Free time in Scandinavia - THREAD 2 OF 2 - COMPLETE! About This Page:

[DopeyGirl]

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That crazy cat Celery followed you guys all the way to Sweden?!

Great photos!!! Stockholm sure is a beautiful city!!! I will admit to feeling dizzy just looking at some of those "looking straight down" photos!!!

[Colexis Mom]

What gorgeous pictures

[debsta922]

What a beautiful city...

[chezp]

Friday 8 July – part four: the proper changing of the guard!

As we walked back towards the main shopping area, we came across the main Changing of the Guard ceremony. What a great spectacle it made, as they paraded through the streets of the capital, towards the Royal Palace, led by bands.






We briefly thought about following them, but they were already ahead of us and it would’ve meant running to catch up and in this heat, that idea was just not going to work, so we carried on walking.

We browsed a few gift shops, but found nothing that really caught our eye. Eventually we wound up in Debenhams and it was fascinating to see that all the stock was English with just Swedish price tags over the English ones. Ironically, I was wearing a top purchased from them and I managed to find the same one on the shelf! I checked to see if there were any bargains, but despite the fact that there was a sale on, there was nothing in there that was as cheap as I can get at home. I know this, because I was only in there last week, looking at sales bargains!

We wandered into a Swedish department store and found the book section. Apart from a very nice book on Stockholm, which was stupidly priced (something like £30 or $50), nothing took our fancy, although in the children’s section, I did find a number of Disney books, including Winnie the Pooh, who I think was called Nalla Poh from memory. Eeyore was I-Or, not far off! They’re obviously not as popular as they are at home, but it was great to see.

We caught the T-bahn back to the hotel, finding out that the tickets we had purchased on our first night were only good for five trips, not 10 as the guy had told us. When I said that we didn’t want to buy another five trips, as we were about to leave, the ticket collector turned a blind eye and let us go through regardless. Yay!

We got our luggage from the hotel and asked for a taxi. We went outside to wait and literally there he was, only a minute later.

We were soon at the station, although we did learn that we should’ve made it clear that we needed the airport express train, as that obviously leaves from a different part of the station and we had to walk about a block, but it was no big deal. On the way there, I spotted the post office building and grabbed a photo:



We got our tickets (yes, this time we knew we had to buy them for the return leg! ) and then went to wait on the train. We were off by 1.35 and at the airport by 2.00. This is an excellent service and this time we were able to watch the speed of the train as the display was working and it hadn’t been on the way in. We hit 205 kilometres an hour for most of the journey and it did feel fast. No photos or trip report writing for me on that train or I’d have been sick!

We checked in for our flight, noting the Swedish TV crew, who were speaking to passengers. I don’t doubt that they were finding people flying to London and asking how they felt about going there in light of what had happened yesterday. I hope the people said that they were perfectly happy to still go there. I mean, let’s fact it – it could happen anywhere in the world (as events in Egypt just a week or two later showed) and I would hate to think that people would stop coming to London just because of an attack like that. That would mean the people who carried out the attacks had won.

There was no line at all for security and we were straight through. I don’t remember that ever happening before to me.

Next: back to Oslo prices and “are we the only people in this airport?!

[lauren-roxy]

Another great update Cheryl!!

[chezp]

Friday 8 July – part five: back to Oslo prices and “are we the only people in this airport?!

Our first priority once through security was finding somewhere to eat. On the way there, I saw this and knew you guys wouldn’t believe me unless I got a photo of it!



We found a café to have lunch and we were straight away back to Oslo prices (well, this is an airport after all! ) I had a prawn sandwich and Mark had spaghetti, not what he thought it would be, as he was expecting it to have meat in it, but he got vegetables instead! It was fine, but it did cost nearly £20 – about $35!

We headed for our gate – at that point and at times as we walked over there, we felt like we were the only in this airport:



I have really never seen anywhere so quite in all my air travels, especially not a main airport for a capital city. It was really weird. They had some interesting information about the development of flight and the airport, as we walked round, so we stopped to read that.

Our gate was the furthest it possibly could be and there were already quite a few people waiting when we got there – and we were there an hour or so before the flight was due to depart. We bought an English paper and spent the time reading that and people watching. It never ceases to amaze me how many people need to make mobile phone calls before they get on a flight – honestly, what did we all do before mobile phones were invented?!

We boarded and left a little later than the scheduled time. Again the food and drinks situation was all charged for. Bizarre how they do that to and from the UK on flights that are longer than the one we took between Oslo and Stockholm. I can’t work it out.

The flight wasn’t too bad, not as turbulent as the way out here, but a little rough in places. Again, I took a far few photos documenting our flight:




The Swedish seaboard

The road bridge between Sweden and Denmark


Arriving in London – notice the smog in the air, it’s a lot hazier than in Stockholm

Back on the ground at Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport

We landed at London a bit later than planned, but then again, we had taken off a bit later than planned as well. I suspect that we may also have been diverted a bit from our usual course, as I know that there was certainly an air exclusion zone in place over London yesterday. I’m guessing that was probably still in place today as well.

When we got into the terminal, it did look as if security was a little higher than when we had left, but not noticeably so. OK, so there were longer waits to clear passport control and they were certainly checking your documents a lot more carefully, but apart from that, there was no real change. Security is usually pretty tight at UK airports anyway, although we have seen tighter security at Gatwick in the past.

Our suitcases were already going round on the carousel when we got there, so we rescued them and headed out through customs and then off to find the bus back to our hotel. We followed the signs and found it OK, but let’s just say that if English isn’t your first language, then you may have struggled a bit! It wasn’t as easy as it could’ve been.

We went to the automatic ticket machine to get our tickets, but it wouldn’t take our credit cards, as there was a system problem and we only had a £10 note on us and then machine would only take coins. Not very helpful. It was OK in the end, as we were able to pay on the bus and that arrived just a couple of minutes later. We obviously had good timing, as the buses were only running every half an hour by then.

We were back at the hotel by 7.00 and were interested to see the signs saying that the main revolving doors weren’t currently being used due to increased security. Instead, they had a member of staff standing there and watching people as they came in. All very well, but I’m not quite sure what she was going to do if anyone walked in who she thought was suspicious.

We collected the car and headed for home. We managed to cut out some of the M25 (remember it’s a car park! ) but it was pretty slow once we joined it and the traffic was very much stop start the whole way back. We got in just after 8.30 and that was it, another vacation over.

Today we walked 6.9 miles
The weather today was hot and sunny, with temperatures in the low 90’s.
The best thing today was the views from the top of City Hall.
The worst thing today was having to go back down the steps at the City Hall.
The funniest thing today was finding the top I was wearing in a store in Stockholm – very surreal!
Today we tried the City Hall
And the result was it was a magnificent building with great views.
The most magical moment today was catching the Changing of the Guard completely by accident.

Next: some final thoughts

[chezp]

Some final thoughts

Just to round off this report, I’ve got a few, somewhat random, final thoughts.

Both destinations are absolutely beautiful – Scandinavia really enjoys a completely different way of life to much of the western world. There’s no pollution as such, they enjoy good wages and a high quality of life, but the result of that is that prices are high over here, especially for food, although the shops aren’t cheap either. That was something I’d heard about before we went, but I wasn’t fully prepared for. Let’s just say lunch on the first day was something of a shock!

Summer really is the time to go – the weather while we were there was beautiful, although from the forecasts I’ve seen since I got home, we hit very lucky – it’s never usually that hot and sunny, it’s more often in the low to high 60’s and quite often rains. But what made it for us was how late it stayed light. Although attractions may not be open that late, there’s nothing better than being able to wander around the city, seeing all the sights.

There’s certainly no need to worry about speaking either Swedish or Norwegian – nearly everyone you meet speaks perfect English and the signs at the tourist attractions are all in English as well. Unlike some other European countries, whose names I won’t mention :whistle these two countries are very welcoming to tourists, although it did strike us that Oslo hasn’t really worked out how to capitalise fully on all the foreigners who visit their city, especially as it’s a regular port of call for cruise ships.

What were the highlights?

There were so many – in some ways, this was just a vacation full of highlights! I don’t think there was really anywhere that we visited that we came away disappointed with – well perhaps Aquaria in Stockholm but that’s it. Everywhere we went was just so unique and a lot of fun. I’m not sure I can pick the highlights, but here goes:

5)Vigeland Sculpture Park
I really did not expect to enjoy this place as much as I did, but I was just blown away by the beauty and scale of the sculptures here. It was a lovely place to just relax and take in the views.

4) Gamla Stan
I just loved Gamla Stan – it was beautiful, just like all the photos I’d seen and walking around it the first evening we were in Stockholm was great, especially the way we kept coming across more beautiful buildings.

3) The Vasa museum
This was an amazing place to visit – the view of that ship when you walk in really does take your breath away and they literally covered everything you could ever want to know. It was a very thorough and very well presented museum.

2) Oslo harbour
I just loved everything about Oslo harbour – it was just beautiful, especially in the evening and had a great atmosphere. It was so busy and full of life and so much fun. Had the food prices been more cheaper, I could’ve just lived there!

1) The cruise down the fjords
Despite the rude woman and the smoking, never before have I just felt so at one with nature – it just felt as if we were in the middle of nowhere and the scenery was so beautiful.

Of the two which did we prefer?

Well, despite the high prices, we loved Oslo – it’s probably one of our favourite places that we’ve ever visited and I think I speak for both of us when I say we’d love to go back again, perhaps on a cruise up the fjords, but before we do that, we really need to get another Disney cruise in so that could be a while off, but it’s on my list for the future someday!

[Tara O'Hara]

Cheryl, what a fantastic report!! Your pictures look like postcards-except for this one:

What's up with Mark putting his fingers in a cat's mouth?! Some people never learn!

[karmic]

Thank you so much,Cheryl, for sharing your wonderful trip. I have been following it avidly since the beginning. The two of you know how to make the most of a vacation! again!

[debsta922]

Thanks for sharing your vacation with us Cheryl. It's so nice to see and read about new places.

[lauren-roxy]

Cheryl, I am so sad that your report is over. I really enjoyed hearing all about it and seeing your beautiful photos!! Thanks so much for sharing, I learned a lot!!

[GoofyMom]

Thanks for the beautiful photos and the great report! What a beautiful part of the world!

[DopeyGirl]

GREAT report!!!

Both Oslo and Stockholm look like beautiful cities!!!

[DawnDenise]

What a wonderful report Cheryl! I just got caught up on your last couple of enteries. Stockholm and Oslo hold so much history and thank you do much for sharing this trip with us.

[DrDolphin]

Great report CHeryl!!!