The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

I am happy to report that Manglerud beat Lillehammer 3 - 1 tonight! Thank you for all the good vibrations and positive thoughts. Unfortunately, Rosenborg also won. The end result is that Rosenborg will be playing in the Get League playoffs and Manglerud won't. They will move on to a round robin style tournament to play for a spot in the Get League 2011 - 2012. It looks like Manglerud's next game isn't until March 10. They will be playing the Tønsberg Vikings.

Check out video of tonight's game (Trav scored Manglerud's first goal): Manglerud Star - Lillehammer 3-1

I should also mention that Travis was awarded player of the game the last four games! He was given a gift certificate for a 30 minute massage, a camelback-style backpack with skivvies and socks, a gift certificate to a pizza restaurant, and a grocery store gift certificate.

Thank You Girl

We spent the last few days of Sara's visit in Oslo. On Monday, we stopped at all the tourist spots downtown. On Tuesday, we went skiing (see my earlier post for video). On Wednesday, we watched the first races of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championship at Holmenkollen.

We went to the Oslo rådhus (City Hall) and Trav showed us the second floor. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded at the rådhus each year on December 10.

Anchor sculpture at Aker Brygge.

The Royal Palace (Slottet) was built as the Norwegian residence of Norwegian and Swedish king Charles III and is the official residence of the present Norwegian Monarch.

The Royal Palace has 173 rooms and was completed in 1849.

This is the inside of Oslo Domkirke (Oslo Cathedral). We noticed that the door to the church was open and decided to have a look around.

The foundation stone was laid in 1694 and the church was consecrated in November 1697.

In 2001, Oslo Cathedral was the site of the wedding of Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, and Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby.

On Wednesday, we watched the individual classic qualification 5 km Ladies and 10 km Men. This was the only event that had no admission cost, and it happened to fall on Sara's last day in town.

Holmenkollen has hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics and the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in 1930, 1966, 1982 and 2011.

Luckily, the commentators and announcers spoke a mix of Norwegian and English, so it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on. We even made it onto the JumboTron!

We really enjoyed showing Sara around Oslo. I think she had a fun time, too! Thank you for coming, Sara!

Please Please Me

Okay, peeps. I am sending out a call for positive thoughts of good luck and goal scoring.

Here is how the end of the season is going down. Manglerud has to win tomorrow night against Lillehammer. Rosenborg has to lose tomorrow night against Stjernen. Tomorrow night is the last of the regular season games. Here are the current Get League standings:

The top eight teams move on to Get League playoffs. The bottom two teams must play in a round robin tournament against the top two teams from the lower level league. The two teams with the best records will play in the Get League in the 2011-2012 season. The two teams with the worst records will be playing in the lower level league. 

We really prefer that Manglerud move on to Get League playoffs. The game is at 5pm tomorrow. If you could send good vibes in our direction tomorrow morning, it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

Glass Onion

Here is the rest of our trip to Copenhagen:

After the canal tour we went to the National Museum. (It was free!)

Remains that were part of Queen Margarethe II of Denmark's Archaeology Exhibit.

Hash stall from Pusher Street in Christiania at the National Museum.

The Prince's Palace, which houses the National Museum, was home to members of the royal family in the 18th century. One of the exhibits showed what the palace looked like when it was inhabited by the royal family.

This is the Church of Our Saviour that was built in the baroque style and was completed in 1752.

There is a total number of 400 steps to the top of the tower, the last 150 being outside. Unfortunately, the church was closed for the day and the tower was closed for the season.

Christianshavn

The building in the center is the old stock exchange.

Amalienborg Palace is the winter home of the royal family.

Amalienborg was originally built for four noble families; however, when Christiansborg Palace burnt down on February 26, 1794, the royal family bought the palaces and moved in.

Over the years various kings and their families have resided in the four different palaces.

We went to the palace to see the changing of the guard which happens every day at noon. It was a very long (and fairly dull) ceremony, and it was still going on when we left at 12:30.

Sara wanted to see how close she could get to the guardsmen.

Here is a video of part of the guard change... please excuse my snarky comments.

Frederick's Church, better known as The Marble Church, has the largest dome in Scandinavia.

37% of commuters crossing the city boundary ride bicycles each day.

5.5 million inhabitants and around four million bicycles; the City of Copenhagen's official vision is to become the "world's best bike city" with the goal that by 2015 50% of the city's inhabitants will bike to work and school.

Before leaving Copenhagen, we went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. It is an art museum primarily filled with sculptures.

The collection is built around the personal collection of Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries.

The dome of the Winter Garden.

The German archeologist Wolfgang Helbig was Carl Jacobsen's broker in Rome for 25 years, acquiring more than 950 sculptures and Etruscan antiquities for the Ny Carlsberg Museum.

The Etruscan collection is the largest outside Italy.

A display of all the noses that had once been affixed to broken sculptures.

Before going to the ferry, we had to get crepes!

First they grease the plate, then pour and spread the batter.

After cooking it for a minute or two on each side, she put nutella and banana on the crepe.

YUM!

I walked around town for about 10 minutes with nutella smeared on my face. Lovely!

Watching the sun set over Copenhagen from the ferry.

Adios, Copenhagen!

Here is a video tour of our cabin on the ferry.



I should mention that Sara's thrill over the Ecolab soap is because her mom worked there when we were growing up.

I suppose you may be wondering about the ferry that we took from Oslo to Copenhagen. It is well known as a "Booze Cruise" because all there is to do on the boat is to eat overpriced food and drink very expensive drinks. There is a lounge with a live band each evening and a discotheque. Overall, we thought it was pretty darn boring! I am very glad that we did it, though.

From Us to You

And now for our trip to Copenhagen!

We stopped at the Opera House before getting on the ferry.

DFDS Seaways "Crown of Scandinavia"

View of the Opera House from the ferry

Rådhuspladsen (Town Hall Square)

Rådhus (Copenhagen Town Hall)

I spotted this poster near Rådhuspladsen that is supposed to draw attention to the plight of immigrants.

Statue of Hans Christian Andersen. He is a Danish author and poet best known for "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Emporer's New Clothes", and "The Ugly Duckling".

Tivoli Gardens is Copenhagen's amusement park located just across the street from the town hall. The park opened in 1843 and is the second oldest amusement park in the world. Unfortunately, it was closed for winter.

Gargoyle statue outside Rådhus.

Sara and I went on a self-guided tour of Carlsberg Brewery.

World's largest collection of unopened beer bottles. I believe the count was upwards of 19,000!

Brewing beer old school style.

Cooper's shop.

At one point, each worker was allowed to consume 4 of these pots each day!

Smaller version of the very famous Little Mermaid statue located in the harbor. The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of Carlsberg beer and was based on the famous Hans Christian Andersen tale.

The stables at Carlsberg.

Jutland horses are "ambassadors" for Carlsberg.

I'd drive that around!

The tour included two beers at the on site bar. My favorite was the Carl's Special.

After the brewery tour, we went back to the Town Hall Square where Sara and I met Bryn (a friend from middle/high school) who is currently living and working in Copenhagen. We joined her and her coworkers for Friday Bar, which is an after work social hour. After that, she and a friend took us to Christiania. Christiania is was founded in 1971 when a group of hippies took over abandoned military barracks and their surrounding along the Christianshavn canals, and developed it to an alternative society with own set of rules, independent of the government. This social experiment that included collective ownership has over the years developed and established its semi-legal status. The commune is today is partially self-governing, and its members pay taxes to the state, but it still applies own rules such as: no cars, no stealing, no guns, no bullet-proof vests, no hard drugs. Hash is sold on Pusher Street. To read more check out the Christiania website.

Bryn took us to Christiania because a ruling was made earlier that day regarding the land ownership. From what I understand, there is a lot of money to be made by the Danish government in developing housing on that land. She wanted to see if there were any reactions, and she said there didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary going on. We went to a vegetarian cafe for dinner then went into a nearby bar afterwards. I can't believe I didn't take a single picture! You are not allowed to take pictures on Pusher Street, and it was so dark the pictures would have turned out poorly anyway!

The next morning, Sara and I took a canal tour that departed from Nyhavn.

Nyhavn was established in the 17th century to connect the old inner city to the sea.

Nyhavn serves as a heritage harbor and is filled with wooden ships.

Hans Christian Andersen lived in Nyhavn for 18 years.

The real Little Mermaid statue that we passed on the canal tour.

More of the harbor from the canal tour.

This is where the Royal Family boards ships and cruises.

Copenhagen Opera House

Royal Theatre

Royal Theatre

 Okay, that is enough for tonight! More to come tomorrow.