They should call it Rainland

Reykjavik to Skógafoss 

Iceland had promised rain and boy did it deliver! We started our drive around the Golden Circle, the famous scenic route, hitting all the major sites and being welcomed with relentless rain at every stop. 

First stop was Thingvellir National Park which is the meeting point of two tectonic plates, it also happened to be the site of the world’s first legislative assembly. 

Next was the Geysir Geothermal Area where K watched the steam rising from the ground from inside the car, while M went out into the rain and waited to see a geyser spurt, though when it finally happened it wasn't that impressive. 

By the time we reached Gulfoss Falls K said she was has happy to see the spray from the waterfall from inside the gift shop and would hear about it from M on his return. He came back saying it was worth seeing and there was a lower road where it was possible to drive up close, so K managed to see the falls after all.

On the way to Kerid Crater we passed an Icleandic pony and rider and saw their unusual gait called the tölt. It was so wet and windy that the water cascading off the hills was being driven sideways. 

We arrived at our accommodation for the night at Skógafoss which was right next to the same named waterfall, which K was pleased could be seen from the car, and also from our small cabin.

Now with added rain

Reykjavík

We woke up extra early as we were still adjusting to the time difference of 3 hours with Finland. The forecast wasn’t good with rain predicted for the next two days. We drove into town and figured out how to pay for parking, which has been a challenge at times with so many different places using different apps and systems. 

We then battled the ferocious wind to join the city walking tour. Reykjavík is only small but has a really interesting history of how people came to live on Iceland. We learnt that they have an app that can trace the ancestry of an Icelander all the way back to the first settler, it comes in handy to check how closely related two people are before they agree to date .... and people think Tasmania has a problem! We were also told that Iceland is the third windiest place on earth, though the other two aren’t inhabited.

The showers had turned into rain by the time the walking tour ended so we spent the afternoon at Perlan, an interesting dome shaped, nature exploratorium which was very popular, as expected given the weather.

They should call it Windland

Helsinki (Finland) to Reykjavík (Iceland)

Staying at an airport hotel really makes a difference when you need to be up at 5am, and we were quite surprised that the airport was so busy so early. The flight to Reykjavík was almost 4 hours but with the time difference we arrived at 8.30am. 

The cool air was a bit of a shock after leaving 27 yesterday, it really wasn’t that cold, but as Iceland was just a "maybe" when we had left home we hadn't brought much cold weather gear with us. The wind was really strong, and we were warned at the car rental to be careful opening the car doors as the wind could snap them right off - not sure if this was meant to be a joke, he sounded serious though. 

The international airport is about 45 minutes from the city so we decided to stop along the way for a coffee, only to discover most places, including shops in large shopping centres, didn’t open until 11am, fortunately we did find a coffee place that was open. 

We drove around the harbour edge in Reykjavik, visited a few spots including an old lighthouse, as well as the local "beach" and thermal baths, where there were quite a few people, but we decided not to join them. 

We knew that Iceland was expensive but were still a little surprised to pay AU$25 for 2 small coffees and a scone. Next stop was the supermarket, time to stop eating out and do more self catering. With the weather so cold and windy at least we didn't feel like we were missing anything by staying at home.

Up the river

Helsinki/Porvoo

We checked out of our Helsinki hotel, leaving our luggage in storage, and headed down to the port to catch a boat to Porvoo. The boat was due to leave at 10am and we searched for a coffee but all the cafes we walked past didn’t open until 12 on Sundays, strange!

As the weather was so warm and the port area had been so busy yesterday we were worried that the boat would be very crowded. However that wasn't the case, we had plenty of room and a good view on the three and a half hour trip along the coast past lots of islands, and eventually up the river to Porvoo.

Porvoo was very nice with many cafes and restaurants lining the river. We had lunch by the river then wandered the old town for a while before catching the bus back to Helsinki. 

The bus trip was only 50 minutes but pretty warm without air conditioning, understandable though as it’s not something they would need much in this area.

We collected our luggage from our hotel and caught the train to Helsinki airport where we checked into the airport Hilton for the night, as we had a very early start the next day for our flight to Iceland. Time to put away our shorts and t-shirts, and probably our tans as well!

Mobile sauna anyone?

Helsinki

Amazing August weather today (for Finland in late August), there was an extreme heat announcement which is required whenever the forecast is expected to be over 25.

We headed towards the wharf area for a quick bite before our walking tour, managing to find along the way what could be the world's smallest escalator.

The wharf area was very busy compared to a few days ago, maybe because it’s the weekend and possibly the last good weather for many months.

Today’s walking tour was one of the better ones, with a little history, culture and everyday Finnish lifestyle, always a good mix. We always learn things on walking tours we would never figure out on our own. For example, near the wharf there's a normal looking ferris wheel, however we were told to look for the one carriage which is different to the rest, as it’s a sauna carriage! Another one is that some street corners have pictures of animals, such as a tiger or a unicorn. These were used back when much of the population were illiterate to signify street locations.

After the tour we visited a few of the places mentioned in the tour, one was the Helsinki library, which was a very popular spot.

Another was the Silent Chapel, which we must say looked better from the outside than the inside.

New northern record

Rovaniemi to Helsinki

We were leaving Rovaniemi today and had a bit of time before we had to return the car to the airport, so we decided to go for a drive out of town, and head north to see how far past the Arctic Circle we could get. We eventually stopped by a picturesque lake and turned around, having reached 66.726405° N.

After arriving back in Helsinki we caught the train to the same hotel we had used a few days ago, it was pretty easy as we knew our way around now. We headed back to the bar strip we had frequented earlier for a drink and dinner before calling it a night.

Crossing the Arctic Circle

Rovaniemi

We started the day where we had finished at 1am at the Arktikum, this time buying tickets and seeing the exhibitions about the Arctic Circle, animals, history and way of living. All very interesting and so different from anywhere we’ve been before.

It was then on to meet Santa Claus at his village right on the Arctic Circle, and sure enough there he was sitting in his chair by the fire…. fiddling on his phone. He told us how hot it was whenever he came to Australia and let K sit at his desk full of letters from children. 

After having our photo taken we wandered around the village until we found the Arctic Circle, now we have been across both the Antarctic and Arctic Circles. Overhead at the same time there was a fighter jet practicing some amazing manoeuvers that were incredible to watch. 

K wandered in to the Santa shopping village and in one of the shops the owner got irate with her taking a photo of a $5 Christmas tree bauble. He ordered her to delete it, which she did and said he would delete everything off her phone. He tried to grab the phone, grabbed her by the arm and swore at her! The other shop owners were quick to come to her aid, they called the Santa's Village manager, who then called the police. The manager and other shop owners were very keen to get K to lay criminal charges as they said this man had a history of this behavior, had been spoken to about it and it reflected poorly on Santa’s Village. K was interviewed by the police and we left just as the police went in to speak to the shop owner. 

Even though it was beautiful weather we decided not to chase the Northern lights that evening as reports were that conditions weren't favourable. We'll try to chase them a little later in our trip.

Northern Darks

Helsinki to Rovaniemi (Lapland) 

We left our big suitcases in storage at our Helsinki hotel and took a flight to spend a few days in Rovaniemi in Lapland, right on the Arctic Circle. 

We picked up a car at the Rovaniemi airport and drove the 10 minutes to town. It’s a very small town on a lake that had the feel of a ski village out of season. 

We visited the tourist centre to get some advice on seeing the Northern Lights. We were told we had to wait for it to get really dark about midnight and if the sky was clear and we headed north away from the town’s light pollution there might be a chance. There have been reports of sightings recently but as it’s the very beginning of the season there's a bit of luck involved. 

Even though sunset was at 9pm it was still light at 10:30 so we went to sleep and set the alarm for midnight. We got in the car and drove aimlessly out of town struggling to find a road without street lights. We went back to the Arktikum museum in the town centre which also was supposed to have a good view, but no luck there either, so it was back to bed.

War is hell

Tallinn (Estonia) to Helsinki (Finland)

Back to the docks for another ferry trip, this time just a short two hour voyage to Helsinki.

It really brought home that the war in Ukraine was very close to us when immediately on disembarking we saw signs directing people who were fleeing Ukraine, and outside the terminal there were Red Cross people with signs in Ukrainian. 

Transport to our hotel was easy, the tram left from the ferry port and stopped practically at the door. Helsinki was warmer than we expected, and also seemed more compact than the other Scandinavian capitals we'd visited.

We wandered around the main squares and the bay area, all just a short walk from our hotel, then headed back to sit at one of the many bars and enjoy the summer weather.

Good tour!

Tallinn

Today's walking tour of Tallinn was fabulous, one of the best tours we've been on. The guide was very engaging and entertaining, and gave us a good mix of historical, cultural and current information, such as the country's relationship with Russia and the local Russian population. 

Superspreader alert

Tallinn

We slept exceptionally well in our cute cabin, you could barely tell we were on a ship as it was so smooth. We wandered to one of the restaurants for a coffee and waited for the ship to reach Tallinn.

We were scheduled to disembark at 10.45am so we dutifully caught the lift to the exit point about 10 minutes before that, only to find that most of the other 2,300 guests on the ship had the same idea. We were all crammed together like sardines waiting for the single exit door to open, so we both decided masks would be needed here, even though none of the other participants in this potential super spreader event thought so.

Tallinn had a very quiet laidback vibe but this could be because it was Sunday afternoon. The prices were noticeably cheaper than we had experienced in Denmark and Sweden, so we took advantage of that to have a nice steak dinner. 

We had a modern apartment with balcony and a washing machine, always a bonus when travelling for long periods, so we took the opportunity to wash nearly every bit of clothing we had. 

Cruising?

Stockholm (Sweden) to Tallinn (Estonia)

At 5:30pm we were taking an overnight ferry to Estonia, meaning we still had almost a full day left in Stockholm, so we decided to have a second try at a walking tour of the old town (Gamla Stan). We were a little concerned that we'd hear some stories for the third time (for example, we'd already heard two versions of how the current princess had married her personal trainer), but we realised we hadn't really seen the old town properly and today was our last chance.

This tour was a marked improvement over the one we'd left yesterday, even though the good weather had disappeared and we were walking in the rain and cold for much of it. Our tour finished just as some sort of military horse procession was beginning, it was interesting but also seemed quite an antiquated tradition given how modern the rest of Sweden appeared to be.    

When it was time we took a train to the ferry port to board the Baltic Queen for our overnight trip to Tallinn, Estonia. We didn’t need to use maps to find our way, as once we left the train we just followed all the people with luggage to the ship.

Not being cruise people this was definitely the biggest ship we’ve been on, and were a little concerned it wasn't for us, however we justified it by saying this was a "ferry trip" and not a "cruise". We aren't fans at all of cruise ships and the way they flood towns with hordes of day trippers then suck them all back at the end of the day, getting in the way of "real" travellers like us!  

We had booked a nice cabin with a double bed and a port hole, we were about an hour early for the 5:30pm departure so we settled in on an outside deck with a drink while waiting to set sail. 

This trip was an unexpected delight. Sweden is made up of about 270,000 islands and we probably passed by hundreds of them on our way out to the Baltic Sea. The water was like glass and the weather had cleared, so we were enjoying a beautiful cruise on idyllic waters, passing by pretty islands with all types and sizes of houses on them. 

We checked out each floor (deck) of the ship, we really are cruise naïve as we were amazed by how big the ship was, all the different sections, how many restaurants, shops and people there were (we later learnt that there were 2,300 people on board, and that the ship wasn't full!).

We had a lovely dinner in one of the restaurants, watching the islands slip by. We were served by a friendly Estonian lady with fabulous English who said that she learnt it from watching television, with one of her favourite shows being "Home and Away". We of course said we had never watched it and she offered to sing the theme song for us!

Let's try that again, shall we?

Stockholm

The city of Stockholm is built upon 14 islands and has more than 50 bridges, quite different to our preconceived idea that it was just a city sitting on the coast of the mainland. 

The weather was better than we expected, it was a sunny day and heading for 30 degrees. We started with a walking tour of Gamla Stan, the Swedish name for the old town. Our tour guide was Russian with average English and it seemed her idea of leading a walking tour was to rattle off some information/history and then give you five minutes to take photos. It wasn't quite what we were expecting so we bailed, heading to the nearest metro station to get a train to the island of Södermalm.

From Södermalm we walked back along the water's edge and across a few bridges to the city centre to join another (and hopefully better) walking tour, this time of the new city.

Our second tour of the day was around the more modern areas near where we were staying. Thankfully this one was much more entertaining and interesting than the morning tour, we learnt all sorts of interesting trivia, like why floor coverings and rugs in Ikea are named after Danish towns, and the story behind the term "Stockholm Syndrome". 

Heaps of mounds

Örebro to Stockholm

Stockholm was our ultimate destination for our Swedish road trip, and we decided to detour via the city of Uppsala and use it to break up the drive. Uppsala is the furthest north we have been in the world (so far) although we expect it will only hold this status for another week or so. 

We visited Gamla Uppsala, an old Viking village where the buildings had been reconstructed to look as they would appear during Viking times, but there were also a number of authentic (and huge) burial mounds, similar to those we'd seen in Denmark.

We arrived into Stockholm mid-afternoon, and dropped off our hire car right next to the Central Station where we had also booked a hotel for two nights.

After checking in we did a little shopping, and K went to buy some wine from a Systembolaget, which is a government-owned chain of liquor stores that is the only retail store allowed to sell drinks containing more than 3.5% alcohol by volume. We were quite amused by the Australian wine selection, the names of the wines and the way they were packaged made them look like the kinds of drinks people should stay away from!

Don't miss the turnoff ... oops!

Gothenberg to Örebro

M missed a crucial turnoff on our drive to Örebro so we ended up on the "scenic" route, via a few back roads and through fields of countryside and crops, making it to Mariestad for lunch. Mariestad was underwhelming though, so we started to wonder whether this part of Sweden was a good use of our time. 

We arrived into Örebro about 3pm wondering how we were going to fill in our time, and found that it was a delightful town with an outdoor art exhibition and a castle with a moat bang slap in the middle of town. 

The weather was warm and sunny so we wandered the streets full of shops, bars, restaurants, flowers, bridges, waterways and art and were very pleased with our choice of overnight stay.

You call that a scroll?

Gothenberg / Marstrand Island

We drove an hour out of Gothenberg to Marstrand Island, crossing bridges to many other islands along the way, we hadn't realised until now just how Sweden is comprised of so many islands.

The ferry trip to Marstrand was pretty short, just a few minutes. We arrived there around 11:15am to find that much of the seaside tourist town was still closed. It turns out that most cafes and shops didn't open until 12pm.  

We walked along the cobbled water front past some closed shops and some really nice looking hotels, there were also quite a few people sunbaking and swimming in temperatures we'd consider a little on the cool side. 

It also looked like getting around in bath robes was a bit of a thing, there were a few people walking around who looked as if they hadn't quite finished getting dressed before leaving the house.

We've developed a liking for the local versions of the cinnamon scroll, the Danes call them kanelsnegle, the Swedes call them kanelbullar, so on our way back to Gothenberg we stopped in the oldest part of town called Haga to visit Café Husaren, famous for their version called hagabullar. Standard scrolls are about 5-10cm in diameter, but at this café they are 30cm, and supposedly made to be eaten by just one person. We bought one to share and didn't quite finish it, though we did try very hard!

Trip to the tropics

Malmö to Gothenburg

Time for another road trip, so we picked up a hire car and headed north. First stop was was Helsingborg, which is directly across the water from Helsingør in Denmark where we had visited Kronborg Castle (which we could easily see from the Swedish side).

We headed to the marina where there was a "tropical beach" - just a bit of sand a few potted palms, there were quite a few people sunbathing so as long as they believe it's a tropical beach then who are we to argue?

We then walked to the centre of town and climbed the hill to visit the 14th century tower called Kärnan, originally part of the former Danish fortress and the residence of Danish kings.

As we entered Gothenburg we had to deal with a lot of roadwork and bypasses, we made it to our hotel right above the central railway station without getting lost or taking a wrong turn, so we shudder to think how we would have made it without the magic of Google Maps!

Coastal trip

Malmö/Ystad

We headed to the station for our trip to Ystad, a town about an hour away on the coast. On the way we checked out the "Knotted Gun" statue and stopped for a flat white, our quest for a decent coffee is never ending and this time it wasn't too bad.

Arriving in Ystad we found the station was right next to the water, but instead of nice cafes and places to enjoy the view (as we'd hoped), it was just a working port which supported ferries to Poland, amongst other places, seemed like a wasted opportunity to us, especially in this weather.

We visited the tourist information centre to find out how we could get to Ales Stenar, a stone circle that was around 1400 years old, but we were told that Sunday buses no longer ran, so we had to settle for walking the streets of Ystad.

Ystad is a very quaint, pretty town with cute, well preserved brightly painted buildings. As it was Sunday many of the shops were closed, but there was enough open to keep us occupied for a couple of hours, before heading back to Malmö where the festival was in full swing on this 30 degree day.

Away from the crowds

Malmö

Google tells us that an "extreme heat warning" has been issued for the Malmö area .... geez guys, it's only going to be 28!

We did our usual walking tour, not one of the better ones but we still managed to learn a bit about Malmö and Sweden, and cover the main sights in town, including many we'd have missed if we wandered around on our own.

We have really developed a taste for Scandinavian cinnamon scrolls, they make an easy cheap lunch, and it's also important we keep across the types of cakes and other snacks as we go from country to country.

After lunch we caught the train to Lund, a small picturesque university town not far from Malmö. It was good to get away from the holiday and festival crowds in town to somewhere a little more laid back. We had dinner in Lund, and once back in Malmö M went to check out the local metal bands on the festival stage. He said "Void Commander" were pretty good so do yourself a favour and check them out!

Rock on Sweden!

Svendborg (Denmark) to Malmö (Sweden)

We drove back to Copenhagen Airport to return our rental car, stopping along the way to visit Egeskov Castle. 

From Copenhagen airport we bought train tickets to Malmö in Sweden, just 25 minutes away. The train was delayed and the people were building up on the platform, so as we had a lot of luggage we decided that we'd be “smart” and wait for the next train. Of course that train was also delayed so the numbers just grew again. 

When a train finally arrived we hopped on, but strangely very few others did. While we were discussing with other confused passengers what was going on, the train started moving - no turning back now. We learnt that we were only supposed to board if we had a reservation (which we didn't). When the conductor came by we owned up to our error, she agreed that we'd made a mistake, shrugged her shoulders and said "there's nothing we can do about it now", and walked on. So in retrospect, it wasn't really a mistake from our perspective!

We relaxed for the rest of the short trip, as we had a comfortable, uncrowded ride across the famous Denmark-Sweden bridge that had featured in the show “The Bridge" that we had really enjoyed.

After checking in to our hotel in Malmö we went for a walk and discovered that we were staying in town during the Malmö Festival. The streets were packed, there were carnival rides and hordes of teenagers wandering around. 

Not ideal as far as K was concerned, but M was very pleased to see that there was a stage set up where some quite interesting Swedish rock bands were playing, this festival might not be so bad after all! 

Smokers allowed

Odense to Svendborg (via Ærø Island)

Before arriving in Denmark we hadn't realised that the country of Denmark consists of a peninsula (Jutland) and a lot of islands (1419 of them). Today we were going to take a car ferry from Svendborg to Ærø Island.

As the ferry left the harbour we were followed by a large dolphin that would swim just under the surface for a while then leap out of the water, it was quite a show until the ferry pulled away. It was perfect weather for a boat trip, 27 degrees C without a cloud in the sky.

Once on Ærø we spent the day driving around the island and stopping in the pretty towns before catching the 4.30pm ferry back to spend the night in Svendborg. 

Svendborg was a nice place to spend the night, there were bars set up along the harbour and we chose one decked out with sand under our feet so it was (kind of) like being at the beach.

Unfortunately smoking seems a little too popular in Denmark for our liking, and they don't have rules restricting smoking where people are eating or drinking. We had to put up with 20-somethings smoking very close to us, which isn't a problem we usually need to deal with back home.   

Water not included

Aarhus to Odense

Our Denmark summer had finally hit its stride, with up to 28 degrees C expected over the next few days, so its back to being warm again! 

Odense is famous as the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen and we had booked tickets for the museum located in a very modern building in the old town. 

The museum follows his journey of writing his stories using audio descriptions that play depending on where you are standing. His fairy stories could be very dark, so it's no wonder Disney rewrote the ending of The Little Mermaid so as not to scare children! 

Some of the displays were quite clever and brought the stories to life, including the mattresses piled to the ceiling for the Princess and the Pea, and the use of mirrors and video effects for The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Afterwards we stopped at a café for lunch where K asked for a glass of what she thought was tap water, only to be charged $5 for it on the bill! Just another example of how Denmark impacts the hip pocket and the bank balance! 

To infinity and beyond

Esbjerg to Aarhus

We had thought a visit to Legoland in Billund would be worthwhile, but after some research we realised it wasn’t really our thing as it’s essentially an amusement park targeted at children. However as it was pretty much on our route we decided to drive by just to see what it was like from the outside. The first thing that struck us was how many and how big the car parks were, followed by the distance families had to walk from the car parks to the entrance. There were hordes of people with kids, which made sense as ot was also the last week of the Danish summer school holidays. We did a drive by, took some snaps through the car window and then headed on to the Viking Village in Jelling.

The museum exhibition explaining the history and importance of Jelling to the Vikings was very clever and informative. It covered the first king and the role of the village in the beginning of Christianity in Denmark, and used interactive displays and techniques we hadn't seen before. Museums have come a long way from static displays in glass cases!  

The village itself was quaint, the Viking areas were right in the middle of the current modern village so there was a mix of large artefacts and huge burial mounds from the first century, and a well kept church with the headstones of villagers who had only died recently.

K was most amused to discover we were visiting with some of the Australian Equestrian Team who were competing at the FEI World Championships just 40 minutes down the road at Henning.

Our next stop on the way to Aarhus for the night was the absolutely magnificent Infinite Bridge, a circular bridge built from the edge of the beach across the sea. Actually, it wasn't that great, it was just a circular walkway over the water that looked much better in the photos than in real life, you should always be careful with things you read on the internet ....

Aarhus is Denmark’s second largest city and we had a nice evening on the canal which runs through the city.

Hi, Hi Hi

Copenhagen to Esjberg

We caught the train to the airport to pick up our rental car and then headed north to check out Frederiksborg Slot ("castle" to us). Our Danish is coming along well, we can now say hello, which is pronounced "hi", goodbye which is "hi hi", and thank you ("tak"). See, learning another language isn’t that hard at all!

The grounds of Frederiksborg are large and manicured with a magnificent moat and impressive buildings, we wandered around the garden for a while but didn't enter the castle.

From there we drove for a few hours to Esbjerg on the western coast of Denmark, to visit the “Men by the Sea”, four big (9 metre high) sculptures of men looking out across the ocean.

Our hotel in Esbjerg “A Place To” was quite unusual, it looks like a renovated silo but is actually a new tower designed to be sustainable and maintenance free. We were on one of the upper levels with a balcony so we had a wonderful view across the ocean, port and green lands. 

We enjoyed our evening with a meal in the main square, we felt like we weren't in a tourist town but in a more "normal" Danish town as there seemed to be very few, if any, tourists around.

Alas poor Yorick

Copenhagen

This morning we caught the train to Kronberg Castle, famously known as "Hamlet’s castle". K had gone through a Hamlet stage at high school so had this visit near the top of her list. It was raining and cold on the walk from the station to the castle - welcome to summer in Denmark! The castle was well kept and interesting even though there is no proof that Shakespeare ever visited and Hamlet is of course fiction, it was still good to see the back drop for the famous play.

After heading back to town we went for a change of scenery with a visit to Freetown (also known as Christiania) on one of Denmark's islands. The autonomous commune was started in 1971 and we took a stroll down Pusher St where they had little stalls selling cannabis - kind of weird because apparently it's illegal but you wouldn't think so judging by the open trading. The general vibe of the whole area was your usual hippy commune kind of thing (think Nimbin perhaps?) i.e. multicoloured and  generally grotty but still with shops and stalls trying to get some of those the capitalist tourist dollars (or krones in this case!).