Scandinavia

Well Scandinavia treated us well. It's easy to see the Scandinavian blood in Minnesotans. We found Norway and Denmark to be quant, friendly, and beautiful countries. However they were a bit more expensive than what we are used to back home. $12 beers sent Jon and I into temporary detox. Check out the slideshow on the right side of the blog for some pictures. We started by flying to Kirkenes, Norway. If you pull out a map, you'll see that this is about as far north as you can get in Europe. It's actually further north than Barrow, Alaska and above the 71st parallel. And boy was it cold up there! Good thing we threw in hats and gloves at the last minute. From there we boarded the Norwegian coastal ferry and spent 6 days making 34 ports of call. Some of the cities were quite large but most were just tiny outposts on the Norwegian coastline. It was a very relaxing 6 days filled with reading, playing cards, and getting off the ship to explore. We finally arrived in Bergen, which is where the Edward Jones portion of the trip began. Bergen is the 2nd largest city in Norway and probably the most scenic. We did some hiking here and went on a fjord tour. After spending a few days there, it was off to Denmark, the birthplace of my great-grandfather. In 1913 at the age of 18 he boarded a ship from Copenhagen headed for Ellis Island. Before we left on this trip, I had done some research and found the ship manifesto from that day in 1913 when he arrived in the US. According to the log he was headed to Omaha, Nebraska to meet a cousin and he had $50 in his pocket. Amazing. While we didn't get to the town of his birth, it was neat to walk the 300 year old cobblestone streets of Copenhagen and think that he might have walked those same streets. Copenhagen was a very refreshing city as there are more bikes on the roads than cars and they generate a whooping 20% of their energy needs from wind (more than any other country in the world). They are also the happiest country in the world and are supposedly the world's fastest walkers. It might have something to do with the fact that they drink an average of 4 cups of coffee per day for each man, woman, child, and infant in the country. We have a lot to learn from this small Scandinavian country. I know I've been inspired to walk/bike more, drink more coffee, and smile more often.