Farewell Scandinavia

What a dinner!  

Modern Nordic fare in a stunning setting.  Flavours ranging from spruce scented jelly to tarragon granita and the freshest of fish spread over 4 delicious courses.  A slowly swaying "iceberg" and a departing super ferry in the background all added to the atmosphere.

Another memorable night to round off our trip.

Farewell Scandinavia

What a dinner!  

Modern Nordic fare in a stunning setting.  Flavours ranging from spruce scented jelly to tarragon granita and the freshest of fish spread over 4 delicious courses.  A slowly swaying "iceberg" and a departing super ferry in the background all added to the atmosphere.

Another memorable night to round off our trip.

A little dose of culture to finish our trip

Oslo is a relatively big bustling city and feels huge after our smaller urban adventures.  

it is jam packed with museums and art galleries but on yet another sunny day, we opted to skip Munch and Ibsen in favour of the Viking Ships which were found a bit over a century ago, excavated carefully, preserved and put into a very simple museum building out on an island in the harbour.  The boat trip across gave us a good view of the city from the water and a short walk brought us to the museum.  

Wow!  Not only are the ships extraordinary but the grave goods which filled them are amazing.  Intricately carved sledges and carriages, the finest fabrics, beautifully made homewares and agricultural implements.  These people were sent on their way to the next world well equipped.

After dropping in on the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace we mooches down to the opera house.  Built right on the waterfront, this modern building hints at the Sydney Opera house as it is large, white and structurally striking but internally it works even better than Sydney in many ways.  The building can be explored by walking on the roofs which offers great views of the city.  It has a restaurant on the waterside so we're planning to finish our trip in style with a seasonally inspired dinner menu there tonight.  

Last long train journey

Trondheim in the morning sun was gorgeous so we strolled along the riverside for a hour

 then took a tour of the Royal residence we'd seen from the outside the day before.  A good deal of the interior is influenced by Queen Maud, the first Norweigian Queen in the latest era of its monarchy.  She was British and there were some touches of her Victorian taste in the decorations and furnishing.

Coffee in the square listening to the medieval musicians again brought the morning to an end and we took ourselves down to the station for our trip to Oslo.  The journey is about 6.5 hours through the countryside visiting Lillehammer, site of the Winter Olympics.  

It was a very picturesque trip which we enjoyed in Norway's not quite First Class carriage.

Arriving in Oslo after 9PM really isn't a problem on these long light evenings and the sun on the lakes and fjords as we approached the city was lovely.  

Fun at St Olav's Festival

Trondheim is having its annual party and we're in the midst of it.

There are concerts, shows and activities for children and a splendid Medieval Fair and pageants around the Archbishop's old palace.  There are craftsmen at work, costumed actors and enthusiastic period musicians adding a colourful atmosphere to the occasion.

We've had a day of strolling the streets of the older parts of town, along the River Nyd and the marketplaces.  We joined an international group for a walking tour which gave us lots more information about the history and culture of the City, an early capital and still the city where Royals are crowned or appointed rather than Oslo.

Lakes, fjords and glaciers

Today we returned to the mainland.  The day started with breakfast on the deck outside in the morning sun before a leisurely drive back to Evenes airport.  It was a really lovely day so the colours and scenery were magnificent.  We stopped for a quick lunch and arrived at the airport in good time.

The plane arrived on time and the 1.5 hour flight in a prop plane meant we flew relatively low over the mountains and fjords all the way to Trondheim.  Norway has very large expanses of show-stopping scenery with no access or dwellings over hundreds of square miles.  Finally a few farms and towns started to appear and we landed at Trondheim.

A bus from the airport dropped us more or less at the door of our very swish glass and steel hotel and we took a stroll out into town to find dinner.  It looks like a very interesting place to explore on Monday with an old harbour area, a large cathedral and historic areas not to mention some posh shops!  With Norweigan prices, I suspect it will be more window shopping than anything more....

to the coast and beyond

We've spent 3 days in an internet free zone, so here's a snapshot of how life can be after the web......

About an hour after leaving Narvik in a hire car, we reached the end of the mainland and crossed the bridge to the islands.  

Here traffic thinned, roads became a little narrower and the scenery scored 11 out of 10.  Every turning brought another mountain, fjord or picture postcard perfect view.  We stopped on the side of a fjord for lunch

and the tropical coloured waters we just beautiful.

Eventually we arrived via tunnels, bridges and causeways at the further most of the Vesteralen Islands, Bo and the southern most point we arrived at Skagakaia, an old fish factor's property set on a point.

There are stunning views in every direction.  Our bedroom is on the upper floor overlooking the inlet with views to the snowy Lofoten peaks.

Whilst here, we gave driven to some lovely villages, mostly small fishing settlements.  The drives have been stunning.  When you see a map with an outline of a sea eagle on it, you don't exactly expect to drive up and see one, two, three or more, but we did!  

Some of these remote spots also offered good food or just peaceful picnicking.

As we travelled, we enjoyed lots of other bird and wildlife.  The Elk was only 100yds from Skagakaia and the kittiwakes and their chicks were feet from us!  

The willow herb line

Officially the railway from Lulea to Narvik is called the Iron Ore line as it was built and is still heavily used for moving iron ore from the mines in the north to Lulea harbour.  During our 7 hour journey along it we certainly saw some of these monster trains with up to 70 ore carriages being dragged along by giant specially designed engine cars.  But equally striking along the entire length was the almost continuous border of wild flowers, most colourfully pink willow herb.

The train was very quiet with never more than 6 in our carriage.  It had opening windows which made taking photos easy though rattling along at times, it was very much point and hope...  We crossed the Arctic Circle, marked with a blue and white marker post and despite temperatures staying hot, after a further hour or so we started to see snow capped peaks and snow-filled pockets on the northern slopes.  

Kiruna is the heart of the mining business and there were monster trucks carrying ore out of the quarries.  This was where most people joined and left the train.  Amongst them some serious hikers with monster rucksacks.  The ones in our carriage disembarked at Abisko National Park, presumably for some serious camping.

the scenery along the route was never less than striking, whether it was tiny settlements of just a couple of houses, millions of trees stretching as far as the eye could see, bogs, beaver lodges in lakes or rocky hillsides.  In the last hour we followed the banks of a fjord into Narvik itself.

We are staying at the Rica - one of the easiest hotels we've walked to.  Set in the centre of town, the view from the 16th floor is amazing.

After dinner eaten outside in a cafe again under the midnight sun, we strolled down to the harbour where we watched some fishermen casting their lines into the still waters.

So we've achieved the first goal of the holiday - to travel to the Arctic Circle by public transport and after all the journeys, we arrived here, the end of the line about 30 minutes after our scheduled time!

Tomorrow we take a break from rail travel for 5 days as we head out onto the Vesteralen Islands and a stay in an old fisherman's home.

Round the Gulf of Bothnia

According to the books today would be train, bus, walk, bus, train to get us from Oulu to Boden.  In doing so we'd travel about 280km right round the top of the Gulf and going back into Sweden for the first time since we left Stockholm on the ferry to Finland.

Givens me of the track work and minor delays we've had here and there, we decided to take the morning train rather than the later one which theoretically would still work but if we were late at any point might have been problematic.

As it turned out, everything went really smoothly.  Not long after arriving at Kemi Station, an elderly coach showed up for Tornio and we hopped on board.  The rail tickets also work on the connecting buses... We'd expected to gave to get off and walk across the bridge between Finland and Sweden but the bus delivered us right to the bus station in Haparanda next to the Northern-most IKEA in the world.  

Here the bus loaded up with "Buss-Gods" before taking on its passengers.  A ver modern double decker coach with an extremely chatty driver wended its way down to Lulea stopping at quite a few bus stops and small bus stations on the way to pick up and drop off passengers.  It's final destination was Umea about 400km away so quite a journey for some.  

We decided to have lunch in town before taking the train up to Boden.  Having found a nice spot which was serving a business lunch, we sat down to eat and decided it would be a good idea to check train times.  Given it was just half an hour up the line, we expected them to be quite frequent but the choice was 30 minutes or 3 hours later.  We ate quickly! 

Arriving in Boden our hotel was 50 yards from the station which given our original booking was for 0612 was handy.  As it turned out that train had been cancelled and we would leave at 11AM instead - fine by us.

It was a terribly hot evening so we took a slow stroll into town.  There was a very nice park with a lake and a riverside walk as well as a small shopping area.  We bought picnic supplies and went back to the hotel.  A quiet evening with Grand Designs with Swedish subtitles on the TV.  Surprisingly we slept pretty well as there was no cooling in the hotel.

Start of the Northern Sector

Today we have travelled over 650km from Helsinki to Oulu.  This gave us a chance to get a really good sense of the scale and landscapes of Finland as we travelled most of the way on a smooth, very comfortable Pendolino Train.  

We passed through Tampere, a pleasant university city and Hamenlinna, Sibelius' birthplace, a gorgeous spot with a large fortress set on a lakeside.

We hadn't realised that the train would split with only the front half going our way, but the ever helpful guard made sure we got into the right half before it mattered.  

On arrival at Ylivetska we transferred to a bus for the last hour and a half to Oulu as there was track work going on.  That gave us a slightly slower look at the passing countryside, but we arrived pretty much on schedule.

After checking into our hotel on the. marina side, we strolled out into town which Bill described as the Mikton Keynes of a Finland, mainly because it is known as a tech centre and quite modern developments have grown up to support the community.

The central square was buzzing with market stalls and outdoor restaurants and they had a mini-beach with children paddling

We found an excellent burger restaurant where they made their own giant burgers - an ideal relaxing meal to finish the day.  As we left feeling somewhat replete we spotted a statue which obviously sneaks over there at night......

We are definitely getting into near 24 hour daylight now and temperatures remain in the mid to upper 20s.  

Tomorrow we're heading even further north around the topof the Gulf of Bothnia.  It involves, 2 trains, 2 coaches and crossing the Finnish-Swedish border on foot.

Fingers crossed everything joins up.  

Signs of winter

Today was really hot and a bit humid, so it wasn't surprise to hear a bit of thunder rumbling around as we caught the ferry out to Suomenlinna, an island just outside the main harbour.  The 15 minute trip delivered us to a small dock from where there were footpaths going in all directions to allow you to explore this fortress island.  

We started by walking past a naval training centre then went back to the biggest island and walked right down to the seaward-facing fortifications started by the Swedes and which the British shelled during the Crimean War.  Without a doubt it was all superbly over-engineered with extravagant officers guest quarters, gardens and farms.  Today it is a community of some 900 people with lots of craft studios and cafés along the track.  It is clearly a weekend favourite destination for local families who came loaded with picnic cool boxes.  It was also a tour from some if the cruise ships going round the Baltic and there were a surprising number of Japanese tourist groups.

We popped briefly into the island church which doubles as a lighthouse.

As we took the ferry back to the mainland the skies got increasingly black and lightening streaked from the skies all around the, city.

We went for coffee and chocolate cake at a pavement cafe, picked up picnic supplies and then, as the skies had cleared, walked round another area of the harbour where 5 ice-breakers were parked up ready to tackle the winter freeze.

Over the next 3 days we've a lot of rail and bus travel as we head north up the Gulf of Bothnia and into the Arctic Circle.  

Signs of winter

Today was really hot and a bit humid, so it wasn't surprise to hear a bit of thunder rumbling around as we caught the ferry out to Suomenlinna, an island just outside the main harbour.  The 15 minute trip delivered us to a small dock from where there were footpaths going in all directions to allow you to explore this fortress island.  

We started by walking past a naval training centre then went back to the biggest island and walked right down to the seaward-facing fortifications started by the Swedes and which the British shelled during the Crimean War.  Without a doubt it was all superbly over-engineered with extravagant officers guest quarters, gardens and farms.  Today it is a community of some 900 people with lots of craft studios and cafés along the track.  It is clearly a weekend favourite destination for local families who came loaded with picnic cool boxes.  It was also a tour from some if the cruise ships going round the Baltic and there were a surprising number of Japanese tourist groups.

We popped briefly into the island church which doubles as a lighthouse.

As we took the ferry back to the mainland the skies got increasingly black and lightening streaked from the skies all around the, city.

We went for coffee and chocolate cake at a pavement cafe, picked up picnic supplies and then, as the skies had cleared, walked round another area of the harbour where 5 ice-breakers were parked up ready to tackle the winter freeze.

Over the next 3 days we've a lot of rail and bus travel as we head north up the Gulf of Bothnia and into the Arctic Circle.  

Finnish Fare

Just back from an outstanding meal at Kuu.  As usual, no idea what the word or name means but the food spoke for itself.  Delicious smoked salmon soup or perch terrine for starters then we both chose reindeer fillet served with barley, wild mushrooms and pumpkin purée, local aged cheese with fig chutney, followed by licorice pannacotta  or chocolate cheesecake.  The 25 minute walk back to town was just right and as usual at this time the sun is still shining brightly.

Tomorrow a UNESCO World Heritage Site - a fortress island out in the bay.

Sibelius's Home Town

Helsinki is yet another waterfront city, this time with a very distinct look and feel with strong architecture, a history of being influenced by Swedish, Russian and today Finnish culture.  It is quite spread out but most things can be reached on foot or by public transport.

We took the #3 tram on a circular route around many sights then set off on foot to visit the contrasting Orthodox and Lutheran cathedrals, the Finlandia Hall and the Sibelius monument, an abstract sculpture of silvery pipes.

We ended back in the centre where we mooches round Stockmann's food market then split up for a chance to look round some shops.

Now planning where to eat tonight.  Fish or reindeer?

Farewell Turku destination East

Today probably sees us going as far East as we will as we reach Helsinki.

The morning was a pleaseant stroll to old Turku, an area which escaped the Great Fire of 1827 which destroyed 90% of the town.  Up the hill and in a fairly desolate area, a modest settlement of workers cottages managed to survive not just the fire but 100 years of civic attempts to level it to meet the fire regulations of the day.

It held out housing small artisan businesses in wooden cottages roofed by turf of stone debris over birch bark.  In the 1940s it finally got its reprieve and it has been a living museum since.  We enjoyed a short tour with a guide then continued exploring on our own.  A potter, furrier, seamstress and carpenter were at work today and we found our newest Christmas tree decoration, a handmade woollen mouse.

We dropped into the old market hall before leaving and bought "vanilla monkeys", a local donut-like cake for our journey.  The trip to Helsinki took about 2 hours and we travelled on the upper deck of the railway carriage to enjoy the views.  Helsinki was bathed in sunshine so after checking in we strolled down to the harbour and bought salads, wine and fresh cherries for a picnic supper.  We then filled the bathroom with laundry as we dealt with essentials just over a week into our trip.  Tomorrow  we'll start exploring properly but the City looks as though it will have lots to see over the next 2 days. Helsinki central Station's  Guardians....

What is so different between this area and home?

Sitting enjoying dinner on the riverbank, offered a great chance for people watching and reflection.

On a warm summers night here in Turku (but similarly in Lubeck and Malmo) all is calm, cheerful, busy and friendly.  Families are here in large numbers, toddler and babies with parents in prams or pushchairs, older children playing socially or sitting quietly at restaurants with parents.  People of every generation are riding old fashioned sit up and beg bicycles on dedicated cycle ways.  Groups of teens walking and chatting together, dressed casually with not a sign of stilettos or platform shoes.  Everyone is being polite and considerate and exuding a relaxed demeanour.  Some groups may be picnicking, others sharing some drinks or sitting at a bar but there is no evidence of drunkeness, shouting, threatening or anti-social behaviour.  Streets are clean and rubbish free and no-one is dropping litter.  Being part of this gentle promenade was an absolute joy.  So why do the parks, gardens and Promenade of Cheltenham not feel like this?  

Erick, Harald, Gustav and John

Another super Nordic City, Turku is set near the estuary of Aura River and the riverbanks offer delightful strolling alongside them.  We started at the central market square where the fresh produce, fish and flowers were a treat to the senses.  We then walked West along the riverbank toward the maritime museum.  That gave us the chance to explore a 2nd world war mine laying vessel and an 18th C barque though there were plenty more moored ships to choose from.  

Our Turku card included a guided tour so we joined jolly informative Charlotte to hear something about the complicated Nordic treaties and marriage arrangements of the characters above whilst taking in a number of historic sights about town.  It finished at Turku Castle, an amazing monolith at the harbour with the chance to visit dungeons, banqueting halls and splendid chambers which had differing uses through history.  Someone must have written a most complicated algorithm in order to plan the route round as no 2 rooms were on the same level and we visited almost all 70 of them without retracing our steps.

Back at the hotel we are aiming for an earlyish dinner at a riverside restaurant.  We won't be leaving Turku terribly early tomorrow as there is plenty more to see, but with hourly trains to Helsinki, that isn't a problem.

turku

After a bit more than 11 hours on glass smooth seas with ships and islands rarely put of sight under blue skies, we made our final turn up a fairly narrow channel past some beautiful holiday homes with a sauna at the end of each garden and docked in Turku.

After checking in we strolled out into town along the river.  Bordered by restaurants, cafés, floating restaurants and an international market, it allowed us to stretch our legs but tonight after such a long day we are planning an early night!  Tomorrow we'll explore the town properly and find out about the strange seabirds in the river....

Sailing through the islands of the Baltic to Finland

We had an early start for a 7AM sailing.  As we got up the Baltic Princess sailed into Stockholm and was quickly turned around for our departure

for the first hour we watched the skyline of Stockholm disappear and the islands get smaller.  this seems to be quite a busy shipping lane with lots of ferries and cargo ships servicing the islands.  By 1030 we were passing through much more sparsely occupied areas and it was all very serene.  

We had pre-booked a seafood brunch on board and went down to the Happy Lobster for a wonderful meal.  It was much posher than we had expected with unlimited prosecco, juices, coffee, a smorgasbord of cold meats, cheeses and fish before a main course of grilled salmon with vegetables then a help yourself dessert table.  We had been shown to a lovely window seat and it was like a slow movie passing the windows as the ship sailed smoothly through the final Swedish Islands.

Arriving in the independent duty free state of Åland

After about 5 hours sailing we are docking in the Åland Islands about halfway between the Swedish and Finnish mainlands

Leaving Malmo

After our Bridge excursion we took a delightful boat trip round the city canals.

passing some lovely parks and buildings.  Then it was off to the station for a 5 hour journey across Sweden to Stockholm where we are now in a hotel looking over the sea ready for an early start tomorrow on the Silja Line ferry to Finland

De Bron (or The Bridge)

iToday is most definitely not a Nordic Noir day.  The sky is blue, the sun is out and everything in Malmo is freshly rinsed.

Today we are off in pursuit of the Bridge, Saga and Martin.

At our third attempt in 3 days we found the tourist info office and a very amused lady thought our motivations for the trip were most unusual.  Unlike Ystad they have not yet got a tour sorted out but after some rifling in the back office she came out and photocopied 2 sheets of paper for us listing some sights from the filming.

The most obvious way to go was out towards the harbour and across Vastar Hamnen to find Saga's apartment.  As it was described as being in the shadow of the Turning Tower, it was a direction it was easy to find.  The tower which is one of the highest residential blocks in Europe has a great design as it has been twisted 90 degrees from bottom to top.

near the base of it we indeed find Saga's apartment....  We continued our walk out to the beach from where we had a great view of the bridge again.  We returned to downtown passing other noted buildings and filming areas.

Swedish pub grub

The evening seemed to be getting drier so we asked at reception for a recommendation of a typical Swedish restaurant we could walk to.  She suggested one about 1km away which sounded promising.  Bullpen or Three Balls is a former billiard hall and still appears to have much of the original decor and wiring in use.  Not quite what expected but a jolly, busy spot and the food was superb.  Herrings, meatballs, fish etcetera, just what we were looking for.

Tomorrow we have the morning to explore Malmo in what should be better weather before heading cross country to Stockholm, our last stop (for now) in Sweden.