Goodbye to Stockholm (Tue., Aug 22)

This is our final day on the tour and the third in Stockholm. We started with a tour of the Royal Palace (Kungliga slottet) and a guided tour of the Royal Apartments. The picture on the right is the 10 am changing of the guard at the palace at the side entrance. They do a more elaborate version at noon. 

The statue in front of the royal palace is Jean Bernadotte. He is a French commoner who rose to Field Marshall under Napolean and ultimately became King of Sweden in 1818 when the royal family had no heir. His family still rules in Sweden today.

Part of the tour of the Royal Apartments took us through a room that very much resembles the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. 

After the palace we went to the Nobel Prize Museum, which is right around the corner. The museum was interesting and reminded me of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but this time with Nobel Prize winners instead of players. The photo on the right is the exhibit for Wilhelm Röntgen, who was the first Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1901 and the discoverer of the x-ray. I believe the item in the exhibit was his original x-ray tube. There are a lot of famous winners in Physics including Marie Curie and Albert Einstein and an equally impressive list of winners in the other fields such as Literature, Economics, etc.

The final stop today was at the Riddarholmen Church, which is the burial site for most of the Swedish Kings and Queens. The photo on the left is the tomb of Gustavus Adolphus (aka Gustav II Adolph) who died in 1632. It is the oldest tomb in the church, and he was one of the most influential kings in Swedish history. He was king during the Thirty Years War which firmly established Protestantism as an accepted religion and helped raise Sweden to the peak of their power in Europe.

To close this trip, I'd like to talk about the "Three Crowns." The Three Crowns (Tre Kronon) is the national emblem of Sweden and has been since the 14th century. It is the symbol that Sweden's international teams wear in competition. I wish I had a good explanation for where the name came from, but the truth is that no one exactly knows. 

The Three Crowns as a symbol has further been appropriated in Denmark as a symbol the Kalmar Union (1397 to 1523) or more specifically the period when Danish monarchs ruled over the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. That is a point of Danish national pride and a minor put down of Sweden. Turns out that Norway and Denmark are envious of Sweden, at least in sports, and the Swedes are the team they can rarely defeat. Sweden has twice the population of the other two Scandinavian countries, so they have a bit of an advantage.

With that, we say goodbye to the countries we have visited. We had a wonderful time despite being really tired a few times from all the walking we did. Our phones say we walked sixty-five miles. That's quite a bit for a couple of old people!!!

Fika and Sightseeing (Mon., Aug. 21)

We had three stops on our sightseeing list today and we took the Hop On Hop Off bus to get around. We aren't fans of this way to get around, but it started right in front of our hotel so how could we resist? First stop was Skansen, which is the world's oldest open-air museum. It consists of houses and farmsteads from every part of Sweden and brought to Stockholm for a display. It opened in 1891 as a Royal Park. The picture at the right is a country church. The park was interesting, but there was a lot of walking, and so we cheated a little by taking one of those little trains that runs around the park. There is also a small zoo, and we went to see the reindeer, but of course they were nowhere to be seen.

The second stop was the ABBA Museum. We aren't big fans, but you can't come to Sweden and not see a museum dedicated to their most famous musical group. The museum was cute and included a lot of their most outrageous outfits and a lot of memorabilia. They even gave you a chance to get on the stage and sing as a fifth member of ABBA and the two women who did it while we were there were amazingly good. You definitely will leave singing. "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line, Honey, I'm still free, Take a chance on me..."

The last stop was the Vasa Museum. It's strange to have a museum dedicated to one of your country's worst failures, but they have it here. The Vasa was a wooden warship which was built and launched in 1628, sailed only a small distance and then capsized in a very light wind and sank. It remained in the harbor until it was raised again in the 1960s and put in the museum which only opened in 1990. Why did it sink? When they built the ship, they built the gun ports too low, and they didn't leave enough room for ballast (stones), so the ship was extremely top heavy. The ship and museum are massive and well worth a visit.

Lastly, I want to report on our cinnamon roll taste test. All three Scandinavian countries were close but we're going to give the nod to Sweden. None of them were super sweet so if you want sweet, stick to an American version. It makes sense for Sweden to win as they even have a word - Fika - for a coffee break with a sweet pastry which is often a cinnamon roll.

Stockholm Old City (Sun., Aug. 20)

Our ship arrived in Stockholm at 10 am and we took a short Uber ride to our hotel, the Sheraton Stockholm. This was another very nice hotel booked with points and only a short walk across a bridge to the old city (Gamla Stan). Gamla Stan is actually an island or maybe two with cobblestone streets and 17th- and 18th-century buildings. Gamla Stan is also the main tourist attraction in the city.

It was here that Stockholm was founded in 1252 and is home to a royal palace and Riddarholmen Church (on the right). This church is the burial place for all Swedish king and queens except for one until recently when they ran out of room.

We took another walking tour, our fifth one of the trip. The tours all focused on different aspects of life in the city and this one was pretty heavily history-oriented. I'll spare you most of the history lesson and stick to the photos.

On the left is the city hall of Stockholm. The banquet awarding the Nobel Prize is held here. As you can tell from the photo, Stockholm is a town with water pretty much everywhere around.

St. George and the dragon. This symbolism here is that St. George is Sweden finally breaking from Denmark (the dragon) and establishing themselves as an independent nation.

The Nobel Prize Museum.

After dinner we went for a walk and discovered that there was some kind of festival being celebrated with food trucks and music everywhere. I don't know if it was related or not, but the orchestra from the Swedish Royal Opera House was giving a free concert in the square in front of the Opera House to mark the beginning of the opera season here. We had a very pleasant walk even though it was 62 degrees and threatening to rain.

Goodbye to Helsinki and Bon Voyage

Time to say moi moi (bye bye) and kiitos (thank you) to Helsinki and move on. We left at 5 pm on the MS Gabriella for an overnight trip to Stockholm. This ship is a "cruiseferry" as it also carries vehicles. You can see the trucks in the photo to the right getting ready to drive onboard. Today it was gray and around sixty degrees.

The cruise turned out to be fine, nothing fancy but the food was good. Our room was small but very adequate and we had a porthole. We saw different views on the way out (the fortress walls of Suomenlinna at the left). It was only an 18-hour cruise with one middle of the night stop in Mariehanm.

We've really enjoyed our stay in Helsinki. We were here for five nights, and the weather was great until today. The city was very welcoming. For six years in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world. This is in large part due to their social network which limits poverty and keeps income inequity low, provides free healthcare and schooling until university, and keeps crime low. The Finnish people believe and trust in their government, which is astounding.

I also want to say something about travelling today compared to years ago. To me, it is much simpler now. Everything is done digitally so if you're going to travel to Europe, make sure you have a good cell phone, an unlimited international data plan and the travel apps you need. We never interacted with anyone or showed any paperwork for our three SAS flights, our ferry to Estonia or the cruise to Sweden. The apps kept us informed, assigned our ferry cabin numbers, and provided digital room keys.

You can pay for anything here just by tapping your card so having cash is almost unnecessary. We had heard you needed a PIN on your credit card for Scandinavia but that turned out not to be true. I had one added just in case, but I never used it.

We only went through passport control when we landed in Stockholm on our flight from the US. All the countries we visited are Schengen Area countries where they have eliminated most border controls. It's almost like travelling domestically in the US.

Visit to Suomenlinna (Fri., Aug. 18)

On the schedule for today was a visit to Suomenlinna, which is an island fortress that sits in Helsinki's harbor. You take the journey on a ferry that is really just public transportation for the Finns and many of them go out to the island just to walk around, picnic or walk their dogs. It's only a 20-minute trip. In the photo to the left, you can see Helsinki's marketplace as we left the dock.

The fortress was built by the Swede's starting in 1749 as protection from Russia for Finland which was under their domain at the time. The original name of the fort was Sveaborg (Castle of the Swedes), but it was renamed in Finnish to Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland) when the Finns got their independence in 1918. In case you were wondering, the name of this country is really Suomi (in Finnish) and not Finland.

The fort worked as a deterrent for several years, but ultimately it was forced to surrender with barely a shot when a land attack from Russia cut the fort off in 1809 and Sweden was unable to send reinforcements because the Baltic was frozen. That started 100+ years of Russian occupation of Finland.

The fort, in Russian hands at the time, came under attack during the Crimean war in 1855 by a fleet of English and French ships. The Russians hadn't upgraded the cannons installed by the Swedes and hence they didn't have enough range to reach the ships, who pounded the fortress for days. They did considerable damage, but this wasn't a major event in the war.

Today Finns and tourists alike come to enjoy the peaceful island. We had a nice walk, and the weather was perfect again. In the low-70s and just cool enough to make you put on a jacket from time to time. There were people partying on the rocks below the guns (photo to the right) and sitting on blankets in the open areas.

As the trip goes on and the miles build up, we are starting to take advantage of Uber more and more to save our energy for sightseeing. Our hotel is about a mile from the departure dock, so we took an Uber down to start the trip. When it was done, we still had energy and so we walked back. We did part of our trip yesterday by Uber because we had to pick up our laundry and it was too heavy to carry. We also use Uber frequently in the evening to go to restaurants that are a bit distant. Uber is quick, efficient and typically 6.5 EUR. Well worth it especially when your feet are tired!!!

Helsinki Touring (Thur., Aug. 17)

We continued our tour of Helsinki with sights that are a bit further outside of the downtown area. The first stop was the Church of the Rock (Temppeliaukion Church). It's a relatively new church, only completed in 1969 but it is amazing. It is a large circular arena with natural lighting and a huge central dome made of copper. It is also an active Lutheran Church.

The unusual thing about the construction of this church is that it is built into bedrock instead of sitting on top of it. That can be done in Helsinki because the bedrock here isn't under layers of dirt but sits near the surface. They left the surface of the bedrock as is, including drill marks, because the acoustics are great as is.

We then stopped at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. All I can say is that the building was much better than the exhibits inside.

Our final stop was at the Sibelius Monument in a park on the outskirts of town. The monument is dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) and was dedicated in 1967. The design is an organ pipe-like structured that represents the forest, hence it's also a nod to Finland itself, which is the most forested country in the world.

One final word about our cinnamon roll taste contest. They have cinnamon rolls here but they're not good at all. They seem to prefer Karelian pies.

Tallinn, Estonia (Wed., Aug. 16)

Today we took a day trip to Tallinn, Estonia, on the M/S Finlandia ferry which is part of the Eckerö Line (blue and white boat in the photo on the right). It takes a little over 2-hours each way and we took the 9 am ferry over and the 6:30 pm one back so we had about 7 hours in town. We paid for our own private cabin with bathroom, but it was still super cheap. 92 EUR round trip.

Tallinn has a beautiful, old, medieval city center, dating back to the 13th century. Tallinn and Estonia have a long and complex history of being under control of some other nation and their people kept as serfs, dating back to when the Danes invaded in 1219. Since then, it has been under control of Germany (in its various states), Sweden and Russia. It has only been a free, independent state for two brief periods of time - 1918 to 1940 and 1991 to the present day. That is just a bit over 50 years. Amazing when you think about it.

Tallinn still has a bit left of the wall that once protected the town and you can see one of the towers in the picture to the right. The building attached to the tower is their parliament building. That is the Estonian flag flying on the tower with stripes of Blue, Black and White.

The Russians have only been gone for a little more than thirty years so as you can imagine, there is still quite a bit of Russian influence on the town. That includes this ornate Russian Orthodox church right across from Parliament. Estonia is one of the least religious countries in the world with 65% of the nation unaffiliated with a church. The remaining is roughly split between Lutheranism and the Orthodox church.

The Russian influence extends to the restaurants in town, and we had lunch at Troika, which serves Russian food including bear. Nothing so adventurous for us. We stuck with dumplings that were like perogies.

Town square with City Hall in the background to the left of me. At the tour end, the guide told the story of Old Thomas (Estonian: Vana Toomas). As a young peasant boy, Tom won the prize in the archery contest against the German nobility which angered them, but before they could do him harm, the mayor of the town stepped in and said that although he couldn't give Tom a prize, he did offer him the job of town watchman which he kept for many years until he was old. As a symbol of the story, they have a weathervane on top of City Hall with his image. As a tribute to this story, I had a Vana Toomas ice cream before we got on the boat!