Nordic Adventure 2012
When I decided to go to the Nordic countries, I quickly realized that two weeks wouldn’t be enough. This was my first three-week adventure. And it still wasn’t enough.
This trip marks the first time I blogged about seriously, starting with my earliest planning. I brought my iPhone and a bluetooth keyboard on the trip and blogged daily.
In my planning, my itinerary evolved significantly. I originally hoped to include Norway, but I quickly realized that I couldn’t squeeze that into three weeks with all the other destinations.
I started with three nights in Copenhagen. In spite of the dreary weather for much of the time, I had plenty of opportunity to explore on a bike tour as well as on foot. I also took a day trip to Roskilde.
From Copenhagen I took two trains and a ferry to get to Ærøskøbing, on the island of Ærø. I spent a night there and had an early morning bike ride before a long day’s travel to Kalmar.
I stayed in Kalmar for two nights. Most of the full day I was there I spent on the neighboring island of Öland, touring in a rental car. I still had plenty of time in the evening and the next morning to explore Kalmar before catching my train to Stockholm
I staying four nights in Stockholm. Besides visiting a lot of museums, I rode a bike through the Djurgården, saw one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen, and got out of the city to Drottningholm Palace, Fjäderholmarna, and Uppsala.
I took an overnight ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn, arriving early in the morning, so I had a full day plus most of the second day to explore the capital of Estonia. In addition to enjoying the winding cobbled streets of the old town, I saw the Song Festival Grounds and the excellent Kumu art museum.
I took a late afternoon ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, where I stayed four nights. I did a ton of walking, really enjoying the Finnish architecture, and took a day trip to Turku and Naantali.
My final destination was Iceland. I spent five nights in Reykjavik, taking tours on three of the days, and stopping for a day at the Blue Lagoon before catching my flight back to Seattle.
Photo Albums
Copenhagen (117 photos)
Ærø (105 photos)
Ærøskøbing Doors (36 photos)
Kalmar and Öland (258 photos)
Stockholm (276 photos)
Uppsala (68 photos)
Tallinn (125 photos)
Helsinki (109 photos)
Turku and Naantali (25 photos)
Iceland (336 photos)
As usually, I took way too many pictures, so here’s a highlight album, with the best of the best:
Highlights (163 photos)
Blog Posts
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Arriving in Copenhagen (with a stop in Oslo)
Part One: Written in the Oslo Airport I’m not supposed to be in Oslo. But here I am. Actually, I’m at the airport, not actually in Norway. All seemed to be going well yesterday when we pulled away from the gate at SeaTac right on time. We taxied a while and then stopped. The pilot came…
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Loooong day in Copenhagen
When I got back to Ivan and Lars’s apartment last night at about 8:30, I started to write a blog post about the day, and I was literally nodding off as I was typing. I guess that’s what happens after a long day following just 4 hours of sleep. I woke up yesterday morning at…
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Roskilde and more of Copenhagen
I’m at the central library using their free internet. It’s just 17:00, and I am planning another bike tour, again with Mike, this time an evening tour that starts at 19:00 and goes further afield.
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Day Five: Farvel København
It’s 9:45 am, and I just boarded the train to Odense, where I change for Svendborg, where I get the ferry to Ærø. Today is Ascension Day, a holiday in Denmark, and the train is packed with people getting away for the long weekend. I don’t have WiFi, so I’m going to have to post…
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Svendborg and Ærøskøbing
A few random thoughts to start off:
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Ærø
I forgot to mention yesterday that one of the highlights of the day was the lunch I had when I arrived at Ærøskøbing. (I’m at Odense Central Library as I write this, waiting for my train to Copenhagen and, from there, to Kalmar. So I have all the quaint characters in the Danish alphabet at…
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From Ærø to Kalmar
It’s 5pm. I just got on the train to Kalmar. We should depart in about 10 minutes. The monitors in the station tell you which cars are going to which destinations. Not all the cars on this train are going to Kalmar, only 11 and 14. I got on one of the cars that I…
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Kalmar, Öland, and Kalmar
It’s actually Day Eight, Sunday, May 20, 9:30. I didn’t blog last yesterday because I was on the go all day and was too tired by the time I got back. I started the day the same way I ended the day on Friday, with a walk around Kalmar. It’s a nice town, built largely…
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Kalmar and the train to Stockholm
I just deleted my entire blog post as I was attempting to copy it. So this is my second attempt, and it won’t be as interesting or as witty as my first.
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Intro to Stockholm
The train ended up arriving in Stockholm 35 minutes early last night. And then I had some tense moments.
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A Stockholm assortment
I’m at a restaurant that’s actually in the same building as the apartment where I’m staying, and it’s one I’d read about before my vacation started. It’s called The Urban Deli. Niklas also recommended it. Unfortunately when the waiter came and I asked him to recommend something, he recommended a cod dish and then remembered…
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Great museum, awful museum, and a concert I’ll never forget
First, I have to thank everyone who’s left a comment or a “Like” on Facebook. One of the best cures for the occasional loneliness that sets in when traveling alone is the feeling that my friends and family are a part of the experience. Keep those cards and letters coming!
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Uppsala, Ferry, and Tallinn
Thursday 24 May, 22:30 We set sail at 17:45, went through about 4 hours of the most beautiful scenery, the sun has set but the horizon is still glowing red out my cabin’s porthole.
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Tallinn and arrival in Helsinki
Saturday, 26 May 19:30 I’m on the ferry, about an hour from docking in Helsinki. We left Tallinn about five minutes before the scheduled sailing time of 18:00, and I’ve been looking for a place to plug in my phone on this boat because I was bad about conserving the battery today. I finally found…
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Helsinki and Suomenlinna
Today was an “Intro to Helsinki” day. Mary and I bought one-day Helsinki Cards, thinking we’d cram as many of the things the card covers as we could into one day. It was a good idea in theory, but there was only so much cramming we could do, especially given that Mary was suffering from…
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A lot of walking in Helsinki
Pretty much all I did today was walk. Helsinki is a very walkable city, but I really covered a lot of ground today.
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Day trip to Turku and Naantali
I’m going to start today’s post by talking about an interesting confluence related to my trip. About ten years ago when I was singing with the Esoterics, we performed a wonderful piece by the Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae. He wrote this piece in 1997 in memory of the more than 852 people who…
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Farewell Scandinavia, Hello Iceland
Yesterday was mostly a travel day, so there wasn’t a lot to blog about, and there still isn’t, since I just woke up and am at a neighborhood coffee shop having what they call an Americano. (I’d call it a slightly watered down espresso.)
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A day in Reykjavik
No matter how well I understand logically that the sun doesn’t set here until almost midnight, when I look outside at 10:30 pm and see bright sunshine, my mind can’t understand why my body is so ready for sleep. Today I got acquainted with Reykjavik. I walked around on my own, then took a free guided…
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Þórsmörk
I can’t think of any words superlative enough to describe the things I saw today. I can talk about where we went, the names of the places, and such. And I can post pictures (check out my Iceland album starting with the picture above), but they are just not an adequate representation.
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The Golden Circle and Langjökull Glacier
Sometime in the last few days, my vacation stopped feeling like I’m on vacation and started feeling like my regular life. It’s as if being in new places, seeing new things, and meeting new people is the norm of my existence. I guess that means I could get used to this. And I guess that…
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Snæfellsnes
It’s my last night in Reykjavik, and the last night of my Nordic adventure. Tomorrow at this time I’ll be home. Well actually, I’ll still be in the air somewhere over Canada, as it’s still afternoon in Seattle, and my flight, which takes off at 17:00 local time, lands at 5:45 p.m. Pacific time. In…
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The Blue Lagoon and Post-Trip Reflections
I’ve been home for two weeks now. I’ve finally gotten all my photos organized and uploaded to Google Web Albums, and I’ve gone through all my blog posts from the trip and updated them with a few details I’d previous omitted, but mostly by interspersing some of the best pics of the trip.
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The frugal traveler in my footsteps
I was both delighted and wistful to read The Frugal Traveler’s most recent post about his journey through Scandinavia. Before he began his trip (and while I was in the last week of mine), Seth Kugel posted requesting readers provide him with ideas for a five-day intinerary in Sweden for under $100 a day. I found…
