Scandinavia - Day 2

We set out to explore Copenhagen, or at least the part of the city nearest to our hotel, knowing that we would be back later in the trip. Not far from us was the world famous Tivoli Gardens amusement part, replete with gardens and rides and foods and the like. It was a good start and a nice stroll, including a lunch of delicious burgers at the Gasoline Grill location within the park.

From there we walked the Vesterbro and Indre By districts, including a tour at Christiansborg Palace. We also quickly learned what a bicycle city Copenhagen is - very impressive on the one hand, but also potentially dangerous if you're not paying attention. 

We did ultimately wander further than intended, and wound up at Kongens Nytorv (King's New Square) and Nyhavn (New Harbour), where we had a hotel booked for later in the trip. Still, we could not help but enjoy the stunning canal, colourful buildings and general sea of humanity.  

I also grabbed a few local beers from the nearby 7-11 to enjoy back at the hotel, which was the much cheaper option than going out for a drink. Even though the Danish Krone was at a 5:1 exchange (i.e. 1 Danish Krone or DKK = $0.20 CDN), the prices in Denmark were noticeably high. Welcome to Scandinavia.

After about four hours of walking the cobblestones of Copenhagen to stave off the effects of jetlag, we finally succumbed and called it a day. After all, we knew we would be back in a few weeks.

Central Station near our hotel

Entrance to Tivoli

Beautiful Gardens

Smorrebrod! (Danish open-faced sandwiches on rye bread)

They really like their bikes!

Time for lunch

More bikes

Christiansborg Palace

Inside Christiansborg

Walking the streets

Nyhavn!

Stunning canals

Funky building near our hotel

Enjoying some local brews from the cheaper (7-11) option

Scandinavia - Day 1

We were headed back to Europe, this time for a tour of Scandinavia - we "cleverly" opted for a Monday flight, immediately following a three-day art show. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The trip started off with a bang - literally. On our way back from Friday night setup at the art show, while cruising straight at 80 km/h along on a country road....someone hung a left turn into the side of us. Yes, into the side of the "new" used Bronco Sport we had owned for just over three weeks, after a deer wrote off our beloved Juke.

The damage could have been a lot worse, but for some split-second defensive driving - I couldn't avoid the collision entirely, but certainly minimized what could have been far more destructive. In the end, she just clipped our rear quarter, avoiding the driver-side gas tank and also avoiding spinning us into a very deep and water-filled ditch.

Because the accident happened on a Friday night, the first opportunity to attend the Collision Reporting Centre was Monday morning.....so instead of heading east to the Hamilton airport, we first headed in the wrong direction to the OPP station nearing Windsor.

Distractions aside, we arrived at Hamilton airport well before our flight, excited to be flying with Play out of a smaller and less frenetic location. We boarded for our evening flight, and I ended up seated beside a guy in a Refined Fools shirt. After remarking on his good taste in beer, he informed me that he was actually the owner. He even bought me an Icelandic Gull lager on the flight as we discussed beer!

We landed in Keflavik in the wee hours, with a short layover before a connecting flight to Denmark. Jane did find time to grab a local hotdog before we went through passport control and officially entered the Schengen Zone. 

Leaving Iceland at 620am (4 hours ahead of home), we lost another two hours to time zones on the just over three-hour flight to Copenhagen. We breezed through Terminal 2 at Kastrup airport, located conveniently near downtown. After a short walk to Terminal 3, we bought cheap tickets ($6 each) from a machine and headed down to he trains for the short ride to the Copenhagen Central Station.

We had chosen City Hotel Nebo for its close proximity to the train station, and to our delight our room was even ready earlier than check-in time. We dropped our luggage by about 12:30pm (Denmark time, 6:30am home time) and prepared to head out to explore the city.

Bucky Dent earns his name!

Outbound for Europe!

Boarding our flight to Iceland

Sunrise over Iceland

Transferring Play-nes in Keflavik.....

....with time to spare for an Icelandic hotdog!

Long day of travel

Winging over Denmark

Oresund Bridge/Tunnel as we descend into Copenhagen

Heading down to the trains

Catching the train to downtown Copenhagen

Copenhagen Central Station

City Hotel Nebo near the train station - Room 229

Summer Storms!

We got some crazy storms yesterday and overnight. I had spent the day at the office, with windows that make the outside light deceiving....until I saw someone come in the side door at lunch and it was DARK. Like night.

There was a fortuitous lull around the time I headed home, but flooded parking lots, tomato fields and one waterlogged vineyard were rather visible en route.

Later that night, the light show never stopped - lightning just kept flashing for a good six hours, like someone was flipping the lights on and off constantly. Thunder rumbled throughout, and the wind at times got pretty hairy as well!

Rain lashed the windows and metal roof all night, which was somewhat soothing.....unless one wondered how things would look by morning! We had a wet and angry/scared cat show up at 1am during a temporary lull, demanding admittance to the house.....and he's the one that hates coming in!

Luckily we never lost power, though there were quite a number of branches down around the willow tree and strewn an impressive distance around the property. A good portion of the property was visibly flooded with standing water, and our notoriously deep ditches were perilously full.

Unfortunately the rains also meant that our upcoming art show at a historic fort in Amherstburg would likely involve a long and hot slog dragging everything in by hand (or dolly) from the parking lot, rather than being to drive vehicles right onto the grounds and unpack as normal. 

We also cleverly booked our upcoming trip to start the day right after this three-day art show - not sure what we were thinking!?!?

Storms roll in by late morning

Terrible beauty

The aftermath - nearly filling our VERY deep ditches!

Lots of flooding around the yard - luckily none in the house!

Dave Daze

We brought Dave down for another visit before heading out for holidays, picking him up on our way back through from family visits in the Kingston area. It was also his first ride in the new Bronco, and he was very excited to see all the new gadgets and technology.

Being a mid-week visit rather than a weekend visit, I had to spend part of his visit at work. Jane and Dave spent some of this time working diligently on a 3D puzzle of the famous ship Santa Maria.

We also surprised him with a delicious selection of Jamaican food from Yardee Vibez in Chatham, including his favourite, oxtails.

We had been trying to get him out to the local flying club, but weather and other impediments had hindered our efforts thus far. Finally, the stars aligned and they were flying on a sunny Wednesday night. We made the short trip to a nearby farm and enjoyed watching several large model aircraft buzz around for a few hours.

While some of their planes were more advanced than Dave's older fleet, they were excited to have an OG model aircraft enthusiast in their midst - and visibly stunned at his three-digit membership number! 

After some great burgers on the back deck, they also pulled out a rather nice drone, and let Dave spend some time flying that high above the farm to round out a lovely evening with some really nice people.

After some playing with Pebbles, some local ice cream, a binge run of Seinfeld episodes and some quality time on the back deck, Jane took him home after a great four night visit.

Building a Boat!

Santa Maria, that's a nice ship!

Visiting with the Lake Erie Barnstormers!

Smoke Show!

A beautiful night for flying

Flying the Drone

Meanwhile, back at our place.....no room to fly here!

Hello Bucky Dent

We picked up our new car, a used 2021 Bronco Sport from Lally Ford in Tilbury. We saw it on their website and it wasn't even there yet when we went to look at it.....but ironically the random sales guy we got (Blaine) was the one bringing it in a few days later, when he delivered a new car to one of his regular customers. Turns out he's also a first cousin to the legendary Rankin family of Cape Breton music fame!

Say hello Bucky Dent - he's got some big shoes to fill on the heels of Best Car Ever, our gold 2013 Juke. Kudos to John on naming him, a play on Bucking Bronco coupled with an homage to the deer that led us to a new vehicle.

We chose carefully, based on measurements of specific items needed for art shows and the ability to fit them in the next car we got. In fact, we had already picked out the Bronco Sport as the likely candidate two years ago, but between not going anywhere anyway during COVID and then the spike in interest rates, we decided the Juke would continue to do just fine for the time being. Until a squirrely cervid decided otherwise.

Having not driven a new vehicle in ten years, it looks like we've got some new gadgets and technology to get used to! We also went with an automatic to mark the first car either of us have owned that wasn't a manual transmission. We figured we'll still be driving this when we're another ten years older, so maybe it was time for something a little bigger and a little nicer on the knees.

The colour is Area 51 - it's actually darker than it looks in some of the pictures.

Shifter Dial and an Infotainment Centre - what is this madness???

Beer Bottle Opener!