Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Russia - Week 10

Europe » Denmark » Region Hovedstaden » Copenhagen
July 16th 2013

Published: July 16th 2013

Day 63 – Copenhagen - Denmark

A travel day today. We drove out of Berlin, had lunch in a car park and boarded our ferry to Denmark. We are staying in cute little cabins at a camping ground and enjoying some al fresco dining. Reminds me of school camp. After an awesome dinner by our TopDeck chef we had a quick drive around Copenhagen so that we had our bearings for an explore day tomorrow. We got off the bus once to go check out the Little Mermaid statue.



Day 64 – Copenhagen

Today was all about Copenhagen. We got dropped off in town at 10:00am and weren’t getting picked up again until 8:30pm. We had a bit of a shop to start with to get our souvenirs out of the way. I hit the Lego store to buy birthday prezzies too. We then got on a boat for an hour tour of the city by water. It was a nice trip around but they have very low bridges. I was sitting down and still had to duck. We then visited the royal palaces (where Princess Mary lives), the old palace, the stock exchange and the History Museum. Copenhagen is easy to walk around and enjoy. We headed to the Tivoli next which is an amusement park and gardens. It costs a fortune to do anything in there but we spent a few hours exploring everything. I really wanted to go on this amazing swing ride that I’d seen the day before but it was closed due to the weather. I turned to sugar to help with the disappointment. I had the world’s biggest fairy floss, ice cream and a crepe. That was dinner. We got to see a small ballet which was based on a children’s story. It was quite good. The dancers were well trained and I loved the toy costumes. We could only see half the stage so I’m still not sure how the story ended. My guess is happily.

Day 65 – Stockholm - Sweden

A big, big drive today to get us from Copenhagen to Stockholm (including a short ferry trip). As soon as we enter a new country our tour guide plays us some music that originated from that country. Because today was Sweden we heard a lot of Abba, Ace of Base, Roxette etc. The drive was so big we even had a movie to watch. Good ole Anchor Man… I love lamp. Our chef needed to stop at the supermarket for a bit so we got to go to IKEA!!! It was the first ever Ikea ever built too. I had to go in of course and I got a stuffed snake wearing a beret. Our camp site for the next two nights is quaint. Very squishy with four in a cabin but I can’t complain too much because it’s still bigger than the yacht.

Day 66 – Stockholm

We had a guided tour of Stockholm City Hall first up. This is the hall where they hold the Nobel Peace Prize banquet every year. It was a good tour with lots of little tid bits about the architect and how he kept changing his mind during the construction. They have an amazing gold room which is mosaic gold from floor to ceiling. Next up Kel and I went to the Abba museum. Oh yes! They have a museum dedicated to the band. It cost an absolute fortune and I was a bit bored in it. Other people in our group had a great time at it but they were getting into all the interactive activities. I didn’t feel much like getting up and singing in front of a bunch of tourists so my experience was more like a traditional museum.

From there we got onto a hop on/hop off boat and sat back to enjoy our surroundings. By water is the most perfect way to see Stockholm. The sun was out and I got some great pics. We hopped off to wander through the shops and ended up having a lie down in a park. Everyone was there having a sun bake, so when in Rome…. I had a nice little rest and tried to top up my tan. Back onto the boat again we headed to the Royal Palace and the Old Town that surrounds it. There are lots of cute shops and little areas to explore in this part so we’re going to head back there again tomorrow because we didn’t get to see everything.

Day 67 – Stockholm

We headed to Skansen today which is a zoo with historic buildings. We didn’t have very long to spend here but we did see some brown bears who had the cutest cubs ever. They were chasing each other and jumping in the water. Super cute! We also saw deer, pigs, seals and a few other things. The wolves were hiding so we didn’t get a glimpse of them. We then had a yummy lunch in Old Town and had another walk through that area. We had to be back on the bus by 3pm to get on our overnight ferry which will take us to Estonia. Only seven of us are getting on the ferry to do this part of the tour so we said goodbye to everybody including our group leader, chef and driver. We’ll meet up with a new TopDeck crew on the other side and spend the rest of our trip with them. The ferry is like a mini cruise ship. We have a few restaurants, bars, supermarket, theatre, spa etc. A little bit special after our couple of nights camping.

Day 68 – Tallinn – Estonia

Went to sleep in Sweden and woke up in Estonia. Pretty sweet! We were met by our new tour guide Luke who seems alright. He’s from Brisbane so another Queenslander on the trip will be good for origin this week. As soon as we were settled into the Radisson Hotel (what a change from camping) we went on a two hour walking tour of Tallinn’s Old Town. The guide was funny and gave us a great tour. We then found a cute medieval café and ate Elk pies for lunch. They were delicious. We had a walk around the shops for a while too. They have amazing handy crafts. There were so many things I could have bought but I had to rein it in. We caught up with some fellow TopDeckers for dinner in this awesome medieval restaurant. We ate by candle light, drank out of flagons and were served by a waiter in costume who constantly called me ‘Lady’.

Day 69 – St Petersburg – Russia

On the bus early today because we needed to cross the Russian border. It took 4 hours all up at the border. Most of that was spent sitting on a stationery bus. We still had hours of driving to do on top of that. I’ve started to meet a few people in this new tour group. Lots of Aussies of course. They’re everywhere. We had an awesome traditional dinner in our hotel once we arrived and then called it a night. No idea how sitting down all day can make you soooo tired. We need plenty of sleep for an action packed day tomorrow. Russia here we come!

Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Russia - Week 10

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved