The Baltic Cruise Day 1!

July 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Today, we left Stockholm on Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas heading for Helsinki, Finland.

Because I knew we wouldn’t have access to our room on board the ship until after lunch and the morning dawned with a chill, I dressed in layers including a heavy sweater. How wrong could I be? Absolutely, it turns out, as we are once again, blessed with perfect weather! I had to shed garments and ended up wearing Florida summer clothing.

What a way to spend the day. Sailing on the seas, chatting with long-not-seen friends, sipping margaritas, and nibbling on snacks while enjoying spectacular vistas!

The journey to the mouth of the Baltic Ocean took about three hours and the passing scenery was breath-taking. Island upon island with bridges, highways, and cliff-perched houses with boats docked at the base multiplied exponentially. Here’s some of the pictures we managed to snap on the way out:

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That last pic is from our balcony at around midnight. Still not used to the weird twilight. BTW, there were three cruise ships following in our wake. I snagged a shot of them. I anticipate crowded ports…

We met up with our group—a whopping 22 people including us—for drinks during the day and then dinner that night. Now, on my last cruise to Alaska (ten years ago) the food had been fantastic, and I was really looking forward to indulging.

A complete and utter disappointment the food served by the Serenade of the Sea’s kitchen!!! I ordered escargot for an appetizer. It was served stone cold. I sent it back three, yes 3 times!!! Not a single improvement. The main course, which was supposed to be fish, was a gelled glutinous mass with no texture whatsoever. As to the vegetables, soggy would be a kind description.

But, the company was excellent, the conversation titillating, and we all had a fabulous time!

 

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Our Last Day in Stockholm!

July 24, 2015 by 2 Comments

Last night we walked to the wrong hotel to meet the rest of the group joining us on our Baltic cruise (in honor of my girlfriend’s 60th birthday). While waiting at the reception desk, the male member of the couple ahead of us offered us Hop On Hop Off tickets to tour Stockholm. He and his wife had to cut their trip off unexpectedly and he didn’t want the money to be wasted.

What a lovely thing to do! So, today, we toured Stockholm on the top of a double decker bus under blazing blue skies and sunshine. Here are some shots of the city:

SW CANAL SW CITY 3 SW CYARD

In addition, we went to the VASA museum. Whoa! This ship blew my mind! According to Wiki, The Vasa Museum (Swedish: Vasamuseet) is a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. This ship is massive and spans six floors. It’s a daunting example of bad engineering. Simply put it wasn’t wide enough to float without tipping over.

SS VASA4     VASA1

Then we toured the old town, which is located on the island of  Gamla Stan. This is my favorite part of the Sweden visit so far. I love the cobblestone streets, the narrow alleyways, and the bustle and music everywhere.

For dinner that night, we went to The Grand Hotel to experience what’s been called the best smorgasbord in the world! For the first time ever, I had tried snaps. The hotel makes its own brand of snaps, the 1874 Grand Aquavit, spiced with caraway, anise and fennel. The food and drink, the ambiance, the company, and the service proved superb and worthy of our last night in this incredible city!

SW CITY2

Next up – Finland!

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A visit to Birka, an ancient Viking Trading Center!

July 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment

The city of Stockholm is the capital of Sweden. What most people don’t realizie is that Stockholm, while it is one city, is located across 14 islands dotted across the fresh water Lake Mälaren. Each island has its own character and ambiance. So far, we haven’t had much time to explore Stockholm and today that exploration will have to wait for we’re catching the ferry to Birka.
Lake Mälaren is huge, but surprisingly it’s Sweden’s third-largest lake and home to over a thousand different islands. The island of Birka was once the largest Viking trading center of the North.

According to Wiki, during the Viking Age, Birka in present day Sweden, was an important trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Orient. Birka is located in Lake Mälaren, 30 kilometers west of contemporary Stockholm, in the municipality of Ekerö. Generally regarded as Sweden’s oldest town, Birka has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.

Today’s the first rainy day we’ve had on the trip, but as we sailed across Lake Mälaren the sun decided to claim the day. By the time we arrived at Birka, the clouds had vanished and the skies were blue. Here are some pictures of the Viking settlement rebuilt as it would’ve been in the tenth century.

BIRKA MODEL OF SETTLEMENT   BIRKA TOUR GUIDE USE    BIRKA TRAIL

BIRKA USE  BIRKA V1
I am in Valhalla, too immersed in Vikings to even contemplate our century.

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Oslo to Stockholm Day 6!

July 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment

For some ridiculous reason, we opted to take the first train from Oslo to Stockholm today. If we’d understood the ramifications of twilight and maybe two hours of darkness every day, maybe we’d have opted for a later departure time than 7:30 a.m. At any rate, we boarded, and since my Viking had insisted we would be fed during the journey had nothing on us in terms of food. Four hours later, absolutely starving, we purchased truly expensive peanuts and gobbled them up.

SW STOCKHOLM3  SW STOCKHOLM2  SW STOCKHOLM1The The passing scenery is much flatter than our Norway in a Nutshell vistas, but as always, lush, green, and panoramic. Farms dot the landscape. It seems as if every scrap of land is devoted to growing food or raising sheep and cattle. We arrive in Stockholm around three in the afternoon and are pleased and relieved to find that our Radisson Blu hotel is located not a couple of minutes from the train station. Our Floridian Norwegian friend, Bjorn, has once again used his infulence (he managed a few Radisson’s) and we’re upgraded to suite once again. Not only that, but a welcome fruit basket and a half-bottle of wine awaits us.

WhatsApp has turned out to be a traveler’s best friend. We text my friend, Tamarind, who’s 60th birthday and her desire for a Baltic cruise prompted this whole trip. Not a few hours later, we’re dining at Luzette, a restaurant located in Stockholm’s Central Station. What an incredible day! A new country, old friends, an incredible dinner, and copious red wine. What more can a gal ask for???

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My Viking Sojourn Day 5—Oslo & The Pig Knuckle!

July 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment

OSLOFJORDToday we explored Norway’s capital, Oslo, and took a tour of the Oslo fjord or as it’s known, the Oslofjord.

I begin to understand the origin of the ferocious seafaring Vikings. Travel by sea in this country is so much easier than travel by car or horse because of the steep rise of the rugged Scandinavian mountains.

According to Wiki, the Oslofjord (Norwegian: Oslofjorden) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the Torbjørnskjær and Færder lighthouses and down to Langesund in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, which leads to the Baltic Sea. The Oslofjord is not a fjord in the geological sense – in Norwegian the term “fjord” can refer to a wide range of waterways. The bay is divided into the inner (indre) and outer (ytre) Oslofjord at the point of the 17 km long and 1 km wide Drøbak Sound.

The sun’s once again shining brightly and the sky’s blue and clear. We’ve been so lucky with the weather so far this trip (fingers and toes crossed).

 

 

 

Here are a few of the sights:

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The last couple of pics are of Norway’s famous opera house. We met a charming Brazilian couple on the tour and a group of women from Germany celebrating a friend’s eightieth birthday. We ate lunch in a quaint restaurant in downtown Oslo and dined on mussels and pommes frites. Delish.sights:

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The last couple of pics are of Norway’s famous opera house. We met a charming Brazilian couple on the tour and a group of women from Germany celebrating a friend’s eightieth birthday. We ate lunch in a quaint restaurant in downtown Oslo and dined on mussels and pommes frites. Delish.

Now, since we arrived in Norway, I’ve been trying to find Den Glade Gris, a restaurant that’s supposedly near the hotel, and one where everyone raves about the ‘pig knuckle’. We’ve set out to find Den Glade Gris three times and ran into a great tapas eatery and a wonderful Italian place instead. Today, we finally locate the establishment. OMG, what a meal. The pig knuckle is exactly that, a huge slab of pork with crackling that’s slow roasted for over 48 hours. We choose a Voss beer to complete the meal and leave Den Glade Gris two hours later mildly inebriated and piggy content. Here’s a shot of the pig:

This photo of Den Glade Gris is courtesy of TripAdvisor

What a marvelous way to end our Norwegian Viking Sojourn. Tomorrow, we head to Sweden and Stockholm!

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