Norge Adventure: Winter Journeys

Europe has several airlines that offer low rates making travel across the continent quite affordable. Having time off of school paralleling American Thanksgiving we jetted off to London. Our stops included Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (I had to drop something at Isaac Newton's burial location), The London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Harrods Department Store, Stamford Bridge Stadium (home of the Chelsea soccer team) and two shows ("Stomp" and "Billy Elliot"). We also got experience a ride in a double decker bus (the real kind, not the on-off tourist bus), a traditional black taxi and The Tube.

Thanksgiving Dinner was disappointing--we were told about this nice family friendly Italian restaurant which turned out to be a pizza joint with terrible service. The food was not bad, but we were to frustrated to enjoy it. We did make up for our misfortune by having wonderful meal the following night.

A few days after Christmas we were off to Copenhagen, Denmark. Two of our days were spent at Tivoli, one of the world's oldest and most visited amusement parks. This park remains open much of the year regardless of the weather--just dress well and away you go. One of the strangest sights we saw were what looked like the round charcoal grills used for barbecues. These "grills" were spread about the park with glowing coals to warm yourself up--no nets, screens, warnings, etc. We also visited Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Guinness World Records and Experimentarium (a fantastic science center that is totally hands on). Our hotel room had a view of nightly fireworks from Tivoli.

We are very thankful that we have such great opportunities to travel. Travelling allows you to see, experience and understand the world more; and at the same time appreciate where we come from.