VTVoyagers

Sunday was the final day of the championships, and featured the cones precision course. Suzy and Bouncer did great -- they had a clean run-through, and didn't knock over any balls on the cones. They did have a slight time penalty. Overall they finished ninth in the single pony division with 142.85 points. Shelley Temple, our other U.S. single pony driver, finished just behind Suzy at 10th. The single pony medals went to Peter Koux of Denmark (gold), Anne-Christine Ardvisson of Sweden (silver), and Sarah Howe of Great Britain (bronze). Randi Cadwell of the USA went on to take the overall gold medal in pony pairs. Lisa Stroud of the USA pulled into fourth place with her four-in-hand, and Laurie Astegiano, another US four-in-hand driver, was not far behind in seventh. The USA team earned their ... read more

Today we ventured to the town of Hillerod to visit Frederiksborg Slot (pronounced “slut”). Before anyone gets the wrong idea, you should know that “slot” is the Danish word for castle. Talk about a real life Cinderella Castle. It was built in the early 1600s by King Christian the 4th, who was, judging by several portraits of him in the castle, a big burly man with a haircut like Prince Valiant. Everything but the chapel burned down in 1859, but was rebuilt with painstaking accuracy soon afterward with financial support from the founder of Carlsberg brewery. The pictures speak louder than words but suffice to say that this castle was incredibly impressive. From a chairlift on the top floor that helped the King to descend to lower floors, to the double set of iron doors on ... read more

We got up bright and early this morning to pack up our belongings to return back to Denmark. Johan and Charlotte were so kind as to give us another delicious breakfast. Then Johan and Princess Olivia accompanied us to the train station. After waving our goodbyes, Seth and I settled into two seats next to two little boys. Their sisters were sitting across from us, and we soon realized that we were lucky to sit with the boys. Some poor fellow had to sit with the girls and endure being harassed by the little one, who yelled “Halloooo!” as she kicked him in the knee multiple times. We really enjoyed our time in Sweden, and won’t soon forget it! Everyone is tall and good-looking, and I think we could count the number of fat people we ... read more

Today we made one last foray into Copenhagen before we rode the train under the Oresund bridge to Malmo to meet our friends Johan and Charlotte, and their daughter Olivia. We met in the Train Station and walked over to the "Little Square" for lunch. Then we went back to their apartment and got settled in. Later that night we went out for a delicious dinner and some coffee. We walked through their local park and also walked down by the beach for a while. The sun didn’t go down until 11 PM! Tomorrow night is the soccer game, and Seth can't wait! I just wanted to add some of my thoughts and observations to what Vicki already posted. It is often the little differences that I find the most interesting. For instance, the flushing mechanism ... read more

We departed Richmond this morning at 10:30 (props to Heather Scott for delivering us to the airport!). After arriving at Newark Airport’s International Terminal, we killed the 5.5 hours between flights by eating lunch, people watching (which included Dee Snider, lead singer of Twisted Sister, best known for their anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It”), and then spending two hours in the Miller pub competing in our own personal Travel Sequence Tournament. It was a fast-paced series of games, but Seth emerged as the victor. At 5:30 we were up in the air on our way to Copenhagen. ... read more