So what were my overall thoughts and impressions about Scandinavia?
As a land, its extremely clean and neat. There is a lot of greenery. There is respect for the ecology and there are huge efforts all over - from the people and the government - to keep the lands eco-friendly. There is amazing natural beauty all over.
The people. They are warm and friendly. These are safe lands. I do not remember even seeing a brawl or a fight of any kind. I also barely remember seeing policemen anywhere. I am sure they must be around or easily accessible, but I truly do not remember having seen them. Which means to me, that the overall safety of the place does not warrant constant monitoring by the police.
Demography wise, the countries are largely white. If there are further distributions amongst these whites, I did not know enough to place them. Blue eyes and blonde hair were the default. Yes, besides the natural greenery described above, there was a lot of "greenery" to spot and view (did I hear someone say 'ogle'? Oh well, okay..!) amongst the fairer sex here. If I have to distinguish, the better looking women were the Norwegians and the Swedish. The Danish and the Finnish ones were fine, but Swedes and Norwegians were outstanding. Off these, the Norwegians were more of the platinum blondes, sharp features, angelic skin tones, looking like Miss Universe. And the Swedish ones were the typical sexier blond babes, if you must!
Yes, I was with family but a man has to do his duties of sharing precious information of this kind with the world at large..! So there you have it now.
Coming back to the people in general, they all looked health conscious. One scarcely observed a single obese person around. There was a lot of emphasis on walking and cycling in daily life. Also in winter, as we were told on our tour in Oslo, people love to go for cross country skiing even on a regular, daily basis, after work. Overall, due to healthy food, water and air, and a penchant for the physical and adventurous life, people were generally healthier.
Coming to my observations on the economy, there did not seem to be any kind of panic in the air. The airports strike at Norway apparently, was a normal affair. Not a sign of the times or anything of that sort. Crime rates being very low, was also an indication that people were generally okay. There is a large welfare society out there, with high taxation, and it is an accepted part of life. Costs appear higher all across for that reason, but that is felt by someone coming from outside the country. Obviously people within the countries seem to have found their sense of balance on this matter.
There is a lot of wealth from the past. There are natural resources. For example, Norway has oil! Its another thing that Norway also has perhaps, the most expensive petrol on a retail basis. People seem to find a balance between work and pleasure. On the face of it, they do not seem to be stressed out like American people seem to be, for example.
Is there a time bomb somewhere? Will they be in for a rude shock in a few years? They do not attract foreign talent even for IT, as much as many other parts of the world do. They are more concerned about protecting their jobs. Maybe they are finding their balance in this manner.
However the fact that they are giving a false insulation to their economy, could haunt them in the years to come. For now, they seem to be fine.
While traveling to foreign countries, the thought often goes to a question, hypothetical as it may be - whether I could like to live there. In few cases, in the past, the answer that my mind gave, was very close to a "yes". But in the case of these Scandinavian countries, it is clear that I would not like to 'live' there. Its fantastic for a visit. But I could sense (from the few days in Are, Sweden, for example) that winters would be so dull and boring! They would haunt you. Likewise, I could see that small towns are so damn small that your would die out of sheer boredom. Even in the cities, places close down in the evenings, and life slows down overall. From where we have been, as a city bred individual, this kind of life would never work.
But all the same, if there was a way that I could visit the place say, every summer, or spend a month every summer, hypothetically, I would jump at that choice. Yes, that would be lovely...
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Helsinki - the second coming
The Silja Symphony landed us at Helsinki at around 10 am in the morning. Our flight back to Mumbai was at 8 pm. We needed to reach the airport not later than 5 pm. So we had a few hours on hand to do what we needed to do, at Helsinki.
While on the ferry, we were introduced to an English language, guided sightseeing tour of Helsinki that would take around two hours. This tour was to start from the ferry terminal itself, and was timed to synchronize with the arrival time of the ferry. It was conducted by Helsinki Expert. They also bundled a small discount if we opted to sign up on the ferry itself. And which is what we had actually done.
So first of all, as we came out of the ferry terminal, we looked for and found the place where they were willing to hold our luggage for a few hours. Once we parked that off, we went off on the Helsinki Expert Guided Tour.
Being just a 1 hour 45 min tour, and was supposed to cover a large part of Helsinki, therefore it was expected that at most places, we would just be sitting in the bus and listening to our guide. Well most of the tour was of that kind. However there were 2-3 places where we did get down and saw the sights of Helsinki.
We went through many interesting places in Helsinki including the waterside, even as the guide explained how Finnish people like to bring their woolens for washing by the waterside in the open! Gave me visions of our dhobighaut!! The guide also talked about saunas. It was a startling fact to find that there were probably as many saunas in Finland as there were people!! Amazing, isn't it? Apparently it was an early tradition in Finland where right from a new born to a person who has just died, there was a sauna involved. Things have changed over the years, but even as on date, an average Finn probably uses the sauna at least 3-4 times a week. Most buildings have sauna facilities for the occupants.
We saw a lot of the old architecture, the official buildings and the cathedrals that are present in all of these Scandinavian cities. Beyond these "standard" places, we specifically took a halt at the 'Church in a Rock'.
A very interesting and unusual church construction, made on a rock and having several kilometers of copper strips fixed on the ceiling. The church was a circular construction instead of a typical square or a rectangle.
The other sight at which we stopped to look was the Sibelius Park.
A well known musician and creative personality of Finland, Sibelius is undoubtedly one of the heroes of the country. There are many a landmarks, streets, music schools etc. that are named after Sibelius.
One such place was the Sibelius Park, located on Sibelius street. A beautiful park, it also had the pipe like sculpture and a relief of Sibelius, and was quite a popular tourist attraction.
It was good to take this tour which added to the initial walking tour of Helsiniki that we had done on our own, when we came in, on the first day of our vacation. As a combination of these two efforts, we managed to cover Helsinki in a reasonable way - well, as well as we could do in about 2 outings of three-fourths of a day each.
There was a plan to spend few hours at Helsinki on this last day, for doing some shopping. As everything is anyway located in the central part of the town in these cities, and so once we were done with the sightseeing tour, we carried on there, doing some window shopping there itself. We went into many stores on the street there, typically European or even Scandinavian brands, and we even went into one of their large format stores, Stockmann. While there were some good clothes, the prices just did not agree. They were astronomical when one compares with say, the US. It did not make sense to shop there, after all!
Ultimately we figured that it did not make sense to do real shopping there. What little we wanted to pick up, say some chocolates or alcohol, we decided, it would be best to do so at the airport after all.
We decided to take one last good meal in Helsinki then, and went looking for some vegetarian meal options. Finally we landed at this large restaurant cum store, by the name Karl Fazer. We did not have an understanding of the brand when we walked in, and we thought of it at a good restaurant and also a place where a lot of dessert and chocolates seemed to be selling. We found a way to get our pesto based vegetarian soup and some salad, but we also took a few good desserts to eat there. We were tempted to pick up chocolates for taking back to India from here, as they seemed to have a great stock, but finally decided to do that purchase from the duty free stores at the airport only.
It was only later, when we were at the duty free store that we realized that Karl Fazer was no simple store, but a decent Finnish chocolate brand. If we had known this earlier, we would have certainly picked up chocolates from the store itself.
After completing the lunch, we trudged back to the ferry terminal where we had left our luggage. Got the luggage out, found ourselves a cab, and headed off to the airport. Bidding a final goodbye to the Scandinavian land and people.
We reached the airport well in time - a little earlier than even the 3 hours advance time. We managed to check in 5 of our bags, even though the total weight was going slightly higher than the permissible level. Perhaps being that early in the day helped us. Free of most of our stuff, we made our way casually up to the gate from where we needed to take off. It was a long walk away. In between there was a huge waiting area for flights that were to leave for within Europe. We also saw a lot of stores out there, with duty free shopping. We thought of getting in and checking out the shops there. But we also saw a map there that showed the way towards our gate (which were part of the gates from where long distance flights took off) and there was a different shopping area shown on that map. We figured that we may as well reach closer to our gate and do the shopping from there.
As we went towards that area where our gate was located, we realized the one big difference between the earlier gates and this one. To reach the gates that had long distance flights going out, we needed to pass through passport control, or rather the immigration check. And which also meant that once we cross that, we could not come out again to the earlier sections of the airport.
Well, we did the passport formalities (we were asked here if we visited Italy at all or not, as we had Schengen visas from Italy; luckily I could let them know that due to the Norwegian airport strike, we had to change our program and never managed to go to Italy - this was accepted as a reason!). After crossing over post-immigration, we headed to our gate. And saw the shopping area that was pointed in the map that I had seen earlier. Unfortunately this shopping area was far smaller than the earlier one near the common gates, and it was actually quite disappointing. Many of the known brands of chocolates were not available and other selections were also limited.
Well, we picked up what we could from what was on offer, the Black Label for my father, a Finlandia Vodka for being the flavor of the land to try out, and also a Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle. And then we picked up some assorted chocolates for ourselves, and for some distribution amongst close relatives. All in all, it was very small amount of shopping that we did.
I used the opportunity of being at the airport and with time to spare, to convert the loose currency of various assorted versions into Euros. I also used the VAT receipts that we had got from our shopping at Gamla Stan in Stockholm, to get the VAT refunds. There was a small process but in the end, it was easy to do this. The sudden additional and unexpected small cash that we got then, we decided to blow up, on some snacks and food at the airport counter, before we got into our flight. A last supper in Scandinavia, in a way.
Thereafter we just waited around, with many other Indians out there (apparently, Finnair has managed to get some market share for Indian travelers to and from Europe, even if they are not going into Scandinavia; we saw people transferring here, from their original points like London and Amsterdam as well), for our Finnair flight to Mumbai.
That was a final adieu, and we were back on our way home after a fantastic vacation.
The return flight on Finnair was about 70% full, and was quite comfortable. There were at least 4 movies on board that I was keen to see, but some technical snag in their sound system prevented proper viewing. They fixed it after a long time, and by that time, sleep was taking over. Ultimately, I managed to see only a couple of the good films out of the four.
Before long, the flight landed back to Mumbai and we were home - home, sweet, sweltering hot home in Mumbai!!
While on the ferry, we were introduced to an English language, guided sightseeing tour of Helsinki that would take around two hours. This tour was to start from the ferry terminal itself, and was timed to synchronize with the arrival time of the ferry. It was conducted by Helsinki Expert. They also bundled a small discount if we opted to sign up on the ferry itself. And which is what we had actually done.
So first of all, as we came out of the ferry terminal, we looked for and found the place where they were willing to hold our luggage for a few hours. Once we parked that off, we went off on the Helsinki Expert Guided Tour.
Being just a 1 hour 45 min tour, and was supposed to cover a large part of Helsinki, therefore it was expected that at most places, we would just be sitting in the bus and listening to our guide. Well most of the tour was of that kind. However there were 2-3 places where we did get down and saw the sights of Helsinki.
We went through many interesting places in Helsinki including the waterside, even as the guide explained how Finnish people like to bring their woolens for washing by the waterside in the open! Gave me visions of our dhobighaut!! The guide also talked about saunas. It was a startling fact to find that there were probably as many saunas in Finland as there were people!! Amazing, isn't it? Apparently it was an early tradition in Finland where right from a new born to a person who has just died, there was a sauna involved. Things have changed over the years, but even as on date, an average Finn probably uses the sauna at least 3-4 times a week. Most buildings have sauna facilities for the occupants.
We saw a lot of the old architecture, the official buildings and the cathedrals that are present in all of these Scandinavian cities. Beyond these "standard" places, we specifically took a halt at the 'Church in a Rock'.
A very interesting and unusual church construction, made on a rock and having several kilometers of copper strips fixed on the ceiling. The church was a circular construction instead of a typical square or a rectangle.
The other sight at which we stopped to look was the Sibelius Park.
A well known musician and creative personality of Finland, Sibelius is undoubtedly one of the heroes of the country. There are many a landmarks, streets, music schools etc. that are named after Sibelius.
One such place was the Sibelius Park, located on Sibelius street. A beautiful park, it also had the pipe like sculpture and a relief of Sibelius, and was quite a popular tourist attraction.
It was good to take this tour which added to the initial walking tour of Helsiniki that we had done on our own, when we came in, on the first day of our vacation. As a combination of these two efforts, we managed to cover Helsinki in a reasonable way - well, as well as we could do in about 2 outings of three-fourths of a day each.
There was a plan to spend few hours at Helsinki on this last day, for doing some shopping. As everything is anyway located in the central part of the town in these cities, and so once we were done with the sightseeing tour, we carried on there, doing some window shopping there itself. We went into many stores on the street there, typically European or even Scandinavian brands, and we even went into one of their large format stores, Stockmann. While there were some good clothes, the prices just did not agree. They were astronomical when one compares with say, the US. It did not make sense to shop there, after all!
Ultimately we figured that it did not make sense to do real shopping there. What little we wanted to pick up, say some chocolates or alcohol, we decided, it would be best to do so at the airport after all.
We decided to take one last good meal in Helsinki then, and went looking for some vegetarian meal options. Finally we landed at this large restaurant cum store, by the name Karl Fazer. We did not have an understanding of the brand when we walked in, and we thought of it at a good restaurant and also a place where a lot of dessert and chocolates seemed to be selling. We found a way to get our pesto based vegetarian soup and some salad, but we also took a few good desserts to eat there. We were tempted to pick up chocolates for taking back to India from here, as they seemed to have a great stock, but finally decided to do that purchase from the duty free stores at the airport only.
It was only later, when we were at the duty free store that we realized that Karl Fazer was no simple store, but a decent Finnish chocolate brand. If we had known this earlier, we would have certainly picked up chocolates from the store itself.
After completing the lunch, we trudged back to the ferry terminal where we had left our luggage. Got the luggage out, found ourselves a cab, and headed off to the airport. Bidding a final goodbye to the Scandinavian land and people.
We reached the airport well in time - a little earlier than even the 3 hours advance time. We managed to check in 5 of our bags, even though the total weight was going slightly higher than the permissible level. Perhaps being that early in the day helped us. Free of most of our stuff, we made our way casually up to the gate from where we needed to take off. It was a long walk away. In between there was a huge waiting area for flights that were to leave for within Europe. We also saw a lot of stores out there, with duty free shopping. We thought of getting in and checking out the shops there. But we also saw a map there that showed the way towards our gate (which were part of the gates from where long distance flights took off) and there was a different shopping area shown on that map. We figured that we may as well reach closer to our gate and do the shopping from there.
As we went towards that area where our gate was located, we realized the one big difference between the earlier gates and this one. To reach the gates that had long distance flights going out, we needed to pass through passport control, or rather the immigration check. And which also meant that once we cross that, we could not come out again to the earlier sections of the airport.
Well, we did the passport formalities (we were asked here if we visited Italy at all or not, as we had Schengen visas from Italy; luckily I could let them know that due to the Norwegian airport strike, we had to change our program and never managed to go to Italy - this was accepted as a reason!). After crossing over post-immigration, we headed to our gate. And saw the shopping area that was pointed in the map that I had seen earlier. Unfortunately this shopping area was far smaller than the earlier one near the common gates, and it was actually quite disappointing. Many of the known brands of chocolates were not available and other selections were also limited.
Well, we picked up what we could from what was on offer, the Black Label for my father, a Finlandia Vodka for being the flavor of the land to try out, and also a Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle. And then we picked up some assorted chocolates for ourselves, and for some distribution amongst close relatives. All in all, it was very small amount of shopping that we did.
I used the opportunity of being at the airport and with time to spare, to convert the loose currency of various assorted versions into Euros. I also used the VAT receipts that we had got from our shopping at Gamla Stan in Stockholm, to get the VAT refunds. There was a small process but in the end, it was easy to do this. The sudden additional and unexpected small cash that we got then, we decided to blow up, on some snacks and food at the airport counter, before we got into our flight. A last supper in Scandinavia, in a way.
Thereafter we just waited around, with many other Indians out there (apparently, Finnair has managed to get some market share for Indian travelers to and from Europe, even if they are not going into Scandinavia; we saw people transferring here, from their original points like London and Amsterdam as well), for our Finnair flight to Mumbai.
That was a final adieu, and we were back on our way home after a fantastic vacation.
The return flight on Finnair was about 70% full, and was quite comfortable. There were at least 4 movies on board that I was keen to see, but some technical snag in their sound system prevented proper viewing. They fixed it after a long time, and by that time, sleep was taking over. Ultimately, I managed to see only a couple of the good films out of the four.
Before long, the flight landed back to Mumbai and we were home - home, sweet, sweltering hot home in Mumbai!!
Silja Symphony: Ferry across the waters, Stockholm to Helsinki
We made our way into the Silja Symphony. They call it a ferry, as the cruise ships that they have are really very large. But this 'ferry' was a cruise ship, no less. A total of around 11 levels, we entered inside at the 6th level.
There were stores and restaurants and bars all over that floor. A level below and a level above were also similar styled commercial establishments. Including a night club, a large duty free shop offering the typical range of alcohol, tobacco, perfumes and the like. There were other restaurants, a stage where dance performances happen, and even a casino.
At the outset, we got to our cabin. This was on the 10th floor. We had taken a simple inside cabin as we figured that on a single night journey, we will end up spending most of our time outside the room, so why spend too much extra money on a fancier cabin?
We were moving with all of our luggage and that was again the worry. Whether we will be able to fit all of it in the cabin. Well as we entered our cabin, it look small. But somehow the layout was such that all of the luggage was accommodated quite fine, after all.
After settling down in the room, we went out and walked all over the ferry. Finally we ended up on the deck, found ourselves some chairs and decided to wait up there. Seeing the beautiful view all around, enjoying the cool breeze over a beer, we saw how the ferry manoevured around the archipelago that is the Stockholm area. There were many fancy houses on the innumerable islands that we passed and it made for a nice view overall. We thought about the casinos - ordinarily I don't pass an opportunity to shake the slot machines a bit - but unlike a full fledged casino setting with maybe 50000 sqft of machines clinking away the sound of coins, this was a quieter setting. And unfortunately as a result, it did not have that appeal. And we passed it!
Once we could not take the cold anymore, we walked in to the stage area where they were going to start the first Bollywood theme dance. It was interesting - a group of young Indian dancers, entertaining the large foreign crowd on the ship. We enjoyed all that for a while, and then there was some boredom so we headed back to the cabin.
There was another Bollywood dance program in some more time, so we were planning to come down for the same later.
We went in the cabin and played cards there. The open beds allured and we started lying down on the same with an idea to get out later. However sleep was stronger and somehow we just fell off to sleep, in those bunk beds!
By the time we were up again, it was early morning. As I went out, most of the entertainment places were already closed. Walking out to the deck, I could see absolutely still waters and nothing else for a distance, as the ferry made its way towards Helsinki. The rest of the family was still in the process of waking up and getting ready, and would take a while. I went off looking for breakfast options and found a buffet that was interesting. Unfortunately even in breakfast there were few vegetarian options. But it was manageable, and I had a fair meal to get a start to the day.
By the time I was done the family was also up and ready, but we were quite close to Helsinki by that time. We completed our packing and also moved the bags down towards the exit gate, before the elevators started to get jammed and queued up!
And in a matter of a few minutes, the ferry approached the Helsinki terminal. It was fascinating to see the entire process of gradually moving the ferry into the terminal, with just a couple of persons on walky talkies managing the complete alignment. And with just 1-2 minor back-and-forth adjustments, they were able to get it done in no time at all.
What seemed like a huge number of people were able to exit comfortably in no time. And we were out in Helsinki, for the second time now. This time on our return trip as we would catch the flight back to Mumbai later that same evening!
Stockholm - a clean, fun city
We reached Stockholm station early in the morning. It was a Monday morning and the station was busy. It was a large station again, like Oslo, and there were many platforms at which local trains were coming in, bringing in many people coming in to work in the city central areas.
We had a lot of luggage and this time around, we were not leaving it anywhere in luggage lockers. So we were pulling two trolley bags each or one trolley bag and a back pack each as we made our way gradually out of the station. I had enquired on email with the Scandic Hotel Park, where we were staying, and although the hotel was 1-2 station stops away by train, on account of our luggage, it was felt best to take a taxi, from the station to the hotel. We took a station wagon taxi (as most of them are) and reached our hotel in a few minutes.
Like Oslo, this was again an early morning arrival, and I had put in a request for an early check-in. It had not been easy to get that in Oslo, and I was wondering if we would have better luck here in Stockholm. As it turned out, the Scandic Hotel was far more cooperative and had managed to get and keep a room ready for us. They acknowledged the request that I had sent and informed us quickly that our room was ready! It was such a relief.
We stayed at the Scandic group hotels at Bergen and now, at Stockholm, and both those experiences were good. The Thon group of hotels was experienced at Oslo, and I would rate that as poor. One more group that has presence across that part of the world is the Rica group, but we did not stay with them at any place, so we cannot comment about them. I would recommend Scandic to anyone, anytime!
The room that we got was a junior suite. A nice big bedroom with a large TV in front of it. Then a balcony having a sofa that converted to a double bed. A smaller TV there as well. The balcony having a great view of the Humlegarden park, a huge stretch of beautiful green space in the middle of the city, and located right across our hotel.
As we were to stay just for the one night and get one breakfast as part of the deal, the hotel was very clear in its communication to us as we checked in, that we could have the breakfast the NEXT day!
As always, the hotel lobby had many pamphlets for tourist attractions and sightseeing tours. I had also done homework on the same earlier. Unlike in Oslo, I could not locate any good guided tour that was comprehensive. The best that I could find was a hop-on-hop-off one that did take us to many places, but where we had to make do with the recorded commentary on the bus and then manage the actual individual spots on our own. It helps if there is a proper guide, as we had experienced in Oslo, since you get a far better perspective of the history of the place, the story behind so-to-say! Well, we did not find such an option here and we had to manage with what we got, in terms of the sightseeing bus.
There were some 10-12 scheduled stops that one could take and spend as much time as one wanted to at that place. Then board the bus again, to go to the next place of interest. As per our homework, there were few of these 10-12 places that we wanted to surely see, and the rest would either be okay to see only off the bus, or maybe stop by and see, if time permitted.
We walked up to the city hall, across of which the sightseeing bus started. They took only cash and so I had to rush down to a nearby exchange office and change some TCs at that last minute. I was able to return in time to pick up the scheduled start of a bus tour.
Even before reaching the first place of interest, we could see a lot of the beautiful old buildings (all converted to some government offices, etc.), the gardens, the trees on the street, etc. And then we reached the first stop of interest where we were to get down, viz. the Vasa Museum.
The Vasa ship was built at the behest of the then Swedish King, who was fighting a battle with his estranged cousin who was ruling Poland then, and in order to show his might and strength, the Swedish King wanted to get this ship readied. All fanciful with decorative look, and having lot of fire power on board. With the pressure of the battle and an interest to get the ship out as quick as possible, somewhere some things may have got slipped out. As it turned out, on its first voyage, within a short time, just off the shores of Stockholm, the ship went down. A disaster akin to Titanic, no less.
This was in the 1600s. Must later - almost 300 years later - they were able to pull up the ship, nearly intact and in good shape. The ship had been intact under water on account of the low salt content of the waters there, which ensured against the wood getting eaten away. The ship has been further treated and kept in controlled environment to ensure that it stays well, and makes for a fascinating museum visit and understanding of that history.
The next place that we had heard and read about and where we decided to stop, was the Skansen Open Air Museum.
Akin to the Folk Museum that we had seen in Oslo, this one was slightly more commercialized with activities other than just old houses.
It was a nice peep into the history and culture of the region.
The place was spread out on a large property and also offered some great views of Stockholm from there.
We experienced some traditional Swedish dessert at an outlet inside Skansen, made out like an old-time deli and having ladies dressed in the traditional dresses of the region.
Like most other cities in Scandinavia, here as well, the large number of places of interest were close by. Short drives on the sightseeing bus. Could have also been covered on foot, although those would have been longish walks.
One other place of interest was the King's Palace. Not quite as ostentatious as the palaces that we see in India, still it was a majestic building Situated close to the waterfront and near the old Stockholm area. Right next to the palace was the cathedral.
While it was possible to take a tour and visit inside the palace, as we did not have a lot of time on hand that evening, we chose to admire the palace only from outside.
First we saw it from the bus itself, and took a drive around it. Later as we chose to stop and go to old Stockholm area at that time itself, we were also able to walk by closer to the palace and admire it from close quarters from the outside.
The final major spot of interest that was strongly recommended to us, and where we were keen to spend time was Gamla Stan. The old city. Still having narrow lanes, cobbled roads, it was now also a very popular tourist spot.
Lots of open spaces with street cafes, shopping options and a general old-world feel made the place attractive. We walked around Gamla Stan for a while. We also stopped at one of the many ice cream places there.
They make their own waffle cones and their own ice creams. It was fun, picking the flavors and then enjoying the Swedish ice cream. We also took the opportunity to pick up some souvenirs as gifts for home and close family. Overall, none of Scandinavia had offered any decent bargains and as we drew closer to the end of our tour, it was all the more difficult to look for and expect any good deals to come up. So finally we settled for some token souvenirs from here.
We did get the VAT bills on basis of which we could get tax refunds when we leave the region.
After enjoying Gamla Stan as much as we could and as much as our stamina permitted, we walked all the way back to the hotel. It was already late and the last hop-on-hop-off bus had already completed its journey. So we were left with no choice but to walk back to the hotel. On the way, we picked up few more photos, as the city offers some great views all over.
Having had ice cream and some snacks here and there, we were not very hungry. So we headed back to the hotel and had our Indian snacks from our "stock"!!
Next day we had to take the ferry over to Helsinki, by late afternoon. So we had about half a day with us. As the hotel had a prior booking on the room that we were using, they were not able to offer an extension on the check out time of 12 noon.
We decided to take it easy in the morning, complete our packing, have an extended bath in the large bathroom (had a jacuzzi built in with the tub) and in short, spend time till 12 noon, at the hotel itself.
We had breakfast at the hotel. It was an eco-friendly breakfast. A lot of organic foods. No extra-rich desserts that you usually see at American hotels. There were no pancakes or waffles or fat rich croissants and the like. Instead there were fruits and organic breads and many types of organic cereals and other items. There was ample choice and we were genuinely happy about what we ate there. It made a good impression on us.
After packing up, we put our bags in the hotel luggage room and stepped out for a few hours. As our hop-on-hop-off pass was still valid, we decided to take one full round on the same - about 1.5 hours of travel - without getting off the bus, and cover the places that we might have missed the previous day. At least from the bus. After completing that round and enjoying the rest of the sights of Stockholm, we started walking back towards our hotel. We also wanted to get some lunch and I was keen to try out some local fare if possible. Finally we zeroed in on a boutique restaurant where they offered to make vegetarian stuff for us with pesto cheese, and other ingredients. We had a hearty meal there. I had also earlier peeped into one more place offering some interesting options on desserts. So running slightly tight on time, I still decided to stop at that place, to grab a little dessert - a strawberry truffle.
Then we walked back to the hotel and got our luggage out, to head for the terminal from where our ferry would start for Helsinki.
We waited outside the hotel for a while to see if we could get a cab on its own. None came. Then we went back to the hotel and called for a cab. They phoned and ordered one. Now when we went out again and waited for the cab to come, three other cabs came by one after the other to check if we needed a ride!! But now we had to wait for the one that we had ordered.. ! And which took a little longer to come, after all.
You can see that the pressure was slowly building up.
The company whose ferry we were taking was Tallink Silja. Apparently there is Tallink alone and Silja alone, and then there is their joint venture Tallink Silja. We gave the data as much as we could to the taxi driver, who seemed confident and dropped us to the terminal that had a name and a Tallink written right there.
The terminal is almost like an airport terminal. We had to take our bags in an elevator up to the higher level, where the offices and check in points were located. There was a small queue at the check-in counter. We waited for a few minutes and then when my turn came up, I gave our travel details. That is when we were told that we were at the wrong terminal. The Helsinki ferry left from a different terminal which was about 20 min walk from there, or faster by cab.
Oh, there was panic. We had roughly 40 minutes to for the ferry departure. Check-in time was supposed to be 30 min before the departure. We rushed down with bags and all, via the elevator.
Now to look for another cab. The street was empty. Hardly a soul in sight, not to speak of a cab. My best bet was if a cab came by to drop someone else, to this terminal. Although it must have been 5 mins or so, it felt like ages and not a single cab came by. I was trying hard to reach out to the cab phone numbers to see if I could order one now. I debated going back up and taking the help of the company. I also debated and then went ahead to a slightly larger street's corner nearby and waited there.
Finally we spotted a cab there, which was emptying a set of passengers. On enquiring, I found that he was available and heaved a sigh of relief.
We rushed to the other terminal and made it just 30 mins before the departure. Like a just-in-time. At the check-in counter there, there was a trainee sitting on the desk. She took ages figuring out the net booking that I had and how to punch it in. She called some supervisor and after a lot of debate and after they had to call a 3rd person in, we finally got our boarding tickets.
As we walked in finally, with our bags and all, into the Silja Symphony ferry, we saw posters of Bollywood and Incredible India, and we were wondering what that was about. We were to know about it later, on board the ferry!
But we bid our final adieu to Stockholm, Sweden, anyway.
We had a lot of luggage and this time around, we were not leaving it anywhere in luggage lockers. So we were pulling two trolley bags each or one trolley bag and a back pack each as we made our way gradually out of the station. I had enquired on email with the Scandic Hotel Park, where we were staying, and although the hotel was 1-2 station stops away by train, on account of our luggage, it was felt best to take a taxi, from the station to the hotel. We took a station wagon taxi (as most of them are) and reached our hotel in a few minutes.
Like Oslo, this was again an early morning arrival, and I had put in a request for an early check-in. It had not been easy to get that in Oslo, and I was wondering if we would have better luck here in Stockholm. As it turned out, the Scandic Hotel was far more cooperative and had managed to get and keep a room ready for us. They acknowledged the request that I had sent and informed us quickly that our room was ready! It was such a relief.
We stayed at the Scandic group hotels at Bergen and now, at Stockholm, and both those experiences were good. The Thon group of hotels was experienced at Oslo, and I would rate that as poor. One more group that has presence across that part of the world is the Rica group, but we did not stay with them at any place, so we cannot comment about them. I would recommend Scandic to anyone, anytime!
The room that we got was a junior suite. A nice big bedroom with a large TV in front of it. Then a balcony having a sofa that converted to a double bed. A smaller TV there as well. The balcony having a great view of the Humlegarden park, a huge stretch of beautiful green space in the middle of the city, and located right across our hotel.
As we were to stay just for the one night and get one breakfast as part of the deal, the hotel was very clear in its communication to us as we checked in, that we could have the breakfast the NEXT day!
As always, the hotel lobby had many pamphlets for tourist attractions and sightseeing tours. I had also done homework on the same earlier. Unlike in Oslo, I could not locate any good guided tour that was comprehensive. The best that I could find was a hop-on-hop-off one that did take us to many places, but where we had to make do with the recorded commentary on the bus and then manage the actual individual spots on our own. It helps if there is a proper guide, as we had experienced in Oslo, since you get a far better perspective of the history of the place, the story behind so-to-say! Well, we did not find such an option here and we had to manage with what we got, in terms of the sightseeing bus.
There were some 10-12 scheduled stops that one could take and spend as much time as one wanted to at that place. Then board the bus again, to go to the next place of interest. As per our homework, there were few of these 10-12 places that we wanted to surely see, and the rest would either be okay to see only off the bus, or maybe stop by and see, if time permitted.
We walked up to the city hall, across of which the sightseeing bus started. They took only cash and so I had to rush down to a nearby exchange office and change some TCs at that last minute. I was able to return in time to pick up the scheduled start of a bus tour.
Even before reaching the first place of interest, we could see a lot of the beautiful old buildings (all converted to some government offices, etc.), the gardens, the trees on the street, etc. And then we reached the first stop of interest where we were to get down, viz. the Vasa Museum.
The Vasa ship was built at the behest of the then Swedish King, who was fighting a battle with his estranged cousin who was ruling Poland then, and in order to show his might and strength, the Swedish King wanted to get this ship readied. All fanciful with decorative look, and having lot of fire power on board. With the pressure of the battle and an interest to get the ship out as quick as possible, somewhere some things may have got slipped out. As it turned out, on its first voyage, within a short time, just off the shores of Stockholm, the ship went down. A disaster akin to Titanic, no less.
This was in the 1600s. Must later - almost 300 years later - they were able to pull up the ship, nearly intact and in good shape. The ship had been intact under water on account of the low salt content of the waters there, which ensured against the wood getting eaten away. The ship has been further treated and kept in controlled environment to ensure that it stays well, and makes for a fascinating museum visit and understanding of that history.
The next place that we had heard and read about and where we decided to stop, was the Skansen Open Air Museum.
Akin to the Folk Museum that we had seen in Oslo, this one was slightly more commercialized with activities other than just old houses.
It was a nice peep into the history and culture of the region.
The place was spread out on a large property and also offered some great views of Stockholm from there.
We experienced some traditional Swedish dessert at an outlet inside Skansen, made out like an old-time deli and having ladies dressed in the traditional dresses of the region.
Like most other cities in Scandinavia, here as well, the large number of places of interest were close by. Short drives on the sightseeing bus. Could have also been covered on foot, although those would have been longish walks.
One other place of interest was the King's Palace. Not quite as ostentatious as the palaces that we see in India, still it was a majestic building Situated close to the waterfront and near the old Stockholm area. Right next to the palace was the cathedral.
While it was possible to take a tour and visit inside the palace, as we did not have a lot of time on hand that evening, we chose to admire the palace only from outside.
First we saw it from the bus itself, and took a drive around it. Later as we chose to stop and go to old Stockholm area at that time itself, we were also able to walk by closer to the palace and admire it from close quarters from the outside.
The final major spot of interest that was strongly recommended to us, and where we were keen to spend time was Gamla Stan. The old city. Still having narrow lanes, cobbled roads, it was now also a very popular tourist spot.
Lots of open spaces with street cafes, shopping options and a general old-world feel made the place attractive. We walked around Gamla Stan for a while. We also stopped at one of the many ice cream places there.
They make their own waffle cones and their own ice creams. It was fun, picking the flavors and then enjoying the Swedish ice cream. We also took the opportunity to pick up some souvenirs as gifts for home and close family. Overall, none of Scandinavia had offered any decent bargains and as we drew closer to the end of our tour, it was all the more difficult to look for and expect any good deals to come up. So finally we settled for some token souvenirs from here.
We did get the VAT bills on basis of which we could get tax refunds when we leave the region.
After enjoying Gamla Stan as much as we could and as much as our stamina permitted, we walked all the way back to the hotel. It was already late and the last hop-on-hop-off bus had already completed its journey. So we were left with no choice but to walk back to the hotel. On the way, we picked up few more photos, as the city offers some great views all over.
Having had ice cream and some snacks here and there, we were not very hungry. So we headed back to the hotel and had our Indian snacks from our "stock"!!
Next day we had to take the ferry over to Helsinki, by late afternoon. So we had about half a day with us. As the hotel had a prior booking on the room that we were using, they were not able to offer an extension on the check out time of 12 noon.
We decided to take it easy in the morning, complete our packing, have an extended bath in the large bathroom (had a jacuzzi built in with the tub) and in short, spend time till 12 noon, at the hotel itself.
We had breakfast at the hotel. It was an eco-friendly breakfast. A lot of organic foods. No extra-rich desserts that you usually see at American hotels. There were no pancakes or waffles or fat rich croissants and the like. Instead there were fruits and organic breads and many types of organic cereals and other items. There was ample choice and we were genuinely happy about what we ate there. It made a good impression on us.
After packing up, we put our bags in the hotel luggage room and stepped out for a few hours. As our hop-on-hop-off pass was still valid, we decided to take one full round on the same - about 1.5 hours of travel - without getting off the bus, and cover the places that we might have missed the previous day. At least from the bus. After completing that round and enjoying the rest of the sights of Stockholm, we started walking back towards our hotel. We also wanted to get some lunch and I was keen to try out some local fare if possible. Finally we zeroed in on a boutique restaurant where they offered to make vegetarian stuff for us with pesto cheese, and other ingredients. We had a hearty meal there. I had also earlier peeped into one more place offering some interesting options on desserts. So running slightly tight on time, I still decided to stop at that place, to grab a little dessert - a strawberry truffle.
Then we walked back to the hotel and got our luggage out, to head for the terminal from where our ferry would start for Helsinki.
We waited outside the hotel for a while to see if we could get a cab on its own. None came. Then we went back to the hotel and called for a cab. They phoned and ordered one. Now when we went out again and waited for the cab to come, three other cabs came by one after the other to check if we needed a ride!! But now we had to wait for the one that we had ordered.. ! And which took a little longer to come, after all.
You can see that the pressure was slowly building up.
The company whose ferry we were taking was Tallink Silja. Apparently there is Tallink alone and Silja alone, and then there is their joint venture Tallink Silja. We gave the data as much as we could to the taxi driver, who seemed confident and dropped us to the terminal that had a name and a Tallink written right there.
The terminal is almost like an airport terminal. We had to take our bags in an elevator up to the higher level, where the offices and check in points were located. There was a small queue at the check-in counter. We waited for a few minutes and then when my turn came up, I gave our travel details. That is when we were told that we were at the wrong terminal. The Helsinki ferry left from a different terminal which was about 20 min walk from there, or faster by cab.
Oh, there was panic. We had roughly 40 minutes to for the ferry departure. Check-in time was supposed to be 30 min before the departure. We rushed down with bags and all, via the elevator.
Now to look for another cab. The street was empty. Hardly a soul in sight, not to speak of a cab. My best bet was if a cab came by to drop someone else, to this terminal. Although it must have been 5 mins or so, it felt like ages and not a single cab came by. I was trying hard to reach out to the cab phone numbers to see if I could order one now. I debated going back up and taking the help of the company. I also debated and then went ahead to a slightly larger street's corner nearby and waited there.
Finally we spotted a cab there, which was emptying a set of passengers. On enquiring, I found that he was available and heaved a sigh of relief.
We rushed to the other terminal and made it just 30 mins before the departure. Like a just-in-time. At the check-in counter there, there was a trainee sitting on the desk. She took ages figuring out the net booking that I had and how to punch it in. She called some supervisor and after a lot of debate and after they had to call a 3rd person in, we finally got our boarding tickets.
As we walked in finally, with our bags and all, into the Silja Symphony ferry, we saw posters of Bollywood and Incredible India, and we were wondering what that was about. We were to know about it later, on board the ferry!
But we bid our final adieu to Stockholm, Sweden, anyway.
The Oslo-Stockholm Overnight Train Journey: Pathetic!
Our flight from Alta to Oslo was in the afternoon, and we reached Oslo airport around 3 pm. We had a night train journey from Oslo to Stockholm. It was an odd time in a way, and having done the 7.5 hours Oslo sightseeing, there was not much left to see. Also we had been running around a bit over the previous 3-4 days. So we decided to just laze out the few hours that we had before we took the train.
We spent a few hours at the Oslo airport itself. Grabbed something to eat. Hung out at the lounge, caught up on the email and stuff. Generally observed life at the busy airport. Then around 6 pm or so, we took the Airport Express train back from the airport to the Oslo central station. And of course, reached there in just 15 minutes.
We still had several hours to kill. The train was at around 11 pm. The Oslo station, as mentioned earlier, is a large one with several shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, being a Sunday evening, most of the stores had already closed for the day. So also the shopping center just outside the station. There were few souvenir shops that were open and we checked them out to see if we could pick up gifts for our friends. But really the prices were so very high that it just did not make sense to throw away good money there.
There are a few 7-11 kind of stores that are open long hours. In fact a popular brand of such stores in Norway is called Narvesen and its found all over the country. At the Oslo Central station itself, there must be at least 4-5 Narvesen outlets! Yes, whichever way you turn, you cannot afford to miss a Narvesen at Oslo station. After walking around the station a bit, we settled down at a waiting area. As we got closer to the time of our Stockholm train, we went to the Oslo station luggage lockers and got our luggage out from the lockers there. And then we were all set and waiting for the train.
Being a long distance one, the train does arrive reasonably early, from its departure time and soon after we saw it coming in, we made our way to the actual platform and then to our coach in the train.
As we entered our coach, where we had sleeper berths this time around for the overnight journey, we realized the problems that we were facing.
First of all, the 3-tier compartments were extremely cramped for space. The berth was small and there was little space to stand between the berths. The lowest berth was so low that none of our bags would slide down below it. As we were carrying fair number of luggage pieces on account of our long tour, we had a challenge on our hand, about accommodating the luggage. At both ends of each coach, there is a small area allocated for keeping luggage. But that is to take the luggage of all passengers on that coach. The area provided there looked grossly insufficient and few bags were already present there by the time we reached to put our bags. I had to find a way to stack bags one on top of another and somehow get a few of our bags accommodated there. I was only worried that if the passengers whose bags were on the lower part of the stack, had to get down at an intermediate stop, then they will have a task on their hands in the middle of the night, having to remove all bags etc. It was a very discomforting thought.
Balance few bags had still to be managed. Ultimately we had no choice but for each of us to take one small bag on our berths and keep it near our legs, and sleep. Not an ideal situation by any chance. The four of us had got the two middle and the two top berths and there were two senior ladies who were occupying the lower two berths. I could see them getting uncomfortable as we kept experimenting here and there on luggage management for several minutes.
As it turned out, when we got up in the morning, the two ladies were missing. Apparently they had requested and had managed to get a shift to some other coach!!
Also in the morning we were fortunate to see all bags as they were stacked, which meant that the persons whose bags were right down, were also getting down at Stockholm itself, and not earlier.
The other major problem that hit us at night was that the one washroom in our coach was not functional!! Can you believe that? On an overnight journey, in a coach with so many passengers, the washroom is closed because its not functional. We had to go to an adjoining coach and queue up there, for using the washroom.
They did have a service to provide water, blanket, pillows, etc. for all passengers on board. In fact, morning tea / coffee was also included free and for which we had to go to the other coach where a cafeteria outlet was located and where we could show our tickets and get the tea / coffee for ourselves. The first time we went there to collect these, the outlet was closed. We went a second time and someone was available and we got our serving.
This train was managed by the Swedish train authority, SJ, unlike the earlier trains that we took in Norway, and which were managed by the Norwegian agency, NSB. I can only conclude that this was the reason for the big difference in service levels between the previous train journeys that we took, and this one now.
All in all, I can rate this train journey from Oslo to Stockholm as pathetic, and as a clear dark spot in our entire tour. I would not recommend anyone to take a train on SJ's train services as such!
We spent a few hours at the Oslo airport itself. Grabbed something to eat. Hung out at the lounge, caught up on the email and stuff. Generally observed life at the busy airport. Then around 6 pm or so, we took the Airport Express train back from the airport to the Oslo central station. And of course, reached there in just 15 minutes.
We still had several hours to kill. The train was at around 11 pm. The Oslo station, as mentioned earlier, is a large one with several shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, being a Sunday evening, most of the stores had already closed for the day. So also the shopping center just outside the station. There were few souvenir shops that were open and we checked them out to see if we could pick up gifts for our friends. But really the prices were so very high that it just did not make sense to throw away good money there.
There are a few 7-11 kind of stores that are open long hours. In fact a popular brand of such stores in Norway is called Narvesen and its found all over the country. At the Oslo Central station itself, there must be at least 4-5 Narvesen outlets! Yes, whichever way you turn, you cannot afford to miss a Narvesen at Oslo station. After walking around the station a bit, we settled down at a waiting area. As we got closer to the time of our Stockholm train, we went to the Oslo station luggage lockers and got our luggage out from the lockers there. And then we were all set and waiting for the train.
Being a long distance one, the train does arrive reasonably early, from its departure time and soon after we saw it coming in, we made our way to the actual platform and then to our coach in the train.
As we entered our coach, where we had sleeper berths this time around for the overnight journey, we realized the problems that we were facing.
First of all, the 3-tier compartments were extremely cramped for space. The berth was small and there was little space to stand between the berths. The lowest berth was so low that none of our bags would slide down below it. As we were carrying fair number of luggage pieces on account of our long tour, we had a challenge on our hand, about accommodating the luggage. At both ends of each coach, there is a small area allocated for keeping luggage. But that is to take the luggage of all passengers on that coach. The area provided there looked grossly insufficient and few bags were already present there by the time we reached to put our bags. I had to find a way to stack bags one on top of another and somehow get a few of our bags accommodated there. I was only worried that if the passengers whose bags were on the lower part of the stack, had to get down at an intermediate stop, then they will have a task on their hands in the middle of the night, having to remove all bags etc. It was a very discomforting thought.
Balance few bags had still to be managed. Ultimately we had no choice but for each of us to take one small bag on our berths and keep it near our legs, and sleep. Not an ideal situation by any chance. The four of us had got the two middle and the two top berths and there were two senior ladies who were occupying the lower two berths. I could see them getting uncomfortable as we kept experimenting here and there on luggage management for several minutes.
As it turned out, when we got up in the morning, the two ladies were missing. Apparently they had requested and had managed to get a shift to some other coach!!
Also in the morning we were fortunate to see all bags as they were stacked, which meant that the persons whose bags were right down, were also getting down at Stockholm itself, and not earlier.
The other major problem that hit us at night was that the one washroom in our coach was not functional!! Can you believe that? On an overnight journey, in a coach with so many passengers, the washroom is closed because its not functional. We had to go to an adjoining coach and queue up there, for using the washroom.
They did have a service to provide water, blanket, pillows, etc. for all passengers on board. In fact, morning tea / coffee was also included free and for which we had to go to the other coach where a cafeteria outlet was located and where we could show our tickets and get the tea / coffee for ourselves. The first time we went there to collect these, the outlet was closed. We went a second time and someone was available and we got our serving.
This train was managed by the Swedish train authority, SJ, unlike the earlier trains that we took in Norway, and which were managed by the Norwegian agency, NSB. I can only conclude that this was the reason for the big difference in service levels between the previous train journeys that we took, and this one now.
All in all, I can rate this train journey from Oslo to Stockholm as pathetic, and as a clear dark spot in our entire tour. I would not recommend anyone to take a train on SJ's train services as such!
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