Oslo, Norwary

We had so much we wanted to see but so little time.

The Viking Museum is here and houses some ships of the era dating back to 800 AD. Massive ships that measure 70 ft long, 17 feet wide and almost 5 feet deep with room for 30 oars. Other artifacts include intricate carvings, treasures and skeleton keys just to mention a few. Leif Eriksson and his father Eric the Red are probably the most known Vikings.

Also Vigeland Sculpture Park with a total of 212 different sculpture of various sizes in bronze and granite. Named after the artist, Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943. He modeled all in full size without any assistance of pupils or other artists and they are all nude except of himself which is fully clothed. His work portrays the full range of human life.

We got our first view of Oslo from aboard ship during lunch

The parts of Oslo most impressive are the cobblestone streets, tiny smart cars and the architecture of the buildings. There are more motorcycles here than bicycles and the license tags are very different. (Last 2 numbers whited out for privacy reasons)




The Royal Palace (top) is where the King and Queen reside along with the daily work of the monarchy. The Pariament Building (below) known locally as the Stortinget meaing "The Great Thing/Assembly".




Town Hall (top) where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded ~ Akershus Fortress (below) was used in 1592 to protect Oslo from sea attacks.




The Holmenkollen Ski Jump lies within the suburbs of Oslo and has become famous all over the world.

Copenhagen, Denmark

I learned a lot about Copenhagen from searching the net since we missed exploring this city.

During our 20 min bus ride to the pier I saw lots of unique buildings and LOTS of bicycles everywhere!! Parked or with riders they swarmed the city.

The city bikes are world famous, a quick and a free alternative to getting around faster than by any other means of transportation. There are no mandatory bike helmet laws and the City provides public bicycles with your deposit refunded upon return. Denmark's 5.4 million citizens own 4.2 million bicycles and only 1.8 million cars.

We saw the windmills and learned that the government expects to turn 50% electricity consumptions into offshore wind power by 2030.



By the harbor sits the Little Mermaid statue from a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. She is the sea king's daughter and is half woman and half fish. The story says she has to wait 300 yrs on her rock to enter the world of human beings. She was created in 1913 and is supposedly the most visited attraction in Denmark.



There is far more to the city online than I have posted here.

Historic Flood of '09

We're off for the airport around noon on Mon Sept 21st during the historic flood of '09 in Atlanta, Ga!


South Cobb County

Atlanta Freeway

6 Flags Over Georgia

These pictures were the aftermath of the Mon and Tues rains. We drove to the airport in heavy down pours and arrived to find all flights grounded due to the weather. Our 5 pm flight finally left at 9:30 pm. We land in Chicago 20 mins after our flight to Copenhagen departed!

Atlanta assured us we will have accommodations and meal tickets since we are an international flight but upon arrival in Chicago we are told different.

After firm insistence on our part we received our hotel and meal tickets; survived a long wait for the hotel bus and finally checked in at 1 am! A too short 12 hours later we are sitting at Chicago O'Hare Airport for our 10 pm flight, 9 hours in the future.

Finally we board a fully packed flight with 8 more hours ahead of us til arrival in Copenhagen. With dinner and breakfast served the flight goes rather quickly altho no sleeping as the seats are unbearable! We arrived with just enough time to board the bus from the airport to the ship.

Golden rule: Leave early to not miss ship for cases like this even tho we missed our extra day to explore this city!