Volvo and The Bayerman

Gail and I just picked up Brett's 40. Had a chance ti talk with Colin. Will have dinner with him next week when we return from Wisconsin. Fun. Driving to see Dorth and KB tomorrow. Lookin for a lemon merengue pie for our visit with them then to Tuttle.

Sons, Grandsons, daughters Granddaughters

So last week we had the privilege of having HC and Fin stay with us-for almost a full week! Yesterday we arrived in Chicago and have been with the Chicago Suttons-Jack, Darby, Grant, and Katy. They have something up here in the north they call rain. Coming from Houston I have begun to think of rain as one of the things legends are made of. Yesterday set a record for Chicago for the most amount of rain in a 24 hour period. Will spend today here then off to Wisconsin for cruz time at Tuttle Lake with D & L. Home in a week for HC's 4th Bday. Pretty exciting summer so far.

Following comment seems appropriate for Lifetrek63. So are the inhabitants of Washington, D.C. Trippin or what. Get er done boys and girls or stand down and let someone who can do. It ain't about elections, parties, rich, poor, conservative, liberal, etc. It's about the United States of America, children. A little adult behavior would be greatly appreciated. Never thought I would say this, but I miss President William Jefferson Clinton. Clearly he got the concept of comprise for the benefit of the country. Oh yeah, that was when we had our last budget surplus. All for now. Going to go enjoy the Fam.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Regardless of where your passport says you are, you are home. So, as I was getting ready to do this post I realized that my heart is in Houston, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, Tallinn, Estonia and very soon on a United plane bound for the coast. Know your homes and you will know your heart.

Did this qualify as a post for Lifetrek, yep, cuz it was the result of a little mental trippin.

T plus one and counting, very, very slowly

So tomorrow is the last day of this Scandia, Finland, and Tallinn trek. Brett and I are in Copenhagen. Another amazing city! We arrived by plane and were picked by Nielsp and then did a whirl wind tour around the inter city. What with it being a work with full time population in the greater metro area of 5.5 million and anther billion or so visitors, it was hectic. Hugh spotsp, at least four: The Rosenborg Castle where the Danish Royal Family jewels and treasures are held (the castle built by Christian IV back in the fifteenth century); the statue of The Little Mermaid (yes HC and Darby Kate, I saw the original Little Mermaid!); the Royal Palace, and Tivoli Garden. Brett was very hungry when we were at The Little Mermaid so one of his favorite spots was the stereo vendor who was selling brown sugar and roasted almonds. He was in heaven.

We are now a bit rested and are going out on our nightly prowl of the city. Will grab dinner, maybe a barge ride around the city, hopefully a climb to the top of a church whose staircase to the top of the steeple is on the outside of the steeple, an ice cream cone, a beer or two (water/coke for me, then to hotel for a good nights sleep. We are off to the outlying areas tomorrow before a 6:00p.m. Flight to Amsterdam.

Take care. Oh yeah, sorry for the massive post of videos yesterday. Once I started I couldn't seem to stop.

Scandia Videos

Life with Mark on the road.

So an ironic thing happened this morning when we were just about to leave for the day. I was walking out the door and Brett said something to me that I didn't quite hear. I turned back into the room and said, "I almost forgot my hearing aid." I walked over to the end table where I had left it, turned it on and then asked Brett what he had said. With a smile he responded, "I asked you if you were going to wear your hearing aid today?". Traveling with me can be a laugh a minute, if you have unlimited patience.

So as for today, another great one. Great driver, Aaga, a very interesting city of some 250,000, super views of both clear water rivers and of the North Sea and an electric tram ride up the side of a hill in downtown Bergen. We got Brett's laundry done for very cheap (Norway standards) and drank a nice cup of coffee in a small shop as we waited out an afternoon shower. (Wish I could grab one of these showers and bring it home for Houston.)

You should check out Brett's blog. He has posted a ton of pictures on his site. (brettroyal.com). I will try to post some pictures after I grab a shower. On our way to Copenhagen tomorrow morning.

Norway,or as I said all day today, "OMG!"

So I'm not going to post my pictures on this post cuz I took so many? I have to go through them all and figure which is / are the best pictures of: waterfalls, mountains, rushing rivers quaint 500 year old houses, etc., etc.

Brett has been a wonderful travel partner, with one minor exception. We have been staying in some really nice hotels, some would say Four Star! They are clean, great water pressure for long, hot showers, nice linens in the bathrooms and on the bed, and comfortable beds. Well kinda comfortable beds. Well not really comfortable at all! You see the beds consist of a king size base with two sleeping mattresses on top. The sleeping mattresses are a bit smaller than twin beds. So in essence my twenty-eight year old son, who has been on his own since graduating from high school is "sleeping with his father! :). Each day when we check in to our hotel he holds his comments until we have seen the room. Last night we had great, completely separate beds, with end tables and a center table. That was the best room of the trek. Tonight he will be sleeping under a king size canopy bed on one of the two dreaded "sleeping pads"! Sorry Sport.

As for the trip here, impossible to describe so I won't, will let the pictures do the talking. The last leg of the trip was on The Flam Rail. The cars were nineteenth century with wood interiors and two sets of two person seats in each row. Other than the canopy, king size bed with sleeping mats our room is super, a living room, a table and four chairs dining room AND a balcony!

After we checked in we rented a couple of eight sped bikes and took a 70 Km. bike ride up through the road that runs parallel to the train route. What a workout, best in years! Ok, so it was really only twenty or so Kms, it was still up mountain roads. Two reasons it wasn't a 70km. Ride. The first was we only had two hours before we had to turn the bikes in And if we would have done a much longer ride we would have shipped home in a box! Brett, on the other hand, never left his pedals the entire ride. I wanted to make the ride last so on the steeper hills I allowed the bike a rest and walked it up.

All for now. Will be posting two entries soon. The first will be a more detail report on Stockholm and a pictures post on the ride from Oslo to Flam. By the way, Happy 4th of July. Like Brett said tonight, being out of country on the 4th really makes you appreciate the good ol USA!

Lutherans and Helsinki

When in Stockholm we went right out on the track and field at the stadium where the 1912 Summer Olympics were held. The next two photos show how close we got to the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki where the 1952 Summer Olympics were held. This is probably one of the good examples why Helsinki didn't fare as well as Stockholm in the Most Memorable City contest.






Didn't get a chance to post a couple of the pictures I took in Helsinki in previous posts. Thought I'd do it now.





This one is of the Lutheran Cathedral in Helsinki. What an amazing building for such a small town.

Just Thinking While on a Train

Yeah, alright, nice trip report, but where's the people stuff. You know, the stuff that makes all the other stuff come together. Try this one on. Women, a topic that comes up pretty often with each driver (they initiate the conversation, not Brett or I). A typical conversation with Jan, our Oslo driver.

Mark: So Jan, in your opinion, what is the best city to which you have traveled?
Jan: Tallinn is very nice place. The women are so beautiful, don't you agree Brett.
Brett: Yes, but they are beautiful everywhere I have been.
Mark: So where else and why? (Yep, one of those Mark double questions.)
Jan: Oslo is very nice. The women here are also very beautiful!

A few more probes from Mark. He gets back Manila, Venice and a couple more all with the main emphasis on women. So the next day Jan picks us up and Mark tries again.

Mark: So Jan, on the topic of great places, what do you think is the best, excluding women?
Jan: No response, blank stare. Time passes, getting to be awkward,....
Mark learns valuable lesson. Know your audience.

After sleeping on the awkward moment I go to breakfast this morning and there is a little card with sayings of Norway on Brett's and my plate. Mine says, "Ettermiddagen vet det morgenen aldri forventet." Translation, "The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected." My afternoon now knows to avoid questions that could soom become awkward.

It's Sunday, this must be Norway

So our new best friend, our 6:30 a.m. Driver to the airport started our day with a cheerful smile and chatter. Drive to airport was a breeze (it is Sunday morning after all) and we got there two hours before flight time. We arrived in Oslo, Norway right on time and Jan, new best friend number 4, was there to provide us our daily doses of geography, fauna, flora, history, architecture and social commentary, Norway style. He did a great job. We hit all the spots on the tour itinerary and them some. After I down load my pictures from today I will offer up some commentary. Off to the shower. I'll close for now with the fact today was the first rain I have experienced on this trip, a little like Houston I think.

Helsinki to Stockholm and Beyond

Don't compare European cities! They all have their own history, people, geology, dot, dot, dot,and most important a fatigue factor a traveler is feeling when visiting a particular place.

The Trek kicked off at 6:00 a.m. when we left the hotel, grabbed a cab to the ferry building in Tallinn and rolled for two hours, arriving in Helsinki at 9:30 a.m. Our tour guide was a nice young man who had been given some wrong information by the tour company. He was a little flustered in the beginning, but got it together to give us a great overview of this part of Finland. What you quickly come to understand about this part of the world is that if it wasn't the Russians taking you over, it was the Swedes and when these two weren't watching the Germans were more than happy to grab all they could. This is the experience of Finland in spades. When visiting the museums and reading the various stories you quickly realize it will be quite some time before trust of Russia is a high element in either the Estonians or Finlanders vocabulary.

So move on Mark. The following picture is of a monument to Sibelius a gentleman considered by most Finns as their most accomplished composers. The piece represents organ pipes, a key instrument in many of his works.

The next site was the Church in the Rock, a Lutheran facility that was literally cut out of solid granite. The acoustics in the place were amazing

We then went into Old Town (there is one in every town so far) and visited the Lutheran Cathedral. Wow! Donations are good in Helsinki. Of course maybe the fact that 90% of the population practices this faith could account for the magnificent nature of this building.

It was time to jump our ferry and start our boat ride to Stockholm. The archipelago that runs from Helsinki down through Sweden is awesome. Thousands of islands which are the result of Mother Earth winning the battle against the glaciers.



So it is now midnight and we are being picked up really early this morning so I a going to close this post with a couple of other videos in Stockholm. The most amazing are of the Stockholm Olympic Stadium from the 1912 Olympics. We actually got on the field and walked around. It was so cool.

There is going to be a whole lot more about Stockholm. It was fantastic! We had an amazing guide, Soren. He gave us the most amazing tour and will be very difficult for the following guides to come close. Take care and will check in tomorrow night from Oslo and complete my Stockholm post.