In the soup

To me it seems that a good way to end our Nordic journey together is through a few foody thoughts. We enjoyed a bit of fish soup in the small market just near Helsinki fish market. Whilst it will be good to be eating at "home" soon, we have all managed what can sometimes be tricky negotiations on just where and when to eat each day. These basic human needs each day are an opportunity to discover new ideas and to gather ideas for both of our cooking journals as well as simply keeping the systems going.

We think that during the ferry voyage we may have added a kilo or two but things have settled down a bit, probably due to all the walking around towns we have done. For us, it takes about 2 days to establish a good feel for a new city and Helsinki has been in that category. Helsinki is an enjoyable city even though we think it has a harder edge to it compared to Oslo and Stockholm in particular. This probably comes from it's need to accommodate Russia over the years.

Helsinki and the end of another phase of discovery

Now we are at Helsinki and the end of this holiday. A fantastic experience and an eye opener for us onNordic countries. We have started a debate on whether we will come back as the lifestlye in these countries looks good, at least in summer. We have discovered new places including an eye popping day trip to Estonia and medieval Tallin. This travel from Helsinki is a huge business and looks to be quite profitable for all.

At times lately we have felt a bit tired but we think we have set a good pace with good variety. Time sight seeing, time for souvenir shopping and time for sampling the wares. From here we go through Geneva and into France and a chance to review our thoughts on this part of Europe. Whilst at times it would be good to meet up with family and friends, the show has goone onwithout a hitch and we are grateful for making the opportunity to learn new things.

Comparing shapes in Oulu

Rovaniemi seems to be a town almost totally reliant on Santa. Yvonne goes with the others to pay him a visit, which turns out to be not that interesting. Tourist numbers there are light and the elves struggle to get their photograph commissions for the day. Our other highlight here is the local Arctic museum where we enjoy several hours learning more about living up here. The range of outdoor sports in summer and winter is amazing. Further south on our way to Helsinki we have lunch and change trains at Oulu. This looks to be a pleasant seas side town with its rather imposing and intriguing fat man statue. Something to research later after RDK compares outline figures.

Heading South

We leave our small hotel in Inari by local bus which will deviate off the main road to pick us up. A nice country touch! Then it is off to Rovaniemi, back out of the Arctic Circle and heading south and the “finnish” of our venture.

Inari Museum open area

Apart from 500 souls waiting for the fish to bite or enjoying communal saunas, Inari has a terrific museum covering Sami indigenous culture and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit there. Maybe a tough life for these people whose lives are basically about reindeer herding across now three countries, Russia, Finland and Norway, but constraining their lives to fit national boundaries and so called modern western style living demands does raise quite complex issues. The southerners in Helsinki with their fast paced living and their demands for hydro-electricity continue to raise complex political issues, especially given climatic change issues about emissions. Like Australia, apparently, Finland is a large polluter on a per person basis and whilst they would like more hydro systems, it causes problems for the salmon and other fish environments.

38 years ago-celebrations

We enjoy a quiet anniversary dinner with friends George and Yvonne. George tried the reindeer whilst the other 3 had fish. The hotel has a great menu for such a small place with less than 500 souls. And so another day on this endeavor is completed in style.

Man versus nature in Lapland

Inari is fishing heaven, although over the two days we are there, we see no fish actually getting caught. It is a real male thing as the men show their ability to exist in the wild of northern Finland. There are great summer walking trails here and we take the time to at least make a start on several of them. Not too many shops to distract the ladies and we slowly regain our land legs in this quiet part of the world. What did distract the ladies however was the male sauna routine and I did wonder why the two Yvonnes placed themselves between the riverside sauna and the river where they bathed.

Heading into Lapland

We are 6 on this bus, 4 Australians and two younger Chinese from Hong Kong. Our driver has a dry wit and he provides almost constant comment during our 6 hour trip deep into Lapp land. We stop to check a nice river used for salmon fishing and we also have time for a coffee and cake along the way.

Growing old gracefully

We kill an hour in Kirkenes exploring the port area waiting for our mini bus.
Heading towards town we pass by an interesting motorbike with two front wheels. Maybe there is one last chance for Randall to take up riding around on such things without falling over. Not much time to see anything else so we walk back towards the ship and our rendezvous for a bus ride south to Inari in Lapland.

End of the line

Today it is over as we leave Richard to return to Bergen without us. It looks like most people are leaving him too but it is a little difficult to tell as there are excursions happening from Kirkiness at the same time as other buses are loading up victims to be flown out. This has been a great experience but we have also become somewhat used to just going with the flow.

Someone else to plan where we will go today. Someone else to drive the transport. Someone else to decide what to eat. Someone else to clean up the accommodation. And someone else to decide where to stop for a visit and how long we will stay there.

So it is well past the time for us to move on.

We will turn a corner today in several ways. From Kirkiness we will start the long haul back south towards the Arctic circle and beyond. Also it is our 38th wedding anniversary today and the start of yet another year together. Still great friends after all these years!!

The Norway we now know a little of

Back on board the ship life goes on much the same as it has for the last few days. Massive scenery outside steering between island after island, spending time either walking the outside decks observing life in this part of the Arctic or sitting inside the ship fixing the world’s problems or planning our next excursion from the ship.

From Honningsvag we appear to travel over the top of Norway to start making our way south into Kirkeness and the end of a fantastic experience. Kirkiness is a mining and fishing town with a strong Russian presence. Interestingly, we find that the iron ore mine, which has been closed for some years on economic grounds, has been purchased by an Australian company that intends to re-start operations here soon. Some of the mine labour is planned to come from nearby Russia.

Hurtigruten day 6 finds us well into the arctic circle and approaching one of the physical peaks of this Scandinavian journey. Nordkapp is a magnet for a whole host of tourist buses, brave bikers and people hiking their way north. So it is into tourist mode we go as we clamber off the ferry to board a series of buses for the short ride from the port of Honningvag to the North Cape.

It is again a magnificent day with just a touch of a breeze and good, if weak, sunshine. We complete our tourist obligations with the mandatory picture at Europe’s most northerly point.

Nordkapp is simply a mark on the map with the obligatory souvenir shop, post box, café, cinema and reindeer. We spend about 1 ½ hours there together with most of our fellow passengers plus other travellers.

Off to the Saltstraumen

Whilst cruising along on our ferry is giving us a fascinating insight into life in fjord country, from time to time we like to do something that is a bit different. So here is Randall boarding his water taxi for a ride into one of the the world's greatest tidal changes-the Saltstraumen just a few kilometres out of Bodo. The locals seem to think that foreigners might find the water a tad too cool should they fall out of the boat and so we were given a survival kit to wear.

I wonder what sort of survival kit the vikings had during their holiday outings to England in former days?

Over the Arctic circle and into Bodo area

This morning (18Aug09) we pass over the Arctic circle at about 7.30am after about 3 hours already of daylight. This morning we visit Ornes for a short while before heading further North and Bodo. And just as we think that there will be fewer houses outside towns, we pass yet another small holding squeezed in between the rocks. Town sizes are not great; Ornes has about 1600 inhabitants whilst Bodo is the second largest town in Northern Norway at about 36,000.

The view in Trondheim is quite Scandinavian

The new uni year is starting as we check out the historically significant cathedral of Trondheim. The new generation of Norwegians put on a display for the wandering crowds whilst we walk back to the Richard With for our trip into the Arctic circle.

Randall is now a bit more constrained than usual as internet connectivity is somewhat limited and slow on board the Richard With. A couple of sessions to update emails are just enough to keep us up to date. We do notice the triviality of Aussie politics and wish that Kev could just stop grandstanding and talking and start actually doing something. It is easy enough to spend other people’s money to buy votes but another thing to take difficult decisions in trying economic times. From up here in this part of the globe, there seems to be more to life than pursuing the folly of Afghanistan, racist based immigration policies and denying man’s influence on the environment, including Australia’s collusion with the greedy set.

But hey; a short visit to beautiful Rorvik beckons so I must finish off now and put on my polar bear fleece and get some exercise in before dining on some more of that tasty whale.

Getting further away from it all

The sea is like glass and in the morning we briefly stop at Alesund. Three of us are still at breakfast so Randall has just enough time to wander into town on his own to check out the town as it starts the day. Alesund is an attractive town which looks like it is doing well.

We are having difficulty sorting out just who are the Norwegians, who are Swedes, who are Danes and who are Germans out of our travel mates. These seem to be the dominant foreign speaking people on the ship. Of course there are the inevitable pommies most of whom seem to be retirement home escapees seeking a sun tan in Norway by sitting in coolish breezes on the rear sun decks much as they would usually do on Brighton beach. Their mates are snoozing over their books and knitting in the panoramic lounge upstairs.

The days on board are somewhat idyllic as the ferry glides along winding its way through the thousands of islands. We are continually amazed that people actually live here but perhaps these people have much the same challenges as people face when living in central and Western Australia. The remoteness of it all must be tough at times. But if we think of the sea ways as part of the national highways then it all makes sense. We on the Richard With are part of a traffic network where each ship of the line is one day apart when leaving from Bergen. So far, at day 4 of the trip north we have seen some 4 other Hurtigruten ships making their way south. So there are plenty of opportunities for locals to go back and forth from the bigger cities of Bergen, Trondheim, Bodo, Tromoso and Harstad. In many ways it is better going here than in NSW where we are still trying, and failing, to construct at least one highway of international standard, let alone using sea lanes for transport.

Hurtigruten and off Northwards out of Bergen

Our return after many years to the western Norwegian city of Bergen starts and ends with some rain. In between we managed to get half a day of perfect sunshine during which we took the cable car up one of the hills overlooking this jewel of a city and after taking in the tremendous views we thoroughly enjoyed our walk down through the trees back to the old town and the gaggle of tourists.

By Saturday evening we were making our way on foot from Hotel Neptun to our nearby home for the next week, the Hurtigruten ship, Richard With. After checking out Richard and settling in, we left Bergen on time and began our epic journey up the west coast of Norway; a trip we had been targeting for several years.

Now just how many islands are there as we snake our way north? How cold will it be up here? How old are our fellow travellers? How can people live in this climate? What do the locals do all day? Is the scenery as powerful as we had heard?

Norway in a nutshell

If there is one day that can describe regal Norway it was today. From Voss we took a local bus down a steep hill deep into a valley and the small community of Gudvangen. A tiny skinny road which was unbelievably formerly a two way road for buses. At Gudvangen we joined up with tourists (we are travellers as you know) for a couple of fantastic hours sailing along Sognefjord fjord to Flam. This is Norway’s deepest and longest fjord and the weather for us is just fantastic. We fill our cameras memories with unforgettable images as we sail along.

After a short break and a bite to eat at Flam we follow even more tourists to clamber aboard the train to climb from 2 metres to 866 metres at Myrdal on a stunningly constructed rail line which winds its way up and out of the deep valley. We take another local train for the last hour of this spectacular day back to our hotel in Voss.

Onwards and upwards-To Voss

I apologise to readers in that the blog has drifted into more of a day by day monologue with less and less comment. So I will try to lift the standard back to where I used to be. The day to day listings is a handy way of recording happenings however, especially as there have been some early lapses in my separate written diary.

As we drag ourselves away from beautiful Oslo and head west into the mountains and eventually Voss, we do encounter more rain. In some ways it is a bit of a relief from the hot days and we are thinking that in Voss we might enjoy a nice winter’s meal at Fleischer’s hotel which is virtually on the train station platform. Nice and handy for when we leave here in two day’s time.

Dining with Munch-Englebret Cafe

To round off our brief visit to Oslo we dined at the historical Engebret Café, Oslo’s first café, now 151 years old. The meal matched the idyllic setting of the Bankplassen square. This café has attracted Norway’s most famous actors and artists for many years.

So Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen are all very different whilst all being water focused places here in the deep north. Copenhagen seems to attract a younger set, has more bikes than the others but is not as squeaky clean. Oslo and Stockholm at this time of the year are to die for.

We are now completing week one of this trip and we are a lifetime away from downtown Australia. But courtesy of the net, Randall is still into his daily fix of ABC podcasts, Business Spectator updates and emails. What more is there to enjoy?

When the sun shines on Oslo

We split up now when Yvonne decides to explore the city whilst Randall fulfills a dream to visit the Edvard Munch (1863-1944) museum. A big fan of paintings including “The Scream”, “Separation”, “Jealousy” as well as a desire to know about the man, Randall thoroughly enjoyed over 2 hours looking over the collection and left with yet more books to carry around Europe. Yvonne meanwhile, spent an inspiring time at the Nobel Peace Centre.

Enjoying slow life on Oslo

At Gotenberg we changed back from bus to train and after lunch the ladies directed us to a couple of local antique and craft places which we found to be very quiet and not that interesting.

By the time we got to Oslo it was almost 11 pm and we had had enough for the day. Oslo felt good with just a touch of a tougher edge as we walked the short distance from the train station to our Grand Hotel. We noticed that there were a few foreigners about and the crowd seemed a bit older here than Copenhagen.

In the morning Randall took off for a jog to explore central Oslo as the city got going for the day. The harbour is every bit as good as Sydney enhanced by quite a few old wooden boats with great masts. A ferry arrived to disgorge city workers who drifted into town and their offices. To Randall Oslo feels good. No security types looking for Osama Bin Laden here. No Germanic public instructions laying down the way things are done around here. It is just a beautiful relaxed city looking forward to a sunny day.

One Finger at Louisiana Art Gallery

We are particularly interested in seeing a special exhibition on future greenhouse architecture with overall themes on potential changes to cities, climate systems and materials. Very exciting themes running through the exhibition and we especially enjoyed ideas for Paris, Beijing, Madrid, Rio de Janero and Copenhagen. It all gave us both plenty to think about and to discuss with our friends over dinner. Which by the way we also enjoyed as Yvonne found out about a local Danish deli not far from our retro home. We ate outside with other locals and retired very happy chappies.

Climate Change in Copenhagen

Day 2 of Copenhagen reveals another perfect day. An early 5.30 am rise for Randall who heads out of the city to find nearby lakes to jog beside. Not that there are many other joggers but then it is Sunday morning. He manages to run for ¾ hour without a repeat of scenery before arriving back at our retro home at the Alexander Hotel. We enjoy a great breakfast before heading off to catch a local train north along the coast to the Louisiana Modern Arts gallery.

Finding somewhere to eat with locals

And so we walked past the canal and around the corner to the national playhouse where an older crowd were relaxing in their chairs along the quay drinking mainly beer bought from a nearby bar. More like our scene so we did the right thing and joined in watching the canal tour boats going by. The new opera house was a pleasant site across the river.

From there we took a local ferry “bus” along the river to the old fortress where we walked around for a while, before deciding to have an early meal here far from the madding crowd. Our friendly Danish waiter from down town Melbourne told us a few of the joys of living in Denmark (with his girl friend of course) before we took our leave and headed home. We were up with the sparrows this morning so these two boomers were slowing down rapidly as the sky started to darken around 9 pm.

Amazingly, the next day (Sunday) we found out that friends Yvonne and George had lunch at the same place and had been served by the same waiter. Quel coincidence

Wundabar Kobenhavn with tourists

The tourists are like ants on the nest as we walked along the major pedestrian mall running off the main square. A more mixed crowd and they seem younger here as well. Maybe all the boomers are still in Stockholm!

Nevertheless we did walk to the cute canal at Nyhavn where the tour boats were turning the tourists over as quickly as they could and the group buses were hovering in nearby streets in large numbers to whisk the victims away to the next big attraction.

From wandering to jogging along

This is a typical street scene not far from our hotel in the old part of Stockholm. The ambiance is peaceful as we wander along exploring the lanes and alleyways. But now we have moved to Copenhagen where we encounter a quite different reality. The weather continues to be unbelievably warm at 27 degrees but Copenhagen is a lot more in your face people wise than Stockholm. At least that is our first impressions. The pace of things is faster, the city centre is in one big rush to everywhere

Vasa Highlight

Today we enjoyed a very interesting hour or so wandering around the Vasa ship which was pulled up from the mud in the 1960's and is now a major permanent exhibition. There were plenty of people like ourselves enjoying the fantastic way this ship has been presented for public viewing and we liked the detail of the numerous aspects of exhibits including nautical living in those days, how the people must have looked like, how they spoke as well as the details of the ship itself. A must see if you are ever here.

Peace on Earth

We are finding Stockholm to be one of the best cities that we have ever visited and one of the most relaxed places around. But why?

Despite an obviously big tourist bias in our observations as we cannot really tell just who the tourists are and who are the Swedes, we are beginning to think that having a culture build around over 200 years of peace must be a big factor. No direct involvement in either of the world wars and a high degree of social welfare could mean this is a nation at one with itself and being relaxed about its place on Earth.

It is a great pleasure to be able to mix in public places without any security screening, no holding of backpacks and bags in locker rooms and an obvious high level of trust in people to do the right thing. This is a big, big contrast to places like Australia where policy mistakes like Viet Nam, followed by Iraq and Afghanistan are helping to generate a militaristic, aggressive overlay on day to day living thereby heavily influencing our culture. We could learn a lot from the Swedes if we ever looked further than the US for our cultural directions.

There is plenty of water activity going on, especially around the city centre between the various islands with quite few tourist carrying boats around and the odd cruise ship parked along the waterways. Plenty to explore over the next few days as we blend into our new way of living day to day in Europe. It only takes a few hours in an aircraft to get away from Kev 07 and the spin brigade of Canberra although Afghanistan and climate change are very much in the news here too

We are not usually into tourist travel notes as such but as I am a bit out of blog practice I thought I would test the system out a bit before we head back into France. So we have arrived today in Stockholm to find the place fairly relaxed and quite active with tourists at the same time. We are staying in the old town (GAMLA STAN) on a small island which also has the royal palace just a few metres down the road. Lots of younger travelers around (or are we just older?). We managed to find a slightly up market market for a great lunch as we started getting our sea legs about Stockholm. It reached about 27 degrees today so there were plenty of sun loving locals out and about soaking up the sun. A couple even bringing chairs down from their apartments to sit in the street where they could be admired.

In places there were a few too many tourists for us and a few too many tragic souvenir shops but we managed to avoid the worst of it. We are finding that the various races here are difficult to pick at times and genders seem to tend to being blended together here, perhaps because there is/was/will be a gay event in town this summer, This is a very cosmopolitan city with a lively feel to it and we enjoyed today a lot.