Scandinavian adventure
Our seven-day Scandinavian adventure: fly to Copenhagen, train to Malmo, overnight train to Stockholm, overnight ferry to Tallinn, ferry to Helsinki, fly back to London just an hour before our flight leaves for San Francisco. Whew!
Copenhagen
We flew out from Menorca mid-day on Vueling. Just as bad as EasyJet wrt the luggage. Awful experience. Lots of drama and arguing, but the kids helped me bamboozle the luggage lady by loading up their sweater pockets with stuff while she was yelling at the guy behind us. We got the smaller bags to fit and boarded without giving up any extra cash.
We had a two hour layover in Barcelona. Charlie wandered off and got himself lost. The look on his face when I eventually found him was priceless.
I charmed the Barcelona gate agent and we avoided the baggage drama. After a week of sometimes-oppressive heat and humidity, it was a real treat to arrive to a cold drizzle.
The next morning we visited the Nationalmuseet (National Museum) to see the Viking Sorceress exhibit. Cool experience: a guided tour with explanations of how the Vikings terrorized everyone nearby - and not so nearby, it turns out they went as far south as the Medeterranean!
We walked around, lunched, and went on a boat tour from Nyhavn. The canals and waterways go all around the downtown area.
Pastries at BUKA were epic.
Malmo
We took the train to Malmo and sat next to a famous Swedish actress. I wish I could remember her name. She was maybe 75 and just fantastic.
We had so much fun on the Copenhagen boat tour we rented our own and boated around Malmo!
Charlie touched all the bridges.
We fed some ducks, which was fun, and then a fleet of seagulls attacked, which was scary.
Dinner downtown near the Stortorget (Main Square) before heading to the overnight train.
Overnight train to Stockholm
We took the SJ Night Train from Malmo to Stockholm: an eight hour non-stop ride with sleeper cars! Leaves Malmo at 10pm, arrives in Stockholm at 6am but you have an hour to get off while the train is at the station.
Stockholm
The only downside: Stockholm is still asleep at 6am. There were some grumpy grumps.
We walked all over the empty city, it felt a little like a zombie movie.
We found a cafe at 8am and life got a little easier.
The Nobel Prize Museum was inspirational.
Swedish licorice is wonderful.
The Stockholm SL Travelcard is an awesome way to get around by bus, metro, train, and even the ferries. We saw most of the city with just a day pass.
We visited another museum and headed home!
The next morning we visited the Vasa Museam, featuring a sunken warship that was perfectly preserved in the cold muddy water and later raised and restored.
The ship was built with two decks of big heavy guns at the behest of the King, who wasn't a naval architect and didn't increase the keel weights accordingly. It tipped over and sank approximately 1.3km into its maiden voyage.
Overnight ferry to Tallinn
After lunch we made our way to the ferry terminal and boarded The Baltic Queen, a Tallink ferry that was going to take us 450km across the Baltic Sea to Tallinn Estonia.
We had a family room that could have slept eight.
Dinner was wonderful, we spent three glorious hours watching the Swedish archepelago slip by outside the window as we sup'd.
This far north there wasn't much nighttime, but we got a wonderful sunset.
The next morning we had enough time for a sleep-in, showers, and breakfast. Much more civilized than the Stockholm overnight train.
Tallinn
We hiked into the old town, ditched our bags at a bike shop, and went exploring!
We found the craziest thing: a parrot petting zoo.
Very cool city.
I also got to visit Auve Tech, a company I work with, and ride one of their autonomous shuttles!
Helsinki
The next day we took the ferry over to Helsinki, Finland.
By now the kids were done (ok, maybe me too), no amount of cool looking buildings and cobblestone streets could hold their attention.
The scooters though, that worked!
Back home
Early getup, taxi to airport, flight from Helsinki to London Heathrow, 60-minute sprint through two terminals and security and customs and baggage check, flight from Heathrow to San Francisco, AirTrain to an Uber, and a three hour horrible traffic-jam-cursed ride back home.
