Random thoughts on Scandinavia Trip

Just a few things I found interesting. I have already commented on how cold it was. The tour guides in every country mentioned a late and cool spring. That probably explains why we saw flocks and flocks and flocks of sheep. And why everyone was wearing a thick sweater.

Other notes about fashion.

Stripes are definitely in. I saw stripes on everything so I guess, without noticing it myself, stripes became the new orange.

The other thing is nail polish. When I saw a woman with polished nails she was almost always American. This does not seem to be a fashion in the Scandinavian countries. I didn’t really see nail salons or colored nails until I reached London. Not that important maybe, but interesting.

We also did not hit hot weather until London. The last time I was in the British Isles, it was cool and rainy even in London. Not this time. Not only was it hot, but the grass was brown and dry. We took a walk in Green Park and it was not that green. Everyone’s climates is undergoing some kind of change.

I also like to try the food of the region. Not a fan of herring. (At least guinea pigs were not on the menus – as they are in Peru) But I had the best cheese ever in Denmark and Norway and some really tasty bread.

One last thing. My Goodreads Giveaway for Death of a Dyer (learned a lot about the dye trade in Peru) lasts until August 23. So far 350+. Be sure and add yourself to the giveaway before it ends.

Norway

After Copenhagen, a city I loved, we went to Norway. We stopped at several cities: Oslo. Kristinsand and Stavanger. Another wonderful country.

One of the things we saw in Oslo was a stave church. Only a few of these remain.

stave church

The pointed roofs are absolutely characteristic but of course they have tons of snow. This stave church was on the way to an Olympic style ski jump. I would never do it; just looking down at the run up made me queasy. It was about half an hour out of Oslo – the Norwegians love their sking. As we saw in Copenhagen, there are lots of buildings hundreds of years old – like this stave church.

baker

All the buildings here are very very old and are still in use, mostly. The inhabitants can do anything they like inside but the outside has to remain as it was. This was a medieval bakers. He went out of business several hundred years ago but the pretzel still remains.

viking ship

As one would expect, Vikings are very important to Norway’s history. This is NOT a reproduction; it is a ship, one of three, pulled out of a bog. From the 800s. Yipes! Hard to believe anyone sailed in these little tiny things – and crossed the Atlantic besides and made a colony in North America.

But how did people live?

open air museum

This shack housed about 15 people with their animals. There was no chimney, just a hole in the sod roof which had to be closed during bad weather. Infant mortality was 50%.

The good old days were terrible!

Copenhagen and random thoughts

I love Copenhagen as a city. I suppose its greatest claim to fame is Hans Christian Anderson, the author of such tales as “The Little Mermaid” and “The Ugly Ducking.” As any one who has read these stories will tell you, they are much darker than their Disney versions. There is a statue of the mermaid in the harbor and she is little.

little mermaid

I would have like seeing the museum but it was outside of Copenhagen and we didn’t have the time.

This is also a very green city- and by that I mean it is rapidly attaining full sustainable energy. There are not that many cars = probably because they are so highly taxed. In the harbor, on reclaimed land, there are wind turbines. Here is an idea I thought very cool as a form of tree irrigation.copenhagen irrigation

All the trees have these gigantic bags of water around them as a form of irrigation. They are also working on fresh fruits and veggies grown in the city. As someone who has a large garden every year, I found this fascinating. These igloos dot the city and when you get closer they are full of growing things. Plus, they play music to help the plants grow.

copenhagen greenhouse

So, there has to be something I didn’t like, right? It was cold! We stopped for lunch at a cafe. Note the blankets on the chairs, the jackets everyone was wearing. And there were heaters every few feet. I want to add, this is the beginning of JULY!

copenhage cafe

In all fairness, all of Scandinavia was cold. We’d brought jackets, long pants and sweaters and we still had to buy new sweaters. In Iceland, the tops of the mountains were covered with snow.

iceland snow

So, I loved everything about Scandinavia but the climate.