Out-of-season Tourists.. in our own City

Copenhagen is a pretty nice place. Last year the Danish Capital won an award as Europe's Leading Cruise Destination, and each year many tourists from around the world come to visit the city and enjoy its charm. They usually don't stay for long because of the ridiculous prices, though, but that's a different story..

When you live here, you tend to take everything for granted and do not pay much attention to the architecture and the sights that the tourists come to see. However, when we were shopping for a birthday present for my niece last week, we accidentally came across a book with 8 different walks/bikerides through Copenhagen, and we ended up buying it. Today, we decided to inaugurate the book and take trip # 1 through Copenhagen and see it through the eyes of a tourist.

It was a nice and sunny day, but still chilly and very much out-of-season. We did, however, have a very nice afternoon, and we are already looking forward to trip #2

.

See more pics here:

Sightseeing in Copenhagen - out of season

Florida -januar 2011

Vi har ikke været flinke til at blogge siden sommerferien - men her kommer i hvert fald nogle billeder fra vores vinterferie i Florida i januar.

Florida - januar 2011

Vi rejste til Miami og lejede en bil. Efter en overnatning ved Miami Beach, kørte vi sydpå til Florida Keys og Key West. Efter et par dages afslapning der, kørte vi til Everglades Nationalpark og tilbragte et par dage dels i den sydlige del, dels i den nordvestlige del, før vi vendte tilbage til Miami. Der var mange ting at se, og vi nød sommervejret i fulde drag. Vi benyttede selvfølgelig også lejligheden til at gå på Starbuck's, spise morgenmad på Denny's, drikke root beer og shoppe i Macy's. ... vi overvejer allerede, om det skal være en ny vintertradition :-)

Italy - part 2. Umbria & Lazio.

After our short visit to San Marino, we continued towards our next destination: Umbria. We had rented a place at an "agroturismo" between Perugia and Assisi. It was situated on a hill and we had an amazing view of the valley, and the nearby towns, including Assisi. And great sunsets, too.

First, we visited Assisi, famous for saint Frances of Assisi. The town is obviously a place of great religious importance for the catholics, but it is also a very picturesque place and well worth a visit.


Next on the agenda was Perugia.The old town of Perugia is quite high up on a hill, so you have to park your car a little ways downhill and then take an escalator up. On our way up we accidentally happened to meet a couple of friends from Denmark who were also
vacationing in Umbria. Talk about a small world.

Jan complains about inaccurate information in "Lonely Planet" about the opening hours of the cathedral in Perugia.

The next day, we headed further South towards the town of Orvieto. Orvieto is famous for its beautiful Gothic cathedral with its spectacular facade. However, Orvieto has also other interesting things to see. The town is built on a cliff of tuff (volcanic rock), and below the town
the inhabitants have dug caves for, among other things, storage facilities, workshops, pigeon breeding, and hiding places. We took a tour of the caves, and had an enjoyable stroll through the town.


After Orvieto, we went down to Tivoli, just East of Rome. The reason why we wanted to make a stop in Tivoli was of course the famous Villa Adriana - built as a summer residence
for Emperor Hadrian. The ruins are well-preserved and give a good impression of the enormity of the "Villa" which is more like a small town than just a house or residence.


After Tivoli, we continued to Subiaco, in the mountains a little further to the South-East. Subiaco's claim to fame is is the fact that St. Benedict lived in a cave here for three years. For this reason, the place obviously became very important to the Benedictine Order, and today it hosts two Benedictine monasteries. Unfortunately we got there during their siesta,
so we could only see the monastery from the outside.

We then continued on our way in the footsteps of St. Benedictine, and headed for Cassino. On the Monte Cassino outside of the town Benedict settled down and wrote his Benedictine Rule that became the founding principle for western monasticism. Unlike some of the other areas we visited, this was not exactly a tourist hot-spot, so we had a little trouble finding a place to eat. However, the trattoria that we ended up at turned out to serve us one of our most delicious meals, while being one of the least expensive at the same time.

We visited the monastery, which was bombed during World War II but had been rebuilt. We felt that the modern building quite lacked the charm and atmosphere that you might have expected for a historic site like this.

Holidays 2010: Italy - in the North

This year we decided to stay in Europe for our summer holidays this year. We've previously been to Portugal and Greece in Europe, so somewhere in the south where the weather is warm and there is a lot to see was an obvious choice. Already back in February we booked tickets to Italy, starting in the north in Bologna and ending in Naples in the south.

The first part then took us to the north, and our main goal was the city of Ravenna. This is what our itinary for this part look like:

Vis større kart

Bologna is a obvious choice to fly to if you want to go to Ravenna. It's a city with long traditions (e.g. Europe's oldest university dating back to 1088), lots of industry (making it the locomotive of Italian economy) and proud culinary traditions (e.g. Bolognese sauce or ragù as they call it themselves). So we hoped there might be more good reasons to go there.

We arrived in the morning, and it was a really hot morning. Our hotel was conveniently placed next to the railway station and not far from the centre of the city. After leaving our things at the hotel we wandered into the city, both to eat lunch and do some sightseeing. The city is pleasant enough, but there aren't any real highlights.

On Sunday we fetched our car (paid a huge pile of money to get the full waiver!) and drove to our next destination, Ravenna. We also met up with Monica and Ørjan, that happened to be honeymooning at the same time in Northern Italy. Ravenna was the last capital in the western empire (402-476 AD), and the scene of Romulus Augustus' abdication. It then became the capital of the Ostrogoths. This history also means that the city is a treasure when it comes to remains from that age, especially the churches and their mosaics.

The mosaics are really amazing, and although we've seen remains other places, e.g. Thessaloniki, nothing compares to Ravenna. It was well worth the 2-day stop there.

On Sunday, after savouring the fantastic mosaics of Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, we drove to Rimini. A really chaotic charter destination, and there is nothing special to it, apart from crowded beaches and numerous parties. Monday morning Monica and Ørjan drove on to Rome, while we stopped in the micro land of San Marino on our way to Umbria. We stopped mainly to have been there, and we can recommend it for the view of the coast and the surroundings, but not much more. Umbria next.

We've been back for about two weeks, but so many things have been going on, e.g. like our party, so it sure takes it time to blog stuff. Sorry for that.

Summer vacation part 1 - Norway

After a cold and rainy summer vacation in Norway three years ago, I had probably not thought that I would do that again anytime soon. However, this year JA's brother Ørjan and his fiancée Monica had chosen a Saturday in the middle of July to exchange their vows, so there was a very obvious reason for us to come to Norway. We decided to spend some extra days up there and took the opportunity to see a little more of Norway.

After the wedding, we borrowed JA's parents' extra car and headed west for Stavanger in southwestern Norway. The goal was for me to see some more of Norway, to visit friends and not least to climb the amazing "Pulpit Rock" (Preikestolen) outside of Stavanger.

After Stavanger we went along the Southern Coast and had a few stops visiting some of JAs friends. The southern coast of Norway is very picturesque and we even had quite a bit of sun,

so it was a very good beginning to our summer vacation.

Escaping the City

This weekend has been exceptionally warm in Copenhagen. With temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius, it's been really hot and humid. And as some friends of us from Oslo have rented a summer house north of Copenhagen in Gilleleje, we decided to pay them a visit. An added benefit was to say hello to Karen and Johannes' newborn son Tobias. And Jan even got to take his first swim of the season. Altogether a perfect summer day with good company and dining.

Jan is really excited about the opportunity to go for a swim.

John-Arne is trying to get the grill started in the rain.

Sausages/hot dogs for starters.

Wish List

We've published a wish list here (alas it is only in Danish/Norwegian).