Europe 2018 – Page 7 – Beauperi Investments

Posted on October 6, 2018October 6, 2018 by beauperi · 2 Comments

A Massage in Sweden

Sunday, 30 September, 2018 – Nice Looking Day
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This Hotel also offers free breakfast. It is quite a good and varied selection. It is also reflecting the issues from yesterday, there are lots of dirty tables and not enough staff to clean them.

20180930_074828 — Julie’s Selection – Smoked Salmon, of course

20180930_074822 — My selection – the chicken balls were good.

Julie has booked massages for us in the top floor. We go up there and then jump into the outdoor pool which is well heated and steaming. We also get a great view over much of Stockholm, including the many churches who have visible clocks on their towers. I did not take a camera so there are no shots from up there. I promise to get relevant pictures from there tomorrow.

I go in for the first massage. Chas, note the Post title is not Swedish Massage. The masseuse is not with a beautiful blonde girl like the one who gave Red Grant a massage in From Russia with Love. Instead, the masseuse was a Turkish guy I called Barry. He really knew his stuff and I ended up with several bruises as a result. He asked me at the end what did I think. I said that I was a real mess and spent too much time on the computer. He said that he could feel that. Hmmmm.

Julie followed me after spending that hour in the pool and the sauna. In the interim, I had a shower and did some hand washing as most of my clothes were quite dirty. When Julie came back from her massage I was virtually ready to go.

We had agreed with the kids that we would do the Hop On / Off bus again. We go out to opposite Central station and board the bus. It is to take of in 10 minutes, as usual that meant 30. No photos from me from the bus but Ryan and Tanika hopped off at the second stop in the tour for the Old Town. A few photos from Tanika.

palace2 — They did a tour of the Royal Palace

They also did a tour of the Vasa. This was an unsinkable ship, just like the Titanic, that sunk on its first journey. It stayed at the bottom of the seas for centuries and was relatively recently raised, in the last 50 years.

vasaship1 — Not sure what it was but it is amazing

We got off at the second location near the Old Town as we found the tour to be boring. A couple of photos from our visit.

20180930_125858 — Looking for Swedish Foods

20180930_125903 — What could be more Swedish that Swedish Meat Balls?

20180930_132021 — Outside the Whiskey Warehouse

I had been in this whiskey shop several times in the past when I was on business tips to Stockholm. It had a different name and owner then. We went in, looked at the lunch menu and I decided it was not for me. We made a booking for that night. We walked back to the apartment, it was only a KM or so, but as we crossed the river, I started feeling really sore. Julie went out prancing and when she returned I told her that I could not do the walk there and back. So she cancelled the booking and went out to the local store to buy some food for a picnic.

20180930_180258 — Fries from Burger King, Chilli and smoked chicken for me

20180930_180314 — Salad and Salmon for Julie

What with our own wines, we had a good meal at a fraction of the cost. We understand that the kids also got similar food from the super market. The end of a very eventful day.

Posted on October 6, 2018October 7, 2018 by beauperi

Off to Stockholm

Saturday, 29 September, 2018 – Nice Looking Day
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20180929_074616 — Start with the usual breakfast

20180929_074608 — Smoked Salmon, of course, for Julie

There was lots of discussion about when we should go to the station. The vote by the other 3 was for a couple of hours early. Ryan, Tanika and I take the tram with the luggage to the station while Julie walks there with Tanika’s carry-on. We all arrive at about the same time.

20180929_104213 — Waiting around at the station

After a while, another 3-1 vote sent us downstairs to be near the train and with less comfortable seating conditions. It was another case of hurry-up and wait. Then when they finally call us to the train there are zillions of people ahead of us. we are in first class and have reserved seats but the problem is that it is difficult to find storage for the baggage, as it is on all train rides in Europe. Ryan crams the bags into the overhead storage and wedges them in enough so that they won’t fall out. Finally we are off.

20180929_115814 — A selfie of us in our seats

It was a long ride. Julie and I were seated opposite a nice Canadian couple in my age bracket. The guy had studied at Oxford and stayed in Kebel College, which is where we stayed while at Oxford last year. I had mentioned that I used to play Bridge and the lady kept coming back to it with me asking about things I knew nothing about since it had been 18 years since I had last played. I did manage to do a bit of Blogging using the trains Wi-Fi.

When we arrive in Stockholm, Ryan leads us on a great circular route to our Hotel. I found it quite tiring. On the street we bump into the Canadian couple who had also gone the wrong way. They were staying in the old town where I thought we were staying, Instead we were in an area of town obviously designed for younger people. I had been to Stockholm several times 10+ years ago but I did not know this area at all.

20180930_134607 — The Urban Camper Hotel

This was a massive Hotel with an estimated 800 rooms. They were able to do this by making the rooms very small.

20180929_174739 — If you sat at the desk the other person had to climb over the bed to get to where our suitcases were

We had looked at the Hotel menu on the train and thought that would be a good place to eat dinner. It was about 6:30 but the staff told us there were no seats available until after 9:00. There were lots of table empty but basically there were not enough staff to clean them and get the next seating in. The staff in general were very nice at the front desk, the cleaners and in the dining room, there were just not enough of them.

Any way, we asked for advice where we could go to and got a few recommendations that were nearby.

Service was very slow – getting a table, getting a menu and a very long time placing our order. It was the same problem as in the Hotel – they did not have enough staff. We finally got our wine. A few other couples came in, experienced these kind of delays and eventually walked out.

20180929_192850 — Julie waiting for her dinner

My memory of Stockholm was that it took a long time from when the order was placed to when the food was delivered. This proved to be the case here as there was only one cook in the kitchen. We were backed up behind a large group order which were finally delivered after a lengthy delay, so we thought that we were to have another lengthy delay but our meals came out just after.

20180929_200202 — Julie’s exotic salmon dish – overcooked apparently

Veal Oscar is a famous dish which I had a lot in the USA. It has a veal steak, lobster on top, here it was a few prawns, asparagus and béarnaise sauce – here it was a spicy Hollandaise. I exchanged my asparagus and tomato for Julie’s bacon. It was an OK meal for me.

We returned to the Hotel and went to sleep. At least it was quite quiet, which was a surprise as they seem to do everything else on the cheap.

Posted on October 4, 2018 by beauperi · 1 Comment

Exploring on My Own

Friday, 28 September, 2018 – Nice Looking Day
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It is our last full day in Oslo and the weather looks OK. We start with the usual breakfast.

20180928_083359 — Turkey, Mushrooms and eggs

Firstly, a couple of shots from Julie.

20180928_104710 — International bridge of the year, yes we do bridges

20180928_155645 — Whiskey without Alcohol???

So I go out on my own. I make a major move by crossing the street to the shopping centre opposite, waiting for the pedestrian signal, of course.

20180928_132339 — End up in a food court

20180928_132245 — My ultimate destination

20180928_130559 — A Bacon Whopper with no sign of any bacon

After all that excitement and adventure, I decide I have had enough so aim to return home. I cross one street and proceed around but that was really the wrong way to go However, I kept going around and ended up at the back of the Hotel, phew! Now a couple more snaps from Julie.

Julie returned and it had started to rain, but she had planned for it. We go down for dinner, again a soup would have done me.

20180928_181404 — (Not much) Chicken Pasta and Salmon

That’s it for another day.

Posted on September 30, 2018 by beauperi

Quiet Day inside in Oslo

Thursday, 27 SEPTEMBER, 2018 – Cold, Wet and Miserable
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Yes, the weather has definitely turned for the worse. We had been really lucky with the warm weather in what should have been quite cold and wet in this Arctic environment. But all good things must pass. So I decided I would not leave the Hotel this day. We started the day with the buffet breakfast:

P1030501 — The breakfast cold cuts spread

P1030509 — Julie’s plate, just about every day. Note Blueberries

P1030516 — While the room was cleaned, I moved into the eating area to do more work

P1030517 — Our wine before we went down for dinner

Because I was hanging around all day, we go down for an early dinner

P1030513 — The great selection for the cold meats

P1030520 — Whole Norwegian Salmon tonight – not as strong as our Atlantic Salmon

End of a quiet day.

Posted on September 30, 2018September 30, 2018 by beauperi

Up and Down and All Over Oslo

Wednesday, 26 September, 2018 – Another Warm Day
Loyal followers of this Blog. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot see the photos and / or the captions or alignments are messed up, please go to http://www.beauperi.com directly and all those problems should go away.

Again it is a beautiful day. After a pretty good breakfast buffet, Julie goes over to the train station and buys each of us an all day travel pass. Eventually we go to the station and jump on a train that is going to the peak behind Oslo.

P1030500 — Our Train Pulled up short of where we were standing

20180926_112517 — Ryan on the train with obscured Julie behind him

The idea was to see the Ski Jump and the view of Oslo from up above. We actually never saw the ski jump.

See images of the Ski jump online

We did not stay long at the peak and took the same train back down the hill. There were lots of ski lodges and expensive houses up there.

We get off the train with the intention to walk to the nearest tram stop. It is a fair bit away. After a coffee stop, we continue on and we stop at a site.

20180926_132511 — Impressive Water Fountain and Statue

20180926_132811 — This Site is all about naked Men

There is also a site about naked women protesting including, apparently, a signature statue of a woman taking a pee in protest?? There may even be a third site for transgender folk. We decided the one would be enough.

We cross over the water and reach a tram stop relatively close by.

The destination is the fish market / food court. We get off the tram but it is a fairly long walk. Ryan eventually guides us there with his phone.

I had heard from my Scandinavian work colleagues when I spent time in Stockholm that the Norwegian girls were the best looking in the world. I was quite skeptical but as I spotted various talent around, I reached the same conclusion.

20180926_143056 — Interesting artwork at the entrance

20180926_143232 — Kebabs and other goodies

20180926_143302

20180926_143853 — Ryan’s Pulled Pork and Tanika’s two sweet pies

20180926_143955 — My “small” confit duck roll, what does the large one look like?

20180926_144547 — A cold Kroonenberg was a nice refreshment

20180926_150200 — The Layout including pipeworks above

20180926_150605

20180926_150825 — Smoked salmon and whale – naughty Norwegians

We walk out of the food hall and go to look at the large waterfall behind.

20180926_151749 — Lots of water, not much fall

Ryan and Tanika headed off on their own and I did not really see them again until Saturday morning when we left town. We took the long walk back to the Tram and then home.

When we went to dinner that night I was not very hungry at all. There was a somewhat spicy Thai soup which was just what the doctor ordered and an early bed after a very filled day.

P1030506 — Chicken Casserole – not for me

Beauperi Investments – Wine Consulting

Category: Europe 2018

A Massage in Sweden

Off to Stockholm

Exploring on My Own

Quiet Day inside in Oslo

Up and Down and All Over Oslo