Tag: Statue of Liberty

Skol! Our Trip to Scandinavia Day #7 “Happy Birthday King Frederik X, Good Bye Copenhagen and Hello Oslo”

by reissmd, posted in Uncategorized

Today is May 26, 2025 and it’s the birthday of King Frederik X, the King of Denmark.  Prior to this trip I didn’t know we would be in Copenhagen on his birthday.  Actually before this trip I didn’t know that Denmark had a king let alone, who he was or that today is his birthday.  Apparently he is a very emotional guy.  We saw a video of when he was being introduced as the King following the abdication of his mother Queen Margrethe II. In the video you can see he gets teary eyed.  Obviously my kind of guy. 

Patrice here: For those of you who don’t know Robert, he cries at Disney movies. All you have to do is have him watch Kevin Costner’s character in Field of Dreams playing catch with his dad, and Robert will lose  it.  You don’t even need to include the dialogue.  

Enough about the King.  After breakfast this morning we had some free time to do some more sightseeing then it was off to the airport for our flight to Oslo.  Everything went smoothly at the airport once I realized that I was trying to use my boarding pass for my flight to Stockholm rather than the one for today’s flight.  How embarrassing.  But at least I gave the security guard a good story to share with his wife when he gets home.  

We had a quick bite to eat at the airport.  It was surprisingly good and looked very appealing.  See what you think?  See below. 

Airport food? Really? Shrimp and eggs on the left and Plaice on the right

The flight to Oslo was short and sweet.  Our bags were driven to Oslo early this morning so we didn’t need to wait for them at the airport and they were in our room when we arrived.  Nice going Tauck 

The hotel looks fantastic.  Well if you think Murano Glass chandeliers are nice (I DO!).  Check it out.

Murano glass chandelier in the dining room.

We then had a brief walking tour of the downtown area.  For some reason I really liked this tour.  Our guide told us some very interesting information rather than filling us with details that I didn’t care about.  One thing she told us that was both interesting and sad was they have these very large planters on the city’s main walkway.  The reason for the planters is only partly for decoration.  The main reason they are there is to prevent some nut driving into the many people who walk there. 

This planters are placed so as to impede a car driven by someone attempting to do harm.

We saw a bunch of other things of interest. Here are some.

Statue honoring women who have had breast cancer and telling them they still look beautiful with only one or no breasts.
The Nobel Peace Center. This is the site of the offices of the Nobel Peace prize. It houses lots of information about the various past winners. The prize ceremony is at city hall in Oslo and the prize laureate stays at the Grand Hotel while awaiting festivities.
Pay toilets given by France in 2005 to honor Norway’s 100th anniversary of independence from Sweden.

Wouldn’t you have loved to have been in on that discussion? “So what should we give Norway to honor their 100th anniversary of independence?” “Well we gave the USA the Statue of Liberty.” “Yes, but we were a little late on that (given 1886) so had to make it special, we don’t have to go that big.” “What do you say about giving them some Red, White, and Blue toilets? And let’s make them pay toilets so they can make a few bucks.” “Great idea, let’s make sure we are on time with this one”

Sorry, but can I add just one more photo?

I have no idea who either of these people are but I just love seeing a bird atop a statue’s head.

After the tour, we then went to dinner at the hotel restaurant.  They were not very busy but they took forever to get us our food. Our meal was spectacular but I think their strategy was to take so long to bring us the food we would think a Big Mac was fine dining.  It took about 90 minutes to bring out the main course.  Is that acceptable?  Our 7 pm meal didn’t finish until 10 pm.  Don’t these people realize I have a blog to write?

Tomorrow is our main day of touring Oslo.  Good news, they were wrong when they predicted 100% chance of rain tomorrow.  The most recent forecast states the chance for rain tomorrow is only 95%.  

Hopefully we will have good news for you tomorrow.  

Skol! Our Trip to Scandinavia Day #3 “Cold? Are You Kidding Me?”

by reissmd, posted in Stockholm, Sweden

Today was our first real day of touring.  We met our group promptly at 8:30 AM and were on our way to take a bus/walking tour of the city.  Walking from the hotel to the bus was only a distance of about 100 feet, but it was one of the longest walks of my life.  I couldn’t believe how cold it was.  The thermometer registered 6° C which converts to 43° F.  Plus it was windy which made it feel much colder.  Just to add a little spice there was a slight drizzle.  I admit it, I am from Southern California and they build us weak there, but this was even difficult for the sturdy.  Well maybe not.  We have a couple of ringers here.  Matt and his wife, Jayme, are from Iowa (via Wisconsin and Minnesota respectfully) so they don’t count.  Here is a picture of Matt and me.  

Can you tell which one of these men is from California?

The city tour was okay.  But traveling around a town in a bus hearing a bunch of facts is not really my thing.  We did make some stops that were of interest.  We visited the City Hall which was very impressive.  Inside, the building demonstrated real warmth.  No not the architecture, the temperature.  it was very warm and I didn’t want to leave.  Our guide, Monica, showed us the Blue Room which for some reason is not blue but actually red. 

Patrice and me in the “Blue Room” in the Stockholm City Hall. Hey, if you had to live in this weather things would look and feel blue to you too.

Above the Blue Room is the Golden Hall.  This was very beautiful and supposedly composed of 18 million pieces of gold mosaics.  I was counting to confirm but our guide said we didn’t have time for me to finish my count.  Really?  What was all that verbiage about tailoring the trip to meet the client’s needs?  

I got to about 150 on my count to confirm there were 18,000,000 golden pieces and I was stopped. Can you believe that?

Use the link below to see a panoramic view of the Golden Hall. Just ignore the narrator who at first calls it the City Council then corrects himself.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ubtwB24rEqk

Here is one more picture of the wall. Notice the depiction of the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower.

I can’t confirm this but I was told that Trump has asked that the Swedish government arrange that the Statue of Liberty (93 meters tall) appear bigger than the Eiffel Tower (303 meters tall). I was also told that if this does not happen a tariff on Swedish meatballs will follow.

After our visit to the City Hall was completed we did some more walking around the town. And then I saw an unbelievable sight.

Yes, Matt put on a jacket!  And his wife was wearing gloves!

What I didn’t tell you about the above picture is that I took it while I was standing in a shop.  I have no idea what they were selling. I only know it was incredibly warm. 

Now we are off to dinner and a museum visit.  I will tell you about that tomorrow.