US, Denmark, Norway...

Hi all...
Apologies for the delay in getting this to air.. there was a problem with our sponsors. So many have written asking for more pictures. Noone particularly asking to see shots of me... but I can only guess as to why...
I am uploading pictures from our day in New York, couple of days in Copenhagen, and of today in Bergen, Norway. If you EVER get the chance to come and see Skandinavia you just have to...
New Jersey/New York...
Staying with Rob and Joanna and their kids in New Jersey. Just to prove that I am hip and up to date with my political correctness I have a friend from Costa Rica. Well, his parent are from there, but he was born here. But his skin is dark... does that count for being differently ethnically abled?
We did the bus ride around Manhattan for a number of hours. Again, the kids were great, and were pretty wide eyed most of the time. On the ferry out to Ellis Island, we were able to stand right in the front of the boat, and Jude had a Titanic moment. Coincidentally, we passed the mooring on the Hudson River that the Titanic would have docked at should history have been written differently. Another fame-claim that the americans have owned. I was feeling strange about visiting Ground Zero - like I would have some kind of epiphany about world peace, but it was a construction site with excavatos and bulldozers and a lot of men standing around in smelly blue tshirts whistling at girls... ok, I made that last bit up, but you can see how my sense of romance was jarred a little. But there is a church right next door that somehow survived and is a kind of living memorial of mementos and for mourners and distant participants like us. Time Sqaure was a riot, and by the time we got home we'd been going more than 7 hours. Did I mention that we have amazing children?
Quite a long flight to Denmark on Wednesday, and an overnight flight at that. The kids slept about 3 of the 7.5 hours, and Jude and I took turns sitting next to a grownup adolescent american rap DJ who did karaoke to his ipod and talked loudly to his DoughBoy mate in the seat in front... God bless Cattle Class!
Cobenhavn, Denmark...
We checked into our first Hostel of the trip feeling very grumpy and not altogether the model family. There was an aussie guy working there who was very helpful and we were soon asleep for a few hours. Feeling like death-warmed-up-only-slightly we searched for food and went for a walk along a canal in Christianshavn - a bohemian enclave taken over by the uppermiddle classes who wish to have the appearance of coolness. I'm glad it didn't alter the actual architecture, just the atmosphere for the locals...
Day two presented us with the chance to putter along the canals in downtown, and for an hour or so, we oohed and aahed at the kind of lifestyle that we'd have had if either of us had married 'old money'.
We then spent the next 9 or so hours at the Tivoli... Until we left at around 10.30pm the kids literally didn't stop to breathe. They went on every ride they were allowed.. .about 21 at last count... the only thing stopping them was a height restriction. Spin, whirl, jump, slam, laugh, trip, steer, pull, laugh, scream, and laugh... [sounds like a church service to me...]
It is the most enchanting place I've been, and Aaron reckons his best day of his life. Big boast from an 8 year old...! Jude and I even went on the spinny-upsidedown-double loop-the-loop-corkscrew one... once.
We felt our time in Cobenhavn was far too short, with only an hour left before the plane left to race through 24 viking rooms at the national museum. Interesting, but I don't think I got much detail! ha
Bergen, Norway
We are staying here with a fantastic couple we met in Egypt in 2000. Of course, we are older and greyer, and they are not, but it has been a very warm and generous welcome. I cannot believe how beautiful it is here. Just agape. Bergen is hosting a port-of-call for an annual tall-ships race, and so today we walked - in the rain [about 1000 inches/year!] - around the harbour and had a geezer. We are planning a fiords and mountain pass kind of tour on Tuesday, so I'll post some more pictures after that....
You have to come to Norway.... really! Well, not right now... but sometime soon, before some blasted aussie builds the Big Viking or something and ruins it...