Next group of osders request for photos

[rkestner]

OK!  there appears to be a number of you folks going over in the next month or two, with some of you actually planning to meet/cross paths.  i have a request:  PLEASE shoot plenty of pictures!  Shoot pictures of everything-the 'test track', the fdc staff, the displays in the fdc, your lunch room experience, unusual volvos you see, the showers at the fdc, the child's playroom at fdc, the radisson, the road signs, the 'butik', etc., etc., etc.    
i was terribly disappointed at the lack of information, including photos, on the web before my wife and i made our trip last september.  i did what i could to answer all the questions that i had by putting up our story at www.virtualtourist.com, member homepage=RichardBlaine.  i hope the info i shared is helpful to any and all of you going in the future.
when you get back, please share your experience and photos.  as most of you know, the osd is a dynamic program that changes with the times.  i have the impression that we are currently in a period of maximum return for our dollars through osd.  enjoy and document!

thanks

rich kestner & future osd folks

[AutoMonkey]

I will definitely take and share some pics of Sweden and the new Monkeymobile. I received my order confirmation yesterday http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif and we are planning to be there in mid March.

Rich, thanks for your web page - I enjoyed sharing your adventures

AutoMonkey

[Low Tide]

Automonkey,

Do you have a date specifically for Delivery?  

Someone keeping track and have a list.  

We will  ALL do our best to document stuff.  Maybe we can break up the task- Who want to volunteer for the shower pics?  http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/happy.gif  http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sly.gif  Test lab & Cafe?  http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/alien.gif

[barrysharp]

Talking about taking pictures of the FDC showers reminded me of my trip to Manchester UK last May. I visited the Lowry museum and in this museum they have a very modern looking and colourful restroom. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before -- mirrors everywhere, blues, yellows, reds, white and lot of recessed and indirect lighting -- very impressive. No person was about and so I started taking digi pictures so I would have a record of what I was seeing. I didn't notice until toward the end of my picture shooting that people had started collecting about and I felt quite foolish, smiled some and hurried out http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Having said that I don't volunteer for taking pics of FDC shower rooms -- I've done my stint http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/hehe.gif

Maybe I should post one of the Lowry loo pics -- and by the way, Manchester downtown is quite a rowdy town (was when I was there) with people shouting and singing to 3am in the morning.

[AutoMonkey]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Automonkey, Do you have a date specifically for Delivery?
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

I plan to pick up on Friday 14th and return it on the following Monday, after spending the weekend driving around the Swedish countryside. No fixed plans yet, but it will be a DIY schedule rather than one of Volvo&#39;s prepackaged tours.

AutoMonkey

[Low Tide]

Might see you on Monday- that&#39;s our pickup date- 17th. &nbsp;I think all the Monday&#39;s and Friday&#39;s for the month are definately covered by the XC70.com group, let alone the MANY OSD&#39;s outside of the forum.

[barrysharp]

My son and I will make every effort to take tons of pics and movies of the complete OSD/FDC experience. My son is in the filming business so he will make an excellent camera man for me http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I&#39;ll even offer to mail out CDs with all the stuff on if requested. CD-Rs are so cheap these days. For a small fee I&#39;ll even burn DVD-Rs for those that can play them. DVD picture quality is very much superior to CD-Rs and Video CDs.

Maybe coastal can let us know if we could mail in CDs for him to post on his site rather than hosting the images ourselves or having to upload them to his site. What do you say coastal?

[rkestner]

just got my copy of the dockhouse/volvo osd dvd in the mail from sweden. &nbsp;might be available at your dealer.

[hordtheviking]

rkestner, what is that DVD that you got about?

Also, many thanks for your virtualtourist.com site, it&#39;s very good and extremely helpful. &nbsp;Finally, I promise to take lots of pics and post them asap on my return.

[evolvolution70]

I just know that I&#39;m going to end up taking pictures of everything and anything . I can take up to 3000 pictures on my Digicam depending on what quality setting I set. So after my 14 days I&#39;ll probably have hundreds and hundreds of pictures (well obviously not all of them will be FDC and volvo-related - I will however formulate some kind of an informational page or something of that sort). I&#39;m picking up June 12th.

[MGC]

evolvolution70, we were also in Europe for 15 days and I&#39;m like you that I take allot of photos. &nbsp;We just returned on April 11th and I have not had allot of time yet to do the photo editing that is needed. &nbsp;

Where are you planning to go? &nbsp;Have you been to Europe before?
If you are going south to Copenhagen or Northern Germany and are interested in what we found interesting let me know and I will gladly respond.

One thing that my wife did was to keep a diary of our daily adventures. &nbsp;This is a fun way to reflect back on your trip.

Have fun and enjoy your trip. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[evolvolution70]

MGC,

I&#39;m going to be visiting Stockholm, Copenhagen, then driving into northern germany, proceeding down south towards Frankfurt, then finally going to Brussels and Amsterdam. I&#39;ve been to Europe before several times. What did you like about Copenhagen? I&#39;m also particularly interested about Germany and what the driving is like in terms of scenery and speed, etc...

[Fairfax]

I haven&#39;t been to Germany, but we are planing our trip for June. I have a friend who is German and he recommended the Fairy Tale Road (do a Google search). He said it was a very scenic way to get south to the wine country. It winds between Hannover and Frankfort avoiding the autobahn. This could be perfect for breaking in our new cars, some steady revs on the autobaun mixed up with a few days of winding hilly roads.

Don&#39;t take your photos at too low a resolution, buy more media to store more. You will want to enjoy them for a long time.

[MGC]

evolvolution70

You are going to have a great trip and if it is as good as ours, it will be fabulous.

We found Denmark to be a very interesting and friendly place to visit. If you drive south from Gothenburg to Heisenberg, Sweden and take the 20 minute ferry ride to Hollinger, Denmark there is a charming castle on a point of land overlooking the city and the water passage between Denmark and Sweden. The castle is called Kronborg Slot (Elsinore Castle) also know as Shakespeare’s inspiration for Hamlet.
The old part of town in Helsingor is interesting to walk around with a lot of old buildings and narrow cobblestone streets.

Elsinore Castle
http://pics.montypics.com/MC/2003-04-21/1050988637_Hamlet_Castle_Backlit.jpg

If you continue south to Hillerod you will find Frederiksborg Slot, a very magnificent castle and museum. People told us this is one of the nicest castles in Europe.

If castles interest you, the above two along with the Rosenborg Slot in Copenhagen should not be missed. The Rosenborg Slot / Castle are the home for the Royal Crown Jewels of Denmark which are stored in a vault at the castle.

The castles were an experience that I truly enjoyed and each one was quite different.

In Copenhagen we enjoyed the Rosenborg Slot / castle and museum. You might want to check the times they are open for when we were there the open hours were short and they were closed on Monday’s. My wife enjoyed the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace which is called Amalineborg. In my opinion the changing of the guards in Denmark was far more enjoyable than what we experienced in London. It was a lot easier to see what was going on.

In Copenhagen there is a shopping / walking street called Stroget that is quite interesting. It is close to a mile long. Nyhavn street is a great area for cafes and is an area that I would call post card picture perfect. Copenhagen is a great city with a lot of museums a wonderful park called Trvoli and Copenhagen has very friendly people. I’m sure you will find lots to do in Copenhagen. There is a huge internet café in Copenhagen that has 108 computers.
Nyhavn Area
http://pics.montypics.com/MC/2003-04-21/1050988405_copenhagen.jpg

If you have the time drive to a town called Roskilde; here you will find the Viking Ship Museum. They have done a wonderful job with this museum in the partial reconstruction of 5 Viking Ships that date back the year 1000, they were found sunken in the inlet. It took over 20 years of preservation in order to put them on exhibit. Also in Roskilde is a church called Domkirke. Construction on this church started in 1170 and was completed in the 13 century. You will find the tombs of 38 kings and queens of Denmark in this church.

We did not venture very far south into Germany but did visit a very charming city by the name of Lubeck which is just North of Hamburg. We were told by a few people that not many Americans visit Lubeck for it is a little out of the way for most of the American tourist that visit Germany. If you are driving from Copenhagen it is worth the visit.

Lubeck has a lot of history, the churches and buildings are magnificent. Go to this web site to learn more about Lubeck.
http://www.travel-wise.com/europe/lubeck/

We had a very nice meal in a restaurant by the name of Markgraf. It is located at Fischergrube 18, 23552 Lubeck. The building the restaurant is in was built in 1330. Please be aware that Markgraf does not take credit cards so you might want to look at the menu before having dinner. We had a very good meal here and a wonderful desert.

This is the main gate to Lubeck.

http://pics.montypics.com/MC/2003-04-21/1050988709_Lubeck_for_e_mail.jpg

We took the train to Hamburg which was fun but I did not find Hamburg interesting. It is just a big city.

A couple of people mentioned that the towns of Lunenburg and Celle had old city centers and interesting building. Just outside of Celle is a former Nazi concentration camp by the name of Bergen-Belsen that has a memorial and information center. If we would have had the time I would have visited these places.

I&#39;m sure you are going to have alot of fun and enjoyable trip.

[mrb]

The walk from the Nyhavn area to the Little Mermaid is extremely relaxing and enjoyable. &nbsp;At the Little Mermaid there is an artist who has his painting of the Little Mermaid in beautiful color transferred to a White Baseball Cap. &nbsp;A nice remembrance to bring back.