Bradley Vacation Blog

Friday, August 2, 2019

August 2 Skagen Denmark

Back to Denmark, visiting its most northern city, Skagen (pronounced "Skane," the 'g' is silent). And in a change from previous weather, it was gloriously sunny and pleasant.

We shuttle bused to the center of town, a very short ride mostly to get out of the industrial port.

A B&B near the beach. Unusual in that it's made from wood and painted black. As you'll see, just about everything else is brick and painted Skagen yellow.

The locals were all heading for the beach at 8:30am.

The "Grey" lighthouse is visible to both the Baltic and North Seas.

Typical property

There are some wealthy people living, or summering, at this end of Denmark. And they have some fancy cars.

A model of the 16th century lighthouse here, the Bascule Lighthouse. You fill the bucket with flaming materials and lift it up high.

Walking down a quiet residential street and there's a buzzing noise coming from the yard. A robot lawn mower was doing its business in a small yard.

Brandum's hotel

Skagen Vandtårn, with a memorial to someone brave in the foreground. The legend was in Danish. The tower is actually a water tower, 30 meters tall. The memorial is only about 3 meters tall.

Railway station

Pedestrian shopping street barely coming to life at 10am. The ship had arrived at 7am, and was scheduled to leave at 4pm. I would have thought the retailers would have been more eager to sell things to the tourists. But there was also some event or festival taking place this weekend, so maybe that was going to be the big deal, and who cares about 600 tourists with dollars to spend?

Bjarne, we're not in Kansas anymore!

Street art, sort of a fountain. Probably a small skating rink 8 months of the year.

By 11 there were tables of goods out in the street, and more shoppers.

The Skagen Kirke

An organist was playing while we were inside. Very impressive.

Memorial to fishermen and ocean rescue

Panorama of the red warehouses, originally used to store fish. When they became too small they were retained as stores and restaurants.

This is the sort of place that Nautica berths sometimes

Bike rental shop doing land office business on such a beautiful day.

There were a couple of places just too far to walk to. From Wikipedia: Klitgaarden (lit. "The Dune House") is a former summer residence of the Danish royal family situated just south of Skagen on the northern tip of Jutland. The house was designed by Ulrik Plesner for King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine and completed in 1914. It is now owned and run by a trust and serves as a retreat for artists and scientists.

The sand buried church: around 1775, the Skageners had to dig their way into the church as the shifting sands continually buried it. The struggle continued until 1795 when the church was closed by royal decree. Only the towers remain, all else was demolished and reused.

Thursday, August 1, 2019

August 1 Helsinborg, Sweden

After a refreshing day at sea (along with a one hour time change in our favor), we pull into Helsinborg on a grey and possible rainy day. We got rained on in Tallinn a couple of days ago, and we'd just as soon not get wet again. But we take the ponchos and walk from the ship through spitting rain to board the shuttle bus into town.

Seen from the bus, the most unique vehicle of the trip. Don't know if it's human or motor powered since we only saw it briefly and never in powered motion. Or perhaps it's an urban land speed record attempt.

Town Hall, and it has quit raining!

Very long pedestrian shopping street here, claimed to be the oldest in the Nordic region

Konsul Persson Mansion, the first home in Sweden to have a water closet. It was not open to the public.

Large park with the library

For Guy -- hard to understand just what you're going to do with a Corvette in a city like Helsinborg

There was an abundance of hair care salons, and no Starbucks. At this one you could get a cure for whatever your hair needs.

At the end of town square, an opportunity to climb lots of stairs

which we did, for the panoramic view of the city. That land you see across the water is Denmark, and the sister town of Helsingr. It's famous for the Hamlet castle.

Ancient city tower which offered more steps. We declined this time.

Every twenty minutes there's a ferry from Sweden to Denmark, and vice-versa. The shuttle bus hostess actually lived in Denmark and ferried over that morning.

Jacob Hansens hus, the oldest residential building in town

Monument to the astronomer Tycho Brahe, who lived on a nearby island.

Modern apartment building by the waterfront.

The Cultural Arts Center, with two curved roofs "evocative of ocean waves." Architect was Kim Utzon, son of Jorn who designed the Sydney Opera House.

Harbor entrance

Impressive plinth and statue, and I have no idea what it is. Google is no help.

Back to town square and the shuttle bus back to the ship for lunch. And it didn't rain, although it looked like it was ready to.

July 31 Tallinn Estonia

We had previously visited Tallinn and were quite comfortable with walking through the city again.

From the night before, leaving St. Petersburg, there was a vodka and caviar special. Not my cup of tea, so to speak, but popular enough that there was a crowd with their toast points.

And to appeal to the vodka soaked crowd, in another portion of the lounge they were selling Russian trinkets. This appears to be a mob of nesting dolls ready to storm the walls.

Tallinn offered a shuttle bus, but we chose to walk to the city, 1.2km away. Tallinn harbor uses the big boy tinkertoys for erosion control.

Fat Margaret and the gate to the city (under restoration, like 90% of Europe on this trip), Fat Margaret is what the locals call the round tower.

Where I can't get far enough away to get the entire building within the frame I've been doing some close in panoramas. This is one of those, and you can see the same lady entering the city museum here twice.