Scandinavian Journal

On arrival in Finland, I still have no specific plans for the next several months. Flooding has devastated much of Eastern Europe so I'll need to carefully plan my time to see as much as possible, without getting caught in the flooding.

Sunday, August 18, 2002

After a buffet breakfast of mostly fish, I renegotiated my room rate from $165 to $90/night. Then I set off walking the streets of Helsinki. The weather was great and I walked for a couple hours before boarding a guided bus tour of the city. Helsinki has many trolleys running everywhere and it is very easy to get around. They also have a great metro system connecting outlying areas. One tenth of Finland's five million people live in Helsinki. The bus trip included many of Helsinki’s landmarks. We began at Market Square and saw the Presidential Palace, the Cathedral and Senate Square, Parliament House, The Sibelius
Monument Railway station and the Olympic Stadium built for the 1940 Olympics, but not used until 1952 because of WWII. After my 1-½ hour bus tour, I took a similar tour of the harbor. The boat wound through Helsinki’s many islands and under their bridges. Helsinki’s harbor freezes in winter due to the low salt content of the sea here and the cold weather.

I bought some food at a local market, picked up my photos, which I had dropped off earlier in the day, and went back to the hotel to organize my journal.

Monday, August 19, 2002

I spent a couple hours putting the finishing touches on my journal and giving captions to the photographs before sending it all back to Sandy in California to upload. After breakfast, I went to the library to send some emails and start deciding where I'm going to go during the next few months.

I hope to get over to Suomenlinna, Helsinki's sea fortress built by Sweden to protect Finland and Sweden from Russia. I also need to visit a travel agent to see if I can arrange a trip to Norway, Sweden and Denmark before heading down to Germany.

I couldn't get a computer at the library so I went down the street to a cafe where they only charged 2 Euros for 20 minutes. From there I went to a travel agent, but found that they only book transportation and no tours. The second agent I visited told me the same thing, so I went ahead and booked passage on the ship from Helsinki to Stockholm for Wednesday night (142 Euros for passage and a private cabin).

Rick would be interested to know that all the streets & sidewalks of Helsinki (at least the ones that I observed) have plastic tubing running every 8-10", through which is pumped hot water in winter to keep the streets clear. I observed the tubing wherever there was construction taking place to repair the road.

I walked to Market Square and took a boat to Suomenlinna where I signed up for an English tour of the islands, which began only 30 minutes, after I arrived. The fortress is a large rock construction, which guards the entrance to Helsinki harbor. I think I would have appreciated it more if I were more of a military buff. It is an UNESCO World Heritage site.

I got back to the hotel at 5:30 PM and spent an hour on the computer looking for places to stay in Stockholm. Hotels are very expensive (about 300 Euros/night). I was unsuccessful in locating accommodations so I will try again tomorrow. I went back over to the market to get some food and money, and then returned to my room to catch up on laundry.

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

I had planned to go jogging this morning but didn't - perhaps tomorrow. I did eat breakfast, and then headed over to the library to find out more about Sweden. There is a possibility that if I cannot get a hotel there, I may return on the ship that night after only spending one day in the capital.

The breakfast buffet at the Raddison SAS Hotel where I am staying is very nice. In addition to salmon and many kinds of herring, there are fried mushrooms, wild berries, many shapes of rye bread, cheeses and meats.

After investigating various travel options (and spending 100 Euros on travel books), I've decided to leave Helsinki tomorrow night by ship, spending the night on the ship and arrive in Stockholm Thursday morning. I'll spend the day and evening in Stockholm and assuming I cannot get a hotel, will leave on the midnight train to Trondheim, which is on the West Coast of Norway, an eleven-hour overnight ride. I'll stay in Trondheim for a couple days, then take the Hurtigrute (coastal ferry) south to Kristiansund, where I'll get back on the train to Oslo. I'll stay in Oslo for a couple days before heading down to Copenhagen, Denmark. I bought an Eurail pass for 1100 Euros, which is good for 15 days, travel during the next two months.

I had dinner again at the hotel and retired to my room to read my new travel books on Scandinavia and Germany.

Wednesday, August 21, 2002

I finally went jogging this morning for the first time in a week. Kilimanjaro seems so far off that it is easy to lapse out of training, especially when I seem to be in vacation mode. Perhaps when I schedule a trip to hike Mt. Blanc, I’ll feel more motivated.

After breakfast, I set off in a new direction from the hotel. I walked north to the shore, and then started walking along the coast, back towards Market Square. I walked about three hours. I came across six large ocean going vessels which turned out to be ice-breakers. Finland has the largest fleet of ice-breakers in the European Union. They also make 60% of the world’s ice-breakers. Further along, I came across the Viking Line ship terminal where I would board the Girabella for my trip to Stockholm later this afternoon.

I stopped by the American Express office to complain that all the businesses I wanted to pay by travelers’ check wanted to charge a 10% commission. They gave me a place where I could cash them at no charge, as long as I paid the exchange premium. It seems like such a hassle to even bother with travelers’ checks when it is so easy to get money from cash machines, and almost every place takes credit cards – with no exchange premiums.

I’ve had my eyes open for a barber shop where I could get my hair cut. Apparently there are no barber ships in Finland, only salons. It seemed like an expensive alternative to a haircut but I went anyway and found a lady who did a pretty good job – but it did cost twice as much as I have paid back in Connecticut.

I checked out of the hotel at 3:00 PM and took a cab to the ship terminal. I had been told that I could not board the ship until 4:45 PM, an hour before we sailed, but no one stopped me from going aboard – so I did. I was amazed to see how small my single cabin was, when I realized that there were three additional beds locked to the walls! I bet your cubicle is bigger than this cabin, Audrey!

As we sailed out of the harbor, I took some pictures of Helsinki and Suomenlinna where I was the other day. The ship must pass through a very narrow inlet to get out of the harbor and it seemed that there was only 20-30 feet of clearance on either side as we passed.

I explored the ship for awhile, quickly locating the casino, restaurants, night clubs etc. There is one large room on deck 8 where people have laid out their sleeping bags. I had originally planned to skip dinner, but it looked so good, I decided that I was hungry after all. I was tempted to try the wild hare & reindeer entrée, but ended up passing and having an excellent shrimp dish instead.

On my way back to my cabin, I saw someone who looked remarkably like Alex Willis singing ABBA at the karaoke bar, but he was much too good to be the real Alex. I heard an announcement that we were due to arrive in Stockholm at 4:30 AM, but would not disembark until 9:00 AM. I’m actually quite pleased at my ability to understand Swedish, which I am sure I picked up by watching the Muppets on TV for all those years. There was also an announcement that the wind speed was 4 to 6 meters per second, which sounded pretty windy.

Thursday, August 22, 2002

We docked at 4:30 AM and, knowing we were not scheduled to leave the ship until 9:00 AM, I went back to sleep. Imagine my panic when I woke up again at 6:00 AM to find the ship underway again! I quickly threw on some clothes and went topside to tell the captain he must turn around and take me back to Stockholm. It turned out, however, that we had not yet reached Stockholm and the 4:30 AM stop was at an outlying island in the Baltic Sea. So much for my understanding of Swedish!

We had lost an hour crossing the Baltic. I was thinking that the approach to Stockholm was like traveling through the Thousand Islands in Upstate New York, but later found that Stockholm’s archipelago actually contains over 24,000 islands. I had a good place at the front of the ship as we approached the city. We passed the place where The Estonia ferry had sunk in 1994 drowning 852 people as it approached Stockholm from the Estonian capital, Tallinn. I had not passed through customs when I left Finland and assumed there would be someone at the dock to stamp my passport exiting Finland and entering Sweden, but there was nothing.

I took my 160 lbs of baggage and boarded a bus for the train station where I rented a couple of lockers to store the stuff I didn’t need. I was pleased to find a hotel through the Hotellcentralen at the train station which I later extended for two nights. It turns out the night train for Trondheim, Norway does not operate on Saturdays so I changed my ticket to Sunday. Now all I have to do is find a place to stay Saturday night in Stockholm.

I set off walking up to my hotel from the train station. I walked up a pedestrian street named Drottninggatan which is about a mile long with all kinds of shops on either side. Stockholm has more cafes, ice cream shoppes and tourist shops than any city I’ve seen. My hotel is Lilla Radmannen on Radmansgaten Street, just off Drottninggatan.

After check in, I went out and took a bus tour of the city, followed by a boat tour around some of the islands (Stockholm is made up of 14 islands). One of the islands, Gamla Stan (meaning Old Town), was the site of the original settlement, and now has, in addition to the Royal Palace, mostly tourist shops. Its narrow streets prevent autos from assessing much more than the perimeter of the island. The city was home to Alfred Nobel (inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prizes). The monetary portion of the seven Nobel Prizes that are awarded each year varies depending on how much interest the original principal has earned during the preceding twelve months. Last year, each prize exceeded a million dollars. This year, the winners might actually have to pay to win!

At 7:00 PM I headed back up towards my hotel. I’ve only got one change of clothes in my daypack so I will have to visit my lockers at the train station to get some more things – but I can do that tomorrow. I bought some food at a 7 Eleven (there is one on every block here) and spent the evening reading my guidebooks to see what I should do for the next few days in Stockholm.

Friday, August 23, 2002

My hotel still cannot accommodate me on Saturday night so after breakfast I headed back to the Hotellcentralen at the train station to see about a room someplace else. En route, I passed the spot on Sveavagen where Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in 1986 as he walked back home after a going to the theater with his wife. There is a small bronze plaque in the sidewalk marking the spot where it happened. His killer was never caught.

I continued walking and came across a small hotel in the City Center named Hotel Terminus, where, on the chance they might have availability on Saturday, I stopped. Much to my surprise, they could accommodate me so I made a reservation.

After checking on my luggage at the station and getting some more clothing for tomorrow, I went to the boat dock. After determining that the trip to Birka (the original Swedish Viking site) was a four hour boat ride, I decided to take the trip to Drottningholm (another Royal Palace in the countryside) instead. The boats left every hour so I had time to go next door and visit Stockholm’s City Hall while I waited.

I have finally figured out that the Swedish word for ‘hello’ is ‘HEY’. It has been very disconcerting having strangers say ‘HEY’ to me all the time.

The boat ride to Drottningholm was 50 minutes. This is the palace where the Royal Family actually lives. They use the palace on Gamla Stan only for official events. The palace is similar to Versailles on a smaller scale. I took a one hour tour of the interior and saw lots of portraits, etc. I also walked around the grounds for awhile, and then took the 2:00 PM boat back to Stockholm.

Back in Stockholm, I walked two miles to Djurgarden, the island that encompasses the National City Park, formerly the King’s Royal Hunting Grounds. Djurgarden has three main attractions, The Nordic Museum, The Vasa Museum and Skansen. Skansen was open until 10:00 PM, so I went to The Vasa Museum first. The Vasa was a warship built in 1628 that sunk 15 minutes into its maiden voyage. The ship was raised in 1961, underwent 20 years of restoration, and is now housed in its own museum. It is one of the best museums I have ever seen. It was rather dark so I did not take any photographs, but they have a good website at http://www.vasamuseet.se/Vasamuseet/Om.aspx.

By the time I left the Vasa Museum, the Nordic Museum was closed for the day, so I walked down to Skansen. Skansen is an outdoor collection of 150 historical buildings that have been collected from all over Sweden to document the history of life in the country for the last 500 years. It is similar to Williamsburg, VA with working tradesmen. Although the area is open until 10:00 PM, many of the exhibits had closed by the time I arrived. I walked around for a couple hours, and then walked back to my hotel for the night. Skansen’s website is www.skansen.se.

Saturday, August 24, 2002

I walked down to the train station and bought a round trip ticket to Laggesta where I planned to take a narrow gauge steam train 4 km to Mariefred. Mariefred is an old Swedish town with a picturesque castle dating back to the 14^th century. I was told the narrow gauge steam train was not operating due to lack of passengers so I walked the 4 km along the grade into Mariefred. Of course, as soon as I got there, passengers arrived and the train started operating.

I jogged over to the far side of Kungsholmen this morning, about 40 minutes. Breakfast didn’t open until 8:00 AM so I did not check out of the hotel until almost 9:00 AM.


	Mariefred is a small community with many old beautiful houses on quiet streets. There is an inn named Gripsholms Vardhus (the oldest in Sweden) where I had a superb luncheon of asparagus with hollandaise sauce, lake perch & new potatoes and desert of rhubarb pie. The castle, Gripsholm Slott, was originally built in the 14^th century and updated by Gustav Vasa and Gustav III in the 16^th and 18^th centuries. The castle is one of six royal castles and houses 4200 portraits. Fortunately, the tour I took only has time to show a couple hundred of them. The most interesting thing I learned on the tour is that this summer is the hottest on record in Sweden since 1756!
I was able to get the 3:30 PM steam train back to Laggesta where I only waited a few minutes to connect with the high speed train back to Stockholm. I checked into my new hotel across from the train station and was treated to a hot air balloon race over the city of Stockholm evening which I viewed from my hotel window.	Sunday, August 25, 2002 I found a new jogging route this morning, back to Kungsholmen via the bridge near City Hall. I ran a few miles then showered and had breakfast. I checked out of the hotel at 11:30 AM and then headed up to PUB Department Store, which has an Internet café and spent three hours on line. My train isn’t until midnight, so I’ll walk around the city then find a nice place for a late dinner. I’ve got about fifteen dollars worth of Swedish Korona left which should be enough to get through the day as long as I charge dinner.

It’s amazing the number of people who smoke here. Actually, everywhere I’ve been there are large numbers of people who smoke. Yesterday, when checking into The Hotel Terminus, the desk clerk apologized and told me that all they had left were non-smoking rooms.

I heard on the news this morning that the USA had complained about Russia allegedly crossing Georgian air space in order to bomb Chechynan rebel camps on the boarder. If I remember correctly, any plane heading from Russia, over Georgia towards Chechnya would have to fly right past Mt. Elbrus. Berg Adventures’ second ascent of Elbrus should be on the mountain now so I’ll bet the boarder guards are even antsier than they were two weeks ago.

I walked over to The Grand Hotel, which houses the Nobel Lauriats each December and tried to eat at their famous smorgasbord, but found that I needed reservations well in advance. I walked back towards the train station and ended up having dinner at a local restaurant next to the station.

My train was announced at 9:30 PM so I was able to get my luggage and find my berth before the onslaught of people arrived. My cabin has three berths stacked on top of one another, and of course, I am on top. I hoisted my bags the 8 feet up to my bunk and proceeded to fall asleep before the train left the station. The conductor woke me up just after midnight to collect my ticket.

Monday, August 26, 2002

My train compartment-mates got off at 6:00 AM when we stopped in Ostersund along with most of the other passengers leaving the entire car to me for the final three-hour ride to Storlien. I changed trains at the Norwegian boarder and took a 2-car train down the mountainside towards Trondheim Fjord.

I checked my luggage at the train station & went to find a hotel. The Radisson SAS was centrally located and I had had a good experience with them in Helsinki so I decided to stay there. It turns out the summer tourist season ended yesterday, so although the rates are lower, many of the tours are no longer operating.

I spent a couple of hours walking around the town centre. I found an Internet café and was able to pay some bills and check email. It started to rain so I headed back to the hotel and did some laundry, then spent the rest of the evening reading.

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

The weather has cleared this morning so after breakfast I went down to the Hurtigurten to see about transport to Bergen. It looks like I’ll leave Trondheim on the 10:00 AM boat tomorrow which arrives in Bergen at 2:30 PM the next day. After stopping by the train station to see if I could get the connections I wanted between Bergen and Oslo, I headed up to see Trondheim’s biggest attraction – the cathedral.

The cathedral, although it looks old, has been rebuilt many times, most recently in the 1980’s. It is the northern most cathedral in all of Scandinavia. The King of Norway’s daughter was married here just a few months ago.

I stopped by the Internet café to see if the Hurtigurten Coastal Ferry had any on-line specials. The travel agent had told me the fare between Trondheim and Bergen was 1447 NOK, plus 360 NOK for the least expensive cabin (there are 7 NOK to a USD). There were no on-line specials and when I went back to the travel agent, they couldn’t even sell me a ticket because the ship had already sailed and local tickets must be bought on board. The agent gave me the telephone number of the ship and when I was making the reservation, I mentioned I was retired and it turns out that qualified me for a 50% discount. I’m really starting to like socialism!

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

The ship arrived at the Trondheim terminal at 6:30 AM and although it was not due to depart until 10:00 AM, I decided to get there early. After breakfast, I checked out of the Radisson and walked to the train station to pick up my gear. I took a cab the one mile to the ship and checked in with the same person I had spoken with on the phone when I made the reservation.

There are about 150 cabins on the ship. My cabin is a single on C deck with a view of a lifeboat. I guess the ship is about 2/3 full, but this will vary depending on which leg of the journey we are on. We’ll leave Trondheim at 10:00 AM, then stop at Kristiansund, Molde, Geiranger, Alesund, Torvik, Maloy and Floro before arriving in Bergen tomorrow. Unfortunately, Kristiansund and possibly Molde are the only two ports we’ll see in daylight as the rest of the stops are planned for the night.

I had a great buffet luncheon at 12:30 PM, then spent the afternoon on the enclosed observation deck reading and watching the fjords of Norway go by.

After we passed Kristiansund, we were exposed to the open North Atlantic Ocean and the rocking motion of the boat got worse. I decided to skip dinner and went to my cabin where I fell asleep at 7:30 PM. Of course, every time the ship docked at a new port during the night, the noise of docking and loading cargo would wake me up.

The weather has gotten cold and rainy. I read that Bergen has the worse weather in all of Norway and I think that probably is true. I’m not sure of my plans once I get to Bergen. I’ve got the flexibility to stay for a couple days or go right on to Flam.

Thursday, August 29, 2002

We docked at Maloy at 4:30 AM & I decided to go up and see if there was anything to see. Topside, I found that it was pitch black outside, but we were docking right next to a large Stat Oil tank farm. (Stat Oil was an ECH client in Connecticut, but no one in the States had ever heard of them – here in Scandinavia they are like Exxon).

There is a guest laundry on the ship so I gathered my clothes and gave them a real washing instead of the hotel sink treatment I’ve been using for the last two months.

Breakfast opened at 7:00 AM and there were very few people there. I think more passengers may have disembarked during the night.

The weather continues to be poor and the continual rocking motion of the ship makes me queasy. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon reading up on the observation deck – where I observed very little. We docked at Bergen at 2:45 PM and I took a transfer bus to the train station where I stored my bags. As it continues to rain, I decided to find a hotel room in Bergen and stay here for a night or two in the hopes of getting better weather in Flam. I checked into the Strand Hotel, which is right across the street from the docks and a huge open-air fish market. One of the items for sale at the fish market is smoked whale! After a short walk around the dock area, I decided to go back to the hotel and turn in for the night.

Friday, August 30, 2002

Bergen was the capital of Norway in the Middle Ages and is currently Norway’s second largest city. In the 15^th to 17^th centuries, German Hansa merchants operated a trading station in Bergen and came to control the dried fish trade.

After breakfast at my hotel, I took a walking tour of Bryggen (the wharf area), the site of the original settlement of Bergen. The town has burned down, in whole or in part, thirty times since it’s founding in the 10^th century. The museum has a large display of old fire fighting equipment and a pictorial history of some of the fires.

The rain is continuing and my cold has gotten worse. If the weather does not get better, I may go on to Flam tomorrow and stay in a hotel there for a few days to try to get rid of my cold in a less expensive environment.

In the afternoon I took a three-hour bus tour of various sites in Bergen and the surrounding area. The tour guide spoke in Norwegian, Dutch and English, repeating the same information three times, resulting in wasting 2/3’s of everyone’s time. Highlights of the tour were a Stave church (one of 28 left in the world) and the home of Edvard Grieg, a Norwegian composer.

After the tour, I spent an hour on the Internet, then bought some food and went back to my hotel.

Saturday, August 31, 2002

The weather is still gloomy and my cold is no better so I checked out of the hotel and went to the train station to head for Flam. As I was leaving my room, I noticed that one of the amenities provided to all guests was an umbrella.

When I got to the station, there was a train about to leave, so I quickly got a reservation, collected my luggage, and jumped on board just before the doors closed. The ride to Myrdal (where I would change trains for Flam) took 1-¾ hours. I checked most of my luggage at the Myrdal station and waited about an hour for the train to Flam. This route is one of the most beautiful in the world. The train passes through 6,000 meters of tunnels during the 20 km descent, crossing the river three times. There are scores of waterfalls, which all seem to flow over flat rock, making the entire length of the waterfall visible as it cascades down the mountainside. The village of Flam itself is nestled between large mountains at the end of Aurlandsfjord a finger of the Sognefjord, the world’s longest and deepest fjord.

I took a room at The Fretheim Hotel just across from the dock and railroad station. There is lots of hiking and water sports in this area, but most of the organized activities end today, the last day of the season. If I am feeling better, I hope to hike the 20 km route of the train back up to Myrdal, then return on the train.

I had an early dinner at a local café, and then went back to my hotel to go to bed early.

Sunday, September 1, 2002

I had breakfast at 7:00 AM, and then went down to the reception area to see if I could get a better room rate since this was no longer tourist season. They agreed to lower my rate from 900 NOK to 690 NOK and upgraded my room.

Just before 9:00 AM, I left the hotel and started hiking back up the trail towards Myrdal. The weather was initially cloudy but improved throughout the day. I had been told the hike would take about six hours, and the ride back on the train another hour. There is a big race here next weekend when hundreds of people will walk or run this route, some in less than 2 hours.

There were many cyclists on the route, but not many hikers. The Flam valley is spectacular and I got many great photographs of waterfalls and mountains. The final 2 km is a series of 17, 100 meter switchbacks that lead up to the Myrdal station. It had taken me only four hours to get to the top, and I only had to wait 15 minutes for the train back to Flam.

I had a late lunch at an outdoor cafeteria and watched the cruise ships depart. After lunch, I returned to my hotel, did some laundry and decided to turn in early to try to fight my cold. If I have not improved by tomorrow, I’ll start taking the special ($15/pill) antibiotics I have if I get a cold while on an expedition. I’m sure I will be able to get the prescription refilled when I get to Copenhagen – drug capital of the world.

Monday, September 2, 2002

I’m feeling a little better now that I’m on the antibiotics. I should probably stay in bed today, but it is my last day, and I wanted to hike down to Aurland, the next major town on the fjord.

I got a late start at 10:00 AM. The weather is cloudy with very slight occasional drizzle. I walked 4 km along the waterside, then turned east and went up hill 500 meters to a farm, whose original owner succumbed to The Black Death. The little museum was closed so I followed a trail, which my map indicated would take me to the town of Li. The trail was difficult to follow, but I had read goats used it, so I followed the goat droppings. I ascended about 1/3 of the mountainside before the trail levelled off. I came across some pastures, which were outlined by stone walls that could have been 6-700 years old.

Li turned out to be a community of six homes, so I pressed on another 30 minutes to Aurland which was two or three times the size of Flam. I met a German hiker who told me there was a ferry back to Flam and since it was still threatening to rain, I decided to take the easy way back.

I went down to the ferry dock just in time to see the ferry coming around a bend in the fjord and head for the dock. I was the only one waiting for the ferry and had just enough time to run into the grocery store to buy some water for the trip back. When I returned to the dock a few minutes later, the ferry had turned and was heading to Flam without me! There was no one there to complain to so I went to the local tourist information kiosk to see if there was any other transportation back to Flam. When I told him my saga, he said that if the ferry captain doesn’t see anyone on the dock, he’d often just pass on by.

There was a bus back to Flam, but not for another 2 hours, so I decided to walk back. The sun did come out on the way back and I was glad I walked. From the trail I saw the ferry returning from Flam about an hour later, and gained satisfaction by shaking my fist at the captain as he sailed up the fjord.

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

Today will be a travel day from Flam to Oslo. I checked out of the Fretheim Hotel after breakfast and took the 8:40 AM train up the Flam Valley to Myrdal. There, I collected my baggage and caught the 9:50 AM Signatur Train to Oslo. The ride to Oslo was about 5 hours, but the train was very comfortable and the scenery along the way was fantastic.

The train arrived at 2:45 PM and after locating the luggage storage lockers, I went to the tourist office to find a hotel. The best hotel in Oslo is The Grand Hotel and when I discovered that I could stay there for half their normal rate of 1890 NOK, I took it. I walked up Karl Johans gate ten minutes to The Grand and checked-in. My room, and the hotel in general are very elegant. I was happy to see I could get CNN in English, until I turned it on and heard of the trouncing world stock markets are taking.

I went out walking in Oslo, in particular down to the waterfront, where tours of the city originate. I came across a fascinating exhibit of photographs by Yann Arthus-Bertrand titled ‘Earth from Above’. I bought a dozen of the photographs in postcard form, so if anyone wants one, email me your address and I send you one.

I walked by a McDonalds that was advertising the controversial ‘McAfrika’ sandwich. Since I’m going to Africa soon, I decided to familiarize myself with the food. After waiting in line for a few minutes, however, I realized the McAfrika sandwich contains meat, so I decided to pass.

I had dinner at a café on my way back to the hotel. I did locate one Internet café, but it was very dark inside and I would not be able to type my journal in the dark. I also found the tour office and decided to take an all day tour of the city tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 4, 2002

I had to return to the train station this morning to book another night at the hotel as the special rate was not available at the front desk. While there, I found an Internet café where I was able to type my journal. Durnig the 40 minutes I spent on-line, parametics feverously worked to revive a guy who had apperantly overdosed on something twenty feet away.

I heard on the news this morning that Kaiko, the orca that starred in the movie ‘Free Willy’ was released off the coast of Iceland six weeks ago, and has now migrated to the Norwegian fjords where he is attracting lots of attention since he is used to people and swims right up to docks and boats. I’ll have to keep an eye out for him as I take my tour of the Oslo fjord today.

The Boat tour started at 10:00 AM and after spending a few days up in Flam, the fjords of Oslo were boring. I also did not see Willy. The boat dropped us off at The Fram Museum, which is similar to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. After lunch, we went to the Kon-Tiki Museum, then on to the Norwegian Folk Museum, a collection of Norwegian buildings gathered from around the country and preserved, much like Skassen in Stockholm. From there, we visited The Viking ships Museum, which houses three viking ships that are almost 1000 years old. Our final two stops were The Holmenkollen Ski Jump, which I climbed to get some good views of Oslo, and the Vigeland Sculpture Park.

The tour bus dropped us off at the waterfront at 6:00 PM and I spent an our on-line. After stopping off at the hotel for a few minutes, I went out to dinner at a small café. After looking into various means of getting to Copenhagen tomorrow, I’ve decided to take the overnight ferry. This will save me a night’s lodging and get me to Copenhagen in the morning so I have plenty of time to arrange for a place to stay.

Thursday, September 5, 2002

The ferry to Copenhagen wasn’t until 5:00 PM so I had time to do some more walking around after breakfast. I walked up the hill past the University and around the Royal Palace. Then I headed over to the ship dock, back to the train station, and then back to my hotel.

I noticed a couple of interesting things this morning. First, I saw large trucks pulling up in front of bars and uncoiling hoses, as if they were going to fill up the oil tank in the basement of the building. It turns out they were delivering beer! The other thing were signs on the street marked ‘IKEA Bus Stop’, with a schedule printed. Apparently, IKEA has it’s own busses here in Oslo which have regular routes to pick up people in the city and thake them to the IKEA store in the suburbs to shop.

I checked out of my hotel at noon and spent some time on-line. I had almost run out of antibiotics, and I went to a wolk-in clinic to get a new perscription. I ate lunch at a small cafe in a shopping mall and then went to the train station to pick up my luggage. It had started raining so I took a cab to the ferry terminal where I had to wait until 3:30 PM to board the ship.

I did a quick tour of the ship but decided to skip dinner and went to my cabin to read for a few hours before going to bed.

Friday, September 6, 2002

There were heavy seas during the night and I didn’t get much sleep. At 6:00 AM I went down for breakfast and watched us approach Denmark. We made an short stop at 7:30 AM, and then went on to dock at Copenhagen at 9:15 AM. The harbor has several dozen wind turbines which were spinning rapidly.

I had been unable to get any Danish Kroners so I had to walk from the dock with my luggage for about a kilometer before I could find a cash machine and get a cab to the train station. I checked my bags and then went to the Tourist Information Booth to check for the best rates on hotels. I was able to get a room at The Copenhagen Plaza for 760 DKR (about $100) per night for three nights, including breakfast.

The hotel, train station and 24 hour Internet cafe are all on the same block. I looked into some tours of the city, but decided to postpone that for tomorrow. After buying some food in the local market, I headed back to the hotel to get a full day’s rest before starting out sightseeing in Copenhagen tomorrow.

Saturday, September 7, 2002

I had breakfast at the hotel, then went next door to the train station to pick-up my bags since there didn’t seem to be any point in storing the stuff one building over. Then I stopped by the Internet cafe for a half hour before heading out to find the square where city tours began.

I bought a 2-day pass on the sightseeing bus and took a 1 ½ hour tour in the morning. Among the stops was a visit to Carsberg Brewery. After the tour, I walked the city for a couple hours, and then took a different bus tour in the afternoon. On the way back to the hotel, I went to Tivoli Gardens, an in-city amusement park which happens to be right next door to my hotel.

I skipped dinner, but spent some more time on-line trying to organize my Mt. Blanc trip. Tivoli Gardens had a nice fireworks display at night which I could see right outside my window.

Sunday, September 8, 2002

I learned that my breakfasts were not included in the cost of my room and although I argued otherwise, the manager was insistent. After eating, I went over to the train station to make arrangements to go to Frankfurt tomorrow.

I walked around the city again today. I took another bus tour but it duplicated a number of the sights I had seen yesterday. I had dinner at the Hard Rock Café and it was great to eat a regular large American style salad.

After dinner, I went over to the Internet café for the third time today. I had been having trouble with my email account but found that if I went in through AOL Germany, I was able to get and send mail.

Back at the hotel, I reorganized some clothes and did some laundry, then packed up so I could leave early in the morning.

Monday, September 9, 2002

As I checked out of the hotel, the clerk told me that they had, in fact, decided not to charge me for breakfast after all. He said that ever since the French had taken over the hotel last year, things were very confusing. Also, the state of the economy was such that they could not charge a decent rate for rooms anymore. Too bad.

I got to the train station an hour before my train was scheduled to leave but found that they do not announce the track number of the train until 20 minutes before departure. I used my last Danish Kroners to buy breakfast and then went down to track 5 at 7:30 AM to catch the 7:52 AM train to Hamburg, where I would have 8 minutes to find my connection to Frankfurt.

The train was very nice – almost like first class air travel. When we got to the Baltic Sea to make the crossing to Germany, the whole train rolled onto a ferry. I don’t even remember the train stopping and by the time I realized what was happening, all the passengers on the train were getting off to go upstairs and shop at the ferry’s Duty Free shop. The crossing took about 45 minutes and we arrived in Germany at 10:45 AM to continue our journey.

The eight minutes I had to change trains in Hamburg were barely enough and I had to jump onto the train six cars before my assigned place and continue to my seat through the train isles which were crowded with passengers. Once I found my seat, I went back to the dining car for lunch.

We got to Frankfurt at 4:00 PM and I checked my luggage, and found a hotel & Internet café (both next to the train station). I scheduled a tour of the city for tomorrow and spent a couple hours walking around Frankfurt. I finally purchased some food and went back to the hotel for the evening.