You're Welcome, Stockholm

We finally got to ride Copenhagen's free city bikes, and though they expedited our sightseeing, they were still fairly crappy -- no wonder they get thrown in the canal.

We parked ours outside Ida Davidsen (where I had the awesome shrimp pyramid smørrebrød), and later we visited the suburban Finn Juhl house.

Along our train ride to Oslo we stopped in Goteborg for a few hours, long enough to hike around town and visit the Liseberg amusement park. It isn't nearly as charming as Copenhagen's Tivoli, as it aims for more of a branded, Disney-ish theme, starring its own Mickey-Mousy mascot, the creepy green Liseberg Rabbit.

In Oslo we took the water shuttle across the harbor to a bunch of cool museums: the Folkemuseum (the folk museum), the Sjøfartsmuseum (maritime museum), the Vikingskipshuset (Viking ship museum), and the best one, the Kon-Tiki museum -- that's the famed craft below.

For Eliza's birthday dinner we rode the T-bane up to Frognerseteren, a restaurant atop a mountain overlooking the city, and took a postprandial stroll through Vigeland Sculpture Park.

Here's me in front of the Oslo rådhus (city hall).

Now we're at Stockholm's Hotel Hellsten, having spent yesterday touring the Kulturhuset and Gamla stan. We rode up the Katarinahissen, and had dinner at Rolfs Kök with Eliza's grandmother's Swedish cousin (Hej Gun! Tack!).

The Swedes dig the Stones...

Lots of Scandinavian design in Scandinavia...

Tonight we sail to Helsinki!

Skål!

First thing we see last night after stepping off our plane in Copenhagen is this ad for flights to Seattle, though we've hardly been away long enough to feel homesick... We then took the Metro to The Square hotel, where we've since been adjusting to our jetlag.

Today we hiked around the city center, and then looked down on it all from the Rundetaarn. Above is Mrs. Truitt, taking it all in.

Here's another elevated view, this one from from the top of the Ballongyngen, a ferris wheel at the awesome Tivoli Gardens, open for business since 1843 (!). Beyond the trees is the SAS Hotel, where this morning we had their killer breakfast buffet.

Great Odin's raven!

That's some goofy Viking sculpture at Tivoli. We also rode the cool old wooden Rutschebanen roller coaster, which has been in near-continuous operation since 1914, and had the first of what will likely be many open-faced sandwiches.

You can never wash your hands too many times at any amusement park -- here Eliza cleans up in the elephant sink...

...And here she stands outside some weird-looking ride.

I've been totally stoked about Copenhagen's free city bikes program, but the few we've found so far have all been broken and unusable. Instead, we had to hike to dinner at BioMio, which was more or less worth the trip.

Skål!

Happy 65th, Rock 'n' Rollen!

Rollen Stewart hits the big six-five today.



For more info, check out the killer 1997 documentary, The Rainbow Man/John 3:16.

Scandinavia in the the Spring

Eliza and I got married on Saturday and tomorrow we are going to Scandinavia for a ten-day honeymoon.

I'm planning on doing some blogging while we're there.

Set Phasers to Fabulous!

Last night we saw the new Star Trek, and while we're non-Trekkies Trekkers fans ourselves, we still enjoyed it.

May the force be with you!

Steve's Autographs #7: Tony Millionaire

Tux-clad Tony Millionaire held a book signing tonight at the Fantagraphics Bookstore. While knocking back PBRs, he kindly obliged my request to sketch Batty in the front matter of his new book, Drinky Crow's Maakies Treasury. On the facing page, below, he signed it to Eliza and me.

Here is a picture Eliza took of him with Ellen Forney.

Dook dook dook!

Another Scorekeeping Season Begins

At an M's game last month I picked up the new 2009 official Mariners scorecard for my small collection... Wait -- what? There's no online gallery!? (At least none that I can find?!?)

Welp, problem solved. Fresh from the oven, my second flickr set.

Another Election Season Begins

At Friday's Mariners game I picked up the new 2009 All-Star Game ballot for my small collection... Wait -- what? There's no online gallery of those punch cards that stuff ballpark ballot boxes!? (At least none that I can find?!?)

Welp, problem solved. Fresh from the oven, my first flickr set.

Happy 70th, Batman!

Batman hits the big seven-oh this month.

He first appeared in Detective Comics #27, dated May 1939. I love how "The Bat-Man" has evolved over the decades, culminating in last year's kickass The Dark Knight.

In the nonfiction realm, here's an amusing gallery of circa-now wannabes.