Aug 27, 2019 - Malmo, Sweden

Tuesday Aug 27th We have been told we should visit Malmo, in Sweden not too far from here. There are buses, but probably the easiest option is the train, plenty of services to choose from. We walk the short distance to the train station, but cannot make sense of the ticket machines, so buy from the ticket office. Seems there are a couple of trains every hour, we get an open return ticket, DKK292 ($70), so it is a bit expensive. The trip is quick, about 40 minutes if we go all the way to Central Station. We get off at an earlier stop,...

Jul 13, 2019 - Stockholm, Sweden day 3

Another bright sunny day to start out with - 9 am. But you guessed it, it will rain on our way back to the hotel at 4 pm. Today we took the tram/trolley car to another island to see several museums. The main one was the Vasa Museum. When we first walked into the building, we just stopped and said WOW. The Vasa is a great ship that sunk, and 300 years later, raised from the depths. Stockholm turned a titanic flop into one of Europe's great sight-seeing attractions. The glamorous but unseaworthy warship Vasa - was top-heavy with an extra...

Jul 12, 2019 - Stockholm, Sweden day 2

Another beautiful day - blue skies, sunny, warm. Stockholm is an archipelago within an archipelago. An archipelago is a sea or stretch of water having many islands. The city occupies a cluster of 14 islands floating among 24,000 that make up a 60-mile chain. It is the second largest archipelago in the Baltic Sea. This beautiful morning we board a sight-seeing boat that will take us to Drottningholm Palace where the Royal Family lives. The stately palace built in the seventeenth century by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder for Queen...

Jul 11, 2019 - Stockholm, Sweden

Scandinavia's heartland, Sweden is far bigger than Denmark and far flatter then Norway. It is home to Ikea, Volvo, WikiLeaks, and ABBA. Once the capital of blond, Sweden is now home to a growing immigrant population. Sweden is committed to its peoples' safety and security, and proud of its success in creating a society with one of the lowest poverty rates in the world. Yet Sweden has thrown in its lot with the European Union, and locals debate whether to open their economy even further. Sweden is almost 80 percent wilderness. In summer,...

May 23, 2019 - Stockholm Sweden

We have had an interesting 3 days. We are staying at Nordic Nynashamn Campground in a cabin. It is an hour's train ride into Stockholm. With our Citypasses we have been to several museums, had a boat cruise round the harbor and rode the hop on hop off buses around the city. We have enjoyed excellent weather although today was cool and when it rained we were deep into the dungeon of the palace in the Old Town seeing the crown jewels. Stockholm is a beautiful city with many old and many restored buildings. Many of the new buildings have...

May 20, 2019 - Odense, Copenhagen to Stockholm

After driving through deciduous tree-lined autoroutes with occasional glimpses of neatly tilled farms to Hamburg we turned north towards Denmark. We noted Hamburg's many huge cranes on both sides at its container ports. Further along we were back into forested autoroute with glimpses of farms and towns as we approached the Danish border. Here the police stopped us---the red rental license plate the culprit. They checked our passports and waved us on. At Kolding we turned east to Odense. Going over the bridge onto Fyn Island was beautiful....

Oct 14, 2018 - Cruising the European rivers!

29th September An uneventful flight today from Budapest to Amsterdam, but sitting around for flights then standing around waiting for our luggage is getting a bit old. At least this is our last internal flight! Arrived in Amsterdam about 5pm to board our river ship, the "AMA Venita" which should have been the "AMA Reina" but she is stuck in Budapest due to the low water levels on the Danube so we will have to swap ships about half way. Even a week without changing beds etc. will be heaven! Once on board we made ourselves comfortable with...

Sep 28, 2018 - Croatia to Hungary

22nd September Today we travelled from Mostar back into Croatia to Split. Going from country to country involves border crossings, with passport control; changes in currency, which is a bit of a pain as we finish up with coins that can't be exchanged and different languages - can't understand them anyway but we seem to be able to work out what some of the signs in the streets mean, then we move on and we're back to having to work it out again. Arriving in Split just after lunch we were met by our local guide who took us through Diocletian's...

Sep 17, 2018 - More jaunting around Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England

2nd September A lovely day today along the road to Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, the home of the McRaes (which is my maiden name)! Crossing the Firth of Forth, the estuary of a number of Scottish rivers, our first stop was at St Andrews, and we all know who met who there. A stroll along the High Street took me past the university and the cafe where Wills and Kate used to canoodle, to the ruins of the cathedral. It obviously was very impressive in it's heyday, as the ruins are even today. I came across a couple of Aussies along...

Sep 10, 2018 - In the city

Started the morning by walking Ella to her kindergarten which is run on the Reggio Emilia design. She starts here at 7:30 with breakfast and today was very eager to get there as her group would all go after breakfast to the nearby school for a gym session. The area in which Lars and Kristina live is organised so that you can walk or ride to schools etc without ever crossing a road. I was made welcome and looked around at the learning equipment and watched the children settle in to eat breakfast. Kristina does not work on Monday so we had a...

Sep 9, 2018 - Sunday in Stockholm

Today is Election Day in Sweden and many people are worried by the rise of the far right party - the Swedish Democrats and I noticed an article in The Age in which they were referred to as a Neo-Nazi party. I went with Lars and Kristina who had previously been sent their authority to vote in the mail, then they must show I.D. As well. Unlike our elections there were no how to vote cards being handed out outside; instead inside was a stand holding the voting directions for many candidates for the three levels of government and so people...

Sep 8, 2018 - Day 14 of the trip, day 5 in stocholm, today we go to Finland

8 September Good morning! Up at 0700 and suitcases to the lobby at 0800 then off to breakfast. Breakfasts have all been buffets. I did not realize the Scandinavians like pork and beans for breakfast! In Copenhagen and Oslo we had chocolate and/or Nutella options for breakfast; in Oslo we had pickled beets and brown cheese. Unique for Stockholm is a juicer for our orange juice! Took the subway to city hall and saw where the Nobel peace prize is awarded; where the banquet is held, etc. Saw where the Stockholm town council meets; it was quite...