BDE

This is also posted under origanal "planning post" couldnt change message title so decided to post again with correct title.

ok ok ok
U made me feel guilty.
It is a big task writing a full review when its a foreign langauge.
We arrived in San francisco after traveling almost 18 hours..went to pick up rental car.had to struggel with Hertz .they demanded 324$ for one way fee even though we were informed at home that it was "feeless"..Didnt wanna argue after such a long trip.thats the bad news .Good news was that we were upgraded to a Volvo S80.Cars are VERY expensive in Denmark so that was a real joy ( i looked it up here prices start at more than 100000$). Went to Nob hill motor inn. OK location but free parking was totally filled and parking spaces were TINY.Did not feel comfotable trying to park in those spaces.So we didnt .We had reservations but they somehow were mixed up so they just had one room available..??They managed to find one other for one night (a suite) ,but we had to change motels.Not fun..but ok because our room was just SOOOO small.Switched to a motel nearby "manor inn" or something. Much better in every way. First full day we went to wrentham shopping outlet because several in our party did not bring a jacket...??? i wondered !!!. "we didnt expect it to be so cold"..was answer???.This outlet just has some awesome bargains..actually went to one when we were in LA to. Took Alcatraz night tour .Entertaning and very educational. Took tourbus also a nice experience but a bit cold since “bus” was open on the sides.I really wanna love San francisco but somehow it just doesnt succed in stealing my hart.Allthough we did have an awesome dinner at a vietnamese resturant .Food were excellent and prices were a total bargain well at least to us danes.Going out here is pretty expensive.Took a very nice day trip to the wine country to.first day with warm weather..Were are just suckers for sun..
After a few days we went down hwy 1.We went in the morning so view was very foggy ..big mistake because we missed the nice view .We went to Monterey bay aquarium but didnt enter since lines were miles long and we have a date with a whale watching boat. Did the whale watch which was great .Took like a millon pictures ,but those bastards are to fast to get really good prictures. Saw humpback whales “mother and "kid"” which we were told was unusual to get so close to.
Was told that a dane was working on the boat as a whale experts,what a small world.But unfurtunately she was off duty that day.Stayed at a motel 6 miles from monterey can’t remember name .Motel was fine but location was bad..Next morning went down hwy 1 again to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle .Very beautifull took the first timer tour which was fine .We discussed to take one more but wanted to see the surrounddings instead BIG mistakes.The place was so boring with NOTHING to do (didnt wanna drive to other city so we just decided to sat and relax)..Only big planning mistake on trip was choosing to stay at motel 6 in San Simoen.Should have stayed somewhere with more to do and see.Like anywhere else..
Went to Solvand as stated .Just a fun lunch stop .It was nice and funny.and actually looked like Denmark ...300 years ago. Had a traditional danish lunch. Not totally authentic but close. Proceeded to Santa Barbara.Very nice place should have stayed there 2 nights instead of the San Simeon place.Motel was mediocre ,but town was wonderfull .we all were sorry that we didnt plan more time in the city.Then LA. We booked Travellodge on pico boulevard.Nice hotel but location was a little out of the way.Traveling by car was neccesery all the time .But Ok we were prepared for that. Saw Getty Center ,nice but sine we are not big on art it was a 2 hour stop. So we went to hollywood bouleward .Yeah i know tacky touristy thing but we had to see it .. It was ok and nothing more.Next day we went to Magic mountains .1 from the party was a rollercoaster freak,but i think he got his urge satisfied..Almost tried them all,but he had nigthmares about those coasters all night.A Warner bros studio trip was planned ,but was changed last minute to universal studios instead dont ask me why ,it was not my first pick since i have been there once.But we had a VERY nice day ,tried all the rides and went home when they had to kick us out. 4 adults going crazy in a theme park..weird but very fun.We found a new favorite place to eat American pizza i suppose was the name.Every dish we had was delicius and inexpensive. So went packed the car and drove to bright angel lodge in grand canyon.Cheap but not a motel i would recomend. 2. trip to Grand Canyon but it was stilll awesome.Saw the IMAX also.Thats worthwhile to.Took the traditional helicopter trip over the South rim ,nice experince .Although i didnt enjoy it SOOO much since i am NOT fond of flying,especially after the very turbulent trip we from Denmark to SFO.Seatbelt sign was lit 90% of the 15 hours trip..NOT FUN when flying is not your favorite in the first place.Then we went to VEGAS stayed at the Venetian.Lovely hotel and a fun city.I was amased how fast vegas is changing.We were there last year to ,but so many new things were happing already..Did the traditional hotel hopping and just relaxed and had fun.We ended the trip with a Celine Dion concert.It was nice and very proffesionally done .She is a great singer .Next morgen up at 4 o’clock to fly home...
Another flying nightmare...dont understand ,i have been flying quite alot .but have never experinced so much turbulence before..

Hope you can understand dispite mispellings and grammer errors.

Feel free to ask questions

BoniseA

Thank you for the great trip report. It's fun to read about the US from an outside perspective.

NeoPatrick

I particularly appreciated your point of view of Solvang. Having been to Denmark myself, I decided it had NO RESEMBLANCE to Denmark -- but of course, I wouldn't know about 300 years ago.

P_M

Thank you for this report. No need to apologize for any misspellings, I appreciate the effort of writing a report in another language. I am always interested in the opinions of visitors to our country. I hope you will come back soon.

BDE

Thanks for the kind words.
Everybody in our party loved the trip alot. I personally have been 4 times in the US but 2 of party were first timers .It was actually fún to relive "the first time experience thru them". I think first time is special.I know we liked some very touristy stuff,but its so diffent than here ,and that makes it interesting.It wouldnt be fun if it was here.Everybody would go back without any questions if budget allowed it.Especially the "first timers" were extremly pleasently supprised .They actually admitted they were alittle nervus before going. Now they are very eager to go back.
I am almost sure its NOT our last trip.But next time we will visit east coast..We love New York city.

NeoPatrick:what did u think of denmark.

NeoPatrick

We were there in 1999, so things may have changed a lot.

To be honest I found Copenhagen very disappointing compared to the other capitals of Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki. The public areas were jammed with tattooed metallic laden druggies doing their thing out in public. It was an eye-opener for me. And I don't recall ever visiting a major city that had so much trash everywhere. I'd step in Kentucky Fried chicken boxes with bones in them, soft drink cups, you name it.

But Tivoli gardens was beautiful, especially at night. And I loved the little restaurants along Nyhaven. We stayed in a lovely smallish hotel I think called Opera. We enjoyed walking up the spiral of that tower in the city center (sorry, forget what that was). I remember being amazed at how small the "little mermaid" sculpture was.

We also spent a few nights in Odense and found it more enchanting (and certainly cleaner) than Copenhagen. The countryside was beautiful.

P_M

Neo, sorry to hear you were disappointed in Copenhagen. My experience was completely different.

I visited Copenhagen in 2001 and 2003. Both times I thought it was the most enchanting city, like something out of a fairy tale. Copenhagen was my favorite Scandinavian city, with Stockholm running a close second. I don't recall seeing a lot of trash, but I probably wasn't looking. Maybe the street cleaning services improved between Neo's visit and mine. On both visits I went to Tivoli and absolutely loved it.

I found the Danish people to be kind, friendly and helpful. And I must say, the Danes are the most attractive people I've even seen.

LCBoniti

BDE -
Thank you so much for this trip report. It is a joy to hear your perspective on places we tend to take for granted. And since you enjoyed the "touristy" things so much, I won't feel guilty about enjoying the "touristy" things when I go to Europe.

Please do come again.
Linda

BDE

I am supprised to hear that you found it dirty.I would n ormally call Copenhagen pretty clean ,but of course sometimes you find more rubbish than others.Copenhagen is a very small town comparing to almost any major city in Europe or US .Me and my girlfriend often wonder what people do when they visit Copenhagen.Besides very few tourist attractions ,i would find it hard to suggest what to do.Because things are så small and with no focus on entertaning visitors.The reason i (and many other danes )like to travel in the US is that there are SOOOO many attrations and they are almost all "extreme/overthetop" compared to anything in europe.
By the way the round tower is called round tower in danish (Rundetårn)the only fact that makes it interesting is that they startet building it in 1637.And its still going strong.
Actually we make fun with the fact that many tourist think mermaid is small. I think its specially US citizens who want everything to be big.
We dont have many BIG attractions here ,but i think we feel that what we lack in size we have in ambience..But its hard to really feel that in a 2 day visit.

NeoPatrick

Hmmm. I went back to my journal and started reading. I see that I noted there was some big rock festival in Copenhagen we were there. That may explain a lot -- including the mobs of degenerates shooting up in the town squares and all the trash as they seemed to all be living on the streets. So admittedly, I may not have gotten a "real" impression of the city.

Sorry to hijack the California thread, BDE, but YOU asked. LOL

BDE

No worries NEO.

As u say i asked.