Archipelago-go-go (5th August)

No time for food as we scream across Gamla Stan to the ferry terminal to make the 8:30 boat that goes out into the archipelago. Not sure what the exact definition of that word is -but "crap load of very very cool little islands" gives a rough impression of what we're talking about. Sadly NO photo can do this place justice -so you're all going to have to go and book a flight over here, to find out just how brilliant and spectacular this place is. Especially Tim -you and Melinda would have an amazing time out on a boat getting lost in this maze of water and granite! We decide to get off at Finnhamn, one of the larger islands that has a restaurant and (in summer) 80 bed hostel. Lunch options are fried herring, grilled herring, traditional Swedish potato and bacon meal, steamed herring or herring... so we order, eat and wash it down with more Carlsberg and wine, before heading to the hostel to get the row boat we'd booked for 2pm. We'd already explored the main island a bit and had a spotted a secluded little island that we thought we could voyage to... so we did :o) Mike did the rowing and it was definitely more fun than the motorboat option and with 4 hours up our sleeves there was no Rob Waddell impersonation required. Once we moored to 'our island' we found a spot with no ants and proceeded to get all heated up in the sun on the rock. A swim was definitely needed afterwards and we must have looked a bit of a sight going in with our life jackets on... not because it was at all dangerous -just because that way we could just bob along without even needing to waste energy kicking! A lap of honour was then in order and we made our way back to the big island for ice cream, fruit and another stroll around this little piece of paradise. If the scenery on the way out was great -it was even better once we left as we sat on the top deck and went further out to Moja, before making our way back over 2 hours to Stockholm in the setting sun. We can not over state just how brilliant today really was!

Denmark vs Sweden (4th August)

In keeping with our well established travelling policy of finding something tall in every city to climb up for views, we went up the Round Tower (genius name btw) which is the observatory in the center of town. The breakfast had us full -so Shona picked up her (Danish) pastry for later on. Again the Copenhagen card got us into the National Museum, where we went to find out about Danish history. It was actually very boring and we again realised why museums aren't our thing. We left without seeing everything, to head north to the aquarium. Aquariums and zoos are definitely more our thing and although it's not as cool as Kelly Tarlton's, it was worth the visit. This was helped by the fact that they had touch pools, which must be terribly traumatic for the creatures -but we both got to touch a crab. Sadly there was no more time left to explore so we headed out to the airport. Shona loves to get to the gate nice and early to sit and read or blog, while Mike likes to wander around the airport looking at stuff. Sadly this meant that it was Mike that spotted the free manicure station and not Shona (not we're saying that he got one mind you). Stockholm airport was a complete surprise, it's in need of more than a manicure and the baggage claim was like a scene out of the movie The Langolieres -with dozens and dozens of unclaimed bags falling off the carousels with no one around to get them. This is of course accompanied by the usual announcement over the loudspeaker "please do not leave luggage unattended", it all makes no sense to us as we didn't even go through immigration, so no idea what happened to all the people off those planes! Some dramas getting the bus into the city -but again the bi-lingual nature of the place, combined with friendly locals saves the day... we come across a total of 6 people searching for accommodation on our walk to our hostel -Shona's detailed planning for this trip once again proving it's merit! Our private room for the next three nights is a port side cabin on the Red Boat Malaren, with wonderful views across the harbour to Stockholm and Gamla Stan (old town). It's 10pm by this point and we're becoming Hangry Marvins (feel free to post a comment or email if you know what that expression means!) so we head south up the hill based on the hostel receptionist's recommendation. We find a nice restaurant where the lasagna and carbonara is accompanied by massive bowl of parmesan (maybe 3 cups worth?) which combined with carlsberg, baileys, the best shower on the trip thus far and the rocking motion of the boat makes for a very very good sleep!

The Big Top's Coming to Town (3rd August)

Having become well and truly sick of toast and cereal for breakfast -it was a welcome relief to find that this hostel provides a much more substantial spread. The Danes eat well and the brie, breads, meats, fruit and yogurt (plus chocolate to clean the palate) was very well received and almost made up for the fact that Shona had to walk through the dining room to get to the showers! First stop was intended to be the Chocolate museum, although something was lost in translation and it turned out to be a history of Danish Workers' museum, with the possibility to get a hot chocolate at the coffee shop inside. Disappointing? Not totally as the exhibit was quite interesting, then Shona decided to get a coffee on the way back to the subway... one cup costing the equivalent of $12NZ.Rosenburg Slot is a royal castle and home to the Danish Crown Jewels, as well as many of the other national treasures and collections of stupidly ornate and ridiculously impressive furniture, weapons, clocks, thrones and anything else worth putting carvings and precious metal on. Basically a building that Asher could spend a month ooing and ahing over the detail of... plus another chance to get a photo of Mike with a uniformed guard! Next stop Cirkus Muskeet and yes John... that IS a Circus Museum! Because it's a museum it is more history and collections than real life clowns and acrobats (by the way we found out that that word used to ONLY apply to tight rope walkers) but was definitely worth the visit, even though it was a bit of mission to get out there!Mike couldn't go to Denmark and not have a Carlsberg, plus it was a great way to wash down our authentic Danish Donor Kebabs! haha. Even the persistent drizzle couldn't get us down, although it did result in a detour back to the hostel to change out of the world's slipperiest when wettest jandels before going to the pride of Copenhagen tourism -Trivoli Gardens. The world's first amusement park is actually a beautiful combination of flower gardens, restaurants, entertainment and rides -all in the heart of the city. We had free entry into the park with the Copenhagen card, but couldn't justify the 420DKK it would have been for us both to do all the rides... had we not already done 6 flags and Coney Island on this trip it would have been a different story as some of the rides DID look pretty damn brilliant! Massive massive bonus for the day was the first pantomime we saw at the peacock stage. It started out with actors and dancers on the stage... then massive puppets came out, brought the show at first to the audience, then into the park, then over to another stage 100m away before the actors and dancers reentered on the new stage to perform with the puppets. Totally bizarre -a little hard to follow the plot, but absolutely amazing and memorable never the less. How that guy was able to do 10 secs of break dancing, bouncing on one arm, I'll never know!

Danish Day (2nd August)

When booking our flights we decided to get the first one to Copenhagen in order to totally maximise our time. In hindsight one should check the transportation to the airport when booking these flights. Is Heathrow really the busiest airport in the world? You wouldn't think so as there is no way to get there by 5:35am in the morning. The tube doesn't run and we're told night buses are no good. So it's 40 pound for a taxi. In a way we are pleased because it is a nice and efficient way to get there with out stress. Yeah right! Somehow we managed to write in the bible that we needed to be at Terminal 4. Na-ah we need to be at terminal 5. But we don't realise this until the taxi had disappeared. So there is surely a free terminal transfer? Well the train is a 35 minute wait (we're meant to check in in 20 minutes). We're told by a really helpful man that there is a bus. Hooray it's due in the next few minutes. We're on, but it isn't strictly an airport bus. It is actually public transport and as such stops at 5 random stops to drop heaps of people off at cargo and offices between terminal 4 & 5. It's ok, we arrive safely and the queue is short so we check in our bags and head away on the flight. Copenhagen customs had no queue. This is interesting. The dude looks at our passports not that closely, opens up, stamps them and we are away. No questions no nothing. Sweet! On the plane we hummed and haaed whether to buy a Copenhagen Card for 450DKK (divide by 3 to get NZ$). Turns out it was a fabulous idea. Free public transport everywhere. So we headed on the metro (fully automated and driver less) to Norreport stop. Up at street level we could not work out where we were. Two people saw us looking at the map and pointed us in the right direction. Danes are very helpful people. The hostel was 200 metres away down a side road, so not too much walking with our packs on. Changing of the guard is at 1pm and so we hurry away to Amelienborg Palace to see it. On our way we see some guards marching along the traffic lane. We figure they are going to the same place we are and we follow them taking photos when they stop for the red lights (we're not kidding). At the palace we see the guards change over. Queen Margarethe is not at home because there is no flag flying. She is well liked and respected by Danes. She has set up an exhibition about Tiara's, it's fascinating to look at them all. Some of the tiara's are the Queens and others are from members of the extended royal family. Mike is not so keen on these, but Shona thinks they are mostly beautiful. Our Copenhagen card allows us to visit another exhibition in the same place about maps. This is way more up Mike's alley. The detail of these maps from the 1600's right through to the 1800's is amazing considering they are entirely hand drawn. As Danish is the official language of Denmark we are not able to learn everything that there is to know. The important parts are translated into English for us, but not the finer points. Danes are bi-lingual speaking Danish and also English, so we don't run into trouble when trying to communicate. It's a beautiful sunny day so we stroll along the waterfront promenade eating ice cream, past the statue of David (Dave and Fi -does this mean we don't need to see him in Florance?) to visit the Little Mermaid. She is cute and we both get our feet wet for a good photo. This blog is long and there is still so much to talk about. Trying to make the most of our Copenhagen cards we decide we can fit in the zoo this afternoon. It is a Sunday but the zoo is open until 9pm. OK, lets go! What a fabulous decision. Copenhagen zoo is the best zoo ever! We walk in to see a pride of lions. They are being lazy because it is too hot. So we walk on to find a polar bear. No wait there are two polar bears. And they aren't just pacing back and forth. They are swimming around (I'm a polar pop bear and I live in the pool...) and looking back at us. Cool! Next door are brown bears, a Daddy bear in an enclosure on his own and a mummy bear in a big enclosure with two cute cubs. They are also looking at us and having fun. Behind us are some reindeer. Another bonus. We have never seen reindeer up close and personal. They use their antlers to scratch their legs which is cute. Basically the zoo is brilliant, 7 elephants, otters (thought of you Andrew), hippos, rhinos etc etc and even keas to make us think of home (sadly no car's in the enclosure for them to demonstrate natural behaviours!) The lions are full of energy when we head out after a very impressive experience. Next on the agenda was the Hans Christian Andersen display which is a much less impressive experience. Finding it was a drama and although the displays are impressively presented - it's just a place to hear some of his stories read out... oh well it's free with the Copenhagen card so we can't really complain! Back to the hostel via the Cogenhagen equivalent of Times Square for a very much needed sleep! Bikes... I can't finish a blog about this place without mentioning the bikes. EVERYONE seems to have one - and from the number parked up on every block, park and train station I get the feeling most people have 4 or 5! Plus each street has a specified bike lane and Shona keeps tripping over the second curb. We think that NZ is clean green, but Denmark has in the last 20 years significantly reduced it's carbon emissions while still increasing production - this is largely due to wind farms and the fact that bikes seem to outnumber cars, pedestrians and trucks all put together!

Time Zero (1st August)

Again we get up when we wake up, grab the backpacker's breakfast and head to the train station. We are off to Greenwich to check out the prime median of the world. The observatory in Greenwich park has been used to determine longitude and map the stars. We are fascinated with the search undertaken to properly determine longitude and a suitable time mechanism in order for sailors to get their location back in the 1600s. A pendulum clock did not keep constant on the moving ship and as such a reward of 20,000 pounds was offered to anyone who could come up with a timekeeping device that kept constant and could be used on ships. This was one of Mike's highlights. Being a surveyor he is constantly working with latitude and longitude co-ordinates (bearings) and this information was the history of what a large part of the surveying industry is founded on. We could spend a whole day looking around and studying everything in detail, but we have not yet been through Tower Bridge and leave around 1pm (via One Tree Hill... which actually has a tree!) in order to get there. Oh we must mention that we grabbed some pret on the way through for lunch (thinking of you Marc & Char!). Tower Bridge was fascinating as it took years to even agree on a design. The issue being that that part of the Thames was the harbour or the main port where all the big ships had to pass through. The bridge had to be designed to allow the large ships into the basin in order not to disrupt the ports. Finally the tower bridge design was agreed on today's design. It still took another 8 years to build. Today it opens up for ships with 24 hours notice. We did not see this happen on our trip. The day was a little squashed because we had booked tickets to Thriller the stage show matinee which started at 4pm. Our seats were not so good meaning we had a slightly blocked view, but the atmosphere and show were amazing. The show is designed to credit Michael and his career and the singers do not try to be him. There is even a young Michael and he is pretty cool! Shona loved how they repeated the mowtown performance of Billie Jean with the costume and all the moves, including the moonwalk at the right time! With songs such as Bad, Thriller and Man in the Mirror running through our heads we head out to the craziness that is Piccadilly Circus. The footpath really is not wide enough for the number of pedestrians. Even though it is raining we decide to walk back to the hostel. A great decision because we remember that we haven't yet played Pooh Sticks on London Bridge. 3, 2, 1 we through our sticks into the Thames then hotfooted it over the barrier between the footpath and the road, across the 3 lanes of traffic in each direction and back over the other barrier on the other side. We look over the bridge and 15 seconds later our sticks came floating past! It's our last night in London and we realise that there is plenty more to see. But you can't do everything all the time, so we have saved some sight seeing for next time.

London's Calling (31st July)

It's calling but not too strongly. As we are shattered we don't set the alarm, rather letting our body clocks wake us. It's all good, we are ready to take the 10:15pm walking tour that leaves from the hostel (and we managed to get a feed of the standard backpackers free breakfast - toast with jam, cornflakes and tea). The tour is run by New Europe a crowd that run tours in lots of different cities. The 3 hour tour is free as your guide works entirely for tips. So if you like the tour you are encouraged to tip him (or her) at the end. We meet near Buckingham Palace to find that there are about 150 people there to take tours, some even in Spanish. Anyway it's called the Royal Tour because it starts with the 11:30pm Changing of the Guard Ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Our guide gets us there late so we weren't too impressed. It was interesting to see the guards marching along playing their instruments just to change over. But protecting the palace is a very serious job and so should also be taken seriously. Besides it is a great tourist attraction! The rest of the tour turns out to be really good. We learn that there is always a flag flying at the palace (contrary to popular belief). It's the Union Jack if the Queen is away and her monarchy flag if she is at home. She was away for our visit. In trafalgar square there are four platforms for a monument... with only 3 monuments. The king who was intended for the forth monument had a salary of 80k per year and spent 250k per year. As he had no money to build a statue of himself the forth platform has remained bare for hundreds of years, now used as an artist spot. At the end of the tour we meet Sarah Herbert for lunch. It is great to see her and hard to believe that two years ago she crashed with us for 3 weeks before leaving to live in London. Man time flies. It is a stunning London day where we get a little bit burnt (it's now tanned...) and have a great afternoon and evening catching up on gossip, checking out the view from London Eye, hiding in a water fountain trying not to get wet, walking the along the Thames river walk and having a few drinks for dinner. All in all a fantastic day.

Lie back and think of England (30th July)

Leaving Ireland was uneventful, unless you count PaddyWaggon not being able to count how many people can fit on their free coach service to the airport. One lady had to stand the whole journey and we had been told that there was an instant $60 (euro) fee for not wearing your seatbelt. What is the fee for not having a seat? The worst thing was that Paddys had filled the seats with people from hotels in the area -obviously lining their pockets with the service at the risk of their own customers!Anyway we arrived safely in London and managed to navigate the Picadilly tube, interchange at Green Park to take the Jubilee line to London Bridge. The hostel is only a four bed share this time. Fantastic, but it is a real rabbit warren up to our room. A big adventure just to find the place. Up and down, round and round again, mind your head. But it's great and most importantly the beds are comfortable! Hopefully we didn't annoy Alberto (who's in the UK learning English) during his siestas too much!There is no rest for the wicked as we are off to the West End to see Les Miserables tonight. Lastminute.com gave us the best seats we could afford by doing a combined show plus dinner at David Britton @ the Cavenish. We dress in our 'finest' - jeans and black tops. Dinner feels flash when it includes a pre-appetiser beef shot, but is delicous on all accounts. Hightlight of the day so far is that Mike likes salmon steaks and gets more than a nibble from Shona's plate :-) It is well and truly trumped by the cast of Les Miserables. The show is fantastic and it is great that Shona is finally able to see Mike's favourite musical with him. We both loved Jean Val John the most and Shona shed a few tears as the story is sad in a few places. She was surprised at the number of songs she knew - 24601, Master of the House, Castle on a Cloud, I Dreamed a Dream, and a few others. Needless to say our heads were filled with Les Miserables tunes for the the hour long walk home. We decided it would be a great way to see the city at night and it was. Wandering along the street and suddenly we are faced with Big Ben. It's been a wonderful day and we are shattered, so have a very restful sleep.