Will be visiting Scandinavia next week . . .
 

Wife and I are going up into Kim's backyard next week. Copenhagen, Frederikshavn, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Falun, Lillehammer, Geiranger, Flam, Voss, Bergen, Oslo, Kristiansand and then a Hurtigruten cruise from Bergen, via Ålesund, Trondheim, Bodø, Lofoten, Tromsø, Hamerfest, Honningsvåg, to Kirkenes to see the midnight sun. Back to Cape Town 4 June.

Any MechMate builders in those cold parts of the world? :)

Gerald,

Please take lots of pictures and have a great time.

Have a great vacation! Will you be checking in from time to time?

I might check in, but that is not on my priority list :)

Hello Gerald
Perfekt time to visit this frozen parts of the world,
now everything in nature is grey and brown and in the coming
weeks it will explode in green its so beutiful i get tears in my eyes.
Perfekt timing ! Welcome

Hasse

Gerald...

You are welcomed to the warm fuzzy scandinavia.... :-p

Ok, not so warm, but kind of fuzzy.....

But yes, you will actually pass quite closely to my backyard.. If you take the train from Copenhagen to Frederikshavn, the you will be passing within a few kilometers of my home....

Welcome to Sweden, Gerald.

But you are missing "Whisky on the ice" in the Icehotel in Norrland.
http://www.icehotel.com/

Try ABSOLUT ICEBAR in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Have a nice vacation!

From Kalix in the northern of Sweden,
Johnny Braun

Not checking in??? Aren't you going to miss us? :eek:

Seriously, I really look forward to your pictures. Your eye (obviously) is good. Your pix of SA were amazing. Enjoy!

A well deserved break. Have a great vacation!

Only leaving in a week's time - just giving you guys time to arrange the bon voyage party :)

Gerald,

It also gives us time to get the T Shirts and Hats made!

Bon voyage. I'm sure you'll have a blast.

Greetings from Falun, Sweden! :)

Hej!

He just couldn't stand it, he misses us:p

Hey, I thought you said, no phones, no internet, etc. :)

Gerald,

Hope you are having a lot of fun. Where are the pictures since you have internet access.

To Gerald on his vacation
 

Gerald, my first post in this forum goes to you on your vacation. First a big THANK YOU for the Mechmate and all your effort. Welcome to Norway, I really hope you'll have a pleasent stay and that the weather will be on your side. I live in Stavanger, the oil-city of Norway, but spent the first 30 years of my life in Trondheim. When you arrive in Trondheim try to walk up Munkegaten and visit the big church Nidarosdomen (25 minutes walk from the Hurtigruten). Tip for Lillehammer: Try to visit Maihaugen which is a outdoor museum with a collection of ancient norwegian houses and architecture. Tip for Bergen: Try Floybanen which is a "fixed angeled" railway and walk down if weather permits (45-60 minutes walk). When you pass the Polar Circle the midnight sun is a spectacular sight and if you're lucky you'll even get to see some northern lights. Tip for Tromsoe: The church Ishavskatedralen (on the other side) or the planetarium with 360 degree cinema (on your side). Have a great vacation and post some pictures for the rest of the Mechmate world. :D:D

Hi Viktor

Thanks for the tips. Was at Maihaugen yesterday. At Geiranger today (Union Hotel).

Hotel lobby internet from time to time . . . . .

Greetings from sunny Kristiansand at the south tip of Norway!

Gerald,
Hope you are having a great holiday. :) I am sure a lot of the guys here are awaiting some of your wonderful pictures when you return. :)

Gerald, Nice to get news from you !
Wishing you and Madame all the joy & love on this trip !
Can’t wait to read your comments on your fabulous journey.
Amicalement, Robert ;)

Have reached 'Nordkapp' at 71 degrees north, the land of the midnight sun.

Hi Gerald! I see you having a good trip. With the midnight sun will you be able so see the northen lights ? Enjoy you guys
Normand

Gerald -

We've missed ya - when will you be back?

Back on Wednesday, but the real day job hassles will come before MechMate. Will take a week or 2 to catch up with this forum.

Normand, unfortunately no Northern Lights while the sun shines all the time.

from Oslo........

It's good to have you back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

Priority 1 - Post the pictures
Priority 2 - The day job

:):D:):D

Welcome home!

Glad to have you back Gerald. Looking forward to all your answers on all our stupid questions.

Marc,

I thought the MechMate Forum was Gerald's Day Job! The stuff he does with the Garbage Trucks is to support his Day Job!

Gerald,

Glade you had a great time and I look forward to seeing your photos and your comments on the threads. It is nice to have the Master back at the helm.

Welcome back Captain. :)

Welcome back Gerald,
Hope you had a wonderful time. Hope to see some pictures! :)

In the process of uploading some pics to . . . .

http://picasaweb.google.com/*****/Ho...wayMayJune2008

Nice pictures, I especially love that it's a danish picture of the entrance to Tivoli in Copenhagen that is the first picture... :-D

Gerald,

The photos are very nice. I have been to the Neitherland but only in cities. I liked the rustic areas. What is the grey machine with the track? Was it for snow removal.

Check out the competition in the Garbage truck field.

You must have had a great time.

Gerald,
Good to see you back. Hope you had a nice trip. I couldnt help but notice though that you took a picture of several garbage trucks. :eek: Did they have any of your equipment on board? :)

Gerald...
Hope you guys had a restful good time.

I see in your photo (#55) that folks have been busy constructing a somewhat larger MechMate... :)

Welcome back...

That was a quick selection of photos just to show the variety of things that caught my eye. There are 900 more, but I won't bore you with those . . . . . . .

Yes, it is a museum piece outside the Union Hotel in Geiranger, Norway. Needed it to get guests from the cruise ships to their hotel.

not yet . . . . :)

That is a classic old gantry crane from a WWII bunker - thought you guys might want to see the roots :)

Very nice pictures Gerald.

For the love of ... is that still snow in some of those pictures. It's been 104 degrees F (40 degrees C) here lately. I come from good Scandinavian stock, but I handle the heat much better than the cold. My mother always said I would make King Gustaf roll over in his grave. :)

Yup, that is still snow, and in some places still 14m [45ft] thick! All roads had not been opened yet.

On getting back here, it was a shock to have to drive in the dark. Over there it was all light most of the time. We bought masking tape to fix the curtains to make our rooms darker so that we could get some sleep!