It's Tower Tuesday

If you have been following a few of my recent posts, then you know I am trying to take 1 day a week off from the nursing home and have a little "me" time.  I have been wanting to see The Forest Tower  for a long time and I finally decided to do it today.  I really didn't want to go alone but..........  And then I remembered that Lyuboslav was in town.  So I called Lars and Nasko and asked if the 3 of them would like to go to The Forest Tower.  It turned out that Lars had to work but Nasko and his nephew Lyuboslav, whom is visiting from Bulgaria, were able to make it.  So the 3 of us piled into my car and off we go.  In just under 1 hour, 70½ km /44 mi, we are there.  And it was way more than I was expecting.  Even the restroom was exciting - as far as interior design goes. I had several phots of the restroom but I must have accidently flushed them.

Between the 3 of us, we must have snapped 400 photos.  Here are a few of them.

This is the entrance. 

 You buy your ticket at the ticket booth in the parking lot 

and then you scan it at the turnstile.

Just 12 steps from the start, you are directed to

cross this bridge.  It is surprisingly high.  Or maybe

I should say that surprising low is a small stream flowing.

We are towards the end of summer and having a

dry spell.  By the looks of it, it is more of a gushing

stream when the snow melts.

This is amazing. The trail to the tower

is a wooden boardwalk, raised above

the forest floor.

And it's one way path 

with lots of twists and turns, 

ups and downs, 

and a cute tunnel now and then.

There are even a few loop-de-doos.

Nasko whips out his GPS because we are not

sure which way to go.

Then all hell breaks loose when we hit a cross in the road.

-

Eventually, we see that we are about to approach the tower.

We're getting closer.

-

After a long hike through the woods, 

I take a little break and lean back

to admire the wild construction 

before making the big climb.

It's completely crazy.

Like something a kid wound design 

in 4th grade art class.

We are all so excited and 

now looking forward to the big climb.

That's me in there just getting started.

Come take a walk to the top

along with us.

Check out this video.

When we get to the top, we discover all kinds of 

distance markers.

I have 7 more of these but you get the idea.

Think of a major destination and there was a little

tag showing how many kilometers away it is.

The only one I couldn't find was Los Angeles :-(

It's 8,950 kilometers away, but you probably already knew that.

And there was info about how high up we were.  

Not very - because Denmark is mostly flat.

We were so lucky.  We arrived kind of late to the parking lot but it was perfect timing because when we left Copenhagen, it was cold and cloudy.  It looked like it was going to rain.  After we got out of the car and bought our tickets, (thank you Nasko) I insisted we first get a coffee and danish.  Almost like clock-work, as soon as we were ready to start our journey, the clouds started breaking up.  I thought it was kind of odd that we didn't see anyone else making the trip to the tower.  There were plenty of tourist eating lunch while we were just starting our morning coffee.  We eventually did see a few tourist at the tower and what luck; as we were hiking up, lots of people were coming down.  When we got to the top, the last few tourist were leaving and the 3 of us had the top of the tower to ourselves.  It was so exciting and fun.  And the sun was really giving us all it could.  It was wonderful.

I'm to the top first.  Nasko and Lyuboslav were calculating every corner ;-) on the way up.

Yes, the higher we climbed, the windier it got.

And now we are all at the top and completely wowed by 

the structure and the view.

Now it's getting to be late afternoon.

The wind is really picking up.

And we have pretty much taken 

1000 photos and videos from the top.

So we easily and gently make our way 

back down to the base.

Once we get to the bottom, we come to a big info/history sign.

This will probably bore you but it's very interesting for me.

The plinths are molded at the foundation.

The temporary inner tower's first 15 meter is mounted.
The temporary inner tower stabilizes the diagrid and the
platform works as a workstation for the craftsmen.

The first elements are fixed at the plinths
and are stabilized by the temporary inner tower. 
The tower's elements are now 15 meters high
and weigh between 5 and 6 tons.

The elements of the middle section are mounted by cranes.
The welding should not be exposed to rain and wind and the
small "treehouses" at the sides are cabins the welders can work in.

The welding is taking place at the platforms.
The welder to the left is working for within
one of the "treehouse" cabins.

The temporary inner tower has a height of
45 meters and the first elements of the upper
section have been lifted and mounted.

The temporary inner tower has been dismantled and the
outer construction/Diagrid is standing on its own.
In the first third of The Forest Tower,
there have been ramps mounted. 
The ramps in the lower part have been
lifted by a crane within the center of the tower.

A ramp element weighing approximately 2 tons is lifted.
The top ramp elements are being lifted from the outside
of the tower and mounted internally.

The last ramp element has been fixed and there 
is a well-deserved celebration !

And if you read all the way this far, you deserve a little celebration  yourself.