyerdahl, while studying in the South Pacific and South America, was struck by some of the sanme themes and symbols he kept seeing in both places. He developed a theory that ancient Peruvians floated across the South pacific to colonize some of the islands.

The main scientific objection to his theory was that it was implausible: the Peruvians were not technologically advanced enough to make such a voyage. So to prove them wrong, Thor built a ship, using techniques and materials the ancient Peruvians would have known, and set sail across the Pacific. 101 days later, he and his crew landed on a south pacific island, proving his theory plausible. It was pretty interesting seeing the ship I had already read about!

The final museu, pf tje day was the fram museum, showing a ship the Norwegians had specially designed to be used in icy waters. The Fram has the distinction of the ship being the farthest north (it was purposefully trapped in an Arctic ice flow for three years) and the farthest south (Roald Amundsen used the ship when he became the first person to make it to the South Pole).

After a full day of sightseeing, I went to my hostel and went to bed early. I had to get up early for Day #7's trip to the Norwegian fjords!

Rare Double Post

I wanted to share some thoughts from on board the ship, but it didn't quite seem to fit the Day #5 post, so the following ruminations get their own post.

After feeling a bit lonely and isolated, I was sent two gifts on Day #5.

First, I was in the ship's internet cafe when I heard someone say, "Oh shoot, I never know how to work these keyboards." Turns out, the soruce of the frustration was a nice couple from California I was able to help out and had a nice 30 minute conversation with. So far, at the hostels I've stayed at, it's been a steady diet of Germans, Asians, other Scandinavians, and one couple from New Zealand. Point being, it was nice to talk to some Americans.

Second, I watched the movie Angels and Demons on board the ship. MY other choice was Star Trek and I had only seen that one several times (and as recently as the flight over the Atlantic), so my choice was pretty clear.

Note: at this point, if you haven't seen the movie or read the book, I'm about to spoil the ending for you.

I understand the Catholic church weren't big fans of this movie, I understand that in principle, but Ron Howard made some changes to the book that dramatically altered the ending, in a good way.

In the book, the four cardinals who were the front runners to be pope are kidnapped and all are killed. The new pope is the former great elector, being pretty much the last man standing.

But in the movie, RObert Langdon is able to save the last of the prefeti and it is that cardinal that is elected Pope, with the former great elector as his chamberlain. At the end, as the Pope is prepared to be annoucned to the world, the chamberlain turns to Langdon and tells him that he is happy God sent LAngdon to save the church. Langdon isn't so sure and tells the chamberlain that he doesn't think God sent him. TO which the chamberlain replies, "Oh my son, of course He did." And the movie ends as the camera pans to see the new Pope (who Langdon saved, remember) greeting the masses in St. Peter's Square.

The message to me was obvious, we may not know what we're doing and why we're doing it, but God has plans for us, all for His purposes. All we can do is do what we're doing to the best of our ability and know that soomeone else is looking out for the bigger picture!

Day #5: Travels

Day #5 was a travel day, going from the island of ærø back to Købnhavn (or copenhagen as we know it). One travel difficulty i've encountered is trying to look up train schedules for cities I could not find, only to realize they were listed somewhere else in the alphabetical listings.

Everything was going smoothly, caught the ferry to the mainland and then the shuttle train to Odense. Once I arrived, I noticed that a train was departing to Copenhagen in just four minutes. So I ran and hopped on a train car, just in the nick of time. What luck I thought to myself! In the car there didn't seem to be enough room for me and my backpack (which is bigger than it appears!). No matter, I'll just stand by the door at the back of the car, wait until the next stop, and then hop off and get on a later car that probably had more room. A clever plan, I admit....

One minor detail foiled my otherwise flawless and brillant plan. I was in suhc a hurry to make the train, I neglected to see any other detail other than it was going to Copenhagen. It turns out that instead of making the 10 or so stops between Odense and Copenhagen the train would nromally take, I had hopped on an express train that made two stops: one stop in suburban Copenhagen and one at Copenhagen central. Consequently, I would have to stand the whole 75 minute trip standing while wearing my increasingly heavy backpack.

To add insult to injury, where I was standing was right next to the bathroom, which seemingly every Dane on board had to use over the trip. GIven the popularity of the bathroom, a long line ensued. Several passengers asked me a question in Danish and I shook my head no. I thought they were asking me if I was in line for the bathroom. At least, I sincerely hope that's what they were asking. Thankfully, I arrived in Copenhagen no worse for the wear.

Once in Copenhagen, I made my way to the boat dock where I boarded the Pearl of Scandinavia for my overnight cruise to Oslo. It was a very nice ship where I had a nice buffet dinner, used the internet cafe, and took in a movie before turning in. Not bad for roughing it!

Day #4: Denmark's Town in a Bottle

I spent my fourth day abroad in the scenic village of Ærøskøbing. Denmark's self proclaimed fairy tale town definitely lives up to its name. Located on an island in the far south of Denmark, Ærøskøbing is only accessible by ferry. The town has basically remained the same since the 17th century, first by choice and now by Danish law.

I started off the morning by simply wandering around the village, enjoying the cobblestone streets and quaint houses, as seen here:


The main historical attraction us the bottle ship museum, which houses over 250 ships in a bottle. All of which were created by one man (called, wait for it, Bottle Peter) over the course of his lifetime. Peter boasted that he personally emptied the contents of all the bottles before he put the ships in, except for the milk bottles, for whatever reason. This particular bottle is my favorite, depicting a boat with a diver going down to a sunken ship.

In the afternoon, I rented a bike from my hostel and took a ride across the rural parts of the island, passing through little towns, pastures, and farms.


To end the day, I walked out to the beach where several Danes have beach "cottages." I put cottages in quotation marks because as you can see from the following picture, they are closer in size to monopoly houses than what we would consider a cottage!


As I walked along the beach, it got rather windy and the waves were kicking up as the tide came in. I saw one boat in the water that was being buffeted by the winds and the waves, but managed to stay afloat and in place, due to it being tied to a stake driven in the seabed.



I couldn't help but think of the boat as a metaphor for life. Because the boat was tied a firm anchor, no matter what the wind and the waves threw at it, it remained in place and did not capsize. Just like the boat needed the stake, so do we need something to tie ourselves to. God, family, and friends provide that steady stake we can tie ourselves to keep us tethered when the storms of life stir up around us.

I know that was a little heavy and philosophical for a light-hearted travel blog, but I thought it was worth sharing. Until tomorrow!

In Non-Travel Related News...

The last majority opinion I was assigned was released today in the end of the fiscal year purge. You can read it at the following link:

www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/historical/2009/aug/070815.pdf