05 November 2008

Another Day, Another Tip

I am too busy to post, and will be for about another month, so I decided to leave you with a tip for driving in Italy:

GASOLIO, despite its name, does NOT mean gasoline. It means DIESEL. If you put gasolio in your gasoline engine, your car will not go, and it will cost you 200 Euros for a tow and to siphon out the diesel, plus 50 Euros to refill the tank with gasoline. *If* you are lucky and the diesel has not seriously damaged your engine.

You will thank me for this tip.

23 August 2008

Stockholm 2008: Day 2

After a good night’s sleep and a not-too early start, we bought 3-day transit passes and headed into the center of Stockholm on the subway. We got off at Kungsträdgården and walked around a bit in that area and along the waterfront.

Hannah tried out being a Viking.

Hannah the Viking

It was a bit windy, so Hannah took the opportunity to “parachute” by catching some wind with her jacket.

catching air

Then we headed over to the Historiska Museet (historical museum), just in time for it to start raining.

John in front of the historical museum

We didn’t make it there the other time we were in Stockholm, and John wanted to see their exhibit on Vikings. He wasn’t disappointed.

Famous Viking picture stone

Hannah was surprisingly patient, I guess because she knew that we’d be heading to Gröna Lund (amusement park) next and that they don’t even open until noon. I left John and Hannah with the Vikings and looked around upstairs in the Medieval and Baroque areas, but I wasn’t that impressed. I guess I have lost the taste for looted churches; it felt like a crypt in there.

Hannah came and found me and we tried the Gold Room next. As the name implies, it was a room full of golden artifacts. Hannah really liked it and even read some of the signs on the displays. There was a video running in a side room, but she declared that bo-ring, so she mostly stuck by me. By the time John made it to the Gold Room, we had looked at every coin and read every sign and were ready to try something else.

Something else was the temporary exhibit for children on bread.

Hannah in a Princess cake

There were a ton of bread-items made out of felt on display, the most delectable of which was this “cake”.

felt cake

After buying a few things in the gift shop, we were finally ready to be amused. We hopped on the historical tram over to the island of Djurgården for an afternoon of fun at Gröna Lund.

historical tram

Gröna Lund is basically split into two parts, or as Hannah put it, the baby side and the fun side. We—or more accurately, John and Hannah—bypassed the baby side and went right for the rides, starting with a roller coaster and moving on to this swing carousel.

fling!

Then they hit the swinging Viking ship.

Viking ride

Here’s the one that would be more my speed:

baby Viking ride

And here is the after-effect of the Viking ship:

Gonna vom

I like to call this photo “Gonna vom”. I think I neglected to mention that after bypassing the baby side, we ate a greasy amusement park lunch—“Mexican” food for John, “pizza” for Hannah, and a hot dog for me, and yes, the quotation marks are there for a reason—so the mad dash for the rides was poor judgment, in hindsight.

While we waited for the gorge to subside, we amused ourselves by deciding which balloon at the top of this heap it would be most difficult for the vendor to reach, and therefore which balloon we should demand from her.

too many balloons

Despite her queasy stomach, Hannah ran off to the indoor ride behind us rather than face the possibility of being accosted by these costumed freaks.

mice or monkeys?

When asked why she was so afraid of them, she declared that she wasn’t afraid, she just hated them. Oh, ok. She insisted they were mice, while I found them more monkey-like. I think this sign backs me up:

Gröna Lund monkey

Then John and Hannah climbed the moving stairs to go into the fun house.

John and Hannah enter fun house

They rode the bumper cars, then we headed back over to the bigger rides. Here, we prepare ourselves for the ride that goes through a witch’s house:

Me and Hannah as witches

back view of the Kvasten ride

They rode a less-vom-inducing version of the Viking ride, the magic carpet ride.

flying carpet ride

I entertained myself while they were being flung about by watching the ships pass by.

behind the flying carpet ride

Then while they were on the “blue train” ride, which is sort of a mini-haunted house ride, I checked out the decor visible from the queue:

Pteradactyl of doom!

Wow! That pteradactyl’s enormous breasts sure are scary! If I were her, I would sue my plastic surgeon.

hand-rail of terror

Ah, this is more like it—the toothpick of the damnnnned!

Hannah managed to avoid being accosted by these fluorescent gorillas by being on a ride while they danced by to the annoying tunes of the ghetto-blaster being pushed by the magician? genie? accompanying them.

gorilla attack!

Here John and Hannah are in the midst of being hoisted up for a spinning, twirling, and generally puke-inducing ride that they had previously dismissed as being too much.

Extreme--John and Hannah

Extreme ride

John had to take another time-out after that one.

I finally convinced them to move over to the baby side since the fun side was making them so sick. I coughed up for a single ticket for my all-time favorite ride: teacups!

Me and Hannah

Then I sent John and Hannah into Pettson and Findus’s house.

Hannah in the house

They are popular characters in a series of Swedish children’s books.



We wrapped up with a couple of slow, gentle rides, like old-timey cars:

Hannah and John drive

and flying elephants:

John flying high on an elephant

This was a common sight in the park:

giant chocolate

People were able to trade in their toddlers for chocolate! Ha ha, just kidding. These 2-kilo bars were prizes at the various games of chance. We didn’t bother with them because 1. we’re cheap, 2. we couldn’t carry it on the plane, and 3. we couldn’t eat it in 3 days before getting on the plane.

Then we hopped back on the old-timey tram, where I snuck a photo of this cute little change purse thingy the conductor was wearing. So old-fashioned, so cute!

Old-fashioned change purse

Then we bought some groceries and went back to the hotel for dinner. The end.

21 August 2008

Stockholm 2008: Day 1

This is the day we traveled to Stockholm.

We let Hannah sleep in a bit, trying to head off any travel barfing since that’s what tends to happen if she doesn’t get enough sleep first. Since we decided not to take the airport shuttle bus after all, we had a little more time for finishing up our packing and pet-care. Unfortunately, our coffee maker decided to give up the ghost that morning, so I had to start our international trip uncaffeinated. The horror!

We drove to Karlsruhe-Baden airport, located a little south of Karlsruhe and just a hop over the Rhine away from France. It took about an hour and a half to get there from here, just a little longer than expected, but still faster than traveling with the shuttle. We parked in the farthest, cheapest lot and dragged our stuff over to the terminal. Hannah said that the clack-clack of her suitcase rolling over the bricked sidewalk sounded like a pony.

We ate some lunch in the terminal, and let me tell you, the options are very, very limited. As in one rather expensive mini-cafeteria. Hannah had pizza, her first slice of the trip, but not the last slice she didn’t like. The child is very picky about her pizza.

When it was time to check in, I could have strangled my darling husband. Since we got the super-cheap airfare—0 Euros + 50 each in fees—he didn’t want to pony up for checked luggage—10 Euros per bag each way. Ok, that is a bit steep if we wanted to check all our bags, but for just one? Since we were forced to only have carry-ons, we couldn’t have anything like shampoo or shower gel, which are liquids. Only, it doesn’t say that ANYWHERE on the Ryanair web site, because I checked multiple times. I only found that out at the airport, after I had packed a new bottle of shampoo and a new bottle of shower gel, which I then had to throw away. John didn’t pack soap because he had planned to just use whatever was at the hotel. Anyhow, I was finally able to laugh about it, but only after imagining the feel of my hands around his neck a couple of times.

One nice-ish feature at the airport was an outdoor waiting area. Of course, you are only about 100 yards from the planes at that point, so when one takes off, it is rather loud, but the sun was out and the snack bar had coffee and ice cream, so we were happy enough to sit outside by the planes.

John and Hannah eat ice cream

There is no assigned seating on Ryanair, meaning it is each man for himself when it is time to board. Hannah wanted us to get in line early, but once we actually get to the airport, I tend to not want to be stressed out anymore, so I dragged my heels about getting in line. It’s not like they were going to leave without us. Of course, then we couldn’t sit together. Hannah and I found seats across the aisle from each other, and John sat about 10 rows in front of us. But we all got there in one piece.

Hannah disembarking at Skavsta

Then we took a shuttle bus into Stockholm proper from Skavsta Airport. It got full, and Hannah wanted me to sit with her, so John sat across the aisle from us. Hannah pointed out how sad it was that John had to sit with a stranger on his birthday. That’s when it hit me that I hadn’t wished him a happy birthday yet. At like 5 pm. Worst. wife. ever.

The bus is not without its amusements, though, even when one is racked with guilt. John and I giggled over a passing truck: Fluckinger Transport. That’ll catch your attention when you see it out of the corner of your eye. There was a girl a few seats up with a tattoo in beautiful script across the back of her neck: “Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost.” The logic was lost on me.

Hannah declared she was hungry—not surprising, considering that our plane landed at 5—but she wanted something American, say, spare ribs. Yes, because Stockholm is just teeming with American barbecue joints.

Hannah teased John that she could see blueberry bushes in the woods along the road, from the bus window, which I doubt, but we all definitely saw a beautiful rainbow—sometimes doubled—for about two-thirds of the drive into Stockholm.

rainbow over Swedish landscape

Driving into Stockholm was kind of weird, because we spotted several German businesses along the way: Bauhaus and Hornbach, sort of German Home Depots; Media Markt; and Lidl, a discounter supermarket. It’s not too uneven a trade, because Germany is awash in IKEAs and H&Ms.

The bus terminal is located at the Central Station, which intersects with the subway system, so once we arrived we were able to quickly take care of getting some Swedish money (Kronor, not Euros) and tickets to take the subway into the right part of Stockholm.

After riding this escalator about 2 or 3 stories up to ground level, we realized we didn’t have explicit directions to our hotel.

escalator in Solna centrum

*sigh* The joys of traveling. Finally we found a map for that neighborhood and realized we had gotten off the subway one stop too early. So we trooped back down the escalator—and it felt very creepy, what with the dark red walls and all—and checked out the station while we waited for the next subway train.

Here’s what Solna must have looked like when it was still just a village.

Solna

Here’s a stuffed moose, because nothing says downtown Stockholm like taxidermy.

Stuffed Moose

Finally, we made it to Näckrosen station and their much more soothing decor.

Näckrosen station

From there, it was a 5-minute walk to our hotel. We had simple directions for getting in after hours, and there was a (terribly overpriced) Chinese restaurant nearby for our first dinner. Hannah wanted to sit near the fish tank with koi, but she totally did not like the way they would swarm in one corner occasionally and make the water sploosh. Creepy!

Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Edited to add: Before we went to bed, John told Hannah, "If we take you to Gröna Lund [an amusement park] tomorrow, you can't whine the rest of the trip while we do other stuff."
Answered Hannah: "Let's do it on the last day, then."

06 August 2008

On the road again soon

I know, I know--long time, no nothing. But now that the high travel season is upon us again, we are gearing up for not one, but two trips this summer. After spending our long-awaited summer vacations the last two years in cool, wet northern climes, Hannah and I put our collective feet down and demanded a hot, southern vacation. So later this month we will be spending about 2 weeks driving around Italy. I'll put up more about that after we get back from our first trip: Stockholm!

John loves Sweden like a second child, and he just could not resist Ryainair's $0 tickets. That's right--that's a zero. Of course they weren't free--there are still fees to pay--but they are nonetheless very cheap. We spent our last Sweden trip out in the countryside, so this time we are hitting the big city.

And in preparation for the trip, here's a widget I got from the Weather Channel. I just hope it works.





Rats, for all that code, all I got was a link I could have put up myself. Maybe I will try it again later in the sidebar.

28 July 2008

Schmap

I've put up a widget for Schmap on the right because they used one of my Flickr photos from our Edinburgh trip in their latest edition.

Here's the page with my photo.

Here is what they have to say about their Schmap Guides:
Schmap’s series of digital travel guides integrates dynamic maps with useful background reading, suggested tours, photos from the traveling public and reviews by local correspondents (for sights and attractions, hotels, restaurants, bars, parks, theaters, galleries, museums and more) to profile 200 destinations throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.