Scandinavian Cities

view of Oslo harbor from our porthole

Our  dash through Northern Europe in August was dubbed a "Capitals" cruise with ports of call at all three Scandinavian Capitals.   It's now two months later and my take on Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm still holds:  I'm glad I visited, but if I'd gone through the hassle and expense to connect the three on my own without the cruise experience thrown in, and if those cities were all I saw of the region, I'd have been disappointed.   Some of that stems from what I fear is metropolis fatigue.  We've crammed alot in over the last 2 years and sometimes one European city really does blend into the next. Now that I've seen the cities, I'm pretty sure Scandinavia's treasures lie in getting out and enjoying the natural beauty--cruising the Fjords in Norway or the Archipelego's in Sweden (two things I would definitely go back to do).

OSLO
Oslo was my favorite of the three cities. We walked from the cruise terminal to the main railway station (the beginning of Rick Steve's walking tour).  We followed Steve's path ducking into churches and pausing in front of monuments to read more about Norwegian history.  We eyed the cafe famous Norwegian playwrite Henrik Ibsen frequented and meandered a sculpture garden dedicated to the works of  Gustav Vigeland.  His most famous work might very well be the screaming baby.  Legend has it he gave his model candy, and then quickly took it away to encourage toddler rage.  Yep, I'd say he got it about right.

Then we popped into the National Art Gallery to see their Munch  collection.  Next, we grabbed a ferry across the bay and toured the Viking Ship Museum, with two remarkably well-preserved, Leif Ericsson era Viking ships.  The ships were likely grave ships, burial sites set adrift in the sea and were rather neat to see up close.  After a quick and expensive lunch (25 USD for a reindeer burger and baked potato), we hit the open-air Norsk folk museum which houses a 12th century Stave Church, the most architecturally unique church I think I've ever seen, but apparently a style common in old Norway.  Also,  lots and lots of sod houses.  The museum has recreated Norwegian village life through the centuries by trucking in restored buildings from elsewhere in Norway and is a great way  to get an overview of  everyday life in Norway from the middle ages all the way up to present times.

I liked Oslo, and while expensive, the Oslo Pass provides a good value including all public transport and museum entrance fees. The city is relatively compact so with only one day to sightsee we could cram alot in.  Not so much with our next stop and least favorite port of the entire cruise (not simply my least favorite of the Scandinavian big three): Copenhagen 

Copenhagen = urban sprawl and sprawl and sprawl.  We used public transit in most of the ports and the Copenhagen system was by far the least user-friendly.  Supposedly you can rent public bikes, picking them up and dropping them off at various points around the city.  Um, yeah. There were never any working bikes available.  BUT we did see numerous blue Copa-bikes chained with private bikes in bike racks.   The public bikes have a unique design and cannot be serviced using regular bike parts, which was supposed to keep people from pedalling off with them.  However, that doesn't take into account how to keep people from monopolizing them until they break.    So, yeah, getting around was a bit difficult.

the Little Mermaid site

View from our table at lunch

The port is right next to the Little Mermaid's  home; however, the famous princess of the deep is currently on loan to Shangahi.  In her place, they have erected a screen, playing a live video stream from Shanghai, a system which really had the potential to be cool.  BUT, the technology stunk and you saw nothing more than a vague, grainy blob, sigh.

Christiana

In between a walking tour of the historical highlights, the most prominent of which was Rosenborg Castle, we did have a lovely traditionally Danish lunch at a local eatery and fun stop into the Ice Bar, so all was not lost.  We also wandered Christiana -- probably the world's most well known commune and Copenhagen's second most popular tourist destination.  Originally Christiana grew up on the grounds of an abandoned military facility.  Homes are ramshackle, without running water or electricity... and there's a waiting list to move in. New residents are voted on by the populace and they are, for the most part, a self-sufficient community, living "free" (complete with the smell of burnt tea bags permeating the air and an awful lot of brownies for sale).  As you leave Christiana there's a sign over your head reminding you that "You are now entering the EU", which pretty much sums up the attitude of Christiana residents to the Danish government.

traditional lunch -- lots of pickled items

I kind of wanted to pop into Tivoli Gardens -- the Danish amusement park that inspired Walt Disney as he created Disney World but we didn't make it to that side of town until late in the afternoon and feared we wouldn't make it back to the boat on time if we lingered too long -- not a good thing, considering both kiddos were on board that day.  My gut thinks they would have waited for us. Otherwise they would have had to take charge of the munchkins.  But, they did not wait for everyone.  We ran into someone in Stockholm (last stop) who had missed the boat in Tallinn (next to last stop) and made his own way to Stockholm in order to catch up.

 Speaking of Stockholm.....

 

Stockholm was fun.  Disney Cruise Line provided transportation from the port to a centralized drop off station, but we walked to the local bus stop and made our own way into town.We started the morning  at the Vasa Museum:  In 1625 King Gustav commissioned a warship to be built. The ship was poorly designed, too top heavy, and sunk within 15 minutes of sailing.  In  the1960s the ship was found, completely in tact, off the coast of Sweden and forms the entirety of the Vasa Museum.  It's a good thing we made it our first stop, because by the time we left 90 minutes later, the tour buses had arrived and the admission lines were huge.

After the VASA, we meandered the old town with our handy Rick Steves walking tour and then back to the boat for an early afternoon boarding time.  We only had a short day in Stockholm and although there was more to see, I don't feel the need to go back just to see it.   As we cruised out of Stockholm to begin making our way back to Dover, we cruised through the island chain known as the Archipelagos.  The scenery was stunning, and I would definitely go back to spend a few days island hopping, especially if we weren't still taking a stroller with us everywhere we go.

Travelling in Scandinavia and the Baltic states, especially moving quickly as we were, is more cumbersome than travelling in other parts of Europe, simply because each country uses its own currency.  We had to change Swedish Krone, Norwegian Krone, and Danish Krone, as well as Russian Rubels, Estonian Kroon and British Pounds.  We obviously had plenty of  Euro in  Germany, and we could have easily used Euro in Estonia because as of January 2011 Estonia is changing to the Euro.  Disney Cruise Line offers a helpful service in that  they will change money on board for you and then let you turn in any unused currency at the same rate you bought it.  Their exchange rates weren't the best, but you weren't paying fees or losing money both directions.  However, they only offered the service to and from US Dollars, and I think we only had 30 USD on hand between us.  So yep, we kept changing that same 30 dollars all week long and then hit an ATM as soon as we found one in each port.   It wasn't all bad, however. I ended up with amber earrings from St Petersburg, a limestone mortar and pestle from Estonia, and yummy snacks from the Stockholm market just 'cause we had money left to burn.

In Stockholm our bus had to pull over to let the marching band through. Happens in Germany all the time.

a great market in Stockholm