Today we went to Lillehammer, and even though I was so sick, I walked down all the steps next to the ski jumps.

The noise that they make when they’re floating in the air is just like the sound I heard when I was free falling when I did the skydive.

I spent the previous night and today either sleeping or spewing. I feel miserable.

At 5:30 I got up out of bed to at least go and see the church.

It was locked. It’s really not my day today.

I walked around for 10 minutes, then gave up and went back to bed.

we have the whole morning free in Oslo tomorrow. I’m making a strategic withdrawal tonight, hoping that my body will get rid of whatever is making me feel sick.

Ah well. I’ve travelled so much lately that I suppose I was due for a bad day…

Dad joke of the day:

Most of the buildings in Alesund were built after the big fire of 1905. Kaiser Wilhelm, the last kaiser of Germany, loved Norway and spent a lot of money here to restore the town.

We left Alesund at 11, which allowed time for a walk to the harbour. 

This place is very pretty. 

Jan said that in the middle of winter, Alesund only gets 4 hours of daylight a day.

I went shopping at 9am, but very quickly discovered that most shops didn’t open until 10. Back to the hotel to pack, then at the stroke of 10 I was hitting the shops. I came home with a hat and a polar bear magnet.

This mug made me laugh.

So did this one. Excellent marketing strategy.

A last look at this pretty town.

The weather has suddenly turned sunny. This morning, I chose to sit in the front left seat, which in this new bus is actually a horrible place for taking photos, but is a great place for seeing the vista. The photos that follow are the best I could do…

We drove through a little village that is famous for growing the best strawberries in Norway, if not the world. 

Every midsummer, Scandinavia and the Baltics celebrate by eating strawberries with whipped cream. Jan also mentioned something about dancing around trees and having a jolly old time. 

Suddenly, there was snow beside the road!

Then, more and more.

This started to remind me of when Megan and I went to Alaska last year. Brilliant sunny days in their summer, (to be fair, it’s the beginning of autumn here), and yet there’s snow.

We stopped for lunch, but the café wasn’t open, to the disgust of the rest of the bus. I, on the other hand, was prepared, with my lunch made from the breakfast buffet. The others had to wait 2 more hours for lunch at 3 pm. Jan warned us at the start of the trip to always have some snacks with us. A few people listened. I bet a lot more will, after today!

Snow and water.

It really shouldn’t be this cold when the sun shines. My hands were icy.

The Troll Road was built in the 1930’s. Jan said, “It’s quite lucky for this road to be open. I have been a guide on this trip 6 times and this is the first time I’ll see it. It was closed all last summer. They have rocks and boulders which fall on it.”

I’m not sure how much the bus driver enjoyed driving along the Troll Road. I know Jan hated it. He’s not good with heights, though even he agreed that it was very beautiful.

This is where we stopped to take a group photo, with Troy setting up a timer. We were standing in front of a big troll statue. I haven’t bothered to show you trolls because they do absolutely nothing for me. I don’t get the attraction some people have for them.
These mountains are so tall. When I was standing, looking up at the top, my head was tilted right back, almost as far as it could go. Photos simply cannot do it justice.

Then it was down to Lillehammer, the Olympic Village, where we’ll stay the night. Tomorrow, after a look around the town, we’re off to Oslo again.
Our time in this beautiful country is rapidly coming to an end.
The day after tomorrow, we’re off to Sweden…

Dad joke of the day:

This morning we were scheduled to go for a two hour hike to a glacier. When I woke,I checked the weather. 

9C and a huge chance of rain and snow. This photo was taken when the bus stopped for 5 minutes to enable us to take photos of the snow. I was chatting with Liga on WhatsApp and she thought that was hilarious.

I was regarding the hike with grim foreboding. I hate being rained on. 

The water from the glacier retains a blue tint for quite a while after it melts. 

When we got there, I asked Jan how steep the hike was.

“It’s only steep at the start, then it’s flat,” he replied.

I decided to do the walk and not take the train. How bad could it be?

Bonsais on top of the rock, just like in Japan!

Fortunate Frogdancer struck again. As soon as the bus pulled up, the rain stopped.

When we reached the glacier, the clouds lifted.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First we had to get there.

That path was STEEP. There were only two good things about it. There was only one section with steps, and at least the scenery was beautiful. 

This waterfall was making the most of its freedom. Imagine being frozen for hundreds, if not thousands of years? Each water molecule was going nuts.

I almost wished that I was here in the 1700’s. It would have meant that the walk would be over now… I continued the uphill climb.

At the turn off to the railway I saw Jan standing there, fresh as a daisy. He’d taken the train up! 

Livid, I was. 

“I thought you said it was only steep at the beginning?” I said.

He laughed and waved his arm forward. “It’s flat from now on.”

A few steps further, and we saw our first glimpse of Briksdal Glacier.

Thank goodness I brought Wanda. I needed a drink. That path was steep. But Jan was correct – it was easy from that point on.

This glacier has definitely shrunk.

I thought this was the end point. I made it!

However, it turned out that we still had a bit to go. Off I set again.

I told Mum I’d take a photo of Dad’s Riley hat in the snow, and I figured a glacier was close enough. For those not in the know, Riley cars were made in England for decades, finally finishing up in the late 60’s.

Look at this wonderful place. On the left, directly below where the glacier ends, is a waterfall. The blue of the pool of water below made me happy. And yes, I am in this photo. I made it. This time for real.

Blue ice again! How lucky can one woman be?

This is the view when I swung around to see what the glacier would see, if it had eyes.

We stayed here for around 10 minutes, then we headed back down to the bus. We have a ferry to catch.

The views coming down the hill were just as good as the ones going up.

Then it was off for a 2 hour bus ride to the ferry. As soon as we got in the bus, the rain began again.

Ten minutes before we reached the ferry, Jan warned us that we could only eat food on the ferry that was bought there. So I quickly unwrapped the sandwich I’d made at breakfast and ate it, and a hard boiled egg, on the bus. Prices for food are still pretty high. Ready- made sandwiches cost anywhere from $16 – $20, so I’ve been making lunch from our breakfast buffets.

When we reached the ferry stop, I bought the girls’ Christmas presents. I like buying souvenirs, but I don’t want to fill up my house with a lot of crap. Buying Christmas and birthday presents scratches that itch, and kills two birds with one stone.

This ferry crossing wasn’t as pretty as the last one. The rain didn’t help.

This waterfall is called The Seven Sisters. Every time I counted, I got a different number of sisters.

Ferry directly in front of a waterfall.

Then we were on the road again, heading for Alesund.

We stopped by the side of the road to take this photo. We weren’t the only ones.

Alesund. I went out looking for a supermarket and bumped into Jan and an older couple. They asked if I wanted to go for a beer or wine. Well, they mentioned the W word, so I was in.

Interesting couple. The guy was very like Dad, in that he constantly watches WWII documentaries and refuses to hand over the remote control, AND he’s also a collector. Dad collected cars and watches. This guy collects guns.

Yikes.

He has over 300 weapons. In Australia.

The supermarket was closed while were were in the pub, so I went out to dinner with them. This meal and tiny wine cost $90 AUD.

Dad joke of the day:

Today was a massive travel day, with the added inconvenience of the blocked tunnel adding a couple of hours extra driving time. We didn’t care because we saw some beautiful views.

Imagine having a house so close to the fjord?

Many of the houses don’t have fences around them. That would do my head in. How do they keep their kids and dogs from wandering?

This was the scene that greeted us at the first toilet stop of the day. I’m guessing no one who visits these loos has any trouble having a wee…

I was sitting in the second row, and this was the view through the windscreen.

The colours of houses in Norway are mandated by law. There are certain colours you are allowed to paint your house, and if you are a rebel and choose a different shade or totally different colour, you are made to repaint it, which is very costly.

It certainly adds to the charm of Norway, as the colours of the buildings look fabulous against the green of the countryside.

Imagine living with a waterfall in your backyard. And a mountain.

This kid was running around, causing mayhem with his battle-axe in the ferry gift shop. Viking blood still runs strong, it seems. I air dropped this to his Mum.

This was where we caught the ferry to cruise along the fjord for a couple of hours.

Zoom into the red building between the flagpoles. It’s across the river from where the ferry is. Then, zoom out again, looking at where that building actually is. There’s nothing else there. It’s incredible.

The next shots are taken from the deck of the ferry, in between me going inside periodically to warm my hands up. There was a brisk wind blowing, though we were lucky enough to escape the rain.

The thing I’m seeing here is how the Norwegians take every flat piece of land to live and farm. It’s a bit like North Korea, though they did it for famine reasons. Jan said, “In summer near the fjords, it’s very lush. But sometimes you wonder how they get to the farms. Often there seems to be just a house, not even a road.”

The ferry came within metres of the shore so people could take photos of the waterfall.

That water!

Taken from the back of the ferry.

Melodious, aren’t they? 😂

I just can’t get over the height of the cliffs and the angles that the ice has carved.

Yet another little village nestled beside a mountain.

This cruise was like going to Venice… it’s almost impossible to take a bad photo. Norway is so beautiful that the Norwegians must feel sorry for almost everyone else in the world when they see their countries.

This is the mid point in a 24 kilometre tunnel we drove through directly after leaving the ferry.

Another photo opportunity at a rest stop.
I couldn’t believe it when I heard a couple of women saying, “It’s all getting a bit same-same, isn’t it?” My god, people can be entitled.

Our last stop before we reached our hotel was this glacier.
Unlike the ones we saw in Iceland and Greenland, this was small and you can see the rock underneath it, but what a perfect place! The clouds, mountains, ice, rock and water combined into an almost magical image.

Not a bad way to end a travel day.

Dad joke of the day:

This morning we drove to 1,200 metres elevation is, the highest we’ll get to on this trip. I couldn’t help thinking that it looked remarkably like Greenland.

As you can see, I could have saved myself a fortune if I’d only realised!

This countryside is so reminiscent of the hikes that we went on, though the forests are slightly taller. Greenland’s birch forests are only 3” high!

Driving through this scenery brought back so many memories of Greenland. The colours, the lichen on the rocks, and the chill in the air. It was 8C when we first set out.

Glaciers lined the road. It was stunning.

We saw one of the biggest waterfalls in Norway, at over 180 metres high. It rained last night, so there was plenty of water. Voringsfossen Falls

This secondary fall was a bit tricky. I had to hang over the fence a bit. You’d better believe I was hanging onto my phone like grim death! I’m sure you’ll remember Morgan’s obsessive love for waterfalls from when we were in Iceland. so I sent these videos to him. I know, I’m a giver…!

The scenery was spectacular. You can see how the ice gouged its way through.

People are so kind to solo travellers. It’s funny how it looks like the water is emerging from my finger, though!

While we were here, Jan googled to check the road and found that a tunnel we needed was closed, adding an hour’s detour to our trip. In beautiful places like this, it’s not a great hardship.

Here’s another waterfall I shot from the bus window. It’s hiding behind a cloud, and the clarity of the water is incredible.

Can you see that there’s living roofs on these buildings? I suppose it’s done for insulation, but it looks very pretty too.

We stopped in a little town for lunch. It was located at the edge of a fjord, with mountains all around.

As we drove out of town, this tree caught my eye. Brilliant colours.

We needed to stop to top the bus up with water and this was at the side of the road.
Not bad, hey?

We drove into Bergen 2 hours later than scheduled, because of the closed tunnel, but the town was worth it. This was the first thing I heard when I stepped off the bus.

Bergen is surrounded by 7 hills, just like Rome. It began as a beautifully sunny day, which is apparently unusual for this town. The seven hills trap the clouds and hold them in place above the city.

A local guide showed us around. Any quotes are hers.

Bergen is the 2nd largest city in Norway. It used to be the capital until 1294. The king died here and his brother lived in Oslo so he moved the capital here. The people of Bergen are still unhappy with him about this.

There are 292,000 people living here, and 40,000 are students.

In 1349 a ship from England brought the Black Plague and 60% of Norway’s population died. Germany decided to come and use this town as a trading port after this happened, and they stayed for a couple of hundred years.

There were 200 German men here, and they weren’t allowed to bring women with them, as this would mean that they’d eventually settle here and keep money in Norway instead of sending it back to Germany. The men would go back to Germany to marry.
While they were here, they weren’t allowed to “date” Norwegian women either, for the same monetary reason. They were fined a barrel of beer to be given to the rest of the men if they were caught seeing a Norwegian lady.

“Beer was very expensive, so it would have been a very unhappy day for him, but a very happy day for the rest of them!”

In 1702 the buildings of the old harbour were built, which are these colourful ones. This shot is of an alley, where I brought a picture of the buildings. I love them. Unfortunately, they’re slowly sinking, as they are built on reclaimed land from the fjord.

They are slowly being rebuilt. Because they’re UNESCO protected, the restoration has to be done by hand, using the old tools that the original buildings were built by. This takes each building around 6 years.

Look at how crooked the door of the building next door is! This one will probably be next…

Our guide was talking about how when they take tours up into the hills above the town, they have to count the men twice to make sure they’re all accounted for.

There’s a beautiful woman who comes out and dances, enticing the men away with her. She’s so gorgeous and seductive, men don’t seem to notice that she’s actually a troll, with the tail of a cow. Every time she dances, a man or two goes missing.

“Every time I take people there, I have a woman look sideways and then she says, “ (sigh) Mine’s still here…””

The guide was talking about how fit and healthy the Norwegians are, and how it’s crazy to think that anyone else can keep up with them. “These people have the blood of Vikings. They start hiking when they wear diapers and they don’t stop until they are wearing them again!”

These white houses were built in the 1750s. This is how the city used to look.

“Norwegians only have one rule. That is to follow all the rules!”

I was taken by Bergen. It’s a very pretty place.

Such a lovely side-street!

Statue of Ibsen. How funny. I’m guessing the sculptor wasn’t a fan of his plays?

After our city tour, I was determined to walk back to the old harbour were, because I saw a print I wanted to buy. As soon as I reached my room, I dumped my bags and set off.
Of course it started to rain as soon as I left.

As I walked, I saw this sculpture in a park near the library. The guide had told us about it.

It was of King Olaf Kyrre, who reigned in the 11th century. The sculpture, made of stainless steel, is of the king riding on his horse. When the sculpture was finished, the people of Bergen hated it. They kept it hidden in a building for 20 years, until the sculptor took the city to court to force them to display it outside. Apparently, he was the first king who could read, so the library is now his home.

It’s lucky hotel rooms have hair dryers. One thing about flared jeans I’d forgotten about since the 70’s was that when they get wet, they really soak up the rain and puddles. It took about an hour of blow drying to get them almost dry again.
But I’m happy. I bought my print of the beautiful Old Harbour buildings, Mum’s birthday present and a Norwegian Christmas tree decoration, so it was worth it.

Dad joke of the day:

This was a hurried shot through the bus window, I’m sorry, but here is the building where they give out the Nobel Peace Prize. Something maybe some of you don’t know, but the guy who invented the Peace Prize is actually indirectly responsible for more deaths than anyone else. He made his fortune by inventing dynamite.

It was all fun and games until his invention started to be used in warfare. Alfred Nobel was definitely NOT ok with this, but obviously he was unable to stop it. To assuage his guilt, he used his fortune to establish the Nobel Peace Prizes.

Oslo has 650,000 people. It’s the oldest and the smallest capital city in Scandinavia.

The first place we went to after we left the ferry was the old castle. It was established in 1299, with various rulers adding bits and pieces as they went.

This well is 10 metres deep and still has water.

The Swedish were their main enemies “but now they are our sweet big brothers,” said the Oslo guide we had for the day.

She pointed towards one of the islands in the fjord. A Cistercian monastery was established by England in the 11th century. They were not allowed to speak and even though the monastery is in ruins today, when people visit they still respect the tradition and only speak when they reach the ruin of the only room the monks were permitted to speak.

See that tiny doorway high up? That was the main entrance back in 1299 when King Hakon 5th built it.

The fort was attacked 5 times in its history and was never breached. 

Naturally, it has ghosts. 11 of them, including 1 horse, and 1 dog.

It’s still a working military base.

National Service is mandatory from age 19 for one year. Then they are in the reserves until age 45, but only professional soldiers serve abroad.

We walked through here and went down to a very impressive sculpture.

This was commissioned after WWII, symbolising the burdens and baggage that both soldiers and civilians had to carry after the conflict ended.

WWII, Norway had a great trading relationship with both England and Germany, so was taken unawares when Germany invaded. Hitler demanded that the Norwegian king surrender.

The King delayed giving an answer to Germany about surrender for 3 days. By the time the answer “No” was given, the King and government had escaped to England, where they stayed for the next 5 years.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian resistance, many of whom trained in Scotland, returned to Norway and caused great trouble for the Nazis.One of my favourite books of all time is John Steinbeck’s ‘ The Moon is Down’, which is set in Norway during the war. It’s a short read, but unforgettable.

Library 100 years project.

Authors submit a manuscript, agreeing that they will not disclose the contents. Around the big ski jump in the centre of Oslo, they have planted 100 spruce trees. When they reach 100 years old, they will be cut down and the manuscripts will be printed and their contents will finally be revealed. 

What a fantastic project!

Norway has a target for all private cars to be electric by this year, and buses within the next 2 years… even though electric buses stop working during winter. 

The bus driver said that their politicians have an eye to future jobs in the EU so they ignore practicalities.

Ibsen’s house.

On the second floor. Now it’s a museum. Apparently, his plays are performed more often worldwide than Shakespeare. We have a free day back in Oslo in 6 days. I might come here, or maybe I’ll go to the Munch museum to see ‘The Scream.’

We spent an hour in a park that is apparently the pride of Norway.

Deservedly so. It took 9 years to plan and 40 years to build, finally finishing in 1943, during the war. Gustav Vigeland was the sculpter’s name.

The whole park is about humanity and its struggles through life. The life cycle of us all, both men and women.

The sculptures are extraordinary.

The first section is filled with parents and their children.

People were having fun, imitating the poses of the statues for photos.

Yet, some of the sculptures had a dark side. This park isn’t all sweetness and light. It shows both the bright and dark sides of life.

Including toddler tantrums.

Lord knows, I probably looked like this sometimes when my four kids were small. I had 4 under 5…

The next section was a huge fountain.

It was huge. Men of all different stages in life struggle under the burdens that life brings.

Meanwhile, a seagull majestically rides above it all, proving that birds are humanity’s natural overlords. I doubt that this was what Gustav Vigeland intended.

The light was totally at the wrong angle for this, but zoom in and you can see that one of the 20 figures around the fountain is a skeleton. Death is a part of life.

The final section is this granite monolith, surrounded by a huge array of other sculptures.

The monolith weighs 270 tons. It took 13 years for 3 men to complete. 

Gustov Vigeland created all the plaster casts here, but of course other sculptors were brought in to complete the park. 

Each of the surrounding sculptures took 2 years to create.

Genitalia at eye level! Enough to frighten the horses…

As I said before, not all of the images are comforting.

We stopped for lunch at a museum where they have the ACTUAL ship, the Fram, that took Amundsen to the South Pole, ( where he beat Scott by a month) and it was also the same ship that mapped the west side of Greenland.

Seeing as I’ve been to both countries, I was interested.

After going through it, I have to say that those guys were stark, raving crazy. This ship is tiny. As in, really, really small. This is the actual ship… they built the museum around it.

One thing I found interesting was that the ship was designed to pretty much let the currents take it. The bottom of it was shaped like an egg, so when the pack ice formed around it, it would bob to the surface instead of being crushed like the conventionally shaped ships were.

I watched a video about Amundsen and his trek to the South Pole. Here’s a snippet for you. As you can see, it was original footage. There’s no wonder that he beat the English expedition. He thought of everything his crew would need… even a Christmas tree!

He had sewing machines to repair sails and clothes. A piano for morale. The captain stayed at the wheel while everyone else had Christmas dinner. 

Of course, the Norwegians used sled dogs while the English used ponies (which froze to death) and modified cars ( which also froze to death. ) Unfortunately, so too did the English expedition.

After lunch, we set off into the mountains. We have 5 days in the countryside before we come back to Oslo.

Here are a few shots I took along the way.

Moody.

Another new road sign! I’m not sure if it’s for moose or elk.

This is a replica of the oldest church in Scandinavia, the Borgund Stave church. The original church has been moved to an historical theme park for old buildings in Oslo, after the singer of a metal band in the 90’s started burning down old Catholic churches in Norway because he thought that the Catholics were mean to the Vikings. The church was moved to protect it.

We’ve been hearing about trolls all day. Trolls in Norway don’t live under bridges. They live in the forests, only coming out after daylight.
When we went to see the church, we saw one.

He came out from the caravan annexe, singing and dancing.

He picked me up and whirled me around and I took a breath… and realised that I didn’t need a wine with dinner tonight. I was drunk from the fumes wafting from him.

He put me back on the ground, then started dry humping my leg like a dog.

All in all, an eventful day!

Dad joke of the Day:

This morning, I decided to walk to Rosenborg Castle, that beautiful building we saw yesterday. I was determined to see it all.
on the way, I walked through a lovely little park, and decided that this is where I’d come back to eat my lunch. Yes, another couple of bread rolls pinched from breakie.

A bit of rough housing…

He reminded me of Mr Tumnus from ‘ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.’

I arrived at Rosenborg Castle and the first thing I heard was drumming. I had a few minutes to spare, so I raced around the corner in time to see this.

It’s a fairy tale castle if ever I’ve seen one.

I took this after I finished the tour. I loved this place and I took quite a few photos, but I’m only showing you the interesting stuff. No Crown Jewels… they’re the same everywhere.

This is a painting from Christian IV’s writing room, of his son Duke Ulrik with an incredibly ugly dog.

Here’s his writing desk, covered in gold because why not?

His loo. It was tiled from floor to ceiling, which, if it was true then as it is today, would have been very expensive. The loo led down to the castle moat.

A 3D ceiling which looked very impressive. It was in a room made from Italian imitation marble. Maybe the budget was blown in the loo.

Ivory carvings. Imagine the skill to be able to make a chain…

A clever little picture. Stand on one side and it’s a picture of the prince.

Stand to the other side and it’s a picture of his sister.

This face on the top of a mirror made me laugh!

I’m here for these legs. Loving them.

Christian V had this room decorated like the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.
There is a place on the floor that was also mirrored. Was he upskirting?

I tend to think he probably was. I’m sure many a private party took place here, especially as the guidebook says that he kept all his erotica in the next room…

This chandelier is made of amber. Isn’t it pretty? The tapestries were made in Berlin. Do you remember the embroidery that I bought in Vietnam? It’s the size of a regular picture and it took a woman 3 months to make. Imagine the time – and money – spent on all of the tapestries in this castle?

This birdcage has a mechanical bird in it. I included it because the Hans Christian Andersen story, ‘The Nightingale’, had a vain emperor who preferred an artificial nightingale over the real thing.
Life imitating art, perhaps?

Looking out of the window to what used to be the pleasure gardens.

Oddly enough, the top floor ballroom was one of my favourite places here. The open space made it easy to imagine what it would have been like to attend a function here.
There were thrones at either end of the hall, just in case the monarchs wanted to sit down, I suppose.

Now, this was ridiculous, but apparently it was a huge hit in its day.

All the LOLs.

Farting and wetting yourself… classic humour.

I can’t remember which king these armies were made for, but when he was a child, he was encouraged to play war games with them to sharpen his skills for warfare.

I included this collection of walking sticks because the one in the middle is made of a narwhal tusk. The lid at the top hides a space where the king could put scented lotions to sweeten himself up if he got a bit whiffy.

Can you imagine them ever slowing their boats to 5 knots an hour to avoid disturbing the narwhals, like we did in Greenland?

This is an example of ivory turning, which was, according to the information cards here, an essential part of royal education. This particular one was made by Princess Louise of England, who married a princess over here and them promptly died in childbirth, poor thing.

But look at the skill she had!

I couldn’t help showing you this. Zoom in on the dragons on either side. They’re exquisite.

Now this woman was really interesting. Kirsten Munk.

She was King Christian IV’s morganatic wife. She couldn’t be his official queen because she wasn’t royal, but she was his legal un-queen wife, giving him 12 children in 14 years.
Meanwhile, of course, while Christian was in love with her, he also had to have royal babies, so he was also legally married to royal ladies.

Unfortunately, their love came to an end, and it turned bitter. When he was dying, he asked for her, but she got there too late. Her children married into powerful families, so I guess she had the last laugh.

I so enjoyed my time here. For lunch, I went back to the park with the sculptures and found a bench to settle on, overlooking the lake.

And look who I met!
Silke, who is 9 years old, like Scout. What a beautiful girl.
I miss Scout…

Tonight we are on a ferry to Norway. The adventure continues.

Dad joke of the day:

This is Frederick 7.

Penis shaped like a corkscrew. At least, this was according to a Russian diplomat at the time. He didn’t end up having any offspring, despite having two wives.
Today was the first day of the new tour. We had a morning’s tour of Copenhagen, then an afternoon canal tour. I’m the only solo traveller.

This is a view of the decorations above the parliament doorway. According to the guide we had for the morning, no one can remember what they signify, so they’re affectionately called “ the toothache” and “ the hangover.”

Here in the garden next to the Royal library is a statue of Kierkegaard.

His best quote is “ Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards.” So true.

Here in the garden, our guide told us about what happened here when the Germans invaded during WWII. This was a part of history I didn’t know about.

April 1940, Germany occupied peacefully, which wasn’t popular, but it allowed time for most of the Jews to escape to Sweden. Because Denmark didn’t put up a fight, Germany delayed rounding up their Jewish population for around 6 months. Sweden was neutral during the wat, so it was a safe, and very close, place to flee to. After the war, all their houses etc were saved for them and returned to them. Only 500 people were taken to concentration camps.

I had no idea about this.

Christian IX

He succeeded the corkscrew king. His wife was a Danish princess, which is how he got the job. The Danish monarchs are an endless list of “Christian, Frederick, Christian, Frederick “, with only two Margaret’s, one in the 1400’s and one last century, to mix it up. The current Frederick, who is married to an Australian woman, is the tenth one.

Christian IX’s daughters married well. Alexandra married Queen Victoria’s son Edward and the other was the second last Tsarina of Russia, born Dagmar but she took the name Maria Feodorovna when she went to Russia.
She was rescued from Russia when the Bolshevik revolution started, with her sister sending a warship from Denmark to bring her home. She died there, and in 2005 was reburied in Russia with her husband. She never believed that her son’s family was murdered in that cellar by the Bolshevik’s. Poor old lady.

Meanwhile, Alexandra became Queen of England after Victoria died. She’s the great-great grandmother of the current king.

Just think. Two weeks ago I was here watching the changing of the guard. The white palace on the right is where the King and his family live. The one on the left is where his mother, the queen who abdicated, lives. The dome in the middle is the marble church.

wow! We stopped here for a simple toilet stop, but I was blown away. Talk about a fairy tale castle!

In 1606 the king, Christian 4, bought land here to have a private castle for drinking and whoring. He had 26 kids – not by the queen. Over time he kept adding to it. At lunch today, before I went for my walk, I bought a ticket to come back here tomorrow.

l liked the angles of the roof.

Christian IV loved spending money. Much of Copenhagen appears to originate from his building programs. This is a series of small apartments that were built for the navy 400 years ago.Living conditions were not great back then, with each dwelling only 45 square metres.
The cholera epidemic in 1855 broke out here. “ It wasn’t a good time to be living here,” said the guide. No kidding.

And here I am, back to see The Little Mermaid again.

Look behind the Little Mermaid to the very futuristic building with the big chimney. Copenhill- converts garbage to electricity. All of the garbage from Copenhagen and some from England ends here. Cheap power for the city.

You can ski on it, there’s a huge climbing wall on the side of it, and there’s a restaurant. “Multi purpose! And so modern that a man can sit at home with an iPad and run it.”

The Danish princess Alexandra donated this English church near The Little Mermaid to her country. It’s quite pretty inside, with two memorial plaques for her husband, the king of England, and herself.

I saw this fountain when I walked to see The Little Mermaid, but there was no information board to give the story behind it. I was hoping to find out when it was time for the tour, and the story didn’t disappoint.

It’s a statue of a woman who slept with a king of Sweden and to reward her, he said, “you can have all the land that you plough in a day and a night. “

She was no ordinary woman, and could see an opportunity when it was presented to her. She turned her four sons into oxen and ploughed enough land in that time to equal the island of Sealand, ( The island where Copenhagen is), then she picked up the land and brought it back here and plumped it down and the guide said, “well it must be true because in Sweden there’s a lake that is about the size of Sealand!”

After this, it was time to see where Hans Christian Andersen lived when he began to write his famous stories. Remember when I saw this beautiful street when I was here last? I photographed it from the bridge but didn’t walk down it.

Hans Christian Andersen wrote his first tale here in the red house. He moved here in his youth, and even when he was rich and famous, he never bought his own house, preferring to live here on the canal.
He spent the last year of his life in the yellow house. The basement is now a gift shop.

We walked past it and we taken back to the centre of town, where we were dismissed for lunch. I had a couple of bread rolls I swiped from breakfast, so zi was set. I decided to make my way back to the canal. I really wanted to soak myself in the colours and atmosphere.

But first I went back to the gift shop and bought an expensive book of his tales. I’ll keep it with the Beatrix Potter book I bought when I visited her house.

It’s no wonder he was happy to live here all his life. Especially back then, before it was all cafes and restaurants, there would have been so much colour and excitement here.

A nice little nod to the past.

I wasn’t exactly sure how to get back to where we were meant to meet up, but I was pretty sure I recognised the spire that was above the modern art show I went to yesterday, so I aimed for that and set off.

I was correct, and was ready for our canal tour. It lasted an hour and we went all over the city.

Pretty little sight among apartments and houseboats.

My god! More white-faced ducks!! First at Lake Crackenback in the Snowy Mountains last year, then in Japan in March, now here in September. Are they a world-wide phenomenon?

The Little Mermaid from the other side.

I was absolutely taken by this amazing church tower. Isn’t it incredible?

Some of these bridges are REALLY low. This is how close it came to my head.

After the cruise, our guide, Jan, was going to walk us back to the hotel. It was only 3 o’clock!

”Are you coming back with us, Frogdancer!” he asked.

”Look at her face!” chuckled one of the guys. “Frogdancer doesn’t want to.”

He was right. It seemed like such a waste, but what could I go and see?
Then I knew. I waved goodbye and set off.

Is it just me, or does this red house look like it’s crumpling to the ground?

I had a 17 minute walk over the bridge and to the other side of town.

Oh yeah, baby! I was going to climb to the top of this spire.
Why not? This year’s holidays, I seem to be climbing to the top of everything in sight. Might as well add this to the collection.

I had to wait 30 minutes. Lucky I had a book of fairy tales to read.

It was a very windy day, and when I emerged from the church at the beginning of the spiral, I snatched my Japanese souvenir beanie from my head, stuffed it into a pocket and zipped it up. That wind was strong, and I could easily imagine it taking the hat from my head.

My phone was rapidly running out of battery. This is a shot taken almost at the top. The spire allows a 360 view of the city. It’s stunning.

As I was coming down the stairs, I brushed against a couple of Americans on their way up.
“We’re all going to get close,” the woman said.

” Well, you’ve just touched Australia!” I said.

As I walked out into the churchyard, I was worried about saving battery power in case I needed to call an Uber to get back to the hotel. Then, I realised that I have a pretty good idea of where things are located in Copenhagen. I’ve been doing a lot of walking here, after all. I thought I had a pretty good chance of navigating my way home without using Google Maps.
I decided to give it a try.

I was crossing the bridge and turned back to say a last goodbye to the spire.

It turns out that yes, I know Copenhagen pretty well. I revisited the pretty little garden with the sculptures that I found when I was here before, and after a 45 minute walk, I was turning into the Comfort Hotel.

I decided I deserved a glass of the house red as a reward. This is the first foreign city where I feel confident to walk around and take risks with navigation.
I don’t mind admitting that I felt proud of myself. I’m usually following tour guides around like a little duckling. I’m pleased that I can find my way around here by myself.

Tomorrow is our last day in Denmark. We have most of the day free, but at 3pm we set off to take an overnight ferry ride to Norway. I’ll be walking 40 minutes to see that magical-looking castle. Apparently, it houses the Crown Jewels.

Dad joke of the day:

This morning I decided to walk from one hotel to another. I needed to get to the hotel where I was booked to stay with my TripADeal tour, and Google Maps said it was a 30 minute walk away.

Most of it was beside this canal, so it was really pleasant. The sky was threatening rain, but I made it to Hotel Comfort ( sounds good, hey?), without getting rained on.

I even saw a polar bear on the way!

I decided to walk to Thorvaldsen’s Museum. He was a Danish sculptor who was way famous back in the day. He donated all his works to the city, and even has his tomb in the middle of the museum.

As you can see, he sculpted a few famous people as well as the usual Greek and Roman gods.

Some of them were very large.

Most of the exhibits were plaster, which over time has become darkened. There’s no way to scrub the darkness off without damaging the plaster, so the museum has decided to let it be.

There was also an exhibition from a modern Indian artist. Her work was shown alongsideThervaldsen’s. Apart from 2 pieces, it was the most stupidest claptrap I’ve seen in a long while. Honestly, look at this cube of heaters. How is it possibly worthy of being exhibited here?

And here’s another one. A chair, some fabric draped over it, and a granite bell. While behind it is something that actually took artistic talent and time to produce. What a wank.

I know this is a lion, but it made me think of Scout.

This is a huge sculpture of Christ, along with all of the apostles.

This was one of the modern ones that I liked.

While I was there, I found out that this admission ticket also let me on to two other museums. I walked to the first one, which unfortunately proved to be a modern art museum.

Aside from a half hour video of an artist in Latvia who grew food, the rest was a waste of time. I went to the last museum on the ticket.

This was the Museum of Copenhagen, which was all about the history of the city.

It was surprisingly interesting in parts.

This window overlooks the place where Sweden tried to invade in 15 something. I listened to a retelling of the event, and the last sentence was how I was standing where it all happened. Goosebumps.

Here’s one of 4 ships from the 1400’s that they discovered in 2001 in the harbour when they started digging to build a new opera house.

I also learned about how 30% of their population died of the plague.

Then for a change of pace, on the way home I decided to go to the Tivoli. This is the oldest amusement park in the world, and it’s said it gave Walt Disney the idea for his amusement parks.

This is me on the roller coaster. Haven’t been on one for ages.

Then I decided to go on this one. Someone once told me that as you get older, you lose your tolerance for rides like this. I decided to see if I still had it.

I do!

It’s a pretty park, but I was running out of battery and had to get home before it died.

I met up with Jans, our guide, and a few other people who arrived early, like me.

Tomorrow the tour starts…

Dad joke of the day:

Alas! All good things must come to an end, and so it was with our cruise to Greenland. I can’t believe how lucky I was, first to have a quad cabin with only 1 other person to share with, and secondly, to have that person be such an easy person to get along with.

After an earlyish breakfast, we jumped on the bus that would take us 6 hours down the road to Reykjavik.

I pretty much slept and read for the whole drive. I spotted this though, outside the one rest stop we had:

Iceland is WAY ahead of us when it comes to electric cars. Just look at all those charging stations!

By 2:30 we were back in Reykjavik and we said goodbye to the lovely people we met on the cruise. Morgan and I are sticking together for one more day, sharing a room in a hotel next to the airport.

We took a couple of public buses to get here. The cost? $31 AUD. This is 1/10th the cost of the taxi I took when I arrived here.

A word to the wise: Take the bus when you arrive in Iceland. Your wallet will thank you!

Goodbye Iceland! Thanks to Morgan, I feel like I’ve really seen Iceland properly.

And now here I am in Copenhagen. I’ve got the key to my hotel room, I’ve been out for a walk, exploring, and now I’m lolling around, drinking a Yellowtail Shiraz and planning on finishing another book.

Tomorrow I have the day to myself until I meet the tour guide for the Scandinavia trip at 6PM.

This holiday is going so fast!

Dad joke of the day: