Scandinvia
I don't know how much I'll post, I've found that to reach the forum I have to turn on wifi which is ok on the phone because I have free data but my tablet doesn't so the wifi takes me to UK and even if I try forum.tauck to sign in it takes me to UK, that being said it's hard posting from the phone.
Arrived in Stockholm today with my luggage yay! The only problem was waiting over an hour after boarding to take off so more luggage could be loaded. The trip to the hotel was pretty fast, the Sheraton is nothing to talk about, just a regular Marriott hotel. No way to hang laundry in the bathroom however it's very well situated. After doing a bit of unpacking I went exploring, tomorrow I'm taking a Viator tour of Glama Stan the old town and I was able to find the meeting place quickly, not dar from the hotel. Then I walked for a long time on street that's closed to traffic and has a lot of cafes restaurants and shops. Came back to the hotel showered got some to eat and I'm going to bed.
The meeting place for the Viator tour is a square called Gustav Adolf torg with a huge statute of King Gustav Ii Adolf and across from it is the Royal Opera where I have tickets for a concert Saturday. Tomorrow is the welcome dinner and a visit to the Vasa Museum. I will try to post pictures tomorrow
Comments
Have a great time Gladys. Try googling Tauck forum, I’ve never had an issue posting from anywhere
Yes, gladysorlando984, have fun on your tour. Stockholm is one of my favorite cities and is known as one of the cleanest cities in the world. They also recycle/repurpose slightly under 100% of their waste!
I hope you get to see the changing of the guards on your Gamla Stan tour and enjoy the dinner at the Vasa Museum. If you have a chance, watch some of the videos of how the ship was raised. The building/museum was actually built around the ship after it was excavated.
Gladys - can you use your phone as a hotspot for your tablet?
That's kinda obvious.
Mean again BKMD
BSP51 it worked
Breakfast food available was nice but the restaurant floor looked like it needed cleaning. Met the Viator guide at the Gustav Adolfs square, very nice young man, full of information, we walked past the Parliament crossing the bridge to Gamla Stan, very quaint old Town, of course the Cathedral was totally covered for repairs as was part of the Royal Palace, we did see the changing of the guard which was exciting. After the tour was over I went to the Jewish Museum, by the way I have not seen one person wearing a mask anywhere I've been including the hotel. On the way across the bridge to Gamla Stan the Parliament was on the right. Tonight we had our welcome reception in the hotel our TD Anna is very nice, we left the hotel and visited the Vasa Museum with the Vasa War ship built in 1625 first sail in 1628 and 26 minutes UT sunk when recovered 98% of it was preserved, it's absolutely amazing, a work of art, after we went to our welcome dinner at Five Small Houses a very quaint restaurant in old town, delicious food.
City Hall, Parliament, Royal Opera, Vasa ship, King Gustav Adolf II who had the Vasa ship built, and St zgeorge slaying the dragon
Awesome!
Day 2 - started the day with a visit to City Hall, where the government meets and where the Nobel Prize banquet takes place in the gold room whose walls are covered with 18 million mosaic pieces depicting different figures and scenes, absolutely amazing, from there we took a bus tour through parts of 3 islands out of the 18 that comprise Stockholm, after we stopped for a very short tour in Gamla Stan, I remained there with 2 other ladies instead of going back to the hotel went to the Cathedral built in 1279 and houses unique objects
Objects as the sculpture of St George killing the dragon carved out of oak in 1489, the seven branch candelabra made in the 13th century, the Royal pews built in 1684 and carved out of wood, from there we went to the Nobel Prize Museum and the Jewish Museum both very interesting. This evening I went to a concert at the Royal Opera that I had bought a ticket for at home and later went to dinner at Artes a combination of Italian and Spanish food.
Pictures courtesy of AlanS without his instructions which I brought with they would not be posted.
City Hall Gold Room, Cathedral altar and the original St George slaying the dragon, Royal Opera,, morebof the Gold room, by the Baltic Sea, Nobel Prize Museum, Cathedral pulpit and Royal seats
Perhaps Alan could augment his instructions to get them rotated correctly. At least the picture of you ( I assume ) was rotated correctly. 😂😂
It is easier done than said. While I can explain it, it is easier to demonstrate. I have already suggested to Tauck IT that it would be nice to incorporate a "rotate image" functionality into the forums. They said they would look into it.
Right now the best way to do it is upload one photo at a time, check the orientation using "preview," and if it is not right, delete the photo from your post then use whatever software is available on your phone, laptop, tablet, etc. to rotate and save the photo in the correct orientation. Then upload the photo you just rotated.
What confuses folks is that with most phones, the photos will always appear on the phone's screen in the correct orientation regardless of the orientation of the phone- not so with the forum. It knows and remembers the orientation of your phone and camera when you took the photo and uses that, e.g. if you take a photo with a phone oriented sideways, it will likely appear sideways after loading to the forum, the same goes if you rotate your camera sideways. I don't use a phone so don't know if there is a way to defeat that, maybe locking the screen orientation will work. When I get a chance, I'll experiment with my iPad to see what happens.
WOWI Alan, thank you, I haven't tried to rotate because by the time I post I'm really ready to go yo sleep 😴
Day 3 - Today we flew to Copenhagen, smooth flight, from the airport we went to lunch, went for a sightseeing ride and stopped at Christianborg Palace which is now used by Parliament and the Prime Minister, after checking in the hotel I took to Pedestrian Street which was a bit disappointing not many shops and very few restaurants from there I went with 2 other ladies to Tivoli Gardens which is an amusement park / entertainment venue, the place is beautiful, walked around a lot and had dinner at Nimb Brasserie one of the many restaurants in the gardens, not much else today, really exhausted very long day. Only 3 people with masks
Palace, Tivoli Gardens, City Hall and Stock Exchange.
Gladys - It doesn’t look like you’re having to worry about sunburns. 😂
Loving your pictures.
Gladys - I know it is not ideal because some subjects will be tall and narrow and just beg to be photographed with the phone oriented vertically, but if you are using an iPhone or similar and you want to avoid rotated photos or having to go through the process of fixing the orientation of photos you want to post to the forums, or that you have already posted to the forums, you will need to take all the photos you intend to upload with the phone held sideways in the landscape position with power jack on the right- and with the camera button at the right. (I had to learn how to use my wife's iPhone to figure this out.
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If power jack and the camera button are on the left when you take the photo, the photo will be upside down when posted to and viewed on the forums.)
My research revealed I was correct that the EXIF data Apple and most devices use to determine photo orientation is not read by the forum software, so photos taken with your phone in the vertical position (with lightning jack at the bottom) will look fine when previewed on your phone, but will all be oriented incorrectly, rotated 90° to the left) when posted to and viewed on the forum.
So far, I have only found one other way (what I did to your photos in my post), besides holding the phone sideways, to prevent photos being oriented when uploaded, but it is a pain and certainly not something you would want to mess with when it is late at night and you are ready to go to sleep. I'll keep looking and experimenting, but hopefully the forum software can be upgraded.
At least we can easily upload photos- such was not the case just a few years ago.
Thank you for the explanation Alan. I’ll bare that in mind if there are specific sites I might want to post on the forum of my next trip. How bizarre the forum turns the photos round.
Alan it is thanks to you that I can upload photos and I will try your suggestion tomorrow I do have an android but the power button will be on the right,
Day 4 - Today we went for a very nice countryside bus ride, by thecway our TD is awesome, we stopped at a statute of the Little Mermaid from Hand Christian Anderson story, from there we visited Frederiksborg castle which houses Denmarks National History Museum since 1878, the castle was built during the time of Christian the IV 1588 to 1648 and later restored, we visited the zRose room where the servants gathered the chapel, the Grest Hall and other areas, ythe chapel walls are full of coat of arms awarded to different people in particular there were 3 awarded to Eisenhower Churchill and Montgomery, from there to Gamle Humblleback Kro a very quaint restaurant for a typical Danish lunch of fish, herring pork and liver pate after which we came back to the hotel. Please note that there has been a lot of free time on this tour so if you take it be prepared to research things to do on your own. During free time I went with another ,ady to the National Museum of Denmark who has a very interesting Egyptian exhibit in addition to Denmaks history.
Tonight we went to the Opera House for a delicious dinner.
Pictures of the castle and us rooms, a very interesting statute in the square and sunset from the opera house.
Day 5 - Today we flew to Bergen, uneventful flight, from the airport we went to Edvard Grieg House and Museum where we had lunch and then were treated to a beautiful piano concert as they also have a concert hall, we toured the house and I took pictures of the grounds, checked into the hotel which is in a central location but leaves a lot to be desired room is very poorly lit, I had to get missing light bulbs from reception. Went to a free concert at Bergen Cathedral incredible acoustics. Bergen is a very quaint town. Had dinner in the hotel and that was the day, nothing much today,
Day 6 - We had our first vivid casualty today a doctor that never wore a mask and his wife went sightseeing with us today and didn't wear a mask until we came back to the hotel, don't know yet what they're doing,
We went sightseeing in Bergen today passed St Mary church the oldest building in use in Bergen, visited the Hanseatic area, the Hansa dominated the fish msrket trade in Bergen and the area is a UNESCO Heritage site. We visited a Stave Church but it's not the original it wax completely rebuilt ztook the funicular to the top of Floibannen hill for beautiful sights of Bergen Port,
Gladys, do you mean they tested positive or are they the only ones not wearing masks on your tour, that’s impressive!
Loving the photos
Day 7 - British the husband tested positive first and the wife continued to join us in our activities without wearing a mask, yesterday she tested positive they both stayed behind d in Bergen. Still only 3 people including me are wearing masks,
Yesterday day 7 we left Bergen ride on the countryside to take the Ampier ferry, bus and all from Oppedal to Lavik traveling o a portion of the Sognefjord the largest in Norway, unfortunately between the rains and the fog visibility was awful, we continue on the bus to the Sunnfjord Hotel in Forde where we ha lunch and except to a pit stop we continue the ride to Loen until Alexandra hotel, very nice, pretty pool. Beautiful grounds, went for a talk about Noregian history with and expert, can't remember his name and then we had a .over BBQ dinner in the hotel patio. Was too tired and it was late that's why I'm posting this morning. The rain never stopped until this morning.
Having trouble loading pics will try again later
So funny, it seems to be more common for the husband to test positive first
Day 8 - we went to Birskdal Glacier, stunning views, mind blowing we had lunch in the Cafetiria then went to a local farm and waffles with homemade cream and jellies, jincredibly tasting, with a free afternoon we too, a cable car to a mountain top really steep some people were paragliding with very little visibility really scary, had an included dinner in the hotel, great food, .Ike I said before lots of free time in this tour more than I've ever had before
Sorry for the upside down pictures, really tired
Day 9 - No more covid casualties but a few people coughing the ailment seems to be a stomach virus people are falling like flies, out of 32 we were only 18 for dinner tonight.
Today was mostly driving we started the day with a scenic drive into the valleys and mountains stopping at the top of Dalsnibba unfortunately the clouds did not let see the fjord but a few good pictures, we continued to Geirsnger were we had lunch at the Union Hotel and then boarded the ferry for a scenic cruise along the Geirangerfjord a UNESCO protected fjord and the prettiest of Norway. After we dro e to Alesund were we will spend 2 nights this is a town that was rebuilt in Nouveau architecture after a devastating fire beautiful buildings, had dinner at the Alesund hotel, we are staying at the Brosundet hotel, very rustic, beautiful if a bit old,
Seven sisters waterfall in the fjord, fjord, fjord, Dalsnibba and fjord.
Stunning fjord photos. It's apparent that climate change has taken its toll on the Seven Sisters.
Continuing to enjoy your photos and descriptions Gladys!
You said you saw some people paragliding- did you see anyone base jumping and "flying" with a wing suit? The fjords are supposedly a great place to do that.
No Alan only paragliding how they went off with it being so cloudy idont know
Day10 - Today we toured Alesund an Art Nouveau architecture town rebuilt after a devastating fire we visited a medieval church and drove to the is,and of Eiske and off to the top of Skulder Mountain for stunning views, had lunch at the Racoon restaurant and free time after, I visited the Art Nouveau Museum and walked for a couple of hours around the wharf, lots of free time today dinner at our hotel Brosundet very quaint,
Pictures from yesterday don't, now where they went
Day 11- Not much today in the morning we had a demonstration about Viking history then we flew to Oslo, the Grand Oslo hotel is beautiful and no air condition as with some European hotels, went for a short walk as it started to rain, had a little to eat in a sidewalk bakery,
, Nobel Peace Prize bldg, National Museum, City Hall and Theatre.
Vikings
Today was our last day in Oslo, we took a bus tour if Oslo with a very knowledgeable tour guide when we stopped at Vigelands Park with very interesting sculptures by Gustav Vigeland it started to thunder and heavy rain came down so the tour if the garden wasn't very enjoyable, from there we went to the Polar Exploration Museum where the ship Feam us kept in pretty good condition and turned into a Museum.
After the tour was over I went to the Jewish Museum, the Resistance Museum and the Nobel Peace Center, all worth visiting. Tonight we had our Reception and Farewell dinner unfortunately it wasn't very good the salmon was very soft and hardly cooked,, nobody ate it.. I fly home tomorrow.
Sculptures and the North Pole Museum.
gladysorlando984 - Did you have the last picture above rotated on purpose? If so, what was your inspiration. 😂😂
Great pictures.
It was the same height as the adjacent statues before they cleaned and buffed it.