Denmark and Sweden Situation

Well... we survived the hurricane... woke up to a wet yet beautiful morning in Denmark.  Our neighbors (Bent and Mona) from across the way had Heather and I in for coffee... super nice Danish couple currently living in Norway.  Apparently the pay in Norway is crazy high!  Maybe I'll move there.. not.  Anyway, after chilling a bit in South Zealand we made our way across Odense and towards Copenhagen and ultimately Sweden.  On our way across the central part of Denmark, we happened to see a sign for the Trelleborg Viking Site.  This is a site similar to Stonehenge which has been occupied for thousands of years.  Complete with an inner and outer protection ring.  The Vikings inhabited the site with about 30 longhouses and a contingent of approximately 500 warriors, women and children around 980 AD.  They were likely the personal guard of King Harold Bluetooth who was in the midst of a war with his son who had rallied a bunch of local Chieftains against his father.  Apparently Mr. Bluetooth was bringing Christianity to a bunch of Danish pagans.. some who didn't appreciate it.  Anyway... here are some pics... very cool site...

 

Heather and I at a recreated longhouse on the site.  

Here is a picture inside the inner protection ring... complete with Viking longhouse foundations and sheep.

And... a sheep's butt... courtesy of Heather.

Here is another angle on the site with the inner ring visible in the mid distance.

Here's Harmo at a recreated little viking hut... very similar to the Karuk houses at Patrick's point.. dug into the ground.

After Trelleborg, we made our way through the Danish countryside... beautiful... until we came to a dicey situation!

Slowly made our way through this baby... technically, our ride is 3,1 m, so we had some to spare... but a little scary.  Lucky thing I've got multiple navigators.

We then continued on our way across Denmark and finally into Copenhagen across some monumental bridges and tunnels (~20 km)... crazy windy.

Here is the bridge that connects Copenhagen, Denmark to Malmo, Sweden.  Very long... very windy.

Coming into Sweden, we were getting a little tired, so we decided to go grocery shopping and find a place to crash.  We found this awesome place which is apparently a kite-surfing mecca.  So pretty with all of the kites.  The Baltic Sea was very shallow for hundreds of meters out.  We walked out on this long pier and then waded a bit.  Sweet end to the day.  Here are some pictures.

Kite surfers on the Baltic Sea.

The fam... taking it in.

Beautiful Swedish sky.

When we woke up this morning, we decided to make our way to Stockholm... crossing beautiful landscape everywhere.

As we were driving... we noted some strange looking mounds at the side of the road... then a sign that pointed to the attraction... it was exactly the same phenomenon that is seen in Olympia, Washington.. MIMA MOUNDS!!!  These are small (very small) hill type ground features, theorized to have been caused as glaciers receded from the area... strange to see them way over here in Sweden, what is so familiar at Grandma Beverlee's house!

The kiddies at Swedish Mima mounds.

So... we did finally make it to Stockholm this afternoon.  We drove through some torrential rain, etc. so we're a bit cooked.  Harmony is trying to hook up with her friend that she spent time in Russia with who lives here.  Hopefully we'll get that together.  Then... off to Leksand, Sweden where Heather has loads of family history to check out in a local museum.

Danish Anyone?

So… as I hinted at in the last post, we left Luxemburg and headed for Bingen, Germany, which, from our research was the beginning of the road through the middle Rhein.  On our way, we saw some beautiful country in Eastern Luxemburg/Western Germany…

Here is a little taste of Luxemburg… Though the weather looks cloudy… it has been hot and humid for all of our travels with some torrential rain at night… thunder and lightning in Luxemburg that sounded like it was hitting very near us.  Coming into Germany, we were greeted by what always gets a geek like me excited… tons of wind turbines and solar arrays!

Making it to the Rhein River Valley, we found what we were looking for… loads of castles from different eras.. dating back 1000 years and more.  I lost count of how many castles we went by… seemed like they were around every bend in the river.  This area was an important trade route along the river, so all the biggies had to have their pad!

We of course had to stop in the Medieval town of Bacharach.  This town dated back to 900 A.D.  Amazing… we wandered around and up into a church that had apparently been bombed out in the last World War… sad… but what a piece of living history.

Here are the kids standing at the original gates of the walled city of Bacharach (Real Wheels anyone?).  As Heather was cruising around, she found a birthday present to herself that she couldn't live without… I wonder why?

Recognize this little guy?  If not… he's a Nutcracker and will be center stage this winter for Heather's performance.  The real deal.

We followed the Rhein River from Bingen all the way to Koln (Cologne), Germany, where we found a nice… but Wifi-less campground right downtown.  We took a nice walk on the shores of the Rhein.  I swear those German folks are fit… tons walking, biking, running along with us.

Here's me looking for a special rock for brother Ronnie's studio window.  Pretty sweet spot in the middle of a large city I must say (Cologne, Germany).

From Cologne, we decided to make a fairly long driving day of it so that we could get as far north as possible.  We couldn't help but chuckle every time we saw these exit signs on the highway… I wonder why?

We made it quite a ways… from Koln all the way through Hamburg and up through the small channel of Germany into Denmark.  We found a great little spot right on the Baltic Sea to rest up, and have a quiet evening.  Our neighbor here at the park spoke English very well and we exchanged some conversation, and he (indicating that he likes rock and roll) of course got a Lord Ellis CD.  Anyway, he told us about a hurricane that they had last year where his tent from his camper was the only survivor and apparently there is some more weather on the way.  We looked online and couldn't find any warnings, so maybe he's just razzing the Americans.  Cool dude though.

Here's me smiling on the Baltic Sea.  Again… looks cloudy and crap… but very warm and humid.  Actually… now that I say it… we're having some rain.  Hopefully we don't get blown away tonight!  (Just a joke mom… )

Here's Heather enjoying some of the amenities at our Danish camp site… very color coordinated with the pillowy trampoline thing!

Okay… that's about it for now… hopefully we'll be getting nearer to Sweden tomorrow.  Maybe take in a Viking Museum in Denmark on our way!

Luxemburg Camping

After leaving Nantes, we decided to head to Koblenz, Germany... home of many medieval castles.  As we let the trusty GPS plot our way from Nantes to Koblenz, we noticed that we'd go right past chez Uncle Ron and family, so we decided to crash their place another night and get a great dinner last night (Thursday).  This morning we got up and had a nice breakfast with the France Sorters and then headed east.  Great weather all day... very warm and humid.  Feels kind of sticky like Mexico.  We made it as far as Luxembourg where we found a great little camping spot, very mellow... and we were ready for some chill out time and needed to do some laundry.  Off to Koblenz tomorrow, this really should be something, 39 castles in 50 km or something... a world heritage site.  Should make for some great pictures. 

You know you're in France when you have a 24 hour fresh baguette machine.  This one was at our campsite in Nantes.

Cool park right behind our camping area in Luxemburg

Heather digging the Luxemburg scene.

The Eagle has landed!

Well... we made it to France on Tuesday and had a great, yet short visit with the Paris Sorters.  Wednesday morning, we took the train into the Montparnasse train station in Paris, and hopped on the TGV to Nantes (near the west coast of France).  About two hours later, after traveling 180 mph, we arrived.  Warm and humid... some rain.  We went through the tour of our awesome RV, then found a small (somewhat Grocery Outlet) type store where we purchased our first supplies (including stinky cheese which seems to be permeating everything, then off to the river side campground here in Nantes.  Needless to say, we were wiped, so just watched some movies, then sacked out.  Now... Thursday morning, we're all rested, showered and fed and I believe headed east towards the Rhein river valley.  Not sure how far we'll make it today.  We're on the hunt for another (better) grocery store to get some more needed supplies after our first night.  Heather's got the boiled eggs going for egg salad, I'll get this post up, then we're off.   Here are some pictures of the RV... the internet is slow here, so I'll post more later.

Heather and Hadden in the van.

There she is... the Millenium Falcon... aka.. Sunlight A58

They're back !

EuroSorter 3 is up and running.  Getting ready for the August 3rd, 2014 departure.  Got the A58 Sunlight lined up and 4 tickets to Charles de Gaulle.  Tick Tock Tick Tock!