August 1st - Kalmar, Sweden

We rolled into Kalmar, Sweden which is a coastal city south of Stockholm. There is a very pronounced castle there that is claimed to be the best medieval castle in all of Scandinavia. It has a moat around it that you will see in some of the pictures below.

In the picture just below you can see the remains of the wall that was around the city of Kalmar many years ago.

This magnificent building is the cathedral that was built in the center of town on the town plaza.

This is the market square of old town Kalmar. 

This hotel where we stayed was originally a mansion and just across the road from the castle grounds

I like this picture a lot. Notice the 5 round dots in the tower of the castle. These were the cannon balls that the enemy fired relentlessly during one of the battles. Even though the soldiers of the Kalmar castle returned fire, they eventually ran out of gunpowder and surrendered the castle to the enemy.

Standing on the castle side of the moat looking across the grounds.

The bridge over the moat leading to the drawbridge.

Another view of the moat extending around the gun tower of the castle grounds

A view of the castle and the wall from the opposite side of the moat.

A couple more pictures of old own Kalmar. The first one is a typical narrow cobblestone street.

July 30th - day 2 on Aero Island

Initially we thought that spending three days may be to much. But after we got here and started exploring we now wish we would have stayed a couple more days here.

I put a bunch of pictures out on this posting that come from the little Hamlet village of Aeroskobing where we are staying,  and a little village by the name of Soby. There's also some that's on the way to Marstal which was on our route for a 16 mile bike ride. I will identify some of the pictures below.

One of many bath houses along the water. These things are really tiny and a small one is about 5 feet by 6 feet and a large one is about 8 feet by 8 feet. They have enough room in it for a small table a couple of chairs and people store their beach stuff in these little bath houses. They are no longer allowed to build any more of these.

In a previous post I mentioned about most all of the doorways being too short for me to go through without ducking my head. You can see in this picture below shows the height of the door.

This is a picture of our favorite place to eat here. They have a variety of fish but the one that was are definite favorite was smoked salmon. We had it three nights in a row because we can't find it that fresh at home.

The harbor at Soby, Aero which is north of where we are staying. 

This is a cemetery in Soby that we walked through. Notice the small hedges around the grave site. It appeared as though they had a full-time gardener at the cemetery because it was absolutely immaculate.

We noticed it was common practice for the locals to set stuff out for sale. I had mentioned garage sale in a previous post but they also put out a homemade jams and jellies it was really quite interesting the way they did it.

The picture below is from the village of Aeroskobing where we are staying. This is looking down the main street right into the harbor

The next two pictures are from the path that we walked on a extended walk that went through farmer's fields, with views of the bay.

We thought this rural mailbox was very interesting.  Most your mailboxes are just like this one but the ones in the city or the small towns and villages are different as they are slots in the doors.

The picture below is the farm where the hiking path ended. The black building to the right is the barn and the house is Straight Ahead there with white with an orange roof.

Even the butterflies are cute!

More views from the hiking path in the next three pictures

The next five pictures showing the row of bath houses that I spoke about. Notice the bright green one is very small but that's the way most of them are.

Here is a small island in a small pond that has tiny little model houses built for ducks to go in for shelter

Water pumps out in the plaza just outside the door where we are staying.

Many of you know that Bonnie and I have a tradition of every anniversary she tries on her wedding gown and we take a picture with her and her wedding gown, original wedding gown I might add, and me dressed in whatever is appropriate for that year. I am certain there will be another picture when we get to the fjords of Norway.

Second blog posting on July 28

We certainly respect the amount of time that you've spent following our blog and riding along with us. So, we thought it was time to give back a little bit by perhaps making it a little more entertaining.  Now in the next picture below, and the only picture on this posting, you will see something that you probably didn't expect. Actually neither did we! I won't mention any names but she, I mean one of us, just fell down a couple of steps and hit their shin quite sharply on the edge of a step. It was one of those pains that make you feel a little nauseated as soon as it happens. So once she, I mean one of us, was on the ground there was a little bit of lightheadedness.  So I, I mean the person that was still standing, helped the person on the ground stand up. When that happened, the person that had hit their shin really started feeling light headed and said "WOW, I am feeling light headed and like I might pass out."  Okay let's face it, Bonnie is the one that fell on the steps, which she said was just clumsiness, because she was watching something else as she was walking.  When she said that she felt like she might pass out I said "okay let's let's get you up to the room where you can lay down." I turned to unlock the door and after I unlocked the door, I turned around to get her and she folded up like a rubber band and went down and hit her head on a flower pot. I picked her up, got her to a chair just inside the door so she could sit down, and she passed out again!  This time she became unresponsive to me, which lasted about 5 seconds but seemed like 6 hours, and I immediately contacted the people that own the place where we are staying and they called the ambulance. So the ambulance came and checked her out then took her to the hospital where they did a whole battery of tests and released her because all tests were negative and she was feeling fine by then and is feeling fine now. The conclusion was that she fainted due to low blood pressure, which she has always had.  Not everybody can claim they have ridden to a hospital in a Mercedes Benz ambulance in Aero, Denmark.

Now here is the second best part, the first and very best part is Bonnie is just fine, except for a small bump on her head where she hit the flower pot, the second best part is this is socialist Denmark, so the trip to the hospital in the Mercedes Benz ambulance and the hospital visit and brief stay in the emergency room is all free!!!

Please do not expect this much entertainment each week or hopefully never again.

July 27th - Copenhagen part 3

I forgot this picture of Legoland with Bonnie posing with the bicyclist that is made completely out of Legos. The mural behind her is on the tall wall in the store and is also made completely out of Legos.

They love their bronze statues here and Bonnie is hanging out with Hans Christian Andersen in the picture below.

The next 5 pictures are the gardens and grounds at the Rosenborg castle of King Christian the 4th. It is believed, at least by the Danes, that the Royal Crown of King Christian the 4th is the greatest crown of all royalty in all of Europe. It is made with 7 pounds of gold and on display inside the Rosenborg castle

The picture below is from the rose garden of the Rosenborg castle and also where we had lunch today.

The next two pictures show the moat around the castle. This was the best moat we have seen around a European castle.