Copenhagen, Denmark

What a beautiful city.  Home of Tivoli Gardens, the inspiration for Walt Disney's Disneyland (in case you are wondering who to blame).  Very colorful, wonderfully nice people.

Old city area.

The other side of the canal.  Mostly restaurants now, quite touristy. But pretty nonetheless.

My notes are weird, but I believe the house on the left is the former home of
Hans Christian Anderson. (or maybe the middle?)

This warship has the dubious honor of being in docked right where its at…
and a live mortar was launched on mistake during routine cleaning/inspection.
Whoops.

The Mastekranen. Built in 1748 in order to pull ship masts completely upright
before placing on ships.  A modern military ship sits in front for perspective.

Historic naval dockyards at Holmen.  They still fire a cannon when raising
the flag and lowering it. (Sunrise and sunset, respectively.)

The landing area of the Royal Yacht for when the Royal Family goes on holiday.
They were on holiday to Iceland when we arrived, so I didn't get an invite to have tea. ;-)

Our hotel.  Built in 1787.  Was originally built as a warehouse then used as the
royal granary.

Blue Cathedral.

Another cathedral. You can actually walk the walkway outside
the spire. We passed on the opportunity.
I did not feel like having a) height induced panic attack
b) puking on the lovely Danish people.

According to our tour guide. At one time when houses were built, they were
taxed according to the building footprint.  So they made them skinny and tall.

Copenhagen City hall.

Jens Olsen's World/Astronomical Clock.  Very cool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Olsen's_World_Clock

Another pretty cathedral, part of a former military complex.

The Little Mermaid.  

Our room showing the original timbers of the building.

Vasa Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

As with everything pretty awesome there's a backstory. Here is the Cliff Notes version.  More detail can be found via The Vasa Museum

1625 (NOT a typo):  King Gustav II Adolf commissions four warships to be built. The first will be the flagship Vasa.

1627-1628:  Vasa's completion (which has been rushed).  On her initial voyage in 1628, she sails approximately 1000 meters, gets caught in a squall and sinks. Appoximately 30 of the 150 aboard perished.

Courtesy of the Vasa Museum

The big question was who was at fault.  The conclusion is the King for ordering many sculptures and cannons to be put on the ship.  The designer for building a tall heavy ship with very little ballast. The captain for not closing gun ports and redistributing weight.

Over the next 300 YEARS:  Several attempts to salvage the Vasa don't succeed, including the actual location of the sinking being lost to knowledge.

1956: The Vasa is located.  Foremast is raised.  The story goes that if not for some last minute campaigning, the Vasa would have been buried in several tons of backfill from nearby development.

1957-1959:  Salvage begins, and the story is very interesting.  Due to the cold/semi-brackish water, the ship is nearly intact, even though it is wood.  Historians and government officials alike realize that they have a time capsule on their hands.  New techniques in pumping out sediments and water and lifting the wreck are developed. Human remains are found.

1961: The Vasa resurfaces after 333 years and floats to her final resting place ON HER OWN BOTTOM.

For the next several decades, preservation of the ship and her artifacts and the building of the museum that will eventually hold her take place.  More is learned on the preservation of marine artifacts.

Here are some pictures.  They are dark.  The museum is in low light/humidity controlled.  Incredibly well done and in about 30 languages.  They manage not only reconstruct her, but get paint samples, sail samples and time capsule like artifacts.  My husband wasn't too keen on the presentation of the human remains, but I thought all in all it was well done. I saw it as these people are now living forever teaching their descendants about their lives.  However, I didn't take pictures of skeletons either.

The sterncastle of the Vasa. Over 400 hand carved wooden sculptures
were on the boat.  Solid wood. Makes her a bit top-heavy.

Modern samples of the pigments they used to paint the Vasa.
It was a bit gaudy by the look of the historians re-creations.

Model showing what they think the original Vasa was painted like.

Something that impressed me to speechlessness.
They recovered SAILS. FROM the 1620s. And were able to preserve the remains.

Several of the blocks off the rigging. They recovered line also.

Closer picture of the sterncastle. I believe 90% of the ship is it's original timber.

Upper view of the Vasa.

I can honestly say that this was one of the more impressive historical museums I have been to so far.

Super lazy, bad blogger, bad bad blogger

Okay, total commitment time tonight.  Updating the blog!

Stockholm, Sweden

This is the first of a few posts, been incredibly lazy lately.

A few weeks ago we spent 10 days in Europe, the spouse had a business trip to Sweden, so I tagged along.

Stockholm was awesome, people were incredibly nice.  Also super apologetic that they were having a cold spell (the temps were hovering around 60 degrees instead of the usual 75).  I felt sorry for them, when you only have three months of warm summery weather a year, it sucks to lose several weeks of it.

Getting into Sweden was scarily easy, no forms to fill out, just a quick question/answer and on your way.  Of course, after an overnight trip, I tend to be a little loopy, so going out to the taxi stand free for all was wow.  Evidently, there is no regulation, so it's luck of the draw, we got lucky and our taxi cost the 'normal' amount, some taxis charge 3 times the average rate.  Yikes.

We stayed at the Bern Hotel, lovely place, rooms were typical size in the European sense, but I wasn't there to hang out in the room.  Free Wifi (Hello, Marriott? get with the program!)

Below is some of the general pics, there will be a few more posts with specific things we saw.

The harbor area by our hotel.

Old City, Gamla Stans.  Full of funky shops, touristy shops
and lots of eats.

Pretty blue gateway to one of the many parks.

One of the many museums.  Building was huge, hardly anything in it. 

A LIGHT BOAT.  Totally cool.

Former King of Sweden from 1600s or so.  Big fella.

Church and the side of the castle in Gamla Stans.

Gamla Stans again, one of the plazas.

Yes, Sabrina, that is a pressure cooker banjo.
Like I said, funky cool stores.

Parliament building.

One of the super tiny allies in Old Town.
Cars will scoot down them with inches to spare.
No thank you.

Marblehead, Boston

During the big Boston family trip, mom and I did a drive around sight seeing, we went out to Nahant Point, where my mom found her retirement home.  (it was nice…I hope she has a rich relative)

Onto Marblehead, mainly because I know it's a sailing town also.  Very pretty, quintessential New England.

Nahant Point

Low tide in Nahant. Big tides up here!

High tide.  Low tide there would be beach for about 50 feet past the outermost rock.

Boston skyline from Nahant.

View of Marblehead.

Marblehead (Neck) Lighthouse.
Built in 1896, automated in 1960.
Still working today.

A Midwesterners Guide to Bostonese

They put these road signs up recently. Hilarious.

Just got back from spending 10 days visiting family in Boston and the surrounding area.

It cracks me up that Bostonians always seem confused on why the rest of the nation picks on them for their accent.  True, they are not the only ones with an accent, but I think it's the entire invented dialect that goes with it.

So, here's your guide to translation if you ever go up there.  This should get you started.

Pronunciation
Anything that ends with -er will be pronounced -ah.  As in above: blinker = blinkah, lobster = lobstah, and so on.

Most anything containing an 'r', also replaced with an -ah sound.  Except at the beginning of a word.

If it it ends with an -a,  then you add an -er.  Seriously.  My friend growing up always wanted to know why my mom called her Amander.

Vocabulary
Wicked Awesome.  Yes, it's real and not something you just hear on SNL.  Reserved for the highest echelon of cool.

Dunkies.  Boston is the mother ship of Dunkin Donuts, started in Quincy, MA.  Locals affectionally call it Dunkies.  There is literally on every corner.  More prolific than Starbucks (of which you hardly see any)  I tried to get a picture of my mom pointing at the Dunkies we were at and the one across the street.  Didn't work out.  But both were busy.  Go figure.

Yah sah/nah sah.  Used in various configurations.  Often times when we would use the phrase, you know?  or right?

Soda/Tonic/Cola.  The word pop is not used.  You might wind up with a frozen treat out of the freezer.
All of above are used if asking for a Coca Cola or similar beverage. Two small restaurants we went to made soda by using the bar gun to put carbonated water into a glass and then adding the flavoring.  Think Sodastream.  (or if you are on Honey Ryder…Jesus Juice)

Frappe.  Not used as much anymore, but that would be a milkshake.

Getting directions
Don't even try.  Use your GPS or get one.  Holy cow.  You don't make a turn, you veer right or left.
Street signs and lines on the streets are optional.  If you take a regular path, start paying attention to landmarks such as businesses, that is your only hope.

Food
Eat the chowdah!
I used to think there was something seriously wrong with my mom because she always ordered fried seafood.  Nope, that's how it's done where she's from.
Fried clams--these are clams that have the bellies on them.  I'm not a fan.
Clam strips--these are just the 'necks' of the clams.  A bit more tolerable, and used in chowdah.
Find a deli or 'steak' shop and get yourself a good east coast sandwich or cheesesteak.  Yum.  Order a cheese steak monster style and you get pepperoni/onions/green peppers/mushrooms chopped up with the meat.

Morelamania

Over the past few weeks, my great white hunter 'caught' about 3 dozen morel mushrooms or more.  For those not in the know..morels are seasonal, usually only about 1-2 weeks in the spring.  People guard their 'hunting' spots with their lives.

The taste of morels is divine.  However, most midwesterners think that the best way to eat these delectable morsels is to douse them in flour and fry them up.

No.  NoNONONONONO.  You don't take something that shows up once a year for two weeks and turn it into a chicken mcnugget.  (sorry, mcdonald's don't sue me)

Morel cream sauce (with madeira and shallots) is divine, pour it over some pan seared chicken and bake…oh, my. Heaven.

We tried grilling the morels.  Basically, we decided you are just steaming them because the suggestion was wrap them in foil.  However, with a little parmesan on top.  YUM.  Add a perfectly gilled filet and some roasted baby jewel potatoes.  Voila!

my plate needs a bit of culinary color, methinks

Next morning, after seeing a recipe in the paper.  Toasted sour dough with goat cheese, roasted asparagus, sautéed morels and poached egg.  

Last night,  pasta with morel/shallot/pea buerre blanc.  Tim tried to crisp up some Canadian bacon to add to it, but not recommended.  Not fatty enough, it just turns into jerky.  But if we had some pancetta on hand……

At our last batch for breakfast tomorrow.  What to do, what to do….