|
Scandinavia is made up of the northern European countries of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. It is characterized as clean, friendly and efficient. The Scandinavian people are mostly fair skinned and blond and have the charming accents like you may have heard in the movie Fargo. I am very excited to visit the coastal cities of Copenhagen and Oslo as well as the fjords of Norway. We may also take a cruise up the coast of Norway into the Artic Circle. It will depend on the weather. I also look forward to visiting our friend Robert (who we met in Egypt) in Stockholm, Sweden. Follow my travelogue through Scandinavia, beginning with Denmark. DENMARK:
COPENHAGEN: DEN-MOCRACY AT IT'S FINEST Wednesday, August 23, 2000 Today was Free day. After enjoying a very comfortable night train ride from Germany, we arrived this morning at 10:00 am to a beautiful day in the Scandinavian city of Copenhagen...or KØBENHAVN as it is known by the Danish people who live here. We are staying at the private home of Solveig Diderichsen, and we are very pleased with the accommodations and Solveig. Although our guidebook described her as "rude, distracted and unreliable", we found her to be friendly, helpful and quite hospitable. Her home is sparkling clean (unlike Marta's home in Budapest) and we even have a television in our room. After a quick clean-up, Rich and I dived right into the city of Copenhagen. This is when the freebies began. Wednesday is free museum day in Copenhagen. We are a little tired of museums, but we could not resist the opportunity to visit two of the finest museums in Denmark, especially since they were free. We raced through the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek museum as we took in Egyptian and Greek sculptures and admired the artistic works of Delacroix. Manet, Monet, Gauguin and Picasso, to name just a few. After that, we hit the major attractions in the National Museum which also offered a free audio guide. After our museum tours, we hopped onto a boat and toured the city from the canals. While the boat ride was not free, it was close to it at $2.50 for an hour and one half guided tour. We walked around the cobbled stone pedestrian streets during the evening and enjoyed a ride on the free bikes that can be found all around the city. We eventually grew tired and decided to take the S-train back to Solveig's house. By the way, the train ride back...free.. because we have our Inter-rail pass that we had validated for our train ride last night. Copenhagen is a beautiful place. We are very happy to be here and would not miss the opportunity for even ten times the free prices.
Friday, August 25, 2000 We just left Copenhagen this afternoon, and we are on a train to Oslo, Norway. We have just entered Norway, and I am very impressed. The scenery is very fresh and lovely. All we see is pine trees, lakes and rolling green pastures peppered with quaint farmhouses and villages. Rich put it very well when he said that it reminds him of the upper peninsula of Michigan or Canada. We have had a very nice day. The weather is sunny and warm, we have managed to have our own train compartment for most of the ride and, most importantly, I beat Rich at chess.
NORWAY: LAND OF FJORDS AND TROLLS TRAIN FROM OSLO TO ÅNDALSNES: STUNNING LANDSCAPE Monday, August 28, 2000 Life is very good. We had a great time in Oslo. The weather was mostly sunny and the temperature reminded us of an October football Saturday in East Lansing, Michigan. We spent 12 hours each day seeing the sights, walking the streets, and cruising on the harbor. We only took a 15 minute break each day to eat our picnic lunches and then we were off again to explore. The city was very alive. People were everywhere walking the streets and hanging out at the harbor. After all, it was the weekend and the weather was beautiful. The highlights of our Oslo visit were: The Viking Ships Museum, the Flam museum which houses the ship, FLAM (which sailed the furthest north and the furthest south than any other conventional ship in the world), the Kon Tiki museum (which houses a balsa raft that Thor Heyerdahl sailed from Peru to Polynesia and another raft that he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados), the Homenkollen ski jump which sits way above Oslo on a hill, Vigeland Park and National Gallery which houses Edvard Munch's famous Scream painting. Another highlight was just walking around and watching the people of Norway enjoy the crisp, sunny days. We are now on a train to Åndalsnes, where we will explore the fjords. The views on this train ride are spectacular. Beautiful lakes, hills, tall trees, farms, charming farm houses and small villages here and there. It is times like this that I realize how luck we are to have this opportunity to see the world. The train has just stopped in Lillehammer. The 1994 Olympics were here. It is hard to imagine that so many people gathered here for the Olympic games. A blond headed Scandinavian boy is riding his bike next to the train. However, he is not able to keep up with the sleek Signature train which we are on.
COASTAL STEAMER TO THE LOFOTEN ISLANDS Friday, September 1, 2000 We just arrived to Stamsund in the Lofoton Islands, our final destination on the Nordlys Hurtigruten Coastal Steamer. The Coastal Steamer is a large ship that travels north up the western coast of Norway into the Arctic Circle and all the way up to the North Cape and beyond. While we did not take the steamer all of the way up to the North Cape, we decided to get off at the beautiful Lofoton Islands. We jumped on board the steamer at Ålesund for a three day (two night) cruise up the coast. The steamer cruises are very easy. A ship goes through each port daily, so you can jump on and off the ships and pay accordingly. When we boarded the ship, things were a little chaotic. I was waiting in the wrong line, and a nice woman came up to me to let me know. The woman's name was Jan, and she and her husband, Dave, became good friends while we cruised up the coast. Jan and Dave are professional journalists and photographers who get to travel to these wonderful destinations and earn money while doing so. We also met Ennio, a young man from Italy, shortly after we boarded. Ennio also became a good friend. In fact, Ennio is still with us here in Stamsund. Our first day on the cruise was very foggy, rainy and cold. This was a shame, because it was the day that we sailed through the Geiranger Fjords, which is supposed to be one of the finest fjords in Norway. While the fog added a sort of mystique to the day, it did hamper visibility quite a bit. Jan offered me a ticket on the afternoon excursion since Dave was going to stay on the boat and work. I went with her on a beautiful bus ride which took us for fine views above the fjord and into the Norwegian countryside. It was very nice. The following day was warm and sunny. We started the morning on shore in the town of Trondheim. Rich and I found free bikes again which allowed us to explore the town in a short amount of time. Soon the ship set sail again, and we enjoyed the afternoon on the deck as we watched the coastal landscape come and go and come and go. In the evening, we joined Jan and Dave, and they treated us to cocktails in the Sirius Lounge. We had a fun time. Our last day on the Nordlys was a very warm one, even though the weather was quite cold outside. What I mean is that we enjoyed the warm and friendly company of so many nice people. After a fun stop in Bodo with our three young bachelor friends that we met on the boat (Ennio, Erez and Yoni), we boarded the ship only to be greeted with an invitation from Inge, a Norwegian fisherman who we met the day before, to join him for beer and shrimp sandwiches. He went and purchased the treats in Bodo just for us. We had a great time enjoying the beer and sandwiches and talking with this generous and friendly man for several hours. While we were talking with Inge about Norway, fishing and family, our friend Dave, the English Professor who specializes in Ancient Roman history, joined in on the conversation. Dave is a very interesting man, and he kept the table laughing. Finally, Ennio joined the table and we had a hodge podge of nationalities, professions, backgrounds, interests, ages and personalities sitting around the table. We had a great time. We are still very grateful to Inge for his generosity and thoughtfulness.
Inge told us that the Norwegians enjoy these shrimp sandwiches on Saturday. We told him it was Friday, and he told us to pretend. He instructed us on how to prepare the sandwich: Spread butter on white bread, then smother with mayonnaise and, finally, top with loads of shrimp.
Alas, we could not leave before saying good bye to Jan and Dave. They were a lot of fun. We look forward to visiting them in New Mexico and staying in their guest Tee Pee.
Saturday, September 2, 2000 I beat Rich at another game of Chess.
STOCKHOLM: BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN, SAFE AND SAVVY Friday, September 8, 2000 When I was young, I asked my Grandpa Fortin (who had traveled a lot) where was his favorite travel destination? He did not hesitate when he answered my question, "Stockholm, Sweden". Well Grandpa, if you are up there reading this journal entry, let me tell you, "I could not agree with you more." Add Stockholm to the list of cities in which we could live and work. While Rich and I were in Egypt, we met a very nice man named Robert Karjel and his daughter, Josephine. Robert was very nice to us, and he offered his hospitality to us if we ever came to Stockholm. We told him that we would see him in a few months. Recently, we sent Robert an e-mail about our upcoming arrival to the city, and he was so kind in assuring us that we were welcome to stay in his home. So here we are. Robert has a beautiful family. His met wife, Ingela, while they were in high school. They have since married and now have two beautiful daughters named Josephine and Elvira. Ingela is a physical therapist at one of the largest hospitals in the country. Robert is a fighter pilot who now flies helicopters for the Navy. His responsibilities include rescue missions. He recently coordinated the rescue mission for the ferry which went down into the Baltic Sea on its way to Estonia. You may have read about it in the papers. Robert is also a best selling author. Now that is pretty cool, huh? So, you may ask, what are nice, responsible people like Robert and Ingela doing with slackers like us? We do not know either. We do know that we are quite fortunate to have them as friends. Robert and Ingela showed us a great time while we were here in Stockholm. They took us to a fancy Italian restaurant and cooked us a delicious stir fry dinner. They also stayed up late talking to us even though they had much more important things to do. While we were not bothering Robert and Ingela, we were out exploring Stockholm. Rich and I enjoyed walking the old and narrow cobble stone streets of Gamla Stan, the oldest and most stunning part of Stockholm. We also took a few boat rides through the canals and out into the sea. We also climbed City Hall for great views of the city. Tonight was Friday night. The streets were busy with Stockholmers celebrating the end of their work/school week. Everyone was dressed very fashionable as they walked down the streets with friends, headed for either a pub, restaurant, movie theater or a scavenger hunt, as we saw several school groups doing. We walked all over the place, and we never saw a dodgy area or a bum. Stockholmers take great pride in their city. As a resident of Stockholm and Sweden, Robert shares in this city and country pride. He was very knowledgeable of the famous people and establishments that came from Sweden, such as: Alfred Nobel (inventor of Dynamite and the namesake of the various Nobel Prizes), Bjorn Borg (the tennis player), the Ericcson phone company, and car makers: Saab and Volvo. Robert also told us about the differences between the Swedish mentality and the American mentality. Robert lived in the USA as an exchange student for his senior year in high school. He was introduced to many of the cultural differences then. First, he learned that Americans do not wear Speedo swim suits. Second he learned about American sincerity. In Sweden, when you say anything, you are sincere about it. For example, in Sweden, if you say, "Let's go see a movie some time", you mean that soon you really will go and see a movie sometime very soon. Of course, in America, it is a lot less definite. Robert had his feelings hurt several times over these casual proposals, because he took one quite literally. Robert also told us about his first day at the American high school. Yes, Sweden is a pretty sweet place. We are very happy that we came.
|
|
2 Go Maps / 2 Go Actual Itinerary / 2 Go Photos / 2 Go Home Page
PLEASE E-MAIL US. . . WE WOULD LOVE 2 HEAR FROM YOU!
©1999-2001 Kelly and Rich Willis. All rights reserved. |
