Copenhagen

View from Our Room

After a pleasant 5-1/2 hr train ride, we arrived in Copenhagen  yesterday.  There is lots and lots of sunshine here.  We decided to orient ourselves by using their hop on/hop off boat/bus combo.  The boat ride meandered down canals full of historical buildings along with new modern type architecture.  The Danish love lots of glass with unusual shapes.  In fact, the hotel we are staying in was built by the son of the architect who built the Sydney Opera House.  It's called Copenhagen Island Hotel and it's surrounded by water on 3 sides.  Our room overlooks the harbor and last night we watched fireworks over Tivoli Gardens from our hotel window
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Little Mermaid

After the boat, we hopped on the bus for the land tour and then treated ourselves to lunch in a cute little area called Nytorv.  We visited the royal castle and the botanical gardens.   Richard took this nice picture of the Little Mermaid.  Tomorrow, we'll go to Tivoli Gardens.  Check out our Pictures by double clicking on them and selecting slideshow.

As predicted by yesterday's sky and Weather Underground, we awoke to a chilly, wet and windy morning.  Oh, well - we can't complain -  most of our weather the last few weeks has been awesome.  After breakfast at the hotel, we rented bicycles and pedalled our way to the National Museum.

By the way, the bicycle is a popular form of transportation here in Copenhagen as it appears to be in Austria and Germany. See Bicycles in Copehagen.  The entire city is set up with bike paths to make it easy and enjoyable.

Inside the warm and dry museum, we toured the stone, bronze, iron and Viking exhibits.  Richard recently read the Earth's Children Series, a fictional account of people living 35,000 years ago in Europe, a time when Denmark was still covered with ice. Neverthless, the museum displays the skeltons of a giant deer and an auroch, animals thought to be plentiful until hunted to extintion.  Also, flint tools were on display; lots of pages are given over in the Earth's Children series to flint tool making. 

After walking through the exhibit Denmark through the Ages, we mounted our bikes for a ride to Christania, Copenhagen's hippie community. This place is a bit controversial in Copenhagen - they have cleaned up some of the drug use there.  It was full of peace symbols and painted buildings all reminiscent of the 60's era. Following a quick look around, with the weather improving, we rode over to Nytorv, the "New Harbor" for a lunch of pea soup.  That warmed us up!

A ride down to the Little Mermaid and then back to our hotel completed our bike adventure and tour of Copenhagen. It's a wonderful city that we would recommend highly.

Sadly our European Vacation has come to an end and tomorrow morning we fly home, on a airplane, not a bicycle!  Can't wait to see Mom, our friends and our dear kitty, Bleu!  Thanks so much to Angela for taking care of him.

Hamburg Immigration Point

Hamburg – Od Seaport Town

Great-grandfather Walter on my Mom's side of the family was a ship chandler in Hamburg, Germany before he immigrated to the United States. We have no clue why he boarded a boat for the trip across the Atlantic, but after visiting the BallinStadt Emigration Museum here today, we were educated that Hamburg was one of the major ports that took immigrants from Germany, Eastern Europe (especially Poland, Russia and Austria) and the Scandanavian countries to the USA, Latin America and Australia from the 1850's through the early 1900s.

It had wonderful exhibits in English with old black and white photos.

We also enjoyed a boat harbor tour aboard the Olympia, a huge vessel where we met some nice Australian travelors from Tasmania. We learned that Hamburg is the 2^nd largest port in Europe and the 2^nd largest city in Germany after Berlin. It is full of young working people and humming with life. We really enjoyed our visit here and tomorrow we are off on a train to Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Sonderborg Denmark

Visiting Ancestorial Home

When I was about 10, I visited my Grandmother, Ada Johanna Calleson McDermott, in Brooklyn, NY. She showed me her jar of coins that she was saving to visit Denmark, the country that her parents had immigrated from in the late 1800's. Grandma never made it back there nor did my Dad. But now almost 148 years to the day, I was privileged to visit my great-grandfather's hometown, Sonderborg, Denmark.

To get to Sonderborg, we rented a car in Hamburg, Germany. After negotiating what seemed like kilometers of city traffic, we turned onto the A7 Autobahn. At a speeds of up to 140 km/hr , we zoomed North for 140 km before turning onto lovely country roads passing through rolling farmland, dark green or earthy brown where freshly tilled. Lilacs bloomed on this gorgeous and warm May day with not a cloud in the sky.

Across the Danish border at the battlefield museum in Dybbol, we learned why 1864 is such a significant year in Danish history.

One month before my great-grandfather, Adolph Callesen's, birth (May 26, 1864), Prussian forces launched an attack on the Danish and after huge casualties, the duchies of Schleswing, Holstein and Lauenborg (including Sonderborg) were forfeited to Prussia. The Danish Realm was reduced by 1/3 of their land and 2/5 of their population. Otto von Bismarck, the strong minister of Prussia's weak king, used cunning politics to engineer a unified Germany under Prussian dominance. A united and resurgent Germany was rising and taking over land.

One can only guess how that affected my great grandfather's young life. The family lore is that as he got older, he left his homeland because he did not want to be inducted into the Prussian (German) army.

I've done a bit of geneological research – For interested family members here are the details:  Adolph Callesen married Nielsine Petersen Jensen (DOB June 25, 1863). Adolph's parents were Asmus Callesen (DOB 9/14/1830) and Maren Petersen (DOB 6/1/1831). They were married on 3/29/1860. Maren's parents were Petraus Cornelius Petersen and Adelheit Christensen. Adolph Callesen was christened on May 28, 1864 in Bjolderup, Asbenraa-Sonderborg, Denmark. This info is from Danish on-line baptisimal records.

Our return trip on a Friday afternoon suffered from early weekend traffic. Our GPS routed us through suburban Hamburg saving us from what looked like a monstrous traffic jam on A7. Nevertheless we still encountered a lot of backed up traffic at one light that turned green only ten seconds out every minute! Enterprise wanted us back by 5:30 PM to give us free ride to our hotel. We pulled in their lot almost exactly at 5:30! GPS – don't go on the road without it!

Click to see Pictures

Click on first button under box on the left - - Joanne talks about her ancestorial home. . .

Hamburg

We arrived Hamburg this afternoon by train.  No problems.
We appear to be at the end of free Internet access so we probably won't be posting as many, if any pictures, now.

Tomorrow, we rent a car to drive to Sandorborg Denmark for a day trip.

A Day on the Rhine with Castles

Best Lunch of the Trip

We stepped aboard the boat and made our way up the gorgeous Rhine River past hilltop vineyards and ancient castles to the town of St. Goar, home of the Rheinfels Castle, the largest on the river.  It was built in 1245 and saw lots of action during many wars.  Fortunately, we had the Rick Steves Guidebook, which gave us a free self guided tour that we enjoyed immensely.  But even more than that, the outdoor lunch experience at the castle overlook was my personal highlight meal of the trip.  The view was awesome, the food delish and the weather idealic - what more can you ask for?  Check out pics below - as always, just doubleclick and then click on slideshow...
Tomorrow, we are off on a 5-hr train ride to Hamburg, home of my Mom's ancestors on the Walter and Fiely sides of the family.

Pictures

Bacharach

Today we dropped off our car at the Frankfurt Airport and caught a train to the lovely town of Bacharach on the Rhine River.

We arrived in the late afternoon and after checking into Pension Lettie, we toured the town and climbed to a tower where Richard took this beautiful picture.  Tomorrow, we will go on a boat ride and tour the Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar.  Double click Pictures for more views of the town.

By the Way - Some of our observations about life in Germany...

  - Boy, are they GREEN !  We have seen so many solar panels on the roofs of buildings and homes and even, solar farms of thousands of panels.  We are wondering if they have incentives to encourage solar power or whether Germans are more energy conscious than Americans ?   Also, we noticed many large wind farms along the roads. See Renewable German Energy.  Also, all these bicycles can't hurt. 

But do they drive fast on the autobahn - higher speed = lower fuel efficiency!

 - Smoking - ugh, it seems like many Germans are still lighting up.  In Italy, we rarely saw this and even in France, fewer seemed to have this habit.  But here, it continues - but fortunately, it is not allowed in most restaurants and public places.

 - The people seem taller.  I've seen many women as tall as me and very tall men.  Very unusual for us!

 - SPARGEL EVERYWHERE!  What's that?  The country's crop of white asperagus has been harvested.  It is only available for one month.  We tried it - and it's great!  It's not fiberous like ordinary asperagus and they serve it with a white hollandaise sause.  We also tried the spargel soup and it was yummy too.  We are enjoying the German food more than we thought we would - and the desserts are fantastic.  It will definitely be diet time for us when we return to Florida.

Romantic Road

The Romantic Road -   Germans like to go for a ride in the countryside and to them, that's pretty LOVELY; thus, the Romantic Road trip through medieval towns was on our agenda.  We rented a
cool car and the first stop was Dinkelsbuhl, one of the medieval towns linked by the Romantic Road. After a short walk through the walled city and visit to the cathedral we stopped for dessert at a fund raiser for the local kindergartens, face painting, etc, just like home. 

Four baby storks born at top the town hall steeple delight locals and tourists alike. For a bird's eye view via live webcam, click Baby Storks.  Please remember that these are German storks; they will be sleeping if you tune in at 5 PM on the US East Coast - 11 PM stork time!  

Next, was Rothenburg where we had booked a cute room in the Penzione Gerlinger.  During the Middle Ages, it was an important city on the trade routes going in all directions.  This is a wonderful picturesque medieval city that had friendly people and great prices! 

We walked rounds with the Night Watchman who talked Rothenburg's history with a comic Slant. Click  Night Watchman's Tour  to see him on UTube.  Today the  Crime and Punishment Museum  gave us a glimpse of medieval criminal law and exhibits of how they punished the wrongdoers. Stick your nose in somone's bussiness and wear a metal mask with long nose. Act like a pig, wear a metal mask with a snoot. Beat your wife and get harnessed to a plow. If justice needs a confession, numerous means of torture will do the trick. Yikes, I'll take the good ole American justice system anyday! 

Christmas is big in Germany and a big store displays zillons of tree ornaments and everything Christmas.  St. Jakob's Church holds the Altar of the Holy Blood carved out of wood by the Michangleo of Germany.   We also walked the old wall that rings the ciy inside the fortification.  

Tomorrow, we turn in our car in Frankfurt, get back on the train and head for Bacharach in the Rhine Valley!

By the way, Richard carefully printed out detailed driving instructions using Google Maps before we left home. What happens if your autobann exit is closed? Follow the detour signs, right?  Well, no detour signs appeared and we had no paper road map. Luckily, we had been upgraded to a car with a navigation system so we plotted our own detour.  No problem.  Then again we encountered another road closure. This time our detour took us down a single lane road which we shared with a large oncoming farm tractor!

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Salzburg

Here's Richard's Poetic Description - - The train rolls quietly through a land of rolling green fields and forests that stretch to the Alps and climb up to patches of snow at the higher elevations. Church steeples spire above quaint villages.  This pastoral land is some of the most beautiful in the world.

When we woke up this morning and went down to breakfast, we could sense a somber atmosphere.  Sure enough, Munich lost the Big Soccer Game in double overtime to Chelsea.  Too bad for them! 

This morning we rented a car in Munich to drive the Romantic Road and visit some of the quaint fortress cities along the way.  We are staying at a lovely pensione in Rothenburg.  The weather has been stellar - in the mid 70's, hardly a cloud in the sky.  More tomorrow.

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Beer and Bicycles

If Italy is motorbikes weaving through traffic, Germany is bicycles!  Bicycles are a standard form of transportation here.  One can even take a bike on the train.

After a farewell lunch with Marie in Ravello, a scheduled taxi provided a delightful ride over the mountains to the Naples train station.  The driver talked enthustically pointing out his favorite places pizza, local produce, etc.  We even stopped for a picture of Mount Vesuvius (see right).  We slept on a night train and arrived in Munich in the early morning hours.  Nice way to travel! 

Upon arriving in Munich, we were caught up by the Big Soccer Final - Munich versus Chelsea, England.  There was an Invasion by thousands of Chelsea Fans, many without tickets. They were carrying signs saying they were willing to pay 1000 Euros (US equivalent $1,370) for a ticket!  See picture below in slideshow.

We've been following Rick Steves 2012 Germany Guide - so the first thing we viewed by was the famous Glockenspeil Clock Show in Marienplatz, the pedestrial mall in the center of town.  We also took in St Peter's Church and the Viktuallenmarkt, the open air market with the huge maypole.  We had a fun-filled day touring the city.

The next day we caught the 9:30 AM train to Salzburg, Austria - just a short 2-hour ride over the border to Mozart's birthplace.  We thought Salzburg was beautiful - check out Richard's description in the next post.   We took a Sound of Music Tour to many of the places that the movie was filmed.  The best part was the gorgeous lake section located just a short drive outside of the city.

Wow - we were hungry when we arrived back in Munich about 8 PM. What were we thinking?  We reasoned that with everyone watching the Big Soccer Game, we'd could get into the Park Restaurant for a little snack.  When we arrived, it seemed like every Bavarian College Student was there.  They overflowed out onto the Park and were watching and cheering  their team on a big screen tv set up for the occasion.  Beer was only avaible in one size (It looked like a QUART BEER STEIN!)  We decided what could we do but join the fun and found a place to sit on the grass with our food and beer! 

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The Ravello Destination Wedding

Marriage of Niece Holly Kuhnen to Andrew Renaut
May 15, 2012 4 PM

Holly and Andrew's Wedding Day arrived with a flurry of activity. The bride's hairdresser friends included Joanne's sister, Claire, in the makeup and hair department arranging her hair a sheik “up doo.” Wedding guests donned fine dresses, suits or tuxedos carted from England, America, Hawaii and Singapore. This was to be an international wedding! Our little troupe staying in Hotel Ducato crossed Ravello's piazza Dumo with Marie, Joanne's 91 ½ year old mother, to the 91 step lane leading up, up and up to St Francis Catholic Church.

Although Marie keeps in good shape with water aerobics, we were much concerned about her traversing the up and down hill lanes and of course the ninety-one steps.

Fortunately, Pedro, our hotel manager, arranged for a wheelchair to aid in transporting Marie. But the ninety-one steps remained. Not to worry, Marie charmed two young and strong men who escorted her by the arms as she climbed up to the church and then after the wedding down to the piazza and up again to Hotel Palumbo for the reception.

When we arrived outside of the church, we were greeted by all the guests. My sister, Mary, the Mother of the Bride looked gorgeously classic in her white ruffled blouse complemented by a long black skirt and coordinating fascinator for her head piece. Alan, the Father of the Bride, looked dashing in his dark suit with bow tie. My daughter, Michele, and her significant other, Bryan, radiated happiness as always. Everyone complemented Michele on her stunning dress with an Hawaiian flair!

The colors of the bridal party were black and white and the Maid of Honor and two bridesmaids were so pretty as they walked down the aisle. The precious flower girls, nieces of the groom, sprinkled rose petals before the bride. Oh and Bride Holly was exquisite in her long dress with black satin ribbon and white veil. The groom was so handsome in his tux.

It was a beautiful ceremony. I had tears in my eyes as the Italian soloist sang Ave Maria. After they were pronounced “Man and Wife,” the happy couple floated back down the aisle.

A fairytale reception was held at Hotel Palumbo. It overlooks a breathtaking coastal vista – so romantic was the setting. Many courses of food and wine were served followed by lemon panna cotta and the bride's favorite teramasu. Wedding Cake. There were many toasts and a fabulous DJ with dancing well into the starry night. We all agreed it was our most favorite wedding of all time. We wish the Bride and Groom joy, happiness, good health, much love and understanding in their lives together.

If you want to print a picture click Pictures to go to the picture album, right click on a picture and select print picture.

Paestum

At Paestum, reached by a bus to Amalfi, a fast ferry to Salerno and finally a train, lies the ruins of a 2500 year old Greek city. Three temples are some of the best preserved in the world.   The diver below is diving off the Pillars of Hercules into the unknown afterlife.


I forgot to put the camera battery in the camera so no pictures by me.!

After five hours of bus riding and waiting at bus stops, were eating a late dinner with Michele and Bryan in Ravello. 

Walking to Minori

On the way to Minori

Follow nine hundred steps down the mountain side from Ravello to Minori, a small seaside town. Down went Claire, Joanne and Richard step after step leading from one beautiful vista to another .

Jackets and sweatshirts were in order under a heavy sky. Upon the beach, Claire and Joanne cast off their shoes to test the cold Gulf of Solarno while hunting sea glass.

Our bus from Minori challenged on-coming traffic at every hairpin turn on the cliff hugging coast road to Amalfi. Someone must back down to allow the other to make the turn! Arriving Amalfi, we toured the cathedral before meeting Al, Mary and Marie for lunch. Another bus wound its way up to Ravello with all us aboard.


In the evening wedding guests crowded in a small restaurant for salad, pizza and many, many bottles of red wine courtesy of the groom's parents. I videoed Andrew, the groom, as I told him it wasn't to late to back out. He replied “How could I leave this woman!” It was meant to be a statement not a question. Wedding tomorrow.




Be sure to see our updated Crashing ... blog + Pictures link in Rome blog.


Pictures

Ravello

A Porche passed  us like we were standing still. I asked Raffalle, our driver, what the speed limit was on this Italian freeway -just like the interstates in the United States.  "No speed limit for him," he answered. We were riding a van directly from our Rome Hotel to Ravello, the destination wedding location high above the Amalfi Coast. Joatetnne's niece, Holly, is getting married.

Last time in Italy, I thought the food was poor compared to the non chain Italian food in the United States, an impression possibly due the fact that I was sick the entire time.  I lost eight pounds.  This time I may gain eight pounds!

Click Pictures to go to picture album or view slide show:

Crashing an Ordination Party!

It's Saturday today in Rome - and we decided to visit the Pantheon because it is one of the architectural wonders of the world!  It certainly lived up to its guidebook "billing" - it was hard to believe it was built in the year 27 B.C., the biggest pile of concrete ever constructed in its time.  It's walls are 25 ft thick and it has a dome that lets in light (and rain) from the outside that is 142 ft high -it is an absolutely perfect sphere resting upon a cylinder.  It originally was a pagan place of the gods, but later the Christians took it over and now it is the site of a beautiful church and houses the tombs of many famous artists and kings.  The famous artist, Raphael, is buried here.  We rented headphones and listened to the fascinating commentaries of this ancient place. 


Then, it was time for lunch.  We wondered over to Piazza Navona, which is one of the most beautiful baroque sites in all of Rome.  Great chariot races were once held here.  Today  vendors  their paintings and wonderful little restaurants line the piazza.  We ordered pizza , salad and had a Bellini for good measure. 

 

Our taxi ride to the Basillica of S Maria Maggiore halted a block short due to the Communists! They came from all over Italy to march through Rome. The young and old, waving hundreds of red flags as they marched with banners proclaiming Marx, Lenin, and Che Guevara suggest the romance and excitement of revolution.  As I watched, in an instant I reminded myself of the millions starved, executed or imprisoned in concentration camps in the grand but failed political and economic experiment. One of Russian visitors last fall simply said "Under Communism we had no hope." Still they march.

While we waited for the demonstrators to pass, the gelato shop on our side of the street did a booming business. So the communists accomplished a little something for the capitalists! 

On Top of the Basillica

After dropping off Marie (Joanne's Mom) for a little rest, the 3 of us (Richard, Joanne and Claire (J's sister), went back to the Pantheon because we read about a concert that was going to be held there.  Well, we were told by a local to go to the nearby Basillica of St. Augustine.  There was no concert - but we stumbled upon the end of a young priest's ordination.  It was just lovely and we followed the throngs of people up a long winding staircast to the very roof of the church.  It was a breathtaking view of Rome with wonderful people, who invited us to join the celebration and partake of the delicious food and drink.  We were so touched to be part of this event!


It's been quite a wonderful time in Rome - and tomorrow we look forward to traveling south to the Amalfi Coast to the wonderful town of Ravello for all the wedding festivities.

Roma

 We - Joanne, Richard, Joanne's Mom - Marie and Joanne's little sister - Clair flew to Rome problem free for the big destination wedding of Joanne's niece in Ravello.

Marie, First Day in Rome

First thing, I decided to try out my new international phone and accidentally called Angela who is providing summer camp for Bleu in her home back in Punta Gorda.  I didn't realize until later thar her phone rang at 3 AM! Sorry.

While checking through customs. we bumped into Mary & Al, the mother and father of the bride before taking a cab to Hotel Sonya to rest up.  Mary and Al are staying at a different hotel a few km away so just the four of us walked a few blocks down the street for pizza.

Then Claire & Richard walked to the Colosseo for an lively tour after which we decided, what the heck, we would walk the included and "at no extra charge" Forum tour.  Well after that, we took a taxi back and Claire hit the sack.

Joanne sacked out too while Marie & Richard went out for wine and a light meal at a nice restuarnt just up from the hotel.

Friday morning - Tour of the Vatican Museum with our guide Federica.  After lunch, the girls did some shopping.

Stay tuned.

Pictures

After resting at Hotel Sonya,

Mother Daughter Fashion Show

Check out these pictures of Joanne and her Mom, Marie, modeling at a Mother Daughter Fashion Show at Southport.  Marie was the hit of the show.  Everyone admired her gorgeous outfits and how wonderful she looked at a young 91-1/2 years old!  What a great pre-Mother's Day Event!