Where has the time gone?

It is amazing how the doldrums of life get in the way of the adventures of travel. Living in Europe afforded us the opportunity to hop in the car and explore a new city on any given weekend. After moving back to the Midwest, most, if not all traveling involves an airplane...and the lovely Ryanair is nowhere to be found! Needless to say, our travels have slowed a bit, but I'm sure they will pick up again!

We've been on the road, in the air, on the rails, and on the water for the past two weeks, so I have some catching up to do.

A rocky ferry ride to Egeskov

I should probably just invest in Dramamine stock. I sure do take enough of it and I think everyone around me is happy to know that before a plane ride, car ride, or a boat ride, I will have taken one of the little round white pills...and I won't be the one looking a bit green!

This morning we were up early to catch the 8am ferry to the island of Fyn....final destination...Egeskov Castle.

The seas were pretty rough today and it was extremely windy out, so we had quite the rocky 50 minute ride across the sea. Thank goodness I don't have to make that trip very often!

Egeskov Slot (oak forest castle) was built in the mid 1500s as a home for a Danish nobleman. Today it is a full fledged tourist location complete with the castle museum, a vintage motorcycle museum, vintage car museum, gardens, mazes, tree top walk, deer park...and the list continues.

Egeskov Slot is only open for a few months each year (April - October) and we were lucky enough to visit it on the last operating day for 2009.

A few pictures from our visit.

Driving tour of Denmark

A few weeks ago, we took advantage of a long weekend and saw some of the local Danish sites.

The highlights:

• Watching kite surfers and sailboarders on the Ringkobing fjord


• Walking the wide sandy beach on the western coast, climbing the sand dunes, and checking out the German bunkers from WWII


• Mmmm, softice in Sondervig


• Checking out the Ringkobing Kirke (church) in Ringkobing


• Walking the largest wooden sailboat in Ebeltoft


• Strolling around the grounds of the Gammel Estrup Manor in Auning


• Spending time with our friends Ina and Nils in Arhus

I'm still working on the slideshow. In the meantime, some pictures from our travels.

Sunshine in Copenhagen

It's not very common to have days upon days filled with sunshine. So, wouldn't you know...we would have sunshine for 4 straight days in Denmark. My parents probably think I was fibbing a bit about the gray skies and drizzly rain. However, I'll take any amount of sunshine we can get!

We had wonderful weather for our tour of southern Sweden and Denmark.

After our day in southern Sweden, we crossed the Oresund on a bridge / tunnel (below) then spent 2 days in Copenhagen. It was Easter weekend, so many things were closed or had reduced hours. We were able to find plenty of things to keep us busy!

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and is a bustling metro, a stark contrast to our little town in southern jutland. We were classic tourists...

• riding the S and Metro
• taking the hour-long canal tour
• watching the changing of the guard at Amalienborg (royal palace)
• Frederik's church
• a view of the little mermaid before she travels to Shanghai, China
• shopping on stroget street

Slideshow will be posted soon.

Back to Denmark

We're back in Denmark. We cut our trip short by 1 day. We were supposed to spend 2 nights in Cologne, but after the first night, I decided it was time to get back on the road.

We've been working to get the laundry done, replenish the refridgerator, and get back into a daily routine. Chuck still has a few more days off for his summer holiday, so he can relax a bit...not too much though...I'm sick and need some attention!