I have been delinquent in my blogging duties. This is an old vacation that I’m now just getting around to writing about. As such, it will probably not be complete. Part of the problem was that we went to three countries and I kept vacillating between writing one post on all three or one for each. There are so many pics on three different devices I can’t find them all. I can only hope this late review does it justice and you find some enjoyment in reading it.
Our latest (at the time of writing the first draft) vacation was a quick tour of most of Scandinavia: Finland, Sweden and Norway, in that order. We started the vacation in Finland. I was particularly excited about this visit since I am one-quarter Finish by my mother’s Father.
Finland First!
We started out in Helsinki at a Hilton. We had a beautiful view of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. Finland is a beautiful country and its cities are very clean, well maintained, and the people are friendly and very helpful.
View of the Gulf of Finland from our room.
Walk through the neighborhood.
Church in Helsinki.
Old Swedish (I think) Navy ship.
After one day in Helsinki we went up to Rovienemi, just at the edge of the Arctic Circle. This was a very exciting part of the trip but a little hard on us. When you are that far north you get constant light in the summer and constant dark in the winter. We were still suffering from jet lag and now we had no night. That was hell. Our hotel room curtains let one thin ray of light in and all we could do was lie awake staring at it as it traveled slowly across the wall, telling us exactly how many hours we had before the hotel restaurant would serve breakfast. We tried to self-medicate by drinking whatever was in the mini bar but that only made the time pass more slowly. Rovienemi is the “Official home of Santa” and there are many touristy things to do. But plan a couple of days ahead. We tried to cram as much as we could in a 10 day vacation that covered Finland, Sweden and Norway so we spent 2 days up there at best. You cannot book a tour the morning of, you need to plan a day or more in advance. But we had fun in the city itself. There are several cultural museums and canoe rides through the rivers. And despite not being able to sleep for 2 nights being able to go outside 24 hours and see everything in broad daylight was an experience I’ll never forget and I do not regret the insomnia.
Rovienemi at approximately 1:00am.
Bridge designed to look like two candle sticks.
Modern art museum, pics below.
The Arktikum is a museum devoted to Finnish history and culture. There were a lot of great exhibits and the building itself was beautiful but photography was forbidden so there’s not much to show. They had an interesting exhibit on the Finnish-German relation during WW2. It seemed that at first they cut a deal to avoid being hurt. And historically the Finns do not like Russia, I’m not sure they do now. Germany was supposed to take a strategic part that allowed entrance to Russia and some control of the Baltic Sea and leave North Finland to govern itself as a more or less neutral place. Eventually the Finns had to fight off Hitler.
Science museum across from the Arktikum.
The Arktikum from outside.
The Arktikum glass ceiling from inside.
Traditional Finnish clothing.
After some walking about in the 24/7 sun we took a late evening (after diner) guided river tour of the area that was quite relaxing.
Sunset (Not) at 8-ish in the evening.
Our boat tour.
Sunbathing at “night”.
Counting sheep will not help you sleep.
A main part of the Finnish diet is Reindeer meat. Fins, like all north Europeans, live on a meat and potato diet. That’s mostly what you will get. The meat is very good, fatty, and flavorful. We couldn’t get enough.
We came back to Helsinki to another Hilton and did more sightseeing before moving on to Sweden. We did a guided tour that was worth the money and effort. Finland is an interesting place culturally. The Fins lived a more nomadic life up to the late 1800’s. Both Sweden and Russia have tried to claim Finland, or portions of it, as their land. For the most part it seems that the southern part that juts into the sea is a strategic piece of land. No one wants or needs to go up to the Arctic Circle and historically Finns seem to have stayed out of the Swede-Russian dispute as long as they didn’t come up north. That was the case during WW2 with Hitler. Germany wanted Finland for strategic reasons and “stay south and leave us alone” was the initial strategy. That didn’t work well and eventually Finland had to fight the Germans without ally forces to assist them. The culture in Helsinki is partly Swedish, but up north is truly Finnish.
Traditional Finnish Farmhouse.
Trip to Valhalla!
Tyr! (I think).
I should’ve mentioned, Valhalla is a restaurant in Helsinki (actually, I think it’s on an Island off the coast that is culturally Swedish).
Yours truly, more annoyed that I haven’t been drinking as opposed to sleeping. Waiting for dead animal and ale.
After dinner, or lunch, or perhaps breakfast (as I cannot tell what time it is) we took a bus tour of Helsinki. Here are some highlights from the “City Tour”.
Sunny side of the street.
The other sunny side of the street.
Every side is sunny because the sun doesn’t set.
Some pics of Temppeliaukio Church (The church in the rock).
Main entrance.
Pipe organ.
Window embedded in rock.
Next stop, the Olympic stadium and Finnland’s pride and joy Paavo Nurmi!
Final stop, the Sibelius monument.
People: Extremely friendly and want to help outsiders. We asked a bus driver where to pick up a bus to the airport and he actually parked his bus, passengers inside, and escorted us to the correct stop.
Chinese tourists: This was a little annoying. There were busloads of Chinese tourists in Helsinki. Caravans of buses would pull up and park right in the middle of town and as soon as the doors would open they would run full speed for any and every shop or line. I’m not even sure they knew what they were in line for. Once in the shops, they would purchase one of everything, picking up items without even really looking at them, or their prices. This led me and my wife to speculate on a conspiracy theory. We think these large groups of Chinese were there sponsored by their government to collect samples of every product they could find so China could make them on the cheap as part of an economic world domination plot. That’s right coming next year, get your reindeer meet, plastic Viking hats and Dimmu Borger t-shirts half price, all made in China.
Tips: If you want to travel to the Arctic Circle give yourself enough time to adjust. We shoved too much in a short time. Plan ahead! We made the mistake of thinking we could book a tour when we got there. We only stayed for two days and all activities require booking a day in advance and many were book up for a few days. We wanted to see a Reindeer farm or Santa’s Village, something uniquely Finnish but this was not possible. Luckily the city had enough interesting things to do that we had fun.
If you like outdoors, north woods USA, Finland will remind you of that. I’m sure the Fins were happy to migrate to Minnesota when they came to America.
Next Stop, Sweden!
We spent just one day in Stockholm Sweden but we really packed it in while we were there. We managed to hit eight museums in that one day and still find time for good food and a scotch bar!
Stockholm from our hotel window.
It’s no joke that Scandinavians like their fish, salmon, herring, etc. But what they do with it might surprise you.
You may have heard of pickled herring, it’s not just a punch line in a Monty Python skit. The breakfast buffet at our hotel had the usual eggs, ham, various breads, fruit etc. The fish was included in the buffet as a side, pickled. Every kind of fish pickled ten different ways. So you take a little side of pickled salmon as a spice or flavoring for your eggs and bacon. In some sense a spoon full of pickled fish serves the same function as catsup or Tabasco sauce. It was good and very funny. This marked the middle of our Scandinavia trip and by this time I was getting a little sick of salmon.
The scotch bar was a bit of a trendy novelty, but very exciting for a scotch lover like me. It wasn’t just any bar, it focused on single malts and I would not be surprised to learn that they had one bottle of everything on the market. I think I had a Lagavulin or an Ardbeg, I don’t remember, but the sight of all those bottles was the real treat.
The museums were beautiful, and close enough to walk from one to the other. Although we did get a few of the times mixed up and found ourselves rushing to get to a couple of them before closing. In one case there was construction or renovation going on so they closed early. Hours are seasonal and I think our pamphlet was out of date.
Here are some highlights from the Vasa, a Swedish ship that sank on its maiden voyage, and the Nobel museum.
Vasa:
Nobel museum:
Drinks and Food: At the scotch bar was fun but a word of warning, they charge by the centiliter, cl, whereas here in the states prices usually refer to a “single” shot. This is probably the case everywhere in Europe but this was my first time buying hard liquor in a bar in Europe so I was taken by surprise. I guess I should have known I wouldn’t get a single Lagavulin 16 year for 6 euros (~7.50 USD).
Walking: In a city like Stockholm you’ll walk everywhere. They have good public transportation but if you’re not traveling far there is no need for it. There are quite a bit of slopes and if you’re not in shape you can tire quickly, I did. Since we only had a day we really rushed it and crammed as much as we could. If you’re not young I’d recommend staying 2 or 3 days and taking your time, a few sites a day with many rests.
I leave you with the changing of the guard.
Norway!
From Sweden we landed in Bergen Norway and stayed there for a night. My wife booked a Norway In A Nutshell tour and that was a great plan. This trip included a bus ride through waterfall laden hills of Bergen complete with a ride down the steepest road in Norway (maybe the world). From there we did a Fjord cruse took us to Flam and from there a train ride into Oslo. We met some great people on the cruse.
Bergen town square (I made that up, but it was square shaped).
I am a Viking (Yngwie)
A view of old Bergen from across the river.
Up close, not structurally sound.
Back yard grill.
Big Fish.
Trolls, there goes the neighborhood.
Some type of historical plaque dated 1666.
Norway in a Nutshell (a.k.a. trains, planes and automobiles):
A perfect reflection.
Waterfalls.
Fjords.
We stayed in Oslo for a couple nights and toured several sights. Some highlights are given below (yes, I’m losing steam).
Old church in a farming village.
Late Medieval era castle.
High fashion.
Name of God in Hebrew in a Medieval Christian church in Norway (very unexpected).
Dining hall.
This next pic is from a Viking museum.
Very, very old viking ship (circa, before 1000AD).
Norway would not be complete without a Rune Stone.
From a WW II display at history museum.
Outdoor sculpture park.
There is so much more to share but I need to stop and get it done. Here are a few closing comments.
Cost: In general everything in Scandinavia was expensive compared to America, food, drinks, fairs, souvenirs, etc. We found ourselves price checking a lot and holding back.
People: We found that each of these countries had very distinct interpersonal interactions, and expectations. Finish people were overly helpful and friendly, Swedes as well but a little more standoffish. Norwegians were quite terse and did not like over explaining themselves or answering too many questions.
Food: Let’s face it, there is a reason Italy and France are known for food. If you want to eat well find a Mediterranean restaurant. Scandinavian food consists of a lot of meat balls and fish. We were very impressed with the Finish Reindeer meatballs but they have basically variations of the same thing in Sweden and Norway. I could have written this blog as a Meat Ball Tour of Scandinavia. I love salmon so much but found I couldn’t eat it for 3-4 months after returning home.
All three countries are very clean and safe.
Weather: It is the land of ice and snow. Even in summer it can be a little cool and rainy. On a sunny day you’ll sweat but on an overcast day you’ll need a jacket. Prepare for more than one type of weather.
Copyright 2018 David R. Bergman
