We woke up feeling refreshed. This is the way to travel for 20 hours! The eye masks were a good idea as it was light pretty much all night. We navigated the communal shower and prettied up for the day. A visit to the restaurant “vagan” for some coffee and cookies helped to open our eyes. Then we uploaded some blog posts and packed our gear. We disembarked in a light rain in the deserted Narvik Station. We needed to get to our rental car at the airport but not a soul in sight. Luckily a few other travels had the same dilemma and fished around online to find a way to summon 4 cabs. We all went our merry ways, us to the Lofoten Islands, them, who knows? We drove about 5 hours around a ... read more

We slept in and had another big Swedish breakfast to prepare us for some serious walking. We hoofed it though the city, taking it all in, and headed down the Strandvagen (a beautiful walk along the harbor) to book an Archipelago cruise for tomorrow. Then it was on to the Djurgarden, a huge island of green right in the city, like Central Park on steroids. These are “Royal Gardens” and are under royal jurisdiction and management due to their original history as Royal hunting grounds. It breaks even, almost like a cross between a non-profit and a National Park. It’s now home to many museums, attractions and beautiful trails. The museums ranged from odd and whimsical (ABBA, Snuf & Matches Museum, and Spirits Museum) to the historical (Nordic Museum and Biological Museums). We visited Skansen, the ... read more

It’s murder I tell ya! - We drove from Varberg down the west coast of Sweden toward the bottom of the country. Our objective was to go to Ystad to follow in the footsteps of Kurt Wallander, the fictional Swedish detective. Many books, films and TV series are set there. We’ve watched all the British shows so we had to do it. Along the way, we saw the southernmost point in Sweden (kind of like the landmark in Key West), a statue inspired by Uma Thurman’s grandmother in her youth (fun fact of the day), and bright yellow rapeseed fields. At one point, we made the new Nav system barf and she went all “HAL” on us. We had to pull over to reset. We pressed on to a site called Ales Stenar, a megalithic “Ship ... read more

Amy and Brian's Big Scandinavian Adventure started off without a hitch. The flight from DC to Copenhagen and then on ot Gothenburg was easy and comfortable. During the layover in Copenhagen, we hit Starbucks and the barista told Brian he had a lot of energy after such a long flight (2am DC time). Brian saved a poor old guy. who after his own long flight, dropped his monster chocolate chip cookie. Brian got him a replacement and the guy clapped his hands in glee and made us smile. Our energy wouldn't last. In Gothenburg, a driver from Volvo met us at the airport. He reminded us of the "Transporter"...all business. Eventually, he warmed up to our American charms (no he didn't). In Gothenburg, we walked around downtown along the canals. We visited a famous fish market, ... read more

We all were up for an early Taxi and lots of goodbye hugs and thank-yous for another memorable trip. Aunt Eva is a wonderful host and we hate to leave her. We got caught in traffic on the way to Frankfurt but still had plenty of time at the airport. Peggie and Jerry headed off for Condor and we went toward United. We spent our last Euros on pretzels, sandwiches, Cola Light for the airplane and some last interesting chocolate bars. An 8 hour flight later, we were in Newark and then….it went all bad. The mean stewardesses made us gate check our luggage so we had to wait for it at customs which took FOREVER. We only had a 1.5 hour layover for our next flight and there was no way to make it. Luckily, ... read more