Deadly serious

Waiting for the plane, which left a little late, we caught up on some sleep.

For our last morning we visited a beach in the west of the city, just a short walk from our hotel. Well, it would have been a short walk if I hadn't taken the decision to drop our bags off at the central station and then waste an hour or two finding a bus to take us back out to the west. I'd always planned to come here on the last morning so not sure what happened. Anyway, after help from an elderly man and woman at the central bus station (who, oddly enough, talked together in Swedish), we found a bus that got us part of the way, although given the city's size we could have walked - and indeed did walk back afterwards. At the sandy beech we enjoyed about an hour relaxing by the gentle bubbling of waves. Katarina found it an opportunity to read. With this, our last stop (until the flights), I felt we'd pretty much achieved all we'd set out to do. Somehow, despite a packed itinerary and an almost impossible schedule, we did it: we crossed Scandinavia in a week, visit...

On Thursday morning we said goodbye to our last hotel and probably our most luxurious stay of the week. We took all our bags and locked them up at the central station, using our travel cards again just before they expired. Our short city trips and Scandinavia's system of 24-hour cards (as opposed to London's one-day cards) have worked out quite well (given this region is supposed to have the most expensive transport systems in the world). I can't say any hotel was bad even though they've differed greatly in style, in fact I'd go as far to say they were all very well maintained and remarkably clean (and you'd expect that for the price). Probably one common element to them all was the design of a wet room into the bathrooms. I've never seen this elsewhere but here it seems to be standard. One other bonus was free wifi in all the hotels; a great relief when keeping this blog up to date.

I don't think I've said much about our breakfasts but apart from the morning after the bus ride, where we didn't have breakfast, or the first hotel in Bergen, where they didn't serve breakfast, we indulged every morning in the usual buffet breakfasts that hotels (and cruise ships) offer. I've probably in a week eaten more bacon than I've had in two years, but the energy it all gave us kept us going each day well beyond lunch and even supper didn't need to be a massive affair. The best breakfast was probably in the Stockholm hotel, which did charge extra, but, for me, had the best bacon, sausages and eggs. Most places also served smoked salmon and the usual array of cereals, breads and fruit. It was a luxury among otherwise quite spartan living.

We finished Wednesday and our last evening looking for a suitable place to eat and enjoy our last supper. We were too tired to drag ourselves around the wide streets so decided to use our one day travel cards to try out the small city metro system. We only went one stop but I I don't think I've ever seen such an orange vehicle in my life. The trains and plastic seats were all the same bright orange. It made for an interesting, albeit brief, experience. Finding ourselves not far from where we started, but in a very large shopping centre, called Kampii, we stumbled across a food hall with a Sushi bar where we ordered the biggest dish and shared it and enjoyed it.

Across the islands of Suomenlinna are many old military installations and cannon in almost perfect condition. This one provided a good photo opportunity. Unfortunately, when we reached the opposite ends of the island the next ferry back was a 40-minute and an extra ticket so we walked back to our starting point and got a ferry as we arrived.

The present day fortress islands of Suomenlinna could not be more removed from their violent history. The islands, now a World Heritage Site, were lush with grass, bushes and even this beach on the southern island. The islands are connected by modern wooden bridges and generally the place is kept in such a good state of repair, including a few of very modern museum buildings, that you could almost call this place a paradise. Apart from having to walk across the islands from one end to the other (and back) to see all the well-preserved military buildings, we were refreshed by the whole experience. Even Katarina, with her now partially crippled feet, found energy to complete the walk.

We came down to the harbour to visit an island a few minutes away by ferry that had been on my itinerary but had also been pushed by a local we got speaking to. On one of the many occasions we looked lost with our faces buried in a map (or perhaps just mine) a young guy stopped to offer his advice and suggested we visit the island of Suomenlinna, an old fortress used by Sweden, Russia and Finland to defend against attackers. He threatened to eat my mother if we didn't go. We left him as he donned a WWF vest to collect charity money. The ferry gave us another opportunity to rest our legs, although now the sun was out my neck was suffering and I had to cover up. I think Helsinki clearly had the hottest weather of our trip.

Just to the east of the city centre lies a collection of official buildings around a square called Senaatintori or Senate Square. The most dominant building, and one that dominates the Helsinki skyline for miles around, is the cathedral, a massive white neoclassical building with huge white pillars and four green domes. Leading up to the building are stairs reminiscent of Rome's Spanish Steps only wider. Everything is so white and clean here that you feel you could perhaps eat your food directly off the stone. It's almost mouthwatering. However the steps are so steep and so numerous I knew there was no chance we'd make out up. Instead we continued on to the harbour just south of the square.

Back in the centre we stopped off at big book store, Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, where Katarina, desperate for a new book to read having finished the two she brought with, found a new dark romance to bury her face in. On from the stores we came upon an Irish busker, Cathal, with an acoustic guitar, who was playing in one of the many pedestrianised areas. Another street performer behind him had been giving him hassle, competing for a spot. Eventually the street performer kicked Cathal's bag across the street together with all the coins people had given him. The immediate response from the public was heart-warming as all the passers-by got down to collect all the coins and hand them back - and give the offender a right talking to. We hung around for a while to give Cathal some moral support but soon left as we had a tight schedule. Apparently the police were called but I was doubtful anything good came from it. However, both Cathal's cool throughout and the response from the public ...

Our walk back to the city centre took us past a large number of modern buildings. The first was the Finlandia building, a large white minimalist style like the Oslo opera house, but currently spoilt by large amounts of building work. The rest, like this one in the photo were all colours of glass and steel. The rest of the city is made up of quite tall imposing 19th century buildings that remind me of Russia, if my very limited knowledge of architecture (and Russia) is at all accurate. The city seems to have been built by plan with streets pointing out from the central station. In fact almost anywhere you go you seem to get a view of the station just around a corner. The city centre is small but with big buildings and wide streets, all supporting dedicated lanes for trams, more for cycles and then wide pavements. Between all these are the standard roads with frequent bus services. However sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between each lane and it's easy to find you...

After once again sorting out our bags in the hotel our first stop was this large serene lake, taking a short ride on a tram going north from the central station. With only a small metro, the tram network is the focus of the transport system in Helsinki signposted everywhere across the city. Our arrival in Helsinki was the usual rush and confusion and Katarina's feet were already tired so a slow stroll in the park was welcome for both of us. It provided some welcome calm before squeezing in our last full day.

Despite more predictions of rain the weather in Helsinki was more blue sky and probably the highest temperature we've had so far. Our weather forecasts have been way off, the right way. We've only had real rain (that needed umbrellas) on one day, arriving in Stockholm. Our hotel took a little work to find as Helsinki is quite small but the street are very wide so the maps are misleading. We were welcomed to probably our most upmarket hotel but still cheaper than the misty basic hotel we had on Bergen.

Helsinki harbour was a view of two halves: to the south was the industrial harbour and to the east was a great view of the monumental buildings that dominate the city's skyline. Leaving the ship was hassle free and we got a tram to the central station after purchasing a day's travel card. It was nice to be using Euros, the currency is more familiar than the high figures of Scandinavia (Finland not being Scandinavia).

We woke on Wednesday morning to views of the sea and clear sky from our cabins. The beds were comfortable so rising again was difficult and with Finland being an extra hour ahead it wasn't nice to lose time. However the ferry wasn't in until 10am and we had time to leave even after that so I left Katarina to get as much sleep as possible. Breakfast was a buffet like yesterday evening with the repeated orgy of food grabbing. The quality wasn't as good as the hotels but there was, of course, plenty on offer.

Just before getting to bed we caught sight of the ship briefly docking on some island on our way to Helsinki. I have no idea where this was but it provided a beautiful sight as the thousands of lights brought the darkness alive.

We finished the evening by splashing out on a luxury buffet. We were late arriving since I wanted to see the sunset but fortunately we were still allowed in even though the many others were busy demolishing the piles of food. Katarina wasn't able to stuff herself much but I got carried away with the fish, piling my plate high with caviar, smoked salmon, trout soaked in blackcurrant, mussels, shrimp and many more including the tradition roast meats. Desserts were mostly cream recipes so weren't so great for me but there was unlimited beer (although I limited it to two glasses in the end). By the end we were both stuffed, me to silly proportions. The amount of food here and the quantity piled on the plates of others was shocking. It was fun to do but a long cruise like this would incapacitate me.

Finally the sun did not disappoint and we witnessed our second sunset of the holiday, this time over the Baltic sea. The water glistened like mercury and the ball of the sun was clearly visible on some telephoto shots, together with trademark clouds drifting across its face. We were on deck with quite a few others but less than I expected so we were still able to enjoy the experience with a certain amount of privacy.

The stunning views of the sun lasted for ages so Katarina got herself comfortable and buried herself in her book. I kept taking photos and set the camera to another timelapse.

The twelfth floor was the observation deck and the clouds had broken just in time to give us fantastic views of the archipelago of southern Sweden and a chance of seeing our second sunset.

These stairs were reminiscent of the Titanic and this scared Katarina a little. However she was soon convinced the boat was safe and I was having no trouble with the swaying of the ship despite a few worries before we got on.

We found our cabin with little fuss and were not disappointed. The room was small but bigger than I was expecting. The view from the window looked promising.

I don't think either of us are cruise people but we were impressed by the vastness of the ship and this promenade was busy with shops and bars and passengers busy with credit cards. Katarina was disappointed a rack of books had nothing she liked; she was soon going to finish her second book of the holiday and was panicking she had nothing else to read.

After picking up our bags we took the metro to the nearest stop to the harbour and joined the many other cruise passengers wheeling their bags on the long walk from the metro stop. Our ship is the furthest one on this picture, the Symphony. As each passenger entered the boat we had our photo taken and were later given a chance to buy them, but declined; they were heavily doctored images made to improve the look of each passenger.

After the tour we had a couple of hours left before we collected our bags and made our way to the ferry. So, we returned to Gamla Stan and got some daytime images of this island of tightly packed streets.

We got a couple of outdoor seats on the boat with clear views of the waterways. The tour took us all around the inner archipelago of Stockholm with a similar pre-recorded guide. Our journey took us through two lochs connecting the Baltic with the lake around Stockholm. Katarina's tiredness was getting the better of her and when the wind picked up we came inside and finished the tour by the windows. The weather was much better than yesterday and the sun was beginning to poke through the clouds but there was still a chilly wind on the waterways.

The first part of our tour was by bus. Having arrived so early we were first in the queue so had front seats on top with the best views. I'm not a great fan of guided tours but I don't think we had much choice given the time. Furthermore, we did get to see a hell of a lot and had great views, but both of us were so tired we could have fallen sleep on the air conditioned bus had we closed our eyes. We had earphones connected to a multi language pre-recorded guide. Next to us on the bus were a couple of Swiss women who gave us advice on a possible future holiday in Switzerland.

We were the first in the queue for tickets for the tour and caught a few minutes break on the bridge to Gamla Stan (the old town).

We checked out of our Stockholm hotel on Tuesday morning and planned to return later to pick up our bags and catch our cruise to Helsinki. Here you can see the long corridors with cell-like doors. To make the most of our last morning in Stockholm we got up very early to make it for an early guided tour. The weather yesterday meant my schedule was a little screwed so a guided tour might make up for it. But it was hard working getting up (at 6am) and for Katarina is was very painful as her feet are in a bad way. Despite the oddness of the hotel they were the best beds we had so far. We both could have slept in for a lot longer.

It was cake that provided a lift at the tower and here it was sorbet in a freshly handmade cornet. I think you can just make out Katarina in the darkness. We made our way back to the hotel via the metro, our first journey on the Stockholm underground, which is easy to navigate once you work out the basics. They call it the largest art gallery in the world but we were too busy and tired to notice what might have been around us.

The wet weather persisted into the evening as we tried to enjoy a brief and late visit to the old town on an island just south of the busiest parts of the city and joined by multiple bridges connecting the Royal Palace and parliament. The rain at least added a nice shine to the otherwise gloomy weather.

After faffing about in the hotel and then working out our plan and buying the correct city travel card we eventually decided on visiting a very ugly tower in the north east of Stockholm. But few people go for it's beauty, they go for the best view of Stockholm from altitude, at 150m. Fortunately, this tower had a lift that rose the full height of the tower in 30 seconds, wind whistling as the lift gently swayed for the ascent. At the top the view is impressive except the weather was quite disappointing, our first real rain of our holiday and it seriously dulled our view of the city. However a cafe with excellent cakes provided a welcome silver lining. The tower reminds me of the Montparnasse tower in Paris not so much for design but for its position and the view of the city. We travelled to and from the tower by bus, enjoying the unlimited travel we have for 24 hours, although I think Stockholm's public transport is supposed to be the most expensive in the world, and I can'...

Our way to our Stockholm hotel didn't exactly go according to plan with the hotel hidden between and underneath the central station complex. After walking round in big circles I gave up and phoned the hotel, but even that proved difficult. Eventually we did find it and the hotel was perhaps the strangest hotel I've ever been to. It seems to be built into an office complex and each room is the size of an office and the walk to the room is reminiscent of a low security whitewashed prison (as seen from a movie perhaps). There's no view except of a rail track but fortunately the room had triple glazing. In actual fact the interior decor is to a high quality but the place is weird.

We're on a cruise ship to Helsinki and I'm behind on the blog so might be a while before I catch up on the last couple of days' posts.

After a relaxed Monday morning in the Malmo hotel we got a train at 11.17am taking us to Stockholm. The intercity SJ trains are very spacious and probably the most comfortable seats we've had anywhere so far with power sockets, hooks and plenty of leg room. The smooth four and a half hour journey could even have been longer, but gave me time to catch up with the blog and some sleep. Katarina caught up with reading and is coming close to finishing her second book of the trip.

I first need to make one small correction: the town of Kronborg castle is Helsingor. I'd got the name confused with Sweden's sister town across the Oresund. And it was the ferry we took across the water to Helsingborg, one of those huge ferries that carries lorries and cars. Here they run about every 20 minutes. As each ferry leaves a new one arrives. The journey across was very fast and Katarina was clearly in a lot of pain with her feet. She's shown so much maturity these past few days it's been difficult to tell how much pain she's in as she's been so polite. As we arrive in Sweden the rain, that had been predicted for days, eventually arrived with a slight drizzle. At Helsingborg we had no more energy to visit the town or another tower, which was one of the town's highlights, so we just stopped in at a Subway sandwich bar that was opposite the station, to the curious glare of a crowd of local kids. From here we got the first train back to Malmo and limpe...

Our penultimate destination on this circular journey was Helsinborg, or Elsinor to the English. The reason for our visit here was not the pretty local town but Kronborg castle, otherwise known, for really quite spurious reasons, as Hamlet's castle. The guide books all said the walk was 15 minutes but in fact it was more like 45 minutes. However we did get there and, although the interior had closed at 5pm and we had arrived at 6pm, we still got to walk around and knacker our feet some more. It wasn't the best stop on the journey and a shame we had no time for the local town but we would have felt we'd missed out had we avoided it altogether. Of course the best sight at the castle is the view of Sweden which is so close you can recognise individual buildings.

We continued our Oresund journey with a train up to the northern tip where a ferry will take us back to Sweden. At every opportunity Katarina takes out a book and reads. It makes her a very easy travelling companion.

Off the ferry we decided, despite Katarina's obvious foot pain, that we'd try to get to that corkscrew tower, which was quite a walk away. However we were blessed enough to find ourselves passing the finish line of the Iron Man contest just as the winner was passing to loudspeaker fanfare in both Danish and English. And, by the way, we haven't yet once had to try out any local languages because everyone including bus drivers speak English better than even many Londoners. At the Our Saviours church all the excitement of climbing the tower drowned out the pain signals from our feet. Our journey to the heavens began. But the ascent never seemed to end. The first 90% of the stairs were wooden but every few flights the style changed almost as though we'd entered a new tower and, unlike the fat round tower that was fat at the top as much as at the bottom, this tower narrowed more and more making some staircases too tight for my rucksack. Finally, we completed the many woode...

Apart from the towers my one other aim today was to ride the extensive waterways of this city, maybe escape the chaos of the streets, maybe rest our feet. Our luck continued and an hour guided cruise was just leaving so we got a fast tour of the city that matches our speedy tour of Scandinavia. I strapped my camcorder to the side of the boat for a timelapse recording and we got to see a large part of Copenhagen not visible from the street. As towers dominate the land, here on the water your ride is frequently interrupted by very low bridges that you have to sit and sometimes even duck for. While on the cruise we discovered we had come to the city on the day of the Copenhagen Iron Man race so across the city we would see crowds of people and tired runners winding through the streets. We also caught sight of a corkscrew tower in the south-east corner that we knew we had to see. And all this time despite predictions of rain we had sun and only light cloud all day.

Despite the sore feet and lack of sleep we still found moments to have fun. Tourists seem to find it a must to photograph themselves in one of the many alcoves in the Rundetarn. And we were no different. Notice the sloping floor.

With it being Sunday, some towers were not open, so the first we got to was the Round Tower. I don't have the historical details but I assume most of these were built in the Renaissance in case you need some context. This one, the fat round tower, didn't have stairs until the very top. Instead you ascended on a spiral walkway that rose at a fairly shallow angle making the walk to the top quite easy. A short staircase at the very top took you out to a viewing platform where we got our first view of Copenhagen from altitude. The mishmash of architecture accentuates the cosmopolitan feel you get on the ground here but rising out of the mix are all the towers, the only buildings to stand out to any great degree. It would appear over the centuries whenever a building was commissioned it had to have a tower: cathedrals, halls, universities, libraries. And somehow Katarina's feet, still in pain, survived the ordeal.

From Malmo our plan was to travel Around the Sound, which is an official tourist route around Oresund, the body of water that separates Danish Zealand and Sweden. Our journey began on the long train bridge connecting Malmo and Copenhagen. However although the bridge looks great from satellite there wasn't much to see from the train itself, just a huge expanse of grey sea and sky for 20 minutes. Arriving in Copenhagen was quite a shock from the relative tranquillity of Oslo and Bergen. Copenhagen is a messy and frenetic city more like London and Rome. The unmistakable image that immediately repeats itself here are bicycles. Bicycles are everywhere, streets are busy with them weaving between traffic and across the many pedestrianised zones, columns of them drift along dedicated cycle lanes beside buses and heavy trucks, bicycles shaped like wheelbarrows carry children and tourists in the barrow, and thousands of them are locked up in collosal untidy heaps, many rusted, twisted and wh...

The foyer to our Malmo hotel was very impressive and even offered a red carpet in the entrance. However we were far too early to get a room so instead spent a couple of hours resting and then changing and washing in the bathrooms. Fingers crossed we'd survive the day with such little sleep. Katarina had amazing stamina, despite having very sore feet.

Saturday evening we checked out of our hotel in Oslo and took an overnight bus to Malmo. I'd prepared as well as I could knowing this wasn't going to be pleasant. It came as no surprise then that it was a very difficult night with frequent interruptions and very uncomfortable seats. Furthermore the power sockets weren't working and neither was the promised wifi. However we did survive and were let off at a very quiet bus garage in Malmo at 6.30 in the morning with virtually no sleep. But we did it!

And if anyone doubts the power of Oslo's Opera House then take a look at this. There's no post production trickery. This was purely by accident.

After the slight disappointment of not reaching another island we settled on relaxing for the final few hours in Oslo and before an overnight coach to Malmo. However what then happened was something I don't think either of us will ever forget. I'd seen pictures of the Oslo opera house in books and it looked interesting. Like all things in Oslo they end up being much closer than you expect so we found this place just behind the main station across a long industrial footbridge. The building strikes you immediately with its super abundance of white and highly reflective glass. Inside is the opera hall but most visitors are here to walk across the roof and enjoy the view both of Oslo and of the building itself, which is different from every angle and yet is always just another sharp diagonal of white stone and glass. But never have I been so moved and mesmerised by a building.Both of us were transfixed by its strikingly clean beauty brought alive by more blue sky and a slowly setti...

Back from Bgdoy I wanted to try our luck with a ferry to another island but it was getting too late for a round trip and our feet were too tired to rush. Instead we visited Oslo's medieval fortress, Akershus which dominates the city's shoreline with its original 13C stone walls. However it wasn't the highlight of our visit and not as easy to capture on film as all the nature we'd been visiting, or maybe we were just too tired to appreciate it. So here's a photo of a giant Tetris piece that had been left in the gardens of the castle as you first enter. Oslo is abundantly decorated with thousands of modern sculptures of all sizes and styles, including a random scattering of seatless chairs that surprised us after first being delighted to have found somewhere to rest our feet. A broken chair we found later on was probably just a broken chair, but this city can surprise you like that so who knows.

From Karl Johan Gate we made our way down to the harbour, a little behind schedule but still following some sort of plan. From here we had to decide which island we were going to visit by ferry. We settled on Bgdoy, which technically speaking is a peninsular but is treated much like an island as the bus route is far too slow. The ferry left soon after we arrived and it was only a 15 crossing to the museum 'island'. Although there were plenty more to visit we kept to the Viking museum with its original Viking ships recovered over 100 years ago from an ancient burial site. Although they've obviously been restored their condition is remarkable for their 1000 years. Even a cart had survived in seemingly perfect condition together with extensive intricate wood carvings that must have taken months of work all those years ago. Katarina and I took plenty of photographic evidence.

Our brief visit to Oslo's 'West End' was this long pedestrianised road running through the centre of Oslo from the central station in the east to the Royal Palace in the west. It had everything you'd expect, from expensive clothing stores and cafes (ok everything here is expensive) to all varieties of street performers (our favourite being an artist working with spray paints). The speed with which you can walk from one end of central Oslo to the other is an indication of how small Oslo is compared to the vastness of London.

And here is the photo that got lost in the mail.

Back from the ski jump I'd planned to have lunch at Katarina's favourite eaterie, Subway. They have about 7 of these places in Norway and one was conveniently on our route today. I'm sure we should be indulging in more local delights but the prices here are astronomical and this place guaranteed a healthy quick fix. We weren't disappointed as Katarina got her favourite sandwich, tuna mayonnaise.

Norway's top tourist attraction is quite unorthodox, a 130m ski slope that hosted the World Championships. But what brings people here is probably not the ski museum with its 250 year old skis and giant polar bear model, nor even the slope of the jump itself (without snow), but the fantastic views of Oslo and its surrounding fjord from a viewing platform above the jump's launch. The whole area Is already situated on a hill overlooking Oslo so in all it's about 450 above sea level. On the way out we forgot to try out a ski simulator but at least were surprised by a performance by an orchestra playing in the courtyard outside even if it delayed our day.