So in Skagen we decided to do something a little different and selected rural excursions. We started our visit at Eagleworld, a sanctuary and research center for birds of prey. There was a small education center with displays of feathers, eggshells, nests, photos and short videos of the various birds who live at the sanctuary. Then we were led to a large outdoor area with benches and the up close experience began. There were several handlers who brought out a variety of birds including falcons, eagles and sea eagles. You’ll be able to tell from the photos, we got to see these birds close up. I have seen eagles on television and I imagine I have seen then in person from a distance, but I had no idea they were so big. The staff at Eagleworld demonstrated exercises they do to teach orphaned chicks how to hunt (which involved swinging dead pigeons around on a string at a dizzying speed), they spoke about the historical practice of hunting with birds on horseback (and demonstrated that as well) and of course the birds flew around freely and we got to see how beautiful and powerful they are. It all was sensational to watch.

After Eagleworld, we went to RÃ¥bjerg Mile, a migrating coastal sand dune and moving conservation area. This area of Denmark has a history of many migrating sand dunes. Over the centuries grasses and trees have strategically been planted to anchor the sand and minimize the moving dunes, but RÃ¥bjerg Mile is a protected, government owned area. The dune covers about 256 acres of land and at its tallest point is about 115 ft tall. It moves 50 – 60 ft a year. Becki and I trekked up and up this sand dune and felt like Lawrence of Arabia. The view from the top was pretty incredible, obviously sand in every direction, but with a distant perimeter of green, which seemed quite odd. It truly felt like being in a mini desert. It was a truly unique site to see. After RÃ¥bjerg Mile we headed back to the center of Skagen and had a great lunch in an outdoor cafe where I managed to order us lunch from a Danish man who didn’t speak English. I think Becki was impressed :) After lunch Becki headed back to the ship and I walked around a bit on my own. At the end of the day we were sad to leave Denmark, but very much looking forward to Oslo.

Next up – Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the first things we saw sailing into Copenhagen was a Middelgrunden wind farm – we saw it from the ship while sailing into port – it was really cool to see – there’s something about wind farms I find mesmerizing. Our day ashore in Copenhagen started in Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park of sorts with rides, but with a strong emphasis on gardens. There were beautiful flower beds, fountains and gardens interspersed with the rides and attractions. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed exploring the park and even went on a roller coaster: The Demon. After Tivoli Gardens we visited a series of historic buildings including Christiansborg Palace, Børsen (Stock Exchange) which had a fantastic dragon tail spire, Nikolaj Kirke (photo above) and the post card image Copenhagen is famous for, Nyhavn district with its brightly colored 17th and early 18th century buildings on the canal.

Next it was onto Amalienborg Palace Square. The Amalienborg Palace is the winter residence of the royal family and is actually 4 identical palaces all facing a center courtyard. Although we didn’t see anyone, we were told Danish royalty was in residence as one of the palaces was flying the royal flag and there were royal guards on duty in the square. We also saw nearby Frederik’s Kirke and the Copenhagen Opera House. Our final stop was back at the Copenhagen harbor to see the Little Mermaid statue, which was based on the title character from a Hans Christian Andersen story. After a great day in Copenhagen, we headed back to our ship and were treated to a fabulous sunset at sea during dinner.

After our time in Amsterdam, we boarded our ship in Rotterdam and had a relaxing day at sea that gave us time to familiarize ourselves with the ship, unpack and relax. Then our first stop – Helsingborg, Sweden. Our day in Sweden was our most ambitious day (well as ambitious as you can be while on vacation anyway), our tour made four stops in three different cities. First we visited Lund Cathedral, completed in 1145, it is one of the oldest churches in Sweden and the crypt of the cathedral is thought to be even older. Then we traveled to the town of Malmö and saw The Turning Torso building, the tallest building in all of Scandinavia that also happens to feature a 90 degree twist. Next we saw the Öresund Bridge which connects Malmö to Copenhagen, Denmark. The bridge starts in Malmö and crosses the Öresund Strait and appears to end on the man-made island of Peberholm. In actuality the bridge joins the Drogden tunnel on Peberholm and continues underwater/underground into Copenhagen.

Our third stop was at Häckeberga Castle for lunch. The property was once a stronghold back in the 1530s, but that was demolished and replaced by the castle in the 1870s. The castle is now a hotel with beautiful grounds and is surrounded on all sides by Lake Häckeberga. Our final stop was at Sofiero Castle and Gardens back in Helsingborg. This was a wonderful place to end our day. Previously it was one of the Swedish royal family’s country mansions, but in 1973 when King Gustaf VI Adolf died, he left it to the city of Helsingborg. The castle was a pretty building, but what really stood out was the grounds. There were beautiful gardens, some wild and organic, others formal and very well kept. There were outdoor sculpture gardens, labyrinths, wooded paths with winding steps and little bridges over the brooks. It was lovely. The above photo is of a stone labyrinth at Sofiero that was inspired by the fable The Lion and the Mouse. Next up, Copenhagen…

The first stop on Becki and my adventure was Amsterdam. We had two and a half days in the city and tried to squeeze in as much as we could. We did pretty well, but there is so much to see – we could have spent weeks there and still not seen it all. After a brief anti jet-lag nap at the hotel we went on a canal tour by boat – which enabled us to see a lot of the city and many of its over 1200 bridges. Afterward we tried out the city’s tram system and traveled across the city to the Anne Frank House. Although it was a somber place to start a vacation, if you ever make it to Amsterdam – this is not to be missed. For dinner we had pancakes and the dutch dessert – poffertjes – delicious!

The next morning we were up early to take a tour of Zaanse Schans, a village north of Amsterdam, where a number of historic wooden houses and windmills have been relocated. At Zaanse Schans we saw a demonstration of how wooden shoes are made, learned about the production of gouda cheese and got to go inside and climb up a functioning windmill. I loved this place. Next we traveled to Edam, a picturesque, small dutch city with old streets, quiet canals and lots of history. We walked through the city learning about the cheese market and the shipbuilding industry here. Then we traveled back to downtown Amsterdam and squeezed in a few more sites: Central Station, Church of St. Nicholas, Dam Square, The National Monument, The Royal Palace, The New Church and lastly Begijnhof. Begijnhof is this secluded, closed off courtyard in the middle of Amsterdam. It was originally built as a sanctuary in the 14th century for the Begijntjes, a sisterhood who lived like nuns, but still wanted to access the outside world.

We loved Amsterdam. After our fantastic, whirlwind tour though, it was time to pack up and get ready for the cruise ship.

Hi all! My Aunt Becki and I are back from a fantastic trip to Scandinavia (The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway). I have hundreds of photos to sort through, but just wanted to post this single photo for now as a preview to let you know I’m back. These are 3 of the windmills we saw at Zaanse Schans in Zaandam, The Netherlands. In the coming weeks I will post tales of our adventures and the photos in batches. Happy Summer.

In mid-April Aaron and I traveled to Niagara Falls (for the first time) to meet up with some friends at an annual board-gaming convention: The Gathering. It was still a bit cold in Niagara Falls and the weather was fairly gray, but we did venture out to see the falls, both from the American side and Canadian side. We also obviously played games and spent time with Bonney, Patrick and their 10-month old son Rowan. It’s clear the area has not fared well through the recent economic downturn – there we lots of empty store fronts and closed businesses. It was a bit sad to see the area depressed. We are hoping that some of it can be attributed to the fact that it was still the “off season” – but we did our best to invest a bit locally – with a little research we found some great restaurants and did some remarkably good eating. The above photo is of Bonney and Aaron on the Canadian side of the falls. It wasn’t raining, the falls just kicked up an incredible amount of mist. Click on their photo to see our other pictures from the trip.

At the very end of March, I took a fabulous vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with my good friends Bonney, Laura and Courtney. The four of us first spent time together last spring for Bonney’s baby shower and we enjoyed each other so much we have decided to try to make it an annual event. We stayed at the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Resort and it was beautiful. We spent most of our time by the pool – reading, lounging, swimming and enjoying frozen beverages. We did venture into town one day. First we went on an “intimate experience” whale watch – which meant we went out on these little rubber zodiac boats and that was a pretty fantastic tour. Later that day we had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant called Mi Casa, and did a little shopping before returning to the hotel. Laura arranged the entire trip, she travels to Mexico often for work, and hooked us up in every way – she also speaks fluent Spanish – and made the entire trip seamless for all of us. Needless to say it was a great time and we were all sorry when it was time to head home. Click on the above photo of the four of us in front of the famous Cabo San Lucas Arch to see the full album of photos (including some of Laura’s and Courtney’s pics) from our adventure.

A couple of weeks back Aaron had to travel to Seattle for a week for work. So we decided to tack on a long weekend out there together. I flew out on Thursday after work and we spent 3 great days together roaming the city. Some how we lucked out and the rain basically only fell at night. We ate delicious food – revisiting some favorites from previous visits and tried some new places as well. A particular stand out was Long Provincial, a Vietnamese restaurant – yum! We also took a ferry over to Bainbridge Island and spent an afternoon walking around out there. We took the red-eye back on Sunday night (leaving Seattle at 11:30 PM, arriving in Boston at 7:30 AM), and quickly learned that we are not “fly the red-eye and then go straight to work” people. Yuck! We did have a great weekend though.

The first weekend in September, Aaron and I, along with Amy, Joe and their boys headed down to our Aunt Becki’s Summerwood condo on the Connecticut shore. Despite the threatening weather report, hurricane Earl turned out to be not so bad, and had completely blown through by Saturday morning. The rest of the weekend was beautiful. We took advantage of the pool, the beach and the back deck and spent most of the weekend outside. Click on the photo above of the view from the back deck to see the album from the weekend. Thanks Becki!

Aaron and I drove up to Ogunquit Maine for a long weekend visit with Bonney and Patrick and to meet their baby boy Rowan. We stayed at The Dunes, this old-school style, cottage hotel right on the ocean. We had a great couple of days of relaxing, spending time outside and enjoying Ogunquit. On our last night together, the tide’s timing was in our favor and we were able to walk across the shallow river (blankets, gear and Rowan carried above the water line :) to the beach and enjoyed a sunset picnic dinner. It was too short a visit, but great to have the time together and the chance to meet the boy we had been hearing about for months. Click on the family photo above to see the pictures from the weekend.