Blogs from Skåne County, Sweden, Europe - page 3

Geo: 56.0469, 12.6953I wake up around 4am and, prior to my bathroom visit, I peek out the window shades to monitor our progress. It's zero. We're still sitting in the same place. I thought we were leaving at 2am. Oh well. Back to sleep. The Captain awakens us at 6:30am with an announcement. The weather was still bad at 2am and their next opportunity to leave the port per the harbor pilot was 6am. Leaving that late made it impossible to stop in Helsingborg so we were making way directly to Copenhagen. We had reserved a walking tour of Helsingborg through HAL but, of course, that was done. Today will be another unscheduled sea day. Mom likes that but I would rather see something besides the inside of the ship. Both Helsinki and Helsingborg have been ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! For my 50th visited country I had planned something special for myself, Japan. I've been fascinated by Japan ever since I was a young boy and watched the television series Shogun, based on the book by James Clavell. The book is a fictionalised depiction based on the true life of William Adams, an English sailor who got stranded in Japan in 1600 and came into the service of Tokugawa. In the book and television series their names are changed to Blackthorne and Toranaga and are played by Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune, my favourite actor. Before my flight though I went to stay my friend Marcus, living in Malmö. I often stay with him before my flights since it's only 20 minutes from his apartment to Copenhagen Airport. We've also been on ... read more

It was time to leave Sweden, and plans to go to Norway weren't looking so good. The weather there was turning bad, and my best option was tenting. I decided to go east instead. I'd had thoughts of going to St Petersburg, but hadn't planned anything. Getting information from the ferry websites was like getting blood from a stone, but eventually I had a half-baked plan and a set of ferry tickets. The first stop was Tallinn, capital of Estonia - a city with a lovely little 'old-town' - the remains of a fortified (walled) mediaeval town, with the main city set outside that. The restored city walls dated back to the 15th century, and looked cool. I only had a few hours to look around, then onto another ferry and over to Helsinki, Finland. While ... read more

Decision time... I felt that I could either go forward or go back. The advice from one of the hut managers was to go back - 'there's lots of stream crossings' she warned me 'and the final day is more than 30 km.' I calculated the final day would be about 11 hours walk. Daylight hours were 24 per day. I was well equipped for stream crossings, and the forecast was continuing fine. I decided to continue over the pass and walk 2 more days to do a through trip instead of back-tracking. I was quickly rewarded with awesome scenery going over the pass. Since I didn't have snowshoes (hey, it was a summer holiday), I couldn't climb any of the highpoints, peaks, or even take any high routes, so I was glad of some great ... read more

From Berlin, it was another day on the train to Sussie's city. I hadn't seen Sussie for a year and a half, so it was exciting to hear her voice on the phone. I was arriving just as she finished her studies for the Semester, and starting her Summer break. That was great, but it meant I was crashing her holiday plans with her family and friends. Sussie's first offer was for me to go on a yacht cruise with her parents. I said that boats weren't really my thing. Her next suggestion was a sea kayak trip... I got the hint and said it sounded awesome (it was). Suddenly it was 20 hours per day of daylight, I gave Sussie all those hugs that everyone told me to give her and we were heading out ... read more