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Ha! I have that exact same back scratcher, my husband got tired of me waking him up to scratch my back; bought it in Canada at Niagara Falls.

Day 11: Tues, June 13th : Travel day! From Aarhus, Denmark, all the way to Oslo, Norway! here's the route we'd be taking. . . crossing the Skagerrak (a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the east coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea. (thanks Wikipedia)) via ferry during the trip. a few pics from the bus, as we headed North in Denmark towards the ferry still very pretty, an reminds me of portions of the USA. and coming up on the Ferry terminal, there's a huge Truck Stop. . . so not just in America Color Line is the high speed ferry we would be on. . tho if I'm recalling correctly, the crossing still took ~4 1/2 hours there's our ferry terminal! and there's our ship. the way the Ferry works, is that passengers have to all unload from their vehicles, and go into the Terminal (which works very much like a bus or airport terminal) while the driver of the vehicle (mainly busses or large trucks) pull the vehicle into the bottom level of the ship. a big rock, with an image of a ferry carved into it. no idea, as I didn't bother to get a pic of the plaque that was with it explaining what it is. . . .LOL Into the terminal! where they have a model of their Ferry (ferries, as there are more than 1) on display. we waited in the lobby area until they called our gate. noted! another Ferry.. similar to ours, but not ours. WOW. . this was not what I was expecting. It's a miniature cruise ship!! with artwork a central atrium and lots of places to relax, and some things to do. . . including several gift shops, a duty free area, a large quick serve restaurant, a huge buffet/dining room area, and even a casino. Elissa had reserved us all seats in the dining room, which meant we had access to the buffet for the whole crossing. . . was really good food and I ate way too much. but what a nice experience. from one of our reserved tables in the dining room my seat for the crossing and we're off! getting up to walk around the ship (after eating something of course), this is the back end of the ship - they have deck areas for folks to sit out on - not everyone reserves a seat and so they can sit in any "non-exclusive" area during the journey. and you can see the line of trucks on the decks below us. to the right here, was a Casino that connected via spiral staircase to the bar that's right below me inside. I did play for a little bit, but was so wary about playing with $$ that I wasn't sure exactly what it translated to in American, that I only played slots until I won back slightly over what I had put in, then cashed out and walked away. this area on the top level (close to the casino) are the Voyager Class reserved seating yeah. . basically 1st class. tho it didn't appear very full on this sailing. tho the dining room tables were pretty full - so those are the reserved seats to get. . . of course, with food. a sister ship, heading the opposite direction. checking out the Duty Free store. no, I was not even tempted to try Duck Confit in a can. but I was amused enough to want a pic with it I regret not buying this tho. . .I really should have. tho THIS? I did buy. it's a magnet that has all 4 Scandi countries we were going to. . so figured it's a perfect "overall" souvenir . . even tho I bought plenty of Country specific magnets too. when I asked her, the lady in the shop explained to me what "the ugly screaming baby" was - as that image was on a lot of magnets/postcards/mugs. and she told me it's a famous Sculpture called "the Angry Baby" in a Sculpture Garden in Oslo, and wrote down the address for me (which was great as we'd have some sightseeing time in Oslo tonight). she *didn't* mention to me how Sexual the sculptures in that garden were.. which is funny, as that would have been MORE of a selling point for me to want to go see em. back to the dining room for some more food. . . and a pic of the Lego Ship models they had on display on top of the buffet. this translates as "your Dad". .and was so odd - he's elbowing the woman in the face to hold up the kid! - I just had to snap a pic. what's that in the distance? is that Norway? (actually, I believe that's Sweden. . we're gonna make a hard right to get to Norway) there it is! getting closer, they announce that it's time to re-board your vehicles, and everyone starts streaming down the stairwells to the lower levels. umm. . a bit snug. . . glad I'm not TOO claustrophobic. huh. . Norway looks a lot like Denmark. . go figure Coming into Oslo, proper now. . . the Capital of Norway. the streets are pretty snug, and parking is at premium.. so our driver parked the bus a few blocks and we walked thru the center of Oslo to get to our Hotel. . . which was right in the middle of everything (great planning by Elissa!), including being attached to the main train station depot. hard to get lost, when one just has to follow Shellie Mae ! that's where we're headed: the Comfort Hotel with several statues surrounding it. . such as this one: Thor's Hammer it wasn't even 7pm yet, and plenty of time to do some sightseeing once we were checked in, since the sun wasnt' going to set until well after 11pm. looking across the plaza from in front of the hotel . .that' the famous Oslo Opera House. inside the lobby of this amazing Hotel. . .as mentioned, it's built around the Central Train Station in Olso, so it's attached to a huge mall. and has long corridors and many steps to get to the rooms. . which are very "industrial" and unique. i loved the artwork in the Hotel Lobby. and the minimalist/industrial fixtures in the lobby area room keys handed out, we headed up to our rooms. . . here's the door to our room. and one of the long hallways to get to it. see those windows on the left? they look out into the central train station ! pretty impressive, huh? we were only here for 1 night, but I really liked this funky hotel. bags dropped, it was time to go exploring. . . next update hopefully soon!

quickie follow up before we went to bed. . as in the morning we'd be leaving Denmark, on our way to Norway via ferry. .. but when we got back from Legoland, it was still fairly early (I think perhaps 7:30 or so). . . .and some of the folks were hungry. although I'd had a big lunch, I'm always up for hanging out, so I joined Jon & Jason for a walk around the neighborhood to see what was avail. we ended up finding a mostly deserted (I guess 8pm was late on a Monday) Sushi Place that was still open. The proprietor spoke no English at all - and seemingly no Danish either. Luckily, I knew a small bit of Japanese . . . oh let's be honest, we were successful because the place had pictures of all the Sushi on the wall for a menu, and one only had to point at what one wanted. I'd assume that's how they got around the language barrier for any customer it was SO good. after eating we headed back to the Zleep Hotel for our last night in Aarhus, and I spotted a "Pride" bench. a Photo op? yes please: I made Daniel proud, and I even did "the Method" on the bench: and then it was back to the hotel, where I believe we joined in the lobby to share some wine with folks saying goodbye to Caroline - who was heading home in the morning. and then off to bed. big travel day tomorrow!