Our last full day in Scandinavia! We had another lavish breakfast followed by a walking tour with Nina through the historic part of Bergen. It was interesting, but in my opinion Bergen doesn’t quite have the vibe that our other city stops have had.

We did some more exploring on our own along with some shopping. Everything is expensive in Norway! Our lunch was a shared sandwich and the Norwegian version of a cinnamon roll. I vote for the Swedish cinnamon roll as the best of Scandinavia. 🙂

After lunch, we took a funicular up to an incredible viewing spot of the entire city. Sunny days are rare in Bergen and we felt very fortunate to see it in the sun! There were several hiking paths from there, but we only had time for a short one around a small lake.

Our tour guide told us about some bracelets made by Sami people that are sold in one of the shops and we had looked at them earlier in the day. I decided that I really wanted one so we went back to that shop to buy one. They are made of braided reindeer leather and silver string with a whalebone ‘clasp’. Much nicer souvenir than a silly t-shirt or hat!

Our tour group gathered for one more dinner together and to say our thanks and goodbyes to Nina. Dick and I both chose lamb and risotto for the meal and it was pretty disappointing. Oh well. It was nice to reminisce about the tour with everyone and just be thankful for everything we experienced together. We didn’t say a lot of good byes to people in our group because we expected to see them at breakfast. That didn’t happen, though. 😕 We will have to follow up by email at some point. We met some really nice folks and I hope we can keep in touch with some of them. Several couples live relatively close by in CT and RI.

What a great adventure we’ve had! I highly recommend travel in Scandinavia. It’s beautiful, historically and culturally interesting, genuinely kind people, better food than you might expect and just kind of magical!❤️

The next leg of our journey will be four days in the Netherlands visiting family and friends – kind of a whirlwind trip though the country with six different stops. We’re excited to be back in our second home again!

It was a crisp morning in the mountains! But another beautiful day. We had a big breakfast buffet and then made sandwiches to have for a picnic later. Since we had to take an alternate route, we were in a time crunch and couldn’t make as many stops.

We did stop for a couple of photo ops and lunch at a rest area. The scenery continued to be incredible until we had to go through a 25 km tunnel (!) and a series of other tunnels.

Our destination was a fjord cruise in Flam and we made it there just in time to board. There was a huge MSC cruise ship in the port and it dwarfed the fjord boat. Anyway, I have been looking forward to this cruise for a long time and it did not disappoint. We stood out on the deck for most of the two hour trip and we were awestruck at the beauty around us. Wow!!!

After the cruise, we headed to Bergen and arrived there around 8:30. We dropped our stuff at the hotel and went to find dinner. We were hungry and tired after a long travel day!

The breakfast buffet at our hotel was a huge selection of typical breakfast food plus many meats, salads, roasted vegetables and more. A feast! I can’t stomach most of this kind of food at 7am, though. 😛

It was another beautiful day! We took a ferry to the “museum island” and there were more great views on the way. We went to the Fram Museum that features the Norwegian polar expeditions. There was a lot to see here with some immersive experiences. We focused our time on the Nansen Photograph exhibit which feature’s the incredibly extensive archive of photos and diary entries from the three-year expedition led by Johan Nansen.

A ferry ride back to the city center got us back in time to walk to the Opera House for a behind the scenes tour. This tour was fascinating! The design of the building itself is a marvel. We were able to see the costume shop, a quick peek of a ballet rehearsal, backstage of one of the stages and a few minutes of a rehearsal for a new opera. After the tour, we walked on the sloping roof of the opera house and sat for a bit to take in the view.

Our next plan was to meet up with some tour friends to do a walk that Rick Steves describes in his guide. The ‘trail’ goes by some churches, a historic cemetery and then along the Akers River, which has rapids and a waterfall and a couple of cute bridges that we zigzagged across. Our friends were good sports for letting us figure out the way and get turned around in a cemetery. 🙂

In the middle of this walk there is a food hall which turned out to be more of a market. We did find a cafe for a quick coffee break.

Just before we reached our hotel, we passed a protest supporting the Ukraine in the park by the parliament building. We were told that people gather there everyday as a reminder that the war continues.

A rest at the hotel was much needed since were on the go all day. We decided to just grab some hotdogs at a 7-Eleven for dinner and we ate them in the park while watching people on the pedestrian street.

Dick wanted to go to one more museum, but he went alone because I had had enough! It turned out that he wasn’t able to get in the museum because our Oslo passes had expired. 😋

Curious siting: a couple swinging on a swing hanging from an overpass 🤷🏻‍♀️

It was a comfortable sleep on the boat, but it took me a minute to get my sea legs when I woke up and I had a bit of motion sickness. 🤢 I managed to get it together enough to have a small breakfast and go up to the top deck to take in the amazing view of the Oslo fjord. Gorgeous in full sun!

We met up with a local guide when we came off the ferry and did a bus/walking tour of Oslo. It was a pretty comprehensive introduction to the city with stops along the harbor, the fortress, city hall, National Theatre and more.

After we checked into our hotel, we had the afternoon free to explore. We decided to walk to the Munch Museum and we spent over two hours there. I now have a much better understanding and appreciation for his art (I’m not a fan of his most famous piece – The Scream).

Then we went to the city library, which is very cool inside and out. It’s a modern building with an exterior that kind of looks like book stacks and an interior that is open to all the floors looking up with lots of interesting artistic elements. It’s such an inviting space and I loved it!

The evening was planned with a group tour to the Vigeland sculpture park and a traditional Norwegian dinner. Vigeland is an amazing place and I’m now a big fan of this art. The park is huge and contains over four hundred sculptures all designed by Gustav Vigeland.

Our choices for dinner was either fish or reindeer. We both chose the reindeer dish – Dick loved it and I thought it was okay. I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t think I would order it if given the option again. The restaurant had decor that represented Oslo’s history.

After dinner with opted to take a stroll with our guide through a modern part of the city. It was such a lovely evening walking along the waterside with lights coming on, fun architecture to look at and a nice view looking back at the city.

The tour hit the road again today and our first destination was Roskilde to visit a Viking Ship Museum and a cathedral. The ship museum houses 5 Viking ships that were excavated from the sea near Roskilde. There are also replicas of the ships outside in the harbor. It’s amazing to realize that these small ships were built well enough around 1000 AD to sail the high seas of the Baltic, North Sea and even the Atlantic.

We walked from the museum into town to get lunch. We didn’t have a lot of time so Dick and I decided to get some lunch items at the grocery store and we ate in the square next to the cathedral. The streak of fantastic weather continues! The cathedral is where the kings and queens of Denmark are buried (most of them) and a sepulcher has already been designed for a space there.

The next destination was a ferry that took us to the island of Ærø. It was a beautiful day to be on the water. After about an hour, the bus rolled off the ferry and we got off to take our luggage into town. We split into smaller groups to stay at two inns. Six of us stayed at an inn that includes a movie theatre in the bottom floor, a cafe in the back and a bike rental also in the back. The owner is British and has travelled all over the world. The decor is very eclectic and there are a lot of interesting photos, paintings and objects throughout the building. I loved it!

The group met up again for a tour given by a local who told us how this island has come back to life over the past ten years. His wife started a thriving wedding business that’s been written about by major newspapers and has become quite famous. It’s prospered because it’s relatively easy to be legally married in Denmark and the island is so pretty and relatively easy to get to. They also renovated a space for a cafe that was volunteer run for three years. Other businesses have sprung up and tourism has become a major part of the local economy.

One of the restaurants prepared a traditional Danish holiday meal for us which consisted of roast pork, warm cabbage, potatoes and pickles followed by a dessert of berry compote with cream. So good!

We are really getting lucky with weather this week! It was a cloudless sunny, warm day in Copenhagen. Our day started with a tour with a local guide (Cathy) who is American, but had lived in Denmark for many years and is a Danish citizen.

Just after our tour started, Cathy noticed some motorcycle police and remarked that it was rare to see them two by two. As we walked on, she exclaimed that the royal yacht was in port and that she had never seen it that close. She quickly discerned that the queen must be coming or going. So we started walking quickly to get closer. Cathy was clearly on a mission! Her microphone went off and when I motioned to her that it was off (and she kept talking), she shooed me away. I then realized that she was doing a video commentary about the arrival of the queen’s yacht. Soooooo. We got pretty close and could see that someone was taking a dachshund onboard – the queen’s dog. Then the royal chauffeur appeared and we could see the royal cars lined up right at the gangplank. There were maybe fifty people gathered around to see the queen. Members of the crew (maybe the navy?) were moving around, but there was not a lot of security presence. Her lady in waiting came out and waited by the car and then – there was the queen! She came down the gangplank while doing a little wave and got right into her car. It was pretty exciting! And even more exciting because Nina and Cathy were so excited for this opportunity to show off their queen during a routine tour! [Let’s just count this as today’s CURIOUS siting!!!]

The rest of the tour was kind of anticlimactic and since we had been in Copenhagen before and knew some of the history and buildings, it wasn’t that compelling. When we got to the palace square, there was another interesting and unexpected sighting. The ceremonial guards came out in two small groups and did some kind of formation. It wasn’t the changing of the guard and Cathy didn’t seem to know what they were doing.

We had the rest of the day free to do whatever we wanted. Nina had pointed out a boat along the harbor that served fish lunch so we headed there. It such a nice day to be outside! From there we went to Rosenborg Castle where the Crown Jewels are kept. The main part of the castle didn’t have a lot of English captions so we browsed through that pretty quickly. There was an area with a very large ivory collection that belonged to the royals – some were actually made by royalty. Apparently ivory carving was a royal pastime.

We had a nice coffee break in the castle gardens and then stopped back at the hotel for a phone charge. We ran into a couple from our group and ended up having a glass of wine with them in the courtyard.

Our next planned stop was the Royal Library. This library has a very modern addition on the waterfront which connects to the original old library. Amazing architecture! The old card catalogs are just outside the old part and they contain handwritten catalog cards – incredible! We couldn’t go into the old reading room, but we could peek in the windows to see it. It’s not as grans as the LoC and looks more like the Boston Public Library’s reading room, which I love.

After the Royal Library, we took a walk to city hall, but it was closed. So we decided to get dinner at a place called Restaurant Tight. We ordered some starters and they were delicious. The idea was to save room for “The Best Cheesecake” which was just down the street. It was a yummy! There is always a nice stroll to end the day and this one was a beauty. It will be difficult to leave Copenhagen behind, but we will get one more chance to see it before this tour ends.

Kalmar Castle was our morning destination. It was a gorgeous sunny, cool day for the backdrop of our adventure. Our tour was led by a local guide in historic dress. The interior of the castle is partially as it was or as it has been restored to be similar to what it was. My favorite room was the kings receiving room where the walls are made of wood inlayed panels with various scenes and symbols. Much of this had to be restored at some point because grain was stored there in the 18th century.

We got back on the bus to travel to Copenhagen. The tour guide put together a picnic lunch, which we ate at a nice rest area along the way. After we finished lunch, we played a name game to further our progress in getting to know everyone in our tour group. There is a guy in the group who thinks he’s pretty funny (he also laughs loudly) and I can tell te guide is getting a little tired of him already.

The upper floor of the castle had exhibit space and there was a really cool exhibit on a contemporary Swedish photojournalist. Most of the captions were in Swedish, though. 😕

There was another quick pitstop before we left Sweden and then we finally reached Copenhagen. Our hotel is in one of the most picturesque sections of the city! Very cool.

Our guide is originally from Copenhagen and clearly loves to talk about the city. She gave us an introduction as we strolled to around the area and headed to a restaurant for a group dinner. A man dressed as Hans Christian Andersen met us there and he told us about ‘himself’ and recite the story of The Little Mermaid. His talk ended with us all toasting a with a small glass of Snaps (or Schnapps) .

Dick and I had another really interesting conversation with Nina during dinner. We all had ice cream on the way back to the hotel and then we chatted with our bus driver as we walked. He’s Norwegian, but lives in Sweden.