today, we were Vikings

I have to apologize for the quietness of late. I think I`ve got my mom worried! We`re fine. I don`t really understand why it needs to be just so hard to find an internet cafe in this country. In Æro, I used the computer in the Library. I went back to use it again before we left. The library doesn`t open until 1:00 (that`s 13:00 over here) on Tuesday and Thursday. I was NOT about to relive the ferry missing incident, so figured we`d just find one in Copenhagen. Yeah, well, you know what you get when you assume. We`ve kept our eyes out for the last three days, and nothing.

Finally, I looked in Rick again, I knew he mentioned one in there. It says it`s next to the TI. Now, in my world, next means just that. Next door, and if not, a couple of doors down. Apparently in Rick`s world, that means around the corner. How hard would it be to put, "around the corner instead," of, "next to?" As we were taking Rick`s walking tour and wondering once again what the heck he was talking about (with regard to some directions), and Chris made a very astute observation. He said that quite often, Rick fails to give that one little piece of information that would bring everything together. Maybe he thinks that these little things enhance the experience. If that`s the case, I`ve got news. It just isn`t so. It`s frustrating.

While I`m once again ranting about Rick, let me mention that I`m just about sick of his snide little Republican comments. We`ve found a couple in this book, and there were a couple in his shows we watched before coming here. It annoys me. Anyone can have an open mind, Dems, Greens, and yes, even Republicans. Anyone who speaks to me for even just a short amount of time will know I lean decidedly Right. But if I did`t have at least a somewhat open mind, I wouldn`t be here in the first place. Period. And yes, I know I ranted and raved about Oslo, but if you`d have been there you would too. I almost posted the next day that Rick would admonish me for what I said. I`m sure he would (and probably add, "That`s a stodgy Republican for you") but that was my experience. Take it or leave it.

How about some trip info? I`m miserably behind in sharing what we`ve been doing, and I plan to go back and fill in the holes, so bare with me (there`s a good chance it`ll be after we get home, though...when the internet is free and Chris isn`t pacing waiting for me). The weather in Copenhagen has been gorgeous. This is technically our third day here. Our first day, though, we didn`t get here until 4:00 and didn`t actually get out into the city until close to 6:00. We took a taxi to our Pension because we just couldn`t handle another death march with those packs on our back. The taxi driver was super nice and told us what a bunch of the buildings were and their history. Very cool.

Today, we got up and went to Smods Bolcher (yes, I know it`s in Danish, but if you do a search in English, you come up with next to nothing). It`s a candy factory that`s been around just this side of forever (1871, actually I thought it was longer!). They make hard sugar candies, and oh my!! Are they good! Apparently, they started as a supplier for the Royal Family. You can watch them "cook" the candy, but apparently they don`t actually make it on Saturday, and Friday was a National Holiday. Oh yeah, did I mention that? Yesterday was another national holiday. Two in one week. Only this time EVERYTHING was closed. Touristy attractions were still open, though, thank goodness, as were restaurants. Otherwise, we would have been up a creek! We had no idea until our cabbie told us. Anyway, we bought a bunch of different flavored candies (peppermint w/chocolate center, raspberry, carmel, lemon, rhubarb, and something with whiskey), and the gal measured it in the coolest old time scale. We booked it out of there so we could make the 11:01 train to Roskilde.

Why Roskilde? That`s where Denmark`s Viking Ship Museum is. I`d heard that you could take a ride on a viking ship, and I wanted to! The museum houses 5 ships that were excavated from the Roskilde harbor. They believe they were scuttled in order to block the shipping lanes (some were on top of one another, and they were basically lined up). They don`t have whole boats, and they certainly don`t look like the ones in Oslo, but it was awesome. We really liked they way they had them displayed. You can kind of see it in the pictures on the website. They have these skeletons that they built and the pieces of the ships were put together inside of them. After the ships were found, it was another 23(ish) years before they could be put back together! They had some other cool displays at the museum. Replica ships we could climb inside of with sample cargo, clothes to try on, weapons and chainmail to practice with, and even a lady working a loom making a wollen sail for the replica ships the museum sails.

They sail a bunch of ships, actually. One is huge and seats at least 80 people. They`re getting ready to sail one of them to Dublin this summer and were practicing today. We got the last two open spots on the last sailing of the day. It was meant to be. It was awesome. Yes, they`re replicas, but they`re hand made in the same way the Vikings made them, and it looked like they even recreated some of the old tools to make them with. We got splinters in our rumps and tar (or was it tree sap) on our hands. And it was one of the coolest things we did on our trip. There were 11 of us in the boat, and we had to row the oars and set the sail and drop the sail and row back in. It was crazy, and did I mention cool? We met a couple from Wisconsin who are currently living in Leiden, The Netherlands. Holy cow! That`s where I lived in college. Very cool!! It`s amazing the people you meet if you just talk to them (I know, I know mom! Chip, block).

While we were waiting, we had lunch. We`d only eaten sugar so far today. We intended to eat lunch on the way, but it just didn`t happen. We had a bunch of those candies and then walked through Roskilde down the main drag with everyone out for their Saturday shopping. It was neat to be a part of it. We stopped into a bread store and got pastries. More sugar. We were actually trying to find the TI to get a map of town. I don`t know what it is about this part of the world, but they put their TIs in the craziest places. And by crazy, I mean nowhere near the train station. Makes no sense.

We finally found it, got a map, and were on our way. We decided to stop at the renowned church on the way to the museum. Good choice. It was amazing! All of the royalty of Denmark has been buried there since like the 900s (although some of the older ones may have been reburied there). It was formerly a Catholic church, until the King realized that if they reformed and became Lutheran, he could practice Absolute Monarchism and be not only the Head of State, but also the Head of the Church. The chapels that ring the church were no longer needed, so that`s where they started burying people. Previously, they put them in the floor, walls, and basement. We were astounded by both the rooms and the sarcophogi they held. It was unreal. They most recent burial was in 1972. WOW!!! And, there`s a special pew for the Royal Family. WOW again! I took a ton of pictures.

My point to all that was, we still hadn`t eaten a meal, and it was after 2:00. We were sailing at 4:00. We hit the restaurant. I mentioned the other day that it`s rare to have dinner for under $40 (although, we did dine out for $30 the other night). It`s also rare to dine out in under an hour. You wait and wait and wait to be greeted. Here, they order drinks first, then order the meal, and they never bring you the check unless you ask. And good luck trying to order another drink. Eye contact is avoided at all cost, so flagging down a server can be difficult, if not impossible. Anyway, we were hoping for semi-quick service. We were disappointed. I got an awesome sandwhich of brie, artichoke hearts, and lettuce. Chris got a so-so club sandwhich. He declared it the worst 40 meal he ever had!

After we sailed (did I mention it was awesome?), we walked around looking at all of the replica boats and watching the workers practice sailing a couple. Then, it was time to head back for the train station. But with a side trip to hit the ice cream stand. What to my wondering eyes should appear at the stand? Ebelskivvers. What are those? Well, they`re similar to poffertjes. If you don`t know what those are, they`re little mini pancakes, only these are like 3 times as big, and therefore doughier. They`re served with powdered sugar and raspberry sauce, and unbelieveably good! As we headed for the station, we retraced our steps from earlier in the day. Only now, it was after five and everything was locked up tight and the streets were totally barren. Weird. Very weird. To go from packed to nothing. There were even papers blowing down the street like in a movie.

We made it back (after getting shushed by the guy across from us...it was a quiet car...oops!) and decided to try eating at the Hard Rock again. We tried last night, but the wait was 45 minutes. My 25 minute tops rule travels with me. Tonight it was 35 minutes, so I said okay. I gave in. We grabbed the pager (they have to explain it to everyone over here - you don`t wait anywhere), and set out in search of the internet cafe. Not a couple of minutes after our return, we were paged. Yay!! We had great big juicy hamburgers, and they were good! We perused the HRC store, and between dinner and goodies ended up dropping nearly $200! Yikes!We spent more in the store than on dinner! But we justified it because the store was closed when we were at the one in Olso (again, I ask, what HRC store closes at 8:00?).

And now, here we are. We are quite certainly tired and weary. Never, ever in my life before have I uttered the words, "I want to go home," while traveling. Not while living in other countries, not while traveling through them, never. Those words have been uttered. This trip has not been easy. It`s been fun. It`s been awesome, but the number of days where it was the opposite of easy is coming close to those where it was easy. Today was actually an easy day (as was yesterday) and we (by we I mean I) needed it. W made all of our connections, scooted in to the last slots for sailing, the tickets we bought from the automatic machine for the train were right. It worked. It was a good thing. Now we have tomorrow left, and then our tired feet head for home. And, I can honestly say I`m looking forward to climbing into the Jeep, putting the top down, and driving where I want to go. At least my legs are getting rock hard. Too bad my feet are too!