Sweden - More water, Castles, Old Ships and green green pastures.

  

    Our Viking Line ferry trip through the archipelago from Turku to Stockholm would have    been stunning on a clear blue day. Even on a cold, grey, wet and windy day it was still an experience, with the ship continually twisting and turning through channels between islands.

Our accommodation in Stockholm was a ship as well – well, maybe a boat - the M/S Monika, an old boat converted into a small, quirky hotel, moored on one of the canals quite close to the CBD. Susie’s son Thomas had come up from Malmo for a few days to be with us, so there were now four of us. Susie was very happy to see her boy.

We had four nights in Stockholm, and walked all over the place. First stop was the City Hall – more a castle, really. We climbed to the top of it’s main tower – 365 steps and intentionally built 1 metre higher than Copenhagen’s, for a great view of the city. Thomas then took us to his favourite, and terrific, veggie restaurant for lunch, and then to Fotografiska – a fabulous exhibition of black and white photographs by Sebastiao Salgado. We walked out with a big coffee table book of his work. Now that’ll be fun to get home!

 A couple of drinks and food on our return to Monika turned into a couple more drinks on the deck in the setting sun at about 10:30!

Next day we checked out the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. Good, but they don’t do it as well as the Poms. A hop-on hop-off ferry took us to the Museum of Modern Art. The art wasn’t really my style, but they did have a History of the Bicycle exhibition which really was!

We’d missed the last ferry by then, so walked home via 3 different restaurants for eats and drinks. Tired puppies.

Thomas left us early to catch a train back to Malmo. We’ll link up again with he and girlfriend Sofia in Malmo in a few weeks. On our menu today was the Vasa Museum. This is the Swedish Warship which sank twenty minutes into it’s maiden voyage and was raised from the mud in 1962 after 330 years on the bottom, and is 98% original and intact. Despite the initial crowds, which dispersed while we were there, it was fabulous. A magnificent and badly designed mistake, but a wonderful piece of history, which our young guide, Martin, brought to life very well!

Looking for lunch, we walked again through green space along another waterway to the beautiful park of Rosendal, where we enjoyed a lazy hour or so eating and then snoozing in deck chairs in the welcome sun.

Another long walk back to Monica followed, broken by a quick visit to the Nobel Prize Museum, and some pretty good Italian for dinner!

So that was Stockholm.

Next morning we picked up our car, expecting a Golf, but pleasantly surprised to be upgraded to a Skoda Superb wagon. Very nice, thank you, and with Sheila on the job we navigated our way out of Stockholm to our first port of call. Mariefred.

Mariefred is home to Gripsholm Castle, and a really cool little 2 foot guage steam railway brought back to life a few years ago.

We had to go for a ride. I was grinning from ear to ear. There was a Station Master who waved us off, we had those old cardboard tickets which a young conductor punched for us, an engineer (a school teacher when he’s not playing at his real love) who looked the part, and a great little loco with lots of levers and gauges which belched smoke and steam and had a really loud whistle. Fabulous.

After reliving Casey Jones, we checked Gripsholm, which was also pretty damn good. Through 65 rooms of the castle we were treated to portraits of all the Swedish kings and other Royals. Interesting looking at the changing portraiture styles through the centuries.

Then on to Orebro and our bed for the night.

Still in Orebro next morning we wandered along a beautiful riverfront walk to the “old town” of Wadkoping, a village made up of 17^th and 18^th century buildings to the site from elsewhere, then back into the town centre for a look at the beautiful Orebro Castle. We were becoming experts on medieval castles!

Rolling out of town, we detoured to a little lakeside community who’s claim to fame is a Picasso sculpture. The sculpture, of his wife Angelique, stands on a rocky outcrop on the edge of a lake, and to me looked a bit sad. Maybe it was the cold and rainy day? Beautiful lake, though.

Onward to Karlstad and it was still cold and rainy when we arrived, so we declared a rest afternoon.

After eating we went for a wander round the pedestrian streets, still rainy, before bed.

We sought out a many centuries old stone bridge in the morning. Twelve arches, and still in use. Then kept heading west toward our next overnight in Trollhattan, but reading our trusty Scandinavia book decided on a detour, and had a look at a beautiful little church in Asensbruk. It had been awarded Sweden’s most beautiful timber church 2 years running, and stood in immaculately manicured lawns and an ancient graveyard overlooking a lake. Just beautiful.

In Trollhattan that evening we walked, naturally, and had a look at the hydro scheme which dammed off the natural course of the river down a gorge. During summer, on a few days a week, they open the gates to let water down the old falls – quite a tourist attraction, but not on Sundays, which naturally was the day we arrived!

Backtracking to Haverud next morning, we stepped onto the steamer Dalslandia for our trip along the Dalsland canal system. Our cruise took in 11 locks and 3 lakes and 3 hours before we disembarked and boarded an old railmotor for the 50 minute trip back to our start point. What a great trip. Chatted to the skipper, had a steer, chatted to some locals. Great stuff.

Piling into the car, we hightailed it for Goteborg, our next overnight stay. Once again, finding the hotel parking station proved to be an adventure, but that done, we set out to explore the city. Our first target for dinner proved to be closed on Mondays, but we lucked into a Japanese influenced place that met our needs quite well!

After a good night's sleep we walked across a bridge into the rose garden of the Botanic Gardens. Beautiful, with over a 1000 different types all in full bloom. Then into a giant tropical hothouse which felt just like walking off a plane into a Thai jungle.
We checked out, stashed the bags, and went exploring again, the highlight being a canal and harbour tour. They use really low boats, 'cos some of the bridges they go under are REALLY low, one of which had us out of our seats kneeling on the floor to squeeze under. The safety nazis in Sydney would never allow that!
Lunch at yesterday's closed dinner target - the Fish Church, and we headed for our next stop. The little town of Vasdena, on the shores of Lake Vattern.

Arriving in Vadstena late afternoon, we checked into the Klosterhotel, an ex nunnery, right on the water, and went wandering. Found a nice little restaurant, then wandered around the 14th century castle, complete with moat now open to the lake and used as a marina, in the beautiful late evening light, low sun shining through storm clouds.
In the morning we had a walk around the lake foreshore, where a lot of community garden plots were pushing up all manner of berries and veggies, followed by a proper look around inside the castle, a stop at a nice little cafe and a picnic lunch on the shore, and then into the car for our return to Stockholm.

Our hotel was a stone's throw from Central Station which was nice, because next morning we had to catch the 0830 to Oslo and our Norway adventure.

  

  

   

 

  

   

 

Finland - land of lakes, islands, and the odd moose.

Finland...
Land of legendary distance runner Paavo Nurmi, and a nation which always does well in the Winter Olympics. What else? I knew they had lots of inland water and islands and they love saunas. We set off to discover it.

Our first day in Helsinki, cold and breezy, we went to the markets, where we all bought some goodies, then I spied something that took my fancy. A reindeer hide - big, soft and beautiful. I had to have it! It's now on it's way back to Oz.
From there we walked 2km around the beautiful foreshore to Market Square, where we jumped on a boat for an hour and a half's cruise around the island stuffed waterways off Helsinki. Very scenic and beautiful, and we got our first look at the many "Summer Houses" dotted around all the islands. Every Finnish family seems to have one.
At 4:30 we met our Helsinki "Greeter" - Niina, who took us for a walk to the beautiful Lutheran Church in the Rock, followed by a bus/tram/walk to her favourite place - a quiet waterside park and stream where she loves to run. The birthplace of Helsinki.

A leisurely start next morning had us on the ferry to Suomenlinna Sveaborg, the island fortress of Helsinki, now a World Heritage site. We did a walking tour of the island with Henri, a young guy with a monotone, deadpan delivery. Very knowledgeable, but you had to concentrate hard, and every now and then you realised he had just said something quite funny, but it was almost lost in his deadpan voice.
A really interesting place to walk around, with the old fortification walls in good nick, old cannons and buildings.
 Back on the mainland, we walked up the hill to the impressive Lutheran Cathedral. Quite simple inside. Rather minimalist, the Lutherans, compared to the Russians and Catholics.
Then back down the hill to check out the Ateneum Art Museum, which had a display of the works of Tove Jansson, a much loved finnish artist, writer and character.

Packed and ready next day, we trammed it down to the Central Railway Station to pick up our VW Golf, and by 11 were finding our way out of Helsinki, with the help of Sheila the sometimes erratic GPS, to our base for the next 4 nights - a cabin in the trees at Kerimaa, a golf resort about 5 hrs drive north east.

This was Finnish lakes country. Every turn of the road revealed another beautiful stretch of water with islands everywhere. It was bloody cold, 6-7 degrees - the Finnish summer had deserted us! Our first excursion was to the nearby town of Savonlinna, where we walked across a bridge to Olavinlinna, the medieval island fortress first built in 1475 and added to over the ensuing centuries. We did the usual guided tour.
On the way back to our comfy little cabin we stopped at Kerimaki and checked out the world's largest all timber church, built 15th century, with a seating capacity of 3,000. Pretty impressive.

Next day the sun came out and it was a bit warmer. Our destination was Punkaharju, a narrow peninsula of land separating lots of water. We drove it, then had a walk of a couple of hours through beautiful green forest with lake views the whole time. Lunch at Valtion Hotelli - a lovely old resort hotel now brought back to life.

A walk around a few holes of the golf course was first on the list in the morning. Lynne the golfer was salivating. Another visit to Savonlinna followed, for a one and a half hour cruise around the islands of Lake Saimaa on the beautiful old steamer Punkaharju, built 1905 and proudly owned by the young skipper. We were the only passengers. The skipper expected a full boat load the next evening, the "official" start of the Finnish holiday season.

Our next port of call was Jokelan Kartano, a quirky old country guesthouse with an equally quirky host family. A bit Fawlty Towers. Built in 1886, the old place needed some TLC, but had a certain charm about it. Raila, our hostess loved to talk, about anything, including politics to another couple (The Russians, as she called them!), and was very entertaining. The place was next to a river where a young local guy had built the biggest river swing I've ever seen. After demos from the kids, Lynne and I had a go - very swoopy. That night we were invited by the family next door to a summer solstice bonfire and party. Lovely people and lots of fun and dancing.

Tooling on to Turku, a highlight of this morning was rounding a bend and there was a moose standing in the road. Seeing us, he trotted off into the trees. We stopped in Hameenlinna to check out another medieval fortress - Hame Castle. Arriving in Turku, just about everything was closed for the Mid Summer holiday. Wierd. Everyone just leaves town.
Cold and rainy next day, we set out to explore along the river Aura, had a look at Turku Cathedral, wandered the Maritime Museum and climbed over a couple of square riggers, one a 60 metre timber ship, the Sygin, undergoing a big refit to make it seaworthy again, and the other a giant steel vessel, Suomen Joutsen, used for a long time as a Finnish navy training ship, and now a floating museum.
We also had a look at Turku Castle, another fortress originally built in the 14th century.

Monday 23rd, still cold and rainy, we boarded the Viking Line ferry for the 11 hour cruise through the Finnish Archipelago to Stockholm.