Sweden

The last stop on our trip was Stockholm, Sweden. We had an early flight in and, judging by the number of people (especially kids) it looked like it was also the start of school holidays.

The first day was a little bit wet and grey, but it gave us a good chance to do a hop on and off boat tour around the harbour. Stockholm is spread over 14 islands, so getting about by boat is really fun and logical. We also saw the royal apartments at the Palace and had lunch in a great cafe, "Art Cafe" in Gamla Stan (the old town) which was just like a Wellington cafe - something you don't see a lot of in London. We even went back there on our last day.

The next three days were hot and bathed in glorious sunshine. The changing of the guard anywhere has never really done it for me, but the Swede's do it in style. They have a full band and a big group of guards that run and march in perfect formation; and they seem to march all around the island!

The old town (Gamla Stan) is fantastic. It is covered with cobble stone streets, great churches packed with history, and great cafes and shopping. I especially enjoyed the church where a lot of the kings and queens are buried. Over 700 bodies are actually buried beneath the church, a bit icky, but fascinating too. We were lucky enough to see a glass blowing demonstration next to one of the famous Swedish glass and crystal shops. The artist made a really nice marble-grey and red coloured glass vase. I never realise that they take a huge amount of skill and time, both to mould and then cool. We came back and we bought the vase we saw the artist make the next day!

We did a lot of walking around seeing the various parts of the city, and a few different islands. I also did a tour of the Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament; complete with annoying Aussies and Brits who would only bag PR systems and go on about their own politics. It was kind of ironic given Australia's system, but then again the guy only though Australia had 2 parties! I had a really good chat with an American from North Carolina - and she was not a John Edwards fan. The Swede's have a very interesting system; including a parliamentary vote for PM.

We also managed to do a short tour of the Archipelago. As well as being situated on 14 islands, Stockholm is surrounded by a very unique archipelago of 24,000 islands. Some are very large, while others just have one house and are very small. That was a great was to relax in the sun and cruise around the water.

All in all, we thought Stockholm was the best of the three cities. I know a few people that haven't been that thrilled with Stockholm, but we both thought it was superb; and there is still loads more we could have seen. I'd say it is what you make it; but for me the cobblestine streets, islands, waterways and shopping made for a great trip. The Swedes and all very, very friendly and Stockholm has everything you'd want in a European city, and more! Along with the western fjords of Norway, i'd thoroughly recommend a visit to Stockholm.

Norway

Next stop on our two weeks in Scandinavia was Norway and, as I expected, getting there really was half the fun! We did an overnight ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo, which left at 5.30pm and arrived on Monday at 9.00am. We had our own cabin (which had a stunning view of the coast and the islands we passed along the way) and were given a free bottle of champagne! I even had time for a spa. The weather was perfect, and I took a stunning photo of the sunset at one end of the ship and a rainbow at the other - it was quite the experience.

Monday we cruised into Oslo, a truly beautiful way to arrive. We visited the viking ship museum out on the Oslo peninsular and then caught a ferry back to the inner city. Since the weather was so good, we took another ferry cruise around the harbour to one of the islands (Langoyene), and then walked around Akershus Festning, a medieval fortress on the waterfront. After wandering around in the sun a bit more, we grabbed our bags and hopped on board the train West, to Flam.

The train journey was spectacular to say the least. It rose to 1200m above sea level, where lakes were covered with ice, and hills covered with snow, despite it being June and almost the moddle of Summer! Then, the Flam railway takes less than an hour, down into Flam, more than 800m down, past a number of waterfalls into a very cute town at the end of a Fjord. It was still light at 10.30pm!

We spent the next three nights in a cute little cabin in Flam camping ground. It's hard to describe without seeing the photos (which I promise I will get on the net in the next month or two), but basically we had three days of beautiful sunshine, fresh, clean air and it was just nice and relaxing. We did a little bit of shopping (I bought two solid marble polar bears), did a cruise around the Fjords, did a really cool kayak on a fjord (even fed some goats!) and did a big walk into the upper valley of Flam. But generally it was a laid-back, relaxing time. The Flam church in the upper valley was built in 1667! It really did feel like paradise, especially once the massive cruise ships left during the evening. But the camping ground was just the ticket for a quiet, relaxing stay in an amazing place - Fiona and Adarsh - its a must visit!

Sadly, it couldn't last forever. We had another nice train ride back into Oslo, where we met our friend "rain" yet again. And again it was a bit of a downer. But we did go around the shops, visited the National Gallery, Royal Palace and the Storting - Norwegian Parliament. We did a tour of the Parliament and I found it quite fascinating. Norwegian history is very interesting indeed - as the country has been passed around quite a bit from country to country before true independence in 1905; and now it rakes in massive amounts of money from oil in the North Sea.

And that was Norway. I really liked Oslo (more than Fiona did) - a small and very intimate city. Our visit to Oslo was a bit spoiled by the rain, but there was just a vibe and a feel about it that I really liked, more than Copenhagen. But there's no doubt that the highlight so far was Flam and the stunning western fjords. Anyone going to Norway should definitely make the effort to go across Norway, especially via that brilliant train trip. Although I would go back to Norway again tomorrow (and hopefully we will get to Bergen and see more of the West Coast) it is probably the most expensive of the three countries - and you'll need every penny you have. Last stop, Stockholm...

Denmark

Our stay in Denmark was really nice. After flying into Copenhagen, we collected our rental car (upgraded to an Audi ;-) and headed off up the coast of the Island of Zeeland. Driving a manual after such a long time not driving, and on the wrong side of the road, was quite a challenge, but I got there in the end. We took the coastal road as suggested by Lonely Planet and it was well worth it. The coast was really nice, a great way to start a holiday - cruising in a Audi in the sun.
Mike, Brent and Ian, you would have loved the car! We got a bit lost trying to find our B&B, but go there in the end. We headed for Helsingor on the North west corner, and saw Kronborg Slot, most famous for being Hamlet's castle from Shakespeare. It was historically used to collect taxes of ships that passed through the channel. It was quite impressive, with cannons facing out over the channel to Sweden. Probably the funniest thing to us was the smell of salt water - something we hadn't smelt for many months, and yet felt very normal and natural to us Wellingtonians.

We drove a bit further north past a few small towns, and stopped at the most northern, a small fishing village called Gilleleje. It was a lovely little town and had quite a "Corromandel" feel to us. Except for the fact that there were a number of houses with thatched roves, which were really nice. Most importantly, we had a spectacular meal! Fiona had a massive plate of fresh prawns and I had smoked salmon with shrimps on top. It was quite something, and I'm sure your mouths are watering just reading this...

Next day we stopped by one of the Royal Palaces, Fredensborg Slot and then visited Frederickborg slot and the museum of National History, a Renaissance castle spread over three islands. The Grand hall and chapel were quite stunning, and we got some good photos. We then headed back to Copenhagen.

We had a pretty good time in Copenhagen. It is a very walkable city, and we enjoyed walking around the shops and having a glass of wine. Unfortunately Saturday is poured with rain the whole day, which was a bit of a downer. But, it was good for seeing museums etc, so we saw Rosenborg Castle, the National Gallery and had lunch at Barock Cafe in the nice Nyhavn waterfront area (nice on any other day that is!), as well as a spot of shopping at Royal Copenhagen. Probably the best thing (to me anyway) was the Museum of Danish Resistance to Nazification, which was really interesting. We finished Saturday by visiting Tivoli fun park, and I rode "the Demon" roller coaster, which was great fun.

We finished our visit to Copenhagen on a sunny Sunday. Went and saw the Folketing, Danish Parliament, did a tour of Christianborg Palace and caught the bus to the ferry terminal.

All in all Denmark was good. The rain in Copenhagen was a bit of a downer, but then again Fiona didn't mind "having" to visit the likes of Royal Copenhagen. Northern Zeeland was really lovely, and I would thoroughly recommend getting out of the city and going for a drive to see where "real" Danes live outside Copenhagen. On to Oslo...