Making the Scene in Scandinavia

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Well, as far as Tyler is concerned, we have reached the "motherland." It's not that he has Scandinavian blood in him -- at least not as far as we know -- but Tyler just seems to connect with this beautiful, rugged, COLD, ice-hockey lovin' part of the world! While Griffin's and my teeth were chattering, Ted and Ty were out carousing the streets in search of the latest NHL playoff game. They even managed to see a few.
We had considered shortening our trip a bit and Scandinavia is the area we would probably have left out, but we're very glad we decided against that! It is stunningly beautiful here and all the water!!! Living in Colorado, we miss being around water and we got our fill of it in this part of the world.
Finland was probably our favorite of the three countries we visited. Helsinki was our first stop on this leg of our journey and we all fell in love with it. It is a relatively quiet place, compared to so many capital cities we have visited, and the people are so friendly. Everyone spoke English, which made things easy for us gringos. We experienced some more of
Copenhagen
A shot of the city from our hotel room. The green area of trees is Tivoli Gardens.those "white nights" --where it's light until 11:00 pm and the sun starts to come up around 3:00 am. The days will get even longer as the summer comes on so that soon there will be no darkness at all for a couple of months.
After Finland, we headed south a bit to Copenhagen, Denmark. A harbour city on the eastern shore of the Island of Zealand, Copenhagen has only 7% of the land area of Denmark, but has 34% of Denmark's population. We were starting to go through "castle withdrawal" since we hadn't seen a castle in, oooh... like 4 days, so we decided to take a tour of several castles in the Copenhagen area. As you'll see by the pictures, it was the right decision!
We took a nice, leisurely train ride from Copenhagen to Stockholm. After more than 60 flights so far on this trip, we enjoy other modes of transportation immensely! As we did in both Helsinki and Copenhagen, we went on a canal tour, which is the best way to see these cities. Stockholm has some pretty impressive buildings and the canal ways are lined with both majestic houses and fabulous boats. While in Stockholm,
Stockholm Canal Cruise
we were treated to one of our best meals ever -- swedish hash and sausages, sinful potatoes and beetroot for Jill!
Our time here in Scandinavia is unfortunately very brief and it's time to move on to Amsterdam. We're expecting our Dinner Club friends to meet us there, right guys?

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Photos

Copenhagen
A shot of the city from our hotel room. The green area of trees is Tivoli Gardens.

Helsinki Canal Cruise
Griffin on the canal cruise.

Helsinki Canal Cruise
The view on our canal cruise around Helsinki in the Gulf of Finland.

Helsinki Canal Cruise
Ted and Ty on the canal cruise.

Helsinki Canal Cruise
A shot of one of the many residential saunas along the waterfront in Helsinki.

Helsinki
The square in front of the train station in the city center.

Suomennlinna Island, Helsinki
The fortress and church on the island of Suomennlinna.

Helsinki Cathedral
An Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral built in the neo-classical style in the mid 1800s.

Little Mermaid, Copenhagen
The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen Harbour which honors Hans Christian Andersen.

Kronborg Castle
Near Elsinore on the extreme tip of the island of Zealand in Denmark, built in the 1420's, Kronborg is the setting for much of Shakespeare's tragedy, "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark."

Fredensborg Palace
Located on the eastern shore of Lake Esrum in Fredensborg on the island of Zealand, this is the Danish Royal Family's spring and fall residence.

Frederiksborg Castle
The largest renaissance palace in Scandinavia, rebuilt in 1602-1620 by King Christian the IV after a devastating fire, it is now the Museum of National History for Denmark.

Frederiksborg Castle
THe view of the castle from the back.

Frederiksborg Castle Gardens
A beautiful baroque garden behind the castle.

Comments

[digital_explorer]

I was here in 2003
You just reminded me of my trip here in Nov 2003. It was an enjoyable trip and here in Helsinki I had my first snow experience! Regards. rey

[anonymous]

Just Back
Hi Guys, I just returned from the Scandanavian capitals but also did Oslo and St Petertsburg. Just loved it. Hope you are all well. Myra (Viet Nam)

[Carla]

Looks like a place to visit!!
I think my family would love this place, especially with all the day light. We could party even longer!! More than 60 flights?? You are going to need a month just to recover!! Take care! Carla