Frederiksborg Slot/Castle

Frederiksborg Slot is amazing. (we are learning lots of different words in Danish). Slot is Castle, Goddag - hello (almost G'day), Farvel - goodbye, Tak - thanks.

After the Viking Ship Museum we headed north east to Hillerod to this castle. The gardens of the castle were amazing. The work that goes into these hedges is amazing....not one rogue branch pops out anywhere! Can you spot the crown in the design below?

Christian the fourth's Castle was built in the beginning of the 17th century. The king loved this deeply castle and used it as his residence and he often used it as a residence.

In 1859 a fire destroyed part of the castle. The royal family at the time could not afford the repairs, so sold the castle to the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries J.C. Jacobsen. He restored the castle and then offered to use the castle to house the Museum of National History.

The autumn leaves in the garden were stunning, and lots of great landscape photos to take.

Quite a 'reflective' place....

With Phil's Jetlag setting in, and the evening fast approaching, we finished strolling around the gardens and headed for the car to drive to our overnight destination in Copenhagen. It took us ages to get out of the car-park, as there was some slow old goose going right down the middle...

OK, we know its a swan!! (but it doesnt sound the same, does it!)

Roskilde Viking Ship Museum

Our first stop after leaving the ferry was the town of Roskilde, which is not far west of Copenhagen. The town has a great Viking ship museum, with both actual Viking ships in the museum, and some 'modern versions' and re-creations outside.

This one is named after the town!

A re-creation in production, with the typical 'hand-tools' used to make it on the walls of the workshop.

The original boards of a real viking ship, fitted to a modern stem-piece.

These ships were found at the bottom of the Roskilde Fjorde in a specific position. It is thought that the ships were sunk in the Fjord in case of attacks on the Viking Community in Roskilde. These ships were able to be seen, and if Attackers were coming in, they would crash into the sunken ships. Only the Vikings knew where the deep narrow passage to get through to land was.

This is what it would have looked like! The shields from the Vikings were not hung over the sides when the ship was sailing, as they would have fallen off. - When the ship was in the harbour they would be displayed like this as a 'calling card' to let others know who it was that was parked in the harbour.

This model is of the Sea Stallion Ship. (see link for more information about the recent voyage...very interesting). The Sea Stallion is the worlds largest reconstruction of a Viking Ship. The original ship awas built by the Vikings in Ireland in 1042. In 1072 the ship was sunk in the Roskilde Fjord.

Look! A couple of Vikings!

Dressed for the winter! Those Viking eyes are pretty scary!

A Couple of fierce Vikings with their shields.

We really enjoyed seeing the viking ships, getting the boys hands-on, seeing the video of the recreation of a recent voyage (the Sea Stallion that sailed from Ireland to Roskilde), and seeing the recreations in construction.

Off to Denmark - via the Ferry from Rostock to Gesder

Phil got back from San Fransisco on Monday afternoon, and we got up early to drive up to Rostock to catch the 9am ferry. Over a 2 hour drive to Rostock, and needing to check in by 8.30am, meant a very early start...especially with jet lag too!

It was a really easy drive, and we arrived with just enough time to check in and to put the car in the front of the queue (we paid for this privelege with a priority boarding ticket!)

The ferry arrived and opened- cars and trucks drove out (which the boys thought was really interesting!) Then it was our turn to drive in, park the car and move up to the passenger decks

Here come the trucks from the bowels of the ferry.

The trip across the Baltic sea was great, in the middle it was a bit rolly (no one got sea-sick, which was a good thing). It was cold and wet on the deck, but Phil and the boys had a great time exploring the decks.
The boys on the deck

Meeting Axe Murderers

This week I met Andrea...someone I have never met before, however we are on the same Aussie quilting internet group. She is an Aussie living in Cologne. Andrea and her lovely family came up to Berlin for a visit, and we got to meet up finally.

2 visits later, we are going to have to go down to Cologne for a visit...preferably while the Xmas markets are on...sounds like a plan!

Andrea introduce me to her friend My-Linh,(she has only been in Berlin for a few months), and lives a bus ride from our place. My-Linh has a friend that lives around the corner from me ....we will meet for coffee often I think!!! :)

Cross Country

The boys were involved in the Cross Country between some of the other International Schools in Germany. It was held at Senior School, which is in the middle of the forest, and has lovely walking/running tracks.

They both did quite well, and I was relieved to see them coming up to the finish line. Next year they want to practice a bit more, and get better...so Phil can take them out for some running practice - that seems like good father/son bonding time!

Alexander crossing the finish line

Cameron coming up to the finish line.

The shirts (or should I say dresses) they are wearing are communal ones the kids w ear at any interschool sports event.

KaDeWe Halloween windows

I'm not even really sure what to write in this post, but I can tell you that living over here, it is worth keeping your camera in your handbag all the time, because you just never know what you are going to see.

KaDeWe is "THE" department store to shop in over here if you are "posh".
They have a food area on the top floor, and lots of little old ladies get dressed up and have lunch at KaDeWe as an outing with their friends. It is on the tourist route on the Ku'damn and is always crowded.

Usually the window displays are elegant and tastefully arranged. I am not sure what happened this week.

Here is their Halloween display.

Luke has much better pictures on his Picasa page, click on Berlin Day 26
and it is well worth clicking over there to have a look....because I have never seen window displays like it! I wanted to take more photos the following Monday when I was going past KaDeWe, however the displays had been covered with grey paper. I am wondering if one of those little old ladies had complained???

These Ravens were vicious, and if you look closely you can see the bloddy footprints that the Ravens have left on the orange floor!

Autumn in Berlin

I love the colours of Autumn in Berlin. Today we rode our bikes from our place to Potsdamer Platz to go to the movies. It was about an 8.5km ride each way.
the weather was cloudy, but no rain, and not cold. A jumper was all we needed.

We rode through the Tiergarten and it was just fabulous.

We saw the movie Wall.e, and then we rode back home.

A Hungry Sparrow

Sitting in a cafe in Kreuzberg today, and Cameron thought it was hilarious that this little sparrow jumped up onto the man's table and started to eat his blueberry muffin.
The photos are a bit blurry, because Cameron used the zoom in lens as far as he could, so he wouldn't disturb the bird



The man had finished his muffin and was happy to let this sparrow eat what was left. I hope that this little sparrow doesn't think he will be able to do this with every customer....he could be in for a very rude shock!

Go Fly a Kite!

Phil took the kids up to Teufelsberg to fly some kites on a windy day.
It was raining, but the kids didn't care!

There were not just pumpkins...

There was also an incredible corn maze... In German, Corn is Mais (pronounced Maze). So the boys named this the Amazing Mais Maze.

The kids and Phil had a great time wandering around in the corn maze.

There were lots of different corn to buy at the produce markets as well.



One of the last Sunflowers out in full bloom

While Phil and the boys were getting lost in the Mais Maze, there was a "pick your own Raspberries". So, Nicole bought a plastic container for 20 cents, and picked these berries.

525 grams in total (Cameron remembers that number) the total price was Є2.36...what a bargain! The lady was surprised at how many I had in my container. She said that most people has only found a few handfuls.

Well, the boys were lost in that maze for over 45 minutes... So there was plenty of time to look for raspberries.

So it's raspberries and ice cream for dessert tonight.....yum yum yum.

( We took 118 photos at the pumpkin festival today. Just wait until the strawberry and asparagus festival next year!)