Eric, Susan, & Peter Explore Northern Europe

(composed by Susan using Eric's account)  Hamburg, breakfast, liverwurst and black bread what could be better especially after a major schlep day. Moving along, I'll skip the painful details and moving back to hikes in Norway. Beuatiful, muddy, steep and rocky about sums it up. We've been to many places in our lives but Norway may be the most beautiful in terms of natural raw beauty. It's easy to feel small in the mountains among the fiords. A certain world leader might benefit from a trip here. The people are not as homogenous as one might think.  I suppose this is true anyplace.  Peter kept repeating how beautiful it all was, urging us to look continuously from a window, a vantage point, a train.  I hope he remembers how lovely the world can be. On our way down to breakfast, Susan mentioned a comment by Kathleen about breakfasts being better in Germany than Scandinavia.   I was dubious, but she is right.   The breads, the cheeses, the liverworst...

 A slightly incongrous pairing, Tesla cars and fiord hopping but here we are.  Having rented a car through a local App (Airbnb for cars) the white one we have is just a car. Comfy enough with noticable design flaws and panic over how to charge the darn thing but we have options! Rainy days give us the chance to still see the beauty here easier with a car.  Hotels are are clean with breakfasts included (thanks for the fish) help a lot.  We passed through Flam, a major tourist spot for cruisers and people taking the world famous Flamsbana. Flamsbana is a scenic train taken from top to bottom down to Naeroyfjord (Narrowfiord). Busy, beautiful and worth seeing. We left quickly. Think if Disney had a fiord experience.  Nearby Stegastein was dramatically perched atop a one way mountain road with pull offs for passing.  As Peter noticed, the low guard rails might stop you walking over the edge but cars and buses, not so much.  Spectacular views at the top! No...

The Code is Cracked (and the Road is Ours) Disclosure: We're days behind, and time is tight. Over Peter's strong objections, I asked Gemini to help stitch my disjointed notes into a narrative. Having worked with brilliant copy-editors in academia, this feels less like cheating and more like a great collaboration—reminiscent of drafting philosophy monographs with the late Marc Desmond thirty-five years ago. The Medical Miracle: I Can Eat Dairy For years, rich foods were a high-stakes gamble. But right before Norway, a digital deep-dive with Gemini helped me map out a sneaky, cyclical electrolyte drain missed by a dozen specialists. With targeted supplements blocking that "washout cycle," my system stabilized. I started tentatively with a slice of Gouda, then a pat of butter. The real test began when our overnight ferry docked in Oslo. We explored the capital on foot, heading to Vigeland Sculpture Park via an adjacent historic cemetery—a quiet walk past local graves and...

(written by Susan and posted by Eric) Stockholm, barely blooming but sunny and warm continues with visits to the Vassa Museum.  Located on Stockholm's Museum Island, built across the harbor from Gamla Stan and the Swedish Royal family's city pied a terre.  We skipped that, the Vasa however deserves special mention.  The ship, built by King Gustov in the 17th century as the Swedes became a global power through their military and naval prowess.   FYI many of their kings were named Gustov so forgive me for not remebering which one he was.   Anyway, building a world class navy became a driving force in the king's march into power.  He called for engineers and the day's primo shipbuilder to contruct the biggest war ship of the day. Gustov's ship began its maiden voyage from Stockholm harbor in early August 1628.  Loaded with stones in the hull for ballast, the heavy sails and two unexpected sqalls allowed the ship to list badly. Once the cannon op...

   Thurs 5/21: Over breakfast in a Stockhom suburb   We're starting this blog 5 days into our adventure. At 5am on Sunday, Kevin drove us and Ruth (Eric's mom) to ELP.   We 4 flew to DFW, where Ruth caught at midday flight to Newark and the 3 of us caught a comfortable overnight Finnair flight to Helsinki.  Helsinki is much as we remembered it from Pre-P days (before Peter) thanks to his being a somewhat veteran New York visitor, navigating transit has been easy for him and therefore us. Built during the transition from nouveau to deco, the architecture is more interesting to E and P.  We have been adjusting our itinerary aroud Peter because a happy teen is a happy family.  Not that he has undo influence but for now, we're happy to go where he's excited to go. National Museum, Stockholm plus the Archetecture and Design museum with the latter being free.  National museum built much like the the Met, has a lovely collection of classical sc...