smart

DaimerChrysler's smart car always seems to impress Americans. Originally designed by the watchmaker Swatch, its supposed purpose is to transport "two people and a case of beer." In other words, it'll get you around town but don't expect much more. Smart's trademark virtue is that it can be parked head first in a parallel parking spot--a big deal in cramped European cities. The car was recently sent back to the drawing board because it could never turn a profit for the auto maker. Who knows what's next? If they beef it up a little you may find smart v2.0 rolling around a city near you.

Suttetræet

There's a notorious tree in Frederiksberg Have called the Pacifier Tree. Some kids find it difficult to give up their pacifiers, and apparently this was a good solution for the locals--get the kids to hang their own pacifiers on a tree in the park. It's a rite of passage...into childhood.

Sorry, but there's something just a little eery about a tree loaded down with pacifiers. I definitely had the spooks looking at this thing in the twilight. It was easy to imagine Chucky or a few Gremlins popping out from the darkness ripping into a straggling child or maybe lopping off my leg.

Kongespil

This pic is not so great, but what you see here is a group of Danes playing 'King's Game' or the 'Viking Game.' This game is essentially the Danish version of horseshoes (you have my sympathy if you've never played horseshoes). As the Danes describe it, you basically throw one piece of wood at another piece of wood. Once you knock over the other team's pins you have to finish by hitting that big kingpin sitting out in the middle. There are a few more rules that make things slightly more complicated, but it's definitely not brain surgery. Perfect for a sunny Saturday afternoon during an April heat wave (note the lightweight jackets).

Øl Fredag

In the words of Jeff Foxworthy: You might be in Denmark if... most of your co-workers are part of an official employer sanctioned beer club. Yes, my Fredag Øl Klub meets religiously every Friday at 15:45 to enjoy a refreshing pilsner and discuss weekend plans. There is no bar within a 3km radius and many of us don't have cars, so this is an arrangement that makes more than a lot of sense. I'm hoping that in a few months (when I return to LA) Øl Fredag will become a part of the weekly routine in the lively TT LA office...

A Gaggle of Goslings

On my way to work one morning I noticed the traffic was backed up much more than usual. After walking on for another block I also had to stop and wait for these troublemakers. They were in no hurry and didn't seem to care that they had rudely interrupted the morning rush hour.

BMW C1-200

Another quality driving machine from the innovative designers at BMW. Officially a 176cc motorcycle, it's sort of a cross between a scooter and a golf cart. Apparently it's the latest and greatest idea around here. I saw one of these fly by with a girl hanging on for dear life sitting behind that 'roof,' and that's when I knew for certain: anything goes on the streets of Europe.

A Birthday Party

Another Danish birthday party. Don't try to count the candles.

It's always interesting to see what they're going cook up next. Here we see some chili on rice with a big lump of sour cream. The Danes have very fragile tastebuds when it comes to spice, and I was told the sour cream is absolutely necessary to neutralize any renegade chili powder that may have found its way onto the plate. In case you were wondering, YES, I am starting to miss Mexican food.

Soccer in Copenhagen

To complete my vacation and to celebrate my last night in Copenhagen Chris and I decided to attend a local soccer match between F.C. Copenhagen and F.C. Nordsjaelland. The stadium was some 45 minutes from his apartment so we took the most logical form of transportation, the train. I was a little disappointed in the attendance, being only 8,091 people present, the stadium looked somewhat empty. Without a lot of scoring taking place the singing fans seemed to be the most promising entertainment. Heading into the second half after a scoreless first F.C. Copenhagen’s Jesper Gronkjaer managed to score the only goal of the night, ultimately leading to F.C. Copenhagen’s victory of 1-0. Little did we know the most interesting part of the night still lay ahead...

Awaiting the train at the station flocks of F.C. Copenhagen fans started filling the sidewalks and yelling synchronized chants and fight songs lead by dedicated “yell leaders” with mega phones. I thought to myself these guys know how to support their team and was grateful to be a part of it. The thing is they never stopped. When the train arrived and we crammed in we just sat there…until the police with their riot helmets affixed to their belts soon climbed in too. Their weak attempts at settling this crowd was just enough to get the train rolling. Chris and I got “lucky” and had the privilege of sitting right next to the “yell leader” with the megaphone and all his rowdy friends. These fans chanted, sang, jumped, broke the ceiling, chanted, sang, and jumped all the way back to Copenhagen in pure victorious bliss.

-CB

Cliff's Cost Analysis

If you have been pondering the thought of embarking on a European vacation and trying to determine how much money it will cost you this should give you a rough estimate. Chris and I explored Germany for a total of six days, Denmark for two, with two additional days flying there and back. The grand total of the entire expedition was approximately $1776. That’s on average about $177/day. Broken down into subcategories you can see exactly how the money was distributed.

Flights $837
Trains/Buses $266
Souvenirs $98
Food $265
Hostels $155
Sightseeing $156

Clearly the largest portion of your money will be spent on travel with food coming in second. The lodging however, is up to the individual. Chris and I stayed in hostels for about €23/night on average, all of which included free breakfast. This option saved us big bucks as opposed to the significantly more expensive hotel option. Hostels also give you the opportunity of meeting some very interesting individuals from all over the world. Staying at Chris’ apartment in Denmark for three nights did however contribute to some additional savings.

-CB

Fun in the Sun

This April has been the hottest in Germany's recorded history. Bad news: vicious global warming lectures. Good news: fantastic sunny weather.

Doing our part to enjoy the weather, we sought out a huge park in Munich just northeast of the city center, adjacent to the big Ludwig Maximilians Universitat. (By the way, this is where you want to study abroad, trust me).

Yup, the weather was warm alright--warm enough for the old hairy guys to enjoy a game of nude kickball.

Hofbrauhaus

The courtyard of the Hofbrauhaus, probably Munich's most famous beer garden. What a feel-good atmosphere! No doubt about it, you don't need a drop of alcohol to have good times in a place like this.

Even so, I thought it would be a good idea to taste at least a few liters.

Tobogan Action in Füssen

Yet another attraction for the 10 year olds. It's a must-do if you enjoy careening down a hill on a plastic sled at surprisingly high speeds with no steering wheel or safety gear. Small children can ride as long as they can fit on the sled with their parents. If Johnny Knoxville ever produces children he will take them here.

Neuschwanstein

Noy-Shvahn-Stein was totally neat-o. You can easily see why Disney used this place as inspiration for his castle. It's heaven on earth for kids dreaming about chivalrous knights, fair maidens, and fire breathing dragons. The king who built it was obviously dreaming about such things...at least until he was pronounced insane and subsequently murdered. Ah, the good ol' days.

This building is a feat of modern engineering and design, believe it or not. It was built with blazing speed during the 1870's, complete with modern amenities such as electric lighting and indoor plumbing.

Legoland's version.

Ah-Pay

Presenting the Ape. An infinitely practical van/motorcycle brought to you by the always creative automotive engineers of Italy. I thought this one was particularly cute with a beer flag and a plastic bear stuck to the top. Those of you who were students with me in Italy may remember my Ape incident... Let's just say this: we learned that the wet weight of an Ape is less than my deadlift.

Renewable Energy

The yellow flowers that populate most of Bavaria's fields are called rapeseed. They're primarily used to make Canola oil, and now they are also used in the production of biodiesel.

Small groups of wind turbines can be found on many of the hilltops throughout the countryside. They look great from a distance with their huge blades revolving lazily and up close they make a very eery low-pitched whoosh.

Environmentalism runs deep in the German ethos. Indeed, environmental purity was a major plank in the Nazi platform. Choose your words carefully or else you'll find yourself on the receiving end of a lecture titled 'The environmental duties of industrialized nations.' In the event of a lecture it's best to smile and nod and never let anyone know you're from Texas.

Biking in Bavaria

The highlight of my trip to Germany was the day we spent biking outside of Rothenburg. We snagged a couple of bikes for something like $10, filled our backpacks at the local grocery store, and headed for the fields.

Stretches of road were particularly treacherous, like this uphill climb through a field of sheep. I'm thinking this may have been a private road, but since we couldn't read the sign we just went ahead.

The flowering fields, cloudless sky and medieval town were a real treat for the eyes. I hope it's obvious why I give this experience three thumbs up.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

This city has been restored to pristine condition and has become one of the most visited tourist destinations in Germany. It's probably the best place to load up on trinkets, souvenirs, and Christmas decorations.

My advice is to see it as a day trip and spend the night in the 'real' city of Würzburg. Rothenburg is popular with the very old and very young, so when the sun goes down the lights go off. And that means no more beer and ice cream until sunrise.

Würzburg

We missed our connecting train in Würzburg, so we decided to poke around the town for couple of hours until the next one arrived. It turned out to be a nice little city that provides everything you expect from Bavaria: big cathedrals, a cozy marktplatz, flowering gardens, and a castle on the hill. Definitely worth more than two hours. We almost missed the train again in our effort to see it all at break-neck speed.

A string of powerful bishops called Würzburg home, and the legacy of their wealth is an enormous palace and garden.

Wurst

You can't visit Germany without learning the word wurst. And let's get this straight: it's pronounced Vurst, not Wurst. Oddly enough, you can never find plain wurst, it's always ____wurst, such as bratwurst (grilled sausage). Anyway, at Brauhaus Sion in Köln we had our first experience with wurst. I can't remember the exact name on the menu, but it was basically meterwurst. The menu recommended one meter for four people. I can pretty much guarantee that 0,25m wurst, a healthy dose of kartoffeln, some mystery gravy, and a few kölsch will send anyone home happy.

Köln

More than 1,000 RAF bombers destroyed almost all of Cologne in two hours. The famous cathedral was spared, but that's about it. The bridges, always focal points in military strategy, were absolutely pummelled. Here you see the Hohenzollernbrücke bridge destroyed and under water.

And here it is today... with Cliff in the foreground making it look good. After seeing a series of the post-WWII photos it's virtually impossible to comprehend the amount of effort that went into reconstructing this city.

Eurail

I bought a Eurail Pass for my trip to Germany. Eurail can be an extremely good deal if you use it correctly. I bought a six day Denmark/Germany pass, which allows me to travel by train in those two countries for six days in a two month period. The six days do not have to be consecutive and you can ride the train as far as you want, getting on and off as often as you want. It was something like $320, which means each day is worth $53. To put this perspective, a single-use DB ticket costing $50 will allow you to travel across approximately 1/6 of Germany depending on speed of the trains.

So you can see how this is a good deal. In only one of the six days you can get your money's worth by traveling across Denmark and most of Germany, which is basically what I did going from København to Köln. Never forget the downside, though: it's a train... slow, tedious, and often filled with annoying people (a.k.a. children).

Legoland

Just in case you didn't know, Lego is a Danish company. There are Legolands all over the world, but we visited the original in Billund--a city three hours and a couple islands west of Copenhagen.

The park had rides, games, shops, etc. aimed at kids, but the enormous Lego models were for everyone, especially people like me. There were probably two dozen scenes like this one, all made of millions of Legos. What you see here is the first ever townscape--a sort of generic Danish town--now 30+ years old.

People laughed when they heard five adults were visiting Legoland with no children, but I didn't care. These little plastic blocks were an integral part of my childhood... literally... when you consider how many I accidentally swallowed. Seriously though, how can they not capture your imagination, old or young? This was yet another religious pilgrimmage for me and kids would have only gotten in the way.

In the end they did get in the way a couple of times, but I tried to play nice. The boy in the horny hat was trying to copy me but it soon became obvious that he wasn't going to match my skillz.

Easter

Hitler and the Nazis may have lost the war, but they succeeded in wiping out the entire Jewish population of Rīga. Thousands of Jews, 25,000+ from Rīga alone, were murdered in the forest several kilometers outside of town. It was a simple matter for the Nazis because a local Latvian 'security' team willingly did most of the work. It's easy to overlook, but anti-Semitism was a virulent force far beyond the borders of Nazi Germany.

This pile of rubble was the Jewish synagogue. A few days after the Nazis arrived it was torched... packed tight with Rīga's first victims.

Apart from this one stone plaque, you wouldn't know that this barren wooded park is actually the city's pre-WWII Jewish graveyard. The gravestones were removed and smashed to bits during the war.

The renovated medieval buildings and flashy new cars can't hide the fact that Rīga is still the capitol of a country on the mend. The city is something like half Russian / half Latvian and the two groups have little interaction or respect for one another. The girl working the desk at my hostel couldn't understand why in the world I would want to visit Lithuania--she never bothered because there's nothing there, she says. An Asian staying at my hostel was attacked in broad daylight by a group of Neo-Nazis. Yup, I think it'll be a few more years before the Japanese tour buses start rolling into this town.

Centrāltirgus

Riga's Central Market has to be one of the biggest I have ever seen. Housed inside five old zepplin hangars, it contains every form of food produced in the waters and fields of Latvia. It's a vibrant place seven days a week with people from all walks of life going about their daily business. The meat pavilion was the most entertaining. I witnessed a butcher with 8 1/2 fingers hack up an entire pig carcass in less than 10 minutes. The guy looked like a crab with a giant right arm and a much smaller left. I would have taken a picture but I was the only tourist in sight and frankly this guy was a little scary.

Many of the items for sale were a little unusual. You can't help but wonder: who eats these and how? Fried? Stewed? Raw?!

Kryžų Kalnas (Hill of Crosses)

I felt that Good Friday would be an appropriate day to travel to Lithuania and see the famous Hill of Crosses. This was a dawn to dusk trek in spite of the fact that the site is only 130km south of Rīga. My journey started with a slightly shady Russian «ЭKCПPECC» train. Once we departed I realized the train's name of "Express" was in quotes probably to acknowledge the fact that there's nothing fast about a top speed of 60km/h.

Anyway, after the train, a bus, and a 2km hike I finally arrived at this palpably mysterious site. The hill, like others dotting the countryside, has been around since pagan pre-Christian times. It's not a natural formation, but a mound of countless layers of decomposing memorials placed throughout the centuries.

In modern times Lithuanians needed a place to commemorate those who fell in the many conflicts with the Russian Tsars of the 19 century. Such an open display of national sentiment would not have been tolerated in the cities, so this hill became increasingly popular due to its remote location.

More recently, the site was bulldozed repeatedly by the Soviets in the 1960s because Lithuanians were using it to remember those lost during two mass deportations to Siberia (part of the USSR's effort to "Russify" the region). Each time, however, the hill only grew taller as more crosses sprang up.

John Paul II visited in 1993 and ever since then this site has received a constant flow of pilgrims. Today the hill is surrounded by a sprawling sea of crosses with a network of pathways and elaborate shrines to various saints.

Kryžų Kalnas has to be one of the most moving monuments I have ever visited. The small but unique Lithuanian culture used religion as one of several modes of survival while under centuries of oppressive occupation. This site is a physical byproduct of that struggle, with roots reaching back to the very beginning. And so today it is much more than just another religious pilgrimmage site--it's a living monument to victory of the now (finally} flourishing Lithuanian culture.

Art Nouveau Architecture

Before World War I Rīga was a growing industrial city and the wealth of the 'haute' bourgeoisie naturally found its way onto the facades of their new luxury townhomes. Many of the designs were of the Art Nouveau style. I am particularly fond of this short-lived style because so much emphasis was placed on creating something unique, free flowing, and just a little 'off the chain.' ...Not so different from today's avant-garde.

This entryway is something special because it displays the face of Mother Nature and the look of intricately carved wood, both of which are distictly Baltic features. Latvia and Lithuania were the last regions of Europe to adopt Christianity (approx. 12th century), and as a result most of the traditional symbols and icons are distinctly pagan. It's a little eery (and possibly fun) to walk down a dark side street and notice all these symbols normally associated with witchcraft and the devil.

The most famous of the local architects was Mikhail Eisenstein. His son, Sergei, was a pioneer of early cinema. Ironically, Sergei moved to Moscow to make propaganda for the Bolsheviks who despised (and eventually destroyed) the same bourgeoisie that supported his father and fed him as a child.

Latviešu Strēlnieki

The Latvian Riflemen have a paradoxical place in the nation's heritage. They were formed with local recruits in 1915 to defend central Latvia from German troops, often bearing the brunt of the heaviest fighting. No one fights harder than the farmer defending his own field, after all. They were military heros of Latvia, but eventually they became disillusioned with their status as cannon-fodder and turned against the Russian Tsar.

The joined the Bolsheviks, playing a key role in Lenin's seizure of power in November 1917. A year later they were given the order to execute the Tsar and his family--a delicate task not suitable for native Russians. Most importantly, they prevented a June 1918 coup that would have surely ended Lenin's reign.

The Latvian Riflemen were instrumental in setting up a regime that would eventually attempt to destroy their homeland's culture. Not surprisingly, today their grandiose Soviet-made statue sits in the middle of a barren bus stop. Still, they disbanded in a positive light and their bravery as Latvian patriots is impossible to ignore. Welcome to the real world where good and evil are as close as yin and yang.

Vol Frelsers Kirke Spire

The spire of Vol Frelsers Church, located in Christianshavn, is one of the most recognizable features of Copenhagen's skyline. So recognizable, in fact, that the British used it as a target during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. Luckily they only hit one leg of the 10 foot tall statue standing on top of the globe.

It was designed and built in the mid-eighteenth century by the mildly insane architect Laurids de Thurah. Legend has it he jumped off the top after it was discovered that the king wanted the stair to wind to the left, not the right. My how times have changed... You just can't find architects with that level of dedication anymore.

Danish Precast

Precast concrete construction is very common in Denmark. Usually the concrete slabs are cast in a climate controlled warehouse, allowed to cure, and then trucked to the site where they are immediately assembled with a crane. This method of construction works well here because bad weather has little impact on the process. When you build with cast-in-place concrete or even steel you have to be ever mindful of the forecast temperature and humidity. Unexpected freezing temperatures can destroy curing concrete.

Precast buildings, while certainly safe and stable, are basically a house of cards. Shaking the table is definitely a bad idea. Earthquakes never occur in København so this is not a concern, but I don't think we would want to build this same tall precast building in California.

Den Sorte Gryder

The restaurant chain Den Sorte Gryder sells the biggest burger I have ever seen. ...And let's not forget that I am a native Texan. The basic 'Buggi Burger' has a 300 gram pattie topped with a ridiculous amount of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, etc., all cemented with gobs of mayo. Even better, the deluxe Buggi ships with two 300 gram patties, bacon, and cheese, weighing in at a massive 1,8 kilos!

Den Sorte Gryder (translates as The Black Pot) is a take-away place, so the usual strategy is to haul your Buggi to the nearest park bench. It's a good idea to eat these outside because things get messy fast. Note that Marianne's Buggi covers her entire lap, and my burger is larger than her head.

I know what you're thinking and you're right. Quantity without quality, all for a suspiciously low price. They tell me it must be German beef.