Scandinavia - Summer of 2008

Scandinavia - overall impressions

2008-06-22T20:39:00.003+05:30

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...

Helsinki - the second coming

2008-06-22T18:13:00.005+05:30

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!!

Silja Symphony: Ferry across the waters, Stockholm to Helsinki

2008-06-22T16:30:00.005+05:30

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

2008-06-22T10:00:00.007+05:30

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.

The Oslo-Stockholm Overnight Train Journey: Pathetic!

2008-06-22T09:16:00.004+05:30

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!

Nordkapp - truly on top of the world

2008-06-16T00:35:00.014+05:30

The planned trip to Nordkapp had gone through a lot of ifs-and-buts. It almost did not happen a few times!

During the original research when I was planning the trip, the thought that came to mind was that we would drive down up north to Nordkapp, while we were staying at Are for a week. Until I realized that it was a LONG way up, and if I rent a car and go, it would be a LONG way back too! And beyond a point, driving WOULD get boring! So that was out. And in that first cut of the plan, then, Nordkapp was dropped completely and an itinerary was made out, and bookings were done.

At that time, I did not know about flights going up to Alta. After having done all the other bookings, I found out about flights going up to Alta from Oslo, and also discovered a good 24 hour schedule: early morning departure from Oslo to Alta, spending the day and a night at Nordkapp, and then heading back in a midday flight from Alta back to Oslo. That looked very convenient, and after making some fine tuning on the travel arrangements (essentially cutting down on a day at Are, and about half a day at Oslo), I managed to squeeze in this trip to Nordkapp. Even though, as I saw, it was going to be one heck on an expensive 24 hours. The 'cheap' tickets were also expensive, then the car rental from Alta to Nordkapp was going to be quite an expense, and the rest of the various expenses including toll, entry fees at Nordkapp, the hotel etc. were all going to be kind of steep. Not to speak of the cost of petrol that I would need to bear, as I was to rent a car.

But then they did not call Nordkapp a 'tourist trap' for nothing. And it had already trapped me, so expense or no expense, I decided to plunge in for the trip.

Then there was yet another hiccup. Which came as a result of the Norwegian airports strike, where even Alta airport was closed down. So we almost canceled and missed the flight. Till the airport opened up 2 days before our scheduled visit there. And we were ON again! This time, for good.

So on 24th May morning, we took the morning flight from Oslo to Alta. Surprisingly, the flight was packed. Lot of tourists, including one big group of Indians (Gujaratis, in fact) were all headed for the north. The flight was about 2 hours duration. As we approached Alta, the view from the plane was amazing. Snow filled mountains all over the place. We realized that we were heading towards cooler climes.

The Alta airport was a small airport. Ours was the only plane there, when we landed. And it was our first experience at an airport in the western world, where we had to walk down the stairs from the plane, and had to walk up from the tarmac up to the terminal! In very cold weather too - well, compared to Oslo, from where we were coming.

It was a weekend, and car rental outlets remain closed on weekends! I had made a booking for a car, but it was considered an off-time rental. That is, someone would specially come down to get a car to me. That was the deal. At this very small airport, I headed up to the small cabin that was marked 'car rental'. I noticed that it was a cabin that was shared by all car rental companies who operated from out there. There were lockers provided for each of them, and their representative would come, remove the papers and the keys, and process the car rentals that he needed to. And this was only during flight timings, as they really did not need to wait up there all day. It was not a busy airport, after all.

We had rented a small car from Europcar. Although it was the best price that we could get, it was not a brand name like a Hertz or an Avis. In fact, there was good recommendation also for AutoEurope, but for some reason, Europcar looked best, in terms of a deal. But there was a nagging fear - since it was not a bigger brand and since it was supposed to be a holiday rental - as to what would happen, if the guy did not come and there was no car to rent! But nothing of that sort happened. The person was there in time and the car was rented quickly. He showed me the location of the car in the parking lot, from where I had to pick up and drive. Likewise, he told me that I needed to just come back, park the car and drop the keys into their key box (again shared by all the car rental companies). So the method was made clear to me, my credit card details were taken, I picked up his contact number in case of emergency, and then we got into the car. There was just about enough space in that small car to accommodate our one bag, and two large back packs that we were carrying with us. One more bag and we would have had a challenge on our hands!

I had carried my international driving license, and in the original planning of the trip, I was game to do a lot of driving in Scandinavia, if required. But as things started getting worked out, most of the traveling got organized via other means, including rail and bus and air, and somehow, I did not need to drive, till this point. We were now in our last 3-4 days of the trip and I was to drive for the very first time. I have driven a lot in the US, where I am quite familiar with roads, signs, rules, etc. So I would generally be quite confident of driving in the US. But here in Norway, even though the cars are driven on the right side of the road like the US, but somehow I got a little apprehensive about driving. I knew it then, and know it now, that it was a strange sense of apprehension because I have driven a lot, and I should have not been worried. But a combination of factors, including this being an 'unknown' country (as compared to the US), the language challenges (very critical in road signs and stuff) and a general fear of the unknown had given me some concern. I could not talk about it or show it to the family, as they would have perhaps suggested me to drop the part of the trip. Or they might have got concerned as well. I carried my apprehension with me, and took the steering wheel of the car.

And off we went. It was a matter of about 15 min of driving on the clear open road, and all apprehensions were gone. Though the road was a 2 lane (one on each side only) for most of the journey, and also undivided at that, but due to almost no traffic at all, there was no pressure on the driving, and it turned out to be a very comfortable drive both ways. The only other couple of fears that came to mind as I was driving those roads were: a) if there is snow / ice on the road, or heavier snowfall on the way, I did not have any experience at all to handling that, and b) there were stretches of the road where for almost 15 minutes, we did not see another vehicle at all, neither did we see any building on either side, and it was total barren stretch of land. Often with snow all over, till where the eyes could go. What if the car had to have a problem in such an area. How would I handle it, etc. etc.

With God's grace, none of my fears of this kind came true. There was no snow or ice on the road, and the car behaved perfectly well, and we had an uneventful drive, back and forth.

We headed off to Nordkapp directly, and which was about 3.5 hours driving distance from Alta airport. Speed limits are supposed to be strictly followed in Norway and fines, if caught, are stiff. There were stretches of the road where speed limit was 90 kmph, and for most parts if was 80 kmph, and in some cases, it was also 60-70 kmph. That worked fine for me.

Nordkapp is the easiest accessible northernmost point in Europe, located at 71 deg, 10 min, 21 sec N latitude. There is another place where one can go with an 18 km hike from Nordkapp, and which is officially then, the northernmost point in Europe where man can reach. But as mentioned, for a place that is reachable by car, Nordkapp is the northern most.

As we approach Nordkapp, close to it, and before it, there are a few small towns that come, and usually tourists stay in one of those towns. The most common one is Honningsvag. A small town, but having a few hotels, this is the place that most people find convenient to stay at, and then visit Nordkapp from there. There are other small towns close by, including Kamovyaer, where we stayed. This is an even smaller fishing village, but having a couple of cute single person owned hotels. We had read about one of these, and also received a good recommendation about it, viz. Hotel Arran. This place was between Honningsvag and Nordkapp, or in other words, it was closer to Nordkapp. We had decided to stay there and made an advance reservation for the same.

The road from Alta to Nordkapp goes largely through the hills. Though there are no steep climbs. Closer to Nordkapp, there is also a part of the road that goes close to the sea and makes for a beautiful scene - the sea on one side and the mountains on the other, and the long winded road kissing the hills, between the two. Another characteristic of the road, not just here, but all across Norway, is the presence of a large number of tunnels. On this road we had two long ones, besides several smaller ones. The long ones were one of around 4 km length and the other, an undersea one, of around 7 km length. The one that went undersea, also went quite deep, which could only be sensed from the steep dip down as the car entered into the tunnel, and then a sense of a climb up, as we reached the exit point of the tunnel.

There is a price to pay though. To use that undersea tunnel, there is a stiff toll that is to be paid, and both ways too!

We had been informed by the Nordkapp Tourist Information Office over email that the Nordkapp Hall (a tourist center outside of the Nordkapp plateau region) would be open only until 3 pm, so we were planning to drive down straight to Nordkapp, so that we do not miss that place. However as we drove on and reached closer, and in fact, after passing Honningsvag, when we neared Kamovyaer, we figured that there was enough time still, to check in to the hotel and then move on to Nordkapp.

So we turned into the lane that took us to Kamovyaer. And found it to be a small street with houses and buildings on both sides. Indeed, driving down the street, it seemed like already ending, when we had hardly begun our drive into the place. So it had that quaint village look. Looking for the board of Hotel Arran, or looking for the building similar to the pictures that I had seen on the Internet, I could not find either. There was no board. And all houses looked similar and hence I could not identify the Hotel building. But as we were close to the end of the street, we saw a building that looked like a hotel and found a lady looking out of the window. As we stopped and checked, it was indeed our hotel and the lady in question was Ms. Aina, the owner, who was awaiting us and hence looking out of the window.

She welcomed us warmly and set us up. Where two double rooms are normally twice the rate of one double room, a family room is possibly 1.5 times the rate of a single room. We normally took family rooms. Here however, as she was busy getting the place spruced up, in time for the season, she did not have all rooms that were functional. So from her point, she generously gave us 2 double rooms, instead of a single family room. At the same price as that of a single family room that we had reserved. She thought she was being generous; for us, it was a matter of letting the daughters sleep in a strange small new place, alone, in a different room, on a different floor! We figured we will think about it later.

We quickly removed our luggage from the car and into the rooms, got a little fresh and we decided to move ahead towards Nordkapp before the Hall closed. The drive from Kamovyaer to Nordkapp was expected to be about 30 min duration.

That last half hour drive from Kamovyaer to Nordkapp was a different experience altogether. Where we had seen snow and snow fall and mountains in various different parts of Noway, including when we were driving down to this place, from Alta, the parts that we now hit were quite a different story. It was really cold now, there was a drizzle that at times became light snow fall. And all over, there were vast stretches of land that extended for long long distances. And these stretches were full of snow. Pure white thick layer of snow, most of it looked fresh and untouched. We would see an occasional house or a small building somewhere, with a few cars parked by the side of the road. Perhaps people would have parked here, and then taken a dog sleigh or some similar means to get to the house. It was a mind boggling sight. But it was clearly the beginning and more spectacular views were yet to be come.

Finally we could sight the globe and the large round building at a distance, and we were arriving at our destination, Nordkapp! There was a huge sense of anticipation, as we had traveled a long distance to reach here, and we had heard and read so much about this place. Before we could satiate our curiosity however, we had to shell out another large sum, this time for the entry into the Nordkapp Hall. Oh well.. enough has been said about this tourist trap, anyway!

We parked in the parking lot and walked a short walk in the snow to reach the Nordkapp Hall. There were few other cars and a couple of tourist buses there. This was perhaps the closest view of a “tourist spot” that we saw in the entire trip, at least in terms of such presence of other visitors. Of course, on account of the fact that we were early in the season. I am sure during the later months of summer, this place must be packed with visitors. We met the person at the reception and soon found out that the place was not closing at 3 pm after all, but was to be open till 1 am! So much for the information that we got earlier, from the Nordkapp Tourist Information office and our rush to reach here!

We immediately made our way first to the back side of the building, from where there was an entry to go out again, and reach the actual Nordkapp viewing area.

As we covered ourselves up a bit more, tightly closed the zips of our jackets, wore our gloves and then walked out, a breathtaking view and a very strong cold breeze greeted us. Again there was snow all over.

Then there were the signposts – a small weathercock with the latitude mentioned, 71°10’21”. It was an obvious photo-op and we took the op!

There was snow all over there, and the girls started playing in the snow.

Making the snow balls and throwing at each other. Rolling over in the snow, getting pictured and videographed doing so.

We walked up further towards the edge of the cliff. The plateau ends at a point and down below is the sea, almost 300 meter below.

It was overcast which made it cold and also the view was constrained to an extent. But it did not stop us from seeing a fabulous scene of nature.

There was also this famous symbol of Nordkapp out there, the globe made of pipes, again with the sign post of the latitude.

We enjoyed all that for some more time, took photos etc.

Meanwhile it seemed like the wind was getting even stronger, as if it could blow us away from there! Not knowing how strong and how bad it could possibly get and how soon too, we decided to retreat back into the Hall.

We walked around in the Nordkapp Hall, seeing the posters, taking a small and quick walk in the Nordkapp museum and also seeing the short film that they have playing out there. Then there is this small post office that they have set up inside the hall, which again is just a photo-op. Take a picture standing in front of the northern most postal point, so to say. Which we did. There is also a usual procedure of posting a letter from there to your home, so you would have a postal stamp with postal code 9764 of Nordkapp, Norway. But the post office was not open for that purpose, so we had to just be satisfied with a photo outside it.

Finally there is the souvenir shop. Which tourist spot can do without one? And certainly not the Nordkapp one! Lots of options of products to pick from, each of them appearing to be prohibitively expensive as we (per force) kept converting the price to Indian Rupees. Well, even on US Dollar terms it appeared to be very stiff! But we picked a souvenir nonetheless.

I had a wish to see the Midnight Sun at Nordkapp. And the idea was to go in the afternoon once before the hall closed (we only discovered later that the hall did not close, in fact till 1 am at night), and then go again at closer to midnight. However it was very cloudy and the sun was not out. So we were not sure if we would get a chance to come back in the night or not. Anyway, we headed back. As Kamovyaer was a very small town, we decided to head back up to Honningsvag, which was a relatively bigger place (only relatively, mind you – Honningsvag was also ultimately smaller than the smallest suburb in Mumbai, and certainly far less in population than a typical small street in Mumbai!!) to see if would grab some lunch. As we entered Honningsvag and got some petrol for the car first, we asked about restaurants there. Expecting the town to be a reasonably decent sized tourist spot, we were expecting the petrol attendant to show us a few options. When he thought about our question and then gave us kind of elaborate directions to one place, we realized that there were NOT many options on offer, and perhaps at this time, there was only that one place where we could eat! We went hunting for that place. A fair distance to drive, where we would have perhaps gone over the entire small town of Honningsvag. And neither did we spot the place that he had described, nor any other one, where we could eat! Finally we spotted not that spot that he had suggested, but a small town burger joint. Quite like the Pop Tate’s kind of place that we have seen in Archie comics. Where kids of the town would come and hang out, grab a snack etc. We were having our doubts about finding any vegetarian stuff at that place, but having no other choice, we went inside to examine the place. It appeared to be run by two college kids, who were obviously working very hard trying to make a little money.

When we put our predicament of vegetarian requirement, and inspite of their lack of fluency in English, they communicated their willingness to make us something. And so they offered us a sub-sandwich with salad and cheese, and also a plain salad, some French fries, milk shake and Coke, and which options were enough for us, at that moment, to fill our stomachs. Whew – lunch at last! We had left Oslo early that morning, and had not had a decent meal till that time, which was beyond 4 pm. Yes, we had munched a few munchies in the car while driving up from Alta, but it was hardly a meal. So this ‘lunch’ was quite satisfying. After finishing that lunch, we headed back to the hotel at Kamovyaer.

It was still evening, and we settled down to a good game of cards. In between I stepped out and loved the scene on the backside of the hotel. The water, the small hills, the view of the sky behind. I was waiting for the sky to clear up, rather hoping for it. So I could give a shot to going back to Nordkapp and catching the midnight sun there. With the cold, the strong winds and the snow fall, the family was not at all keen to step out again. They were doing their best to discourage me. After all, their stronger thoughts prevailed against mine, and the sun never came out. And it was then, not worthwhile to go out into the cold again, as there was nothing new to be seen then, at Nordkapp. So we stayed put.

We had been given the two rooms and Ms. Aina had left after giving us the keys to the restaurant and kitchen below (in case we wanted to do some cooking of our own) and she had left. So we were pretty much alone in the entire hotel. My wife had carried a lot of food packets that could be opened, heated up and would become a meal. We took the opportunity of the use of that kitchen to go down and make ourselves a meal from that, and that was dinner for the day. Soon after we all started feeling a little sleepy. We had started early that day, and the next day again, was going to be an early start after all. So we decided to go and hit the bed.

Instead of letting the two daughters sleep in a room all alone, the wife and I split and slept with one of the girls each.

Next day morning, we got up early, got going, and got ready to leave by around 7 am. We had talked to Ms. Aina and she had come in early as she has promised to offer us a breakfast, although her kitchen and restaurant were not ready to serve a full meal yet. As per our request, she had got some waffles made and ready, plus toast and coffee and juice. It made for a hearty breakfast which we enjoyed. We paid, checked out and made our way back to Alta. The road and the drive back were as pleasant as when we had come the previous day, only even more empty. On a Sunday morning, there were even fewer people out with their vehicles.

We enjoyed the beautiful view, the long tunnels and the snow for one last time on this leg and headed up to Alta. We reached well in time for our flight. Parked the car as we were instructed, in the EuropCar spot in the parking lot. And then dropped the keys off in the box meant for the same. And that was it. Car was returned back! Unfortunately, at Kamovyaer, there had been no Internet connection and I had not been able to clear off my email. I managed to get an hour’s time and bought Internet time on my credit card, and used it to clear off some email. The connection was not good, and kept breaking, and in fact, later when I reached Oslo, I was able to call up that service and get credit of an extra hour of usage at Oslo airport!

We took the flight on Norwegian and bid goodbye to Alta and Nordkapp and reached Oslo by mid afternoon.

Oslo, Norway - a pretty busy city..

2008-06-14T20:33:00.024+05:30

Yes, Oslo was pretty and Oslo was busy! It was a pretty busy city..!
We took the overnight train from Trondheim to Oslo. We had got sitting seats and not sleepers. The seats were very comfortable. They stretched backwards to a nearly horizontal position. Pillow and blanket was provided on each seat. There was a common storage area in each coach for the larger luggage storage and smaller pieces could be stacked up above the seats, like they do in Indian trains as well. I did get a thought about the security of the baggage. I mean, we leave all our bags in an open area towards the beginning of the coach, near the door. And then get into the coach to our seat, and go off to sleep. What if someone walks away with our bags?? Being Indians who are used to having chains and locks to bags while traveling in overnight trains, even when the bags are right next to you, in your own compartment, we could not avoid the thought of the security. But then we were in Norway and in Scandinavia, where such thefts are not expected to happen, where the society is inherently safe, where trust and faith work, with that thought, we decided to leave the bags to their fate, and settled down in our seats. And went off to sleep also, in a while.

Well, we need not have worried. The bags were in their place, early in the morning, as we approached Oslo Central Station and reached our destination (oh.. I also thought later, who would find our old clothes and the Indian food packets so interesting to possess, in Norway; who would want to take the risk of doing a robbery for those things after all? :-) ).

I had booked our room at the Thon Hotel Terminus. This was close to the station. On telephonic and email enquiries I had gathered that we could reach the hotel walking down from the station. There was always the question of lugging the baggage around, and that becomes challenging even if its a short walk.

But we had a good option. We were going to be in Oslo only for the one day. Thereafter, we were to go to Alta and Nordkapp over the weekend, where we would have baggage constraints on the flight as well as in the car that we were to rent. And in fact, we were to come back again to Oslo after that, to take the train from the same Oslo central station, to Stockholm. That being the case, we planned in such a way that bags that were not required in Oslo and Nordkapp, were identified and we put them into the luggage locker at the Oslo station, soon after reaching Oslo from Trondheim. We would pick up those bags again, only when we were to board our train to Stockholm 3 days later, and not have to carry it around with us everywhere! That also left lesser stuff in our hands and we were able to comfortably walk over to the Thon Hotel Terminus, early in the morning at around 7.30 am.

I noticed that in the many hotel bookings that I did in Scandinavia, over the Internet, I could not find it clearly mentioned in a pro-active manner, the check-in and check-out times of the hotel! Neither on the websites, nor in the emails that come for confirmation. Extremely strange I found, as it was assumed that visitors of all hues and colors would be familiar with the so-called standard check-in and check-out times?!

I had decided to take a chance and just sent off an email to Thon Hotel letting them know that I was coming in early and requesting an early check-in. And I was keeping my fingers crossed that we would get the room early morning. The Thon Terminus was not exactly cheap in rates, since it was well located hotel, and belonged to the well-known Thon chain of hotels. Also where we were reaching at 7:30 am, we were going to leave the next day early morning at around 6 am or so, as we had to take the flight to Alta, on way to Nordkapp. So we were to be at the hotel for less than 24 hours in fact. And since this was also the only day that we were going to be at Oslo, most of the day we would be out for sightseeing. Then, if Thon did not give us the room in the morning when we reached, and we had to get going for the sightseeing, it would be one waste of the cost that we were paying for the room!

As we reached the hotel and requested for the room, the person at the desk did check that our request was on record. But within no time did she give the oh-so-typical corporate regret! She said that the check-out time was 12 noon and thereafter, it would take them a couple of hours to get the rooms ready and we could expect our room only by 2 pm or so. Meanwhile we could use the luggage room to keep our luggage. She could not even offer us a temporary room whose bathroom could be used by us to freshen up. Partly on account of strict and clear policies and partly because they do not want to look for any special solutions in such cases, they just gave this standard answer. She also mentioned that in fact, the maids do not come on duty till later, and even if a room gets vacant, without it being cleaned and ready, they are unable to give it to us.

Since breakfast was included in the package, but since breakfast is normally for the day AFTER your night's stay in the hotel, we were originally supposed to get breakfast the next day. But as we were to leave early at 6 am the next day, for our flight, and we would not have time for breakfast then, nor would their restaurant have opened so early, therefore I requested them to give us the breakfast on this first day, when we were checking in. Thankfully they agreed to that. So putting the luggage in the luggage room and freshening up just a little bit in the common washroom, we headed to the restaurant to have breakfast. This was at a higher level and close to few rooms there. As we were having breakfast I noticed a couple of maids going around with their room-cleaning carts. That rang a bell - that maids were already here, and the excuse of maids not being around, and hence rooms not getting ready, was not a valid one, for the hotel. I rushed back to the reception, and put a little more pressure to get them to give us a room. This time they realized that they needed to take a little special effort for us now.

By the time we got done with the breakfast, we were told that the room was ready! And we shifted our bags into the room immediately.

Meanwhile based on earlier research and reconfirmed with what I did again from the hotel while we were waiting, we found that a few good sightseeing tours were just restarting for their summer programs from that very day! We were lucky - one day earlier, and those programs might not have been on, yet. As we had just the one day, I was searching for a sightseeing program that could be the most exhaustive one, so that we could get as much of Oslo as we possibly could, in a day.

I had located a 7.5 hour sightseeing tour - yes, an almost all day tour - of Oslo. After the night long train journey, it seemed daunting. And there were looks of resistance from the family, but I managed to convince them to go for it. The only hitch being that, when I called the tour operator, they claimed to be quite full for that tour. With their pre-bookings. Finally they asked us to land up at the starting point, and they would see if we could be accommodated against some no-shows. I took the girl's name and assured her that we would be there. It was a 10:30 am start.

Luckily since we had opted for a city center hotel, the starting point of the tour was also at a walking distance - well, approximately 10-15 mins walk. Once we got the room at the hotel, and working backwards to ensure that we could reach the start point of the tour in time, there was not much room left to really use the room to say, bathe and wash. It was only a quick change of clothes that we could manage.

The room itself, although supposed to be a family room for 4 persons, was one of the smallest rooms that we stayed in, during the entire tour. One proper double bed and another folding double bed opened out in the room, a smallish bathroom and kind of cramped space, was what we got. Not bad but relatively speaking, in comparison with every other hotel that we stayed at, this was smaller.

Well, we were going to be out all day, and would spend just the one night before leaving from there early next morning. So we did not bother much and got going for the tour.

The tour was to start from the waterfront across the City Hall.

I must share this one more discovery that I made as I was researching such city tours on the Internet. You come across a lot of websites that talk about city sightseeing tours say, for Oslo, or for any other city. Many of them would have interesting website names like citytours or something like that, and they apparently are covering, all major cities of the world. As you surf around, you also find that interestingly, many of them are offering identical tours!

Thats when you finally understand that there is ONE actual tour operator (well, sometimes there could be two or three, but generally a small number) and everyone else is offering these tours in their own brand names, but as affiliates. Those other sites would also not give you the actual operator names and details, and you would find many times, a US customer service number say, for a day tour of Oslo!! The way to get to the root of the matter and try to find the actual tour operator and their contact number is to look for the official city guide website for the city. And keep drilling down till you locate them. That was the way I had been able to find the actual local phone number and talked to the girl and requested her to hold seats for us, for the long tour, even though they were kind of full.

Once we reached the start point of the tour, we could realize the significance of the day. When these sightseeing tours were being restarted. There was a long queue of tourists who had lined up there. Since there were many forms of the tour, and all of them were starting more or less around the same time, and from the same place, there was a big crowd out there. We stood in the queue, but I had also kept the name and telephone number of the girl whom I had spoken to, handy. And I called her and let her know that we were waiting out. She came out and assured us that she is putting us on top of the wait list, and as soon as she sees some seats getting open, she will take us in. We waited.. and waited a bit more. It was already past 10:30 am. She had come out once or twice in between and assured us to hang on. Ultimately she called us and confirmed that the seats were there, and got us into the tour. Paying a decent price, we were off for the 7.5 hour grand Oslo tour.

I discovered another interesting aspect of these tour operators, as the day went along. They offer a large number of options, e.g. this 7.5 hour tour that we took, then the 2 hour lunch special cruise tour, the 4 hour bus tour, etc. Now in fact, they mix and match the groups. Like the grand tour and the lunch cruise went off together. Where the lunch cruise people ended the tour in 2 hours, we continued further. Sometime later in the day, we were joined by the 4 hour tour group. In this manner they were optimizing their resources and giving more options to tourists for taking the tour of their choice. Worked out quite well, for them and for the tourists.

The 7.5 hour itself took us to many interesting places. Starting with the cruise, we got a waterside view of the city and its few attractions. A few old castle types, which had since got converted to other use, the Opera building (a fancy structure - discovered similar fancy waterfront based operas to be a common point in other Scandinavian cities too), the many fancy residential houses of the rich-and-the-famous by the water, etc.

We also visited many museums, including the Fram Museum (housing the Fram ship, which was used by polar explorers and which had been all the way down to the South Pole, amongst other places), the Viking Ship Museum (again housing ships that were used by the Norwegian Vikings of yore, some of the ships being really old and well preserved or re-discovered) and the Kon Tiki Museum (housing exhibits of scientist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl's expeditions, including to Polynesia; very unique style of boats and stuff).

Being a guided tour, we got good information tidbits about the history of these places and the explorers, and it was very inspiring. All of these museums were connected to adventurous explorers from Norway who took brave risks to discover new worlds. This is a clear difference from the Indian history, which may have included brave men and women (and there is always a share of that, in any piece of history), but we do not recollect names of explorers of this kind in Indian history. There was a story that the guide related about how Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen wanted to be the first man to reach the North Pole and got ready to make that trip, but just before leaving, he discovered that an American explorer has already reached the North Pole. He did not say anything to anyone, and continued his planning with the King, the people, everyone. Only after the ship left the shore, he told his people on board that they were not heading to the North Pole, but rather to the SOUTH POLE now, as the North Pole was already discovered and he wanted to be the first one to reach the South one now! Imagine.. ! All the way down to the South Pole. And communicating to his team, only after they had taken off.. ! Ultimately there was a race on, to reach the South Pole also, as there was another explorer who had also started off on the same stretch. But Amundsen managed to pip the other one, and reach the South Pole first. Such were the tales of adventurers and which were truly awe inspiring.

We also visited the open air Folk Museum where there old houses and churches have been relocated and even farms have been recreated, to give an idea of the life many years back. Its another nice way to look at history, and understand how people lived and worked in the past.

We visited the Vigeland Museum and Gardens, which was one of the most interesting places that we explored in Oslo. Like a few other creative people before, Vigeland also gave away all of his works to the city of Oslo, in return for getting a place where he could create this museum and park as per his desire. At the outset, the place is set up as a massive garden and makes for a great picnic spot for Oslo residents. In summer the park is the place to be, and even at this time when we went, when summer was just starting, we could see a whole lot of people there.

Right through the park, there are sculptures and mazes and images created by Vigeland, relating to a fundamental cycle-of-life theme. Left to one's own interpretation, these are quite fascinating to view and relate to.

Whether it be this park, or the 1000s of km of cross country skiing options within and around Oslo city or the bicycle paths that are all over Scandinavia, the guide explained that citizens make it a point to use these places, even on week days after work. Not just wait for the weekend or the vacations! These are probably the reasons why cities like Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki etc. rank very high in the best places to live in! The quality of life is very high, longevity is high, its a very clean life in almost all respects (pollution, health and environment consciousness, corruption free, low crime rates etc.), and we were very happy to discover these cities and countries on this trip of ours.

We last visited the Holmenkollen Ski Jump and Tower (Olympic ski lift) located in the city. A towering spectacle, in the summer it converts to a sightseeing spot. Where you can go up to the top, after an elevator ride and a steep 100+ stairs climb beyond that, to discover a 'top-of-the-world' view of the city. Very fascinating indeed.

As the tour ended from where it began, we were walking back to our hotel. The walk running across the center of the city, included passing through the Karl Johans Gate, which is one of the famous streets of the city. Full of activity and life, there is shopping and food and drink and singing, in this largely promenade style street. We could get a sense of the city's pulse walking there.

Also as we were staying close to the central station, our walk to and from the sightseeing tour, was through the station itself. And which was an experience of its own. A massive railway station with large number of platforms and handling intra city as well as long distance trains, the Oslo central station was a very busy place. And also quite overwhelming. Almost like a busy international airport. Including a massive shopping area, food places, and what not. It was certainly the busiest railway station that we saw on our trip. And as we will see in later posts, we had a few hours to spend at the station, so we could get a great 'feel' of the place there.

In fact on our way from the sightseeing tour, back to the hotel, as we passed through the station, we ended up having our dinner there, at a pizza joint on the station itself. We were lucky to get some vegetarian options there. Oh, there were a couple of Indian restaurant options as well on Karl Johans and then at the station, but we opted for the pizzas instead.

We discovered while at the station, that there was an airport express train that ran from the Oslo central station to the airport. A high speed train, it cut the normal 45 min train journey (with few stops and all) to a swift 15 min ride. We were to discover later that it also cost a premium price, at least for the 'retail' tickets that we had to take (regulars must be having some season passes, I suspect). As we had an early morning trip to take to the airport, we purchased tickets (usable anytime) for this train to save us the time, next day.

After finishing dinner, we headed back to the hotel, packed up properly for an early morning check out, and went off to bed. It had been a long and tiring day.

Early morning the next day we planned to reach the airport with at least an hour on hand. My general perception was that this should be more than enough considering that this was a domestic flight that we were to take, from Oslo to Alta.

Early at around 5.30 am or so, then, we checked out walked the train station, took the airport express train, and reached Oslo airport.

Earlier we had taken large city flights from Helsinki to Copenhagen, and also from Copenhagen to Bergen. At both these places, the airports were not very busy, and it was a generally quiet movement.

Compared to that, when we reached Oslo airport, at that early morning hour, and that too on a Saturday, we were surprised to see it busy and buzzing with people. After completing the check in and getting our boarding passes, we had to stand in this really LONG queue for the security. Thankfully we had kept that hour on hand, otherwise, we could have been challenged for time. Also because the security was an American style detailed process. Removing all metal stuff, removing the laptop, removing the jacket, and later for closer examination, being asked to remove the shoes as well.

With all that done, then there was this long walk to the gate. As the airport was large with many gates, this walk also took time. I kept thinking that how we could have been in trouble if we had not kept that one hour buffer on hand. When we were planning our check out from the hotel, I almost thought that we were being over-safe, in trying to go that early, and felt that we would have ample time to kill at the airport, at this rate. As it turned out ultimately, it was just about enough to complete all the formalities and the processes and then reach the departure gate with about 10 minutes on hand, before boarding.

Having had an early start to the day, and knowing that the no-frills Norwegian Air flight to Alta is not going to provide any free snacks or breakfast, we used the 10 min to grab a coffee and some cookies from an outlet across the departure gate, and got set to take the flight from Oslo to Alta.

Holiday Club Resort (RCI) at Are, Sweden - a quiet break

2008-06-14T12:01:00.008+05:30

You wonder about these western parts of the world - for a 14 hour long journey, they give the start and end times, to the accuracy of a 5 min level. Like say, the arrival time would be 9:55 am. You would wonder how, on a 14 hour journey, can you maintain time so accurately? Yes, sure, there has to be a departure time and an arrival time specified. But what we discovered as we took this 14 hour bus trip from Bergen to Trondheim, is that the bus reached a few minutes before schedule at EVERY stop on the way (there was a complete time table that I had, with intermediate stop names and timings) and departed on dot, as per the scheduled departure time. And so also, we reached Trondheim, on the morning of 18th May, bang on time.

It was a Sunday morning, the day after the Norway National Day. Early morning, it was very quiet on the bus station. Very few people. Just the one cafeteria was open. Otherwise, nothing else - the forex counters, the railway ticket office - nothing was open. We had a couple of hours of wait before taking the train from Trondheim to Are.

Interestingly at Trondheim, the central bus station and the central train station, are at the very same location. Usually in these cities in Scandinavia, we do see these two being close by, but here at Trondheim, it was a single large location called the Central Station and it covered buses and trains. So it was convenient for us. At least we did not have to get down at the bus station and then lug all our luggage and ourselves, from the bus station to the train station, by taxi or something.

We grabbed some coffee and breakfast at the cafeteria. I took a small stroll outside the station to capture whatever little of Trondheim that I could. We were not going to spend much time at this 3rd largest Norwegian city. Just this in-and-out, from the station. Trondheim is a University town and has a lot of students. Including students from other countries. So you see a young flavor at the station, and you also see multiple ethnicities. Though, in the short stay that we had, at the station, we did not see any Indians! But I am sure, if we had stepped out into the city, we would have bumped into few of them.

We had to get tickets for the Trondheim-Are train. How do we do that? The ticket office was closed still. There were automatic ticket machines which I tried to buy from. But when those reached the payment stage, they demanded a PIN number for the credit card. I suspect this was a PIN number that they could trace from their local databases or perhaps, from the European credit cards databases. But it just would not accept my Indian credit card PIN number. Which was the only PIN number that I had! Ultimately, the payment could not happen and I could not purchase tickets on the automatic ticket machine. There was another option - which was to pay Norwegian cash on the machine. But I certainly did not carry so much cash with me (refer the earlier post about currencies, and you will know that I did not want to get stuck with a lot of currency of one type, and hence kept minimum cash on hand, as per requirements). And since at that time, the forex counters were not open, there was no way to get the currency to purchase the tickets.

So how do we get the tickets?

I managed to spot a railway official who was going on board another train that was to leave from there, and enquired of him. I was told that we could purchase the tickets on board as well, although it may cost us some 40 NOK more. With no choice, I resigned myself to that thought.

The platforms like platforms at any railway station usually, were in the open and a bit chilly too, at that morning hour. But as we got closer to the train time, we had to go and wait there.

The Trondheim-Are train journey goes across the Norway-Sweden border. It is therefore, jointly managed by the Norwegian NSB and the Swedish SJ train services. In fact, there is a specific station at the border, where the main train staff, including the ticket inspector changes over. Hence on this train, there are two rounds of ticket inspectors coming around, to check your ticket. Even though the journey is only a little more than 2 hours duration.

The train was sparsely populated, and so it was no problem to find seats, even though we had to actually go and purchase tickets on board. It was a comfortable journey and we passed pleasant towns right through, from Trondheim, Norway to Are, Sweden.

On this journey, we also pass a small Norwegian town called "Hell". Hell, in Norwegian means prosperity. So the locals are comfortable to stay in 'Hell'. And indeed, the name of the town is its only serious claim to fame. English speaking foreigners are intrigued by the town name, and often stop by to take the photo opportunity of saying that "they have been to Hell and back"!

We reached Are and discovered the small Swedish town. I had called and enquired earlier and was told that our RCI resort, Holiday Club, Are, was actually just across the station. They told me that it was not even 100 m of walking distance from the station, and I will not need to take a cab or anything to reach the resort. Which was of course, a big relief.

I must share this part of getting in and out of a train, at intermediate stops. And this information is pretty much valid for all of the train services in Scandinavia. Irrespective of the time provided for the stop, the train will stop for enough time to ensure that all passengers getting off, can get off comfortably, and thereafter, all boarding passengers do get in, also comfortably. The doors are closed only after that, and only after all doors are securely closed, will the train move on. So even if you have a lot of luggage, you do not need to worry about getting in or out of the train in a hurry.

In fact, we did see an example, while waiting for the train at Lund, to go to Malmo, when on an adjoining platform, there were lots of people who needed to board the train. And the scene at that time, reminded me of the overflowing trains in Mumbai. The train just did not leave the station. Ultimately, a railway official had to walk down the platform and go from coach to coach, and get things adjusted, and only thereafter, did the train take off finally.

So coming back, to our train journey to Are, there was no problem for us to get off the train, with all of our baggage. On coming off the train, we looked around to spot the Holiday Club if we could. After all, they had said that the club is right across the station. But we could not immediately spot any board. There were a few buildings on one side of the station. It was only after making an enquiry did we find that ALL of those buildings were in fact, the Holiday Club, Are. Later we were to discover that this Holiday Club was in fact, a huge entity for Are, and although there were few other smaller entities in Are, the town pretty much revolved around the resort.

Thanks to the fact that we had all bags on wheels and a couple of bag packs, we were able to walk over to the resort office without needing any other help. The first impression impressed us. A large foyer and a reception area, with a couple of restaurants, some shops, path to the swimming pools and the saunas, fireplaces, lot of classical wooden furniture, etc. All in all, very impressive.

We were checked in quickly and given our apartment details. Besides the keys to the house, they also gave keys to a locker in the apartment building, which was having a couple of bicycles. That was interesting. The apartment building was a small distance away, on this large resort property. We took the resort luggage trolley and walked up to our apartment. It was a beautiful apartment. A passage with storage area and a small washroom as you enter, then a large hall and open kitchen. The hall had comfortable sofas and a fireplace. And also a large plasma TV with interactive features on the wall. The kitchen was fully equipped with utensils, crockery, cutlery and appliances like oven, microwave, dishwasher, a large refrigerator. There was a balcony just off the hall behind the dining table. We did not open it much as the temperatures did keep on the lower side. A thermometer was attached to the glass of the balcony which kept telling us what the temperature outside was, at any time. The sofas in the hall were to convert into a double bed, and which was used by the kids.

The bathroom was off the hall too. It was large and very modern. A washing machine was available inside the bathroom. We knew we had to take care of our dirty clothes right here then. And to our great surprise we found that there was a personal sauna room, right inside the bathroom. Thus we did not even have to go to the common hotel sauna if we wanted to get a sauna for ourselves.

The main bedroom was a good sized room with ample storage space and very comfortable beds. And there was a wall mounted computer screen with remote wireless keyboard and mouse, which also doubled up as a full fledged interactive TV. There was supposed to be free Wi-fi internet connectivity in the room. It was not coming on, and we had to complain to the resort. They sent a person, who had a big challenge on his end, for some reason. After almost 2 hours of effort, where he changed the router etc., he was able to get it fixed. Realizing that this part of our trip - the stay at Are, Sweden - was going to be a quiet rest period on the trip, it was good to have the Internet set up. It was good to see their service effort. The guy kept working on it, till he was able to zero down on the cause and fix the problem.

We gradually settled down in the apartment where we were to spend a good 4.5 days. We emptied the bags into the wardrobes, got the clothes ready for washing, got out the food packets that we had carried, etc. Just to elaborate this, we had carried very interesting food packets of a small brand called Gujju, and few others of a Punjabi kind, and these were not only long lasting, but also quick to prepare and eat. In most cases, we just needed to add water, heat it and we were all set. And the food was excellent in taste. We made the most use of these, while at Are.

I may also add in hindsight, that this break at a small RCI resort worked out well, and was also perfect in the schedule. Like we had an initial 4-5 days of hectic travel and then we had this break from the running around, at Are, where we could chill out and generally relax. Also being an RCI exchange, the relaxation was not hurting our pocket as much. Otherwise one would ask as to why you want to spend the money and come all the way to Scandinavia, if you only wanted to relax. For us it worked out perfectly and was a great relaxing break between two spells of reasonably hectic moving around.

We could see that Are was an excellent winter location for winter sports. The resort was located in the middle of a small valley and right adjacent to the resort was a huge lake. Very serene settings. But as you looked up and around the property, from various positions, what you could see were small hills. And ski lifts, and snowy patches on the mountains. It was clear that in winter, this place is very busy with skiing and winter sports enthusiasts. Even during this so-called off-season, there were enough people at the resort because of the quality of the resort and other water sports that it offered.

At Are, there were a few places to go and visit, if we MUST. After all, every place needs to have its share of sights to see. However these did not really sound like major attractions and we chose to skip those visits. Instead we generally chilled out at the apartment and within the resort. The station which was right across the road also housed a few stores, including a large sized grocery store. I am sure the store would be relevant during winter when Are would have a lot of visitors due to the skiing spots nearby. At this time, just after winter and before the summer starts in those areas, the grocery store appeared way too big for the number of people that we could see around. Still we were able to get fresh vegetables and fruits due to the same, and also other supplies as required. We had a typical daily visit to this store.

During the course of our stay at Are, one of the major highlights was to get up one day and see snow falling out of the window. While we had seen a lot of snow on our bus trip from Bergen to Trondheim, it was snow that had already fallen and also we were in a moving bus at that time. This time around, we had snow falling in front of our eyes, and we could step out into the balcony and catch the falling snow in our hands. And see snow piling up to an extent below us, and also in our balcony. It was very fascinating. A sight that we, in India, find to be a genuine rarity. Indeed that experience was one of the highlights of the stay at Are. The other being the fact that we could just relax, chat with each other, are really spend time together as a family. We played card games, saw TV, surfed the net (on the laptop as well as the bedroom wall computer).

The other important memory of the stay was that my elder daughter's class X (ISCE) results were announced while we were here. It was with a lot of anxiety that she and I put in her roll number and clicked to find out her result. My younger daughter and wife, did not realize that it was time for the results to be out, and were in the inside room. I did not call them out purposely as I did not know what the results would be like.

But to our great relief and joy, the results were excellent. She had secured 92%. It was good to see a string of scores in the 90s, as I got the screen after putting her number in. As the Internet connection was an excellent broadband one, and as we were just relaxing at Are, we had enough time to also put in many other roll numbers snd check out results of many of her friends. We found out soon enough that many of her friends had also done very well. She was on chat soon after, interacting with her friends, in great excitement. We also received a few calls from India, to wish her on her success. We were on a high for the moment. We went out and had a dessert to celebrate the success.

The other thing that I remained busy with, at least for the first 2-3 days of our stay there, was to check if the Norway airports strike had opened up or not, as that would decide if we would go to Alta and Nordkapp or not. Initially seeing no changes in the situation and with Alta airport closed, we decided that the program stands cancelled and planned for our alternative plan. However the strike did get called off. Now it was a question of redoing a few things and seeing if we want to go ahead with the Alta-Nordkapp visit or not, after all. After a lot of deliberation we finally took a call that we would go.

May 22nd afternoon was to be our checkout from Are. We actually had the apartment till 24th, but we were not to use the full RCI week that was available to us. We checked out with a zero bill at the resort, and took the evening train back from Are to Trondheim. We reached Trondheim station at around 8 pm. Of course, it was bright and sunny still, this being the long day summer months in Scandinavia. Our train from Trondheim to Oslo was an overnight train leaving from Trondheim at around 10:40 pm. So there were a couple of hours to kill at the Trondeim station. We grabbed a bite to eat and otherwise hung around at the station, waiting for the Trondheim-Oslo train.

The Are stay was a relaxing one, a great break and a genuine 'vacation' period for us. Now to Oslo..the capital of Norway!

Norway Airports Strike - Unexpected Jolt

2008-05-30T23:18:00.003+05:30

May 17th was the National Day of Norway. I had been made aware of this, even when I was researching the trip before leaving, and I was aware that a lot of services and shops will be closed that day. Hence my travel arrangements for that day were made full proof to ensure against the need for any ad hoc services, which will all be off for that day.

As we had a flight from Bergen to Trondheim, at around noon, that left us with enough time to get up and be ready, have breakfast, and even step out for a bit. Which all we did. As I walked around the city after breakfast, it was one of the most colorful scenes that greeted me. Families had come out wearing their brilliant colorful national dresses. Small children were also dressed up in similar finery. Early morning, the families trudged along, on their way towards the city center and the lake, where the parade and other celebrations were to happen. A big smile on their faces, a brisk stride they took, and showed genuine happiness, perhaps of being Norwegians, and also of celebrating their National Day. There were flags all over, balloons at many places. There were small bands at many street corners, rehearsing their tunes, I guess. All in all, it looked like a day or pride for Norway, and a great visual treat for me. Looking at this happy scene, I had no inkling as to the challenging time that would greet me only a little later, on this same National Day!

The parades were to start after 10.30 am, and as we had to reach the airport, we could only see the preparations and not the actual parade. But we were also glad to get away early, as there was a concern about traffic getting delayed, once the parade started.

As we called the taxi to the hotel and were about the load our luggage into it, then the taxi driver asked us where we were going. And when we said Bergen airport, he said that the airport was closed and no flights were leaving. Although he did not have any kind of smile on his face as he said this, for a moment I thought that we have a driver with a sense of humour. I told him to stop kidding. Its when he made his way to the hotel reception desk and talked to them in Norwegian, and then they all looked at me with a lot of sympathy, did I realize that they were speaking the truth. That the airport was indeed closed and no flights were leaving or coming in to the airport.

In Norway, an entity called Avinor, owns most of the airports. Apparently (as I realized later), there is a re-negotiation of terms each May, and there is always a tussle between the union and the management. And occasionally the discussions are not fruitful and lead to strikes like these. Very reminiscent of India, during the Diwali days. Although we hear of fewer strikes in India nowadays!

When we got into Bergen by air, just two days ago, there was no hint of such an impending strike. It appears that the airports went on strike, just 1 day after we landed into Bergen. Also here is where the lack of local language knowledge hit us badly. I presume that the matter was in the news, in the local media, but it was not large enough to hit CNN or BBC, which were the English news channels that we had access to. So we had no idea of possible simmering issues of this kind.

The best chance we had, was to head to the airport and see what alternate arrangements, the airline was to make, for stranded passengers like us. At this time, which was the first phase of the strike, only 5-6 airports of Norway had been closed down. I also learned that if the negotiations do not make headway, then the unions would close down more airports in the next few days. That created a lot of concern for me, as we had further travel programs ahead, and which needed air travel within Norway.

The same taxi driver took us to the airport. Oh we needed to go the airport, also because we had left luggage in the lockers there! And the airport was about 30 minutes drive away from the city, and which is where we headed out.

At the airport, the Norwegian Air counter was open. There were no other passengers at the counter (although there were many more at the SAS counter). I presume everyone who was to travel might have heard about these developments earlier, and stayed back at home or made alternate travel plans!

The airline understood my issues, but conveyed helplessness. Since the fault was not theirs, but that of the airport unions’. The options that they offered were:
a. Since we had a one sector ticket from Bergen to Trondheim, they were willing to offer us one sector free. Perhaps from Oslo to Trondheim (both those airports were still working fine), or from Stavanger to Oslo (Stavanger was the nearest airport from Bergen, and it was about 3 hours drive from Bergen). They would not give me both sectors, viz. Stavanger to Oslo, AND Oslo to Trondheim. I think this was an unfair call on part of the airline. I was to travel from Bergen to Trondheim and they should have offered ways for me to reach Trondheim, even if that included two flights instead of one, that I needed to take.
b. In the above cases, the responsibility to travel to Stavanger or to Oslo was to be mine, and at my cost too. Whether I take a bus or train or whatever. They were not going to reimburse that, nor arrange any common transport to either of these destinations. This is again something where they could have taken a call. Again, SAS took that call, it appeared. It was transporting its many stranded passengers by bus from Bergen to Stavanger, and putting them on alternate flights out of Stavanger.
c. Norwegian offered to refund the ticket should we chose to not travel. This is inspite of the fac that tickets were otherwise not refundable type.

In the first case, the challenge was to reach Oslo, which was almost an overnight bus or train journey away. And THEN, the next day, they would connect us on a 1 pm flight from Oslo to Trondheim.

In the second option, I would still need to buy one sector air tickets, which would be expensive, and I would still spend a lot of time, to reach Trondheim.

Finally evaluating all options, I concluded that ticket cancellation, and full refund, was the best option for the moment.

I also found out that there was a bus leaving Bergen for Trondheim, which would depart that evening, and which would reach Trondheim early next morning. That seemed like the best bet for us, to reach Trondheim at earliest.

The bus ticket in fact, turned out to be slightly more expensive than the air journey that we were to take, if the airport was running. So in that sense, we still ended up with a small financial loss. But we did not have to spend for a night at the hotel (which would have meant more money spent), we did not have but an additional air ticket (which would also have been expensive) and most importantly, this was the earliest that we would reach Trondheim, amongst all options that were offered to us.

The flip side being the long 14 hours bus journey, which can never be too pleasant!

The other trouble was that as per the original schedule, we were to reach Trondheim at around 2 pm, and then take an onward train from Trondheim to Are in Sweden, that same day, at around 5 pm.

As we were not going to make it to Trondheim on May 17th, we needed to cancel those train tickets too. Luckily amongst all the different train tickets that I had booked in advance, this was the one where they allowed refunds. And so I promptly cancelled those tickets. There was a small price to pay for that cancellation.

As it turns out, next day once we reached Trondheim by bus, and took the train to Are later, we purchased tickets on the train itself. And don’t know how and why, but the train tickets purchased on board the train, turned out to be cheaper, in this case, compared to the original train tickets purchased and since cancelled. So again the financial loss was minimized.

But after a fair amount of anxiety, we were glad to have been able to make alternate travel arrangements, with not a lot of program change, and without a major financial hit.

The concern related to the airport strike continued for us further as well, since later that week, we had the plans to go from Oslo to Alta and then back to Oslo, by plane. And if the airport strike continued, that trip could also be in trouble.

In the first round of airport closures, Bergen had closed down, but Oslo and Alta were still open. As events transpired, in the next couple of days even Alta closed down, but Oslo was still open. Norwegian Airlines that we were using, must have had so many flights affected by this, and also so many passengers stranded, and so many customer calls coming in, that they had just put up a standard message on their website. That did not tell a lot, but which allowed passengers to log in their requests for cancellation, in event of missed flights due to airport closures.

We logged the details for the flight that we lost from Bergen to Trondheim. As for the program of Oslo-Alta-Oslo that was to happen later, we were caught in suspense for a few days. Whether the strike will open up or will we have to change our program again. When things did not look like they were improving at all, and since we needed to make alternate travel arrangements in case we were to not go to Alta, therefore finally, we decided to go ahead and cancel that plan proactively.

However our tickets were restricted types, and which did not allow any changes. UNLESS there was an airline or airport problem. So although we logged in the request for cancellation of our forthcoming flights to Alta and back, when I called Norwegian, they refused to accept that cancellation officially. Since the flight date had not come yet, and due to our restricted type of tickets. I protested conveying that I cannot wait till the last minute to have to change my program if the airports did not open up. That I had already had a mess up at Bergen. But in that highly stressed out condition that the airline must have been at that time, the operators were unable to give any better answers. I guess, if push had come to shove, I should have been able to get my refunds on those tickets to Alta as well.

However as events turned out later in the week, the strike was called off. And although we had thought of dropping off the Alta trip, but since it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Nordkapp, we decided to go ahead with that trip anyway. We called Norwegian who confirmed that the tickets were indeed NOT cancelled, and so we could take that trip. So I did not have to push the airline for a refund on that Alta trip ultimately.

But were WERE inconvenienced a lot with the Bergen airport closure and having to take that long 16 hour bus trip. What we ended up doing was to remove our luggage from the airport lockers and take another expensive taxi trip back from the airport to the bus station. And then wait at the bus station for a few hours! Of course, we also walked out from the bus station in turns, and saw the National Day post-parade crowds and celebrations in much more gaiety and more colors. The crowds were unbelievable. There were more people out on the road that day than I have seen on weekends in some market areas in Mumbai (and those ARE packed places, believe me!).

So those were the unfortunate experiences at Bergen and in Norway, due to the most unexpected strikes!! There was a silver lining in all that, however. The bus trip that we took from Bergen to Trondheim was quite an experience after all. But more about it, in the next posting.. !

Bergen - the good part (the not so good comes later)

2008-05-27T12:08:00.006+05:30

Returning back from the Norway in a Nutshell trip, we reached Bergen in the afternoon on May 16th. We were booked at the Scandic City Hotel in Bergen.

The thing that we saw with most city stays in Scandinavia was that, unless you specifically preferred to stay close to the airport (for any reason of logistic convenience) or if you chose to stay in the suburbs (sometimes the hotel rates in suburbs might tempt you to stay there, and save a buck; no other reason I can fathom for staying away from the city center), you were almost always close to everything. Close to the central station, close to the main bus terminal, close to the city center where all shopping and eating and sightseeing options would be, etc.

And in most cases, these would not only be close, but also these would be within walking distance.

With the larger part of our luggage securely stored in luggage lockers at Bergen airport, with the few bags that we had, we were able to walk it up to Scandic City Hotel, from the train station. A decent 10 minute walk for sure, but in good weather and on streets with lot of people, great buildings, past a beautiful lake, etc. The Scandic City Hotel in Bergen is a large one - three buildings in the city center area is big, especially for Bergen. They had given us a Family Room, which in fact, was two full bedrooms, a common sitting room and a bathroom. Very comfortable. Also free broadband Internet in the rooms.

Settling down into the room quickly, we then stepped out to make the most of the 4-5 hours of sightseeing time that we had to our disposal, for Bergen.

We had done the homework and had a plan about what we needed to see at Bergen. So we headed off, walking up to the Bryggen area in Bergen. On the way, we passed the nice old town streets of Bergen. Slightly up and down, so made for a challenging walk. Till we reached the water area, which was then very flat. The water was full of boats. Of all kinds, small, big, sail boats, power boats, boats for fun and pleasure, boats for fishing. It was a very lively place as we walked right across one side of the bay, then to the straight part (where the lively fish market is located) and then on to the opposite side, which is Bryggen in fact.

Bryggen in Norwegian means 'wharf'. And considering the many cities and towns in Norway that have watersides, almost all of them also have a "Bryggen" or a wharf area. However the most famous of them all is the Brygeen in Bergen. Its a nice, quiet street, with lot of old wooden warehouse buildings, standing side by side, in the very typical warm colors of the region - the maroons, the whites, the shades of brown. And between these warehouses are the tiny bylanes where old Bergen still resides. And there are quaint restaurants, crafts shops and the like. The walk off Bryggen took us all the way up to the Bergenhus castle. An old style castle that peeps out right into the water and presents a great view from there.

After finishing the Bryggen walk, we took the ultimate must-do sightseeing bit of Bergen, namely the Funicular (Cable Train) ride up to the Mt. Floyen from where you get the most spectacular view of the city. At the outset, the funicular, comfortable on the inside with big glass windows and glass ceiling, takes a real steep climb up. That is again a part of the amazing transportation engineering work that Norwegians do. The ride is fun also because all along, you get a great view of the city below. And there are 2-3 stops on the way too!

And indeed, from the top, there is a fantastic view to the city below. The great large water body, the ships and boats there, the hills at a distance, the round and about roads on the other side. We were up at Mt. Floyen during the evening hours, when the sun was out, and it was very pleasant inspite of the windy climate. There are many walking trails from up there, at Mt. Floyen, but we did not take any. We took a small round, had ice cream at the cafe up at Mt. Floyen, and then headed back, on the Funicular again.

Walking back to the hotel, we found a pizza joint, where we were lucky to get some vegetarian pizza options. Had an early dinner and returned back to our hotel.

We also discovered a not very well reported crooked street in Bergen. It was almost like the one in San Francisco, except it was broader, a little more picturesque.

Next day we had to leave by around 8 am, to go to the airport and head off to Trondheim. We had no inkling about the flight cancellation that was to greet us the next day. So we slept in peace.

The next day was when the 'not-so-good' part of Bergen happened. But will detail the same in the next post...

Norway in a Nutshell

2008-05-26T00:19:00.003+05:30

When I was researching Scandinavia, the one phrase that kept coming back was 'Norway in a Nutshell'. Indeed, it is acknowledged as one of the "must-do" trips while in Scandinavia. And so we had to do it.

It started in Bergen, which is the second largest city of Norway, and had also been its capital for sometime (when Norway was part of Denmark). We flew Sterling Air (one of the many low cost airlines in Scandinavia) from Copenhagen to Bergen. We took the early morning flight and reached Bergen around 8 am. As we were going on this Norway in a Nutshell trip which involves a bit of travel over 2 days, and also since thereafter, we were to fly out of Bergen airport itself, we decided to use the locker facility available at Bergen airport, to keep most of our luggage there. Lockers available from around NOK 30-60 a day (depending on size) are handy in cases like these. These are self operated and open all day long. We needed two of them to fit all of our excess luggage.

That done, with the rest of our luggage, we took a taxi from the airport to the railway station at Bergen. It was a pleasant drive with the cabbie engaging in an informative discussion about Bergen. It cost us NOK 350 approximately (later when we returned from city to airport - and we had to do it twice, for reasons that will be explained in later postings - it cost us a lot more in the cab; never figured out the reason as the cabs ran by meter, and the whole country is supposed to be quite corruption free!).

Norway in a Nutshell tour does not allow advance ticket booking (I tried to do it from India) unless you are in a large group. Apparently there are always seats available.. ! We bought the tickets at the Bergen station. It was good to have made it in time for the 10:28 am start, as otherwise, we would have taken the afternoon start and we would have had to waste a few hours at the station. In fact, one can do the Norway in a Nutshell trip in a single day itself, in which case, it is extremely important to take the 10:28 am train out, so that the whole schedule including the return back to Bergen, can get accomplished that very day. As we were not rushing the trip in a single day, it was okay for us to have taken the later train too, but we managed to get going on the 10:28 am train itself.

The round trip of N-in-a-N cost NOK 895 for an adult and something less for children. In fact, it may be noted that most of the places in Scandinavia have special rates for children, youth, etc. It is important to ask everywhere, including at toll booths, bus and train tickets, sightseeing tours, etc. Many places also have family packages, for 2 adults and 2 children, and which are best priced usually. There are different definitions for children at different places, but the most common one is of age upto 15. In some case, age upto 17 was also considered as children, whereas other places, it was treated as youth.

The first phase of the N-in-a-N tour goes to Flam. We took the train first, from Bergen to Myrdal. Thats roughly a 2 hour train ride. It was our first experience of Norway trains and it was a very comfortable ride. While otherwise being an ordinary train ride, it became special as we passed a lot of snow and got our first glimpse of snowed out places. As it turns out, we were to see many more, and far more snowed out places in course of our stay in Norway, over the next few days.

Myrdal is a small station where we are to change trains. There was a 30 minutes break there. As we got out of the train to the platform at Myrdal, we got the first feel of a chill. It was cold, and we could view snow filled mountains in the background, from the station. We were very excited.

We took a quick lunch with our own carried food stuff and some coke and coffee bought from the one store at the station. And just as we completed lunch, it was time to take our train for Flam. And this is a special train. People who cannot spare the time for the whole N-in-a-N trip still try and make trip up to Flam, and especially for taking this train ride.

The train ride is only 50 minutes or so. But in course of the ride, if you are going from Bergen to Flam (and you could be doing it the other way too), the train takes this extremely steep climb down to the valley. The train is a part of Norway's amazing transportation engineering skills that continued to amaze me, right through my stay in Norway. Come to that in a minute..

The Flam railway is almost toy like in construction, but certainly not in the engineering. The train goes through an out-of the-world experience in terms of the view that you get. Rich valley, gushing waterfalls, snow all around, some large fjords. Ohh.. its been a few days since I visited there, and thinking about it now, still gives me the goosebumps. The train actually stops at a location on the way, which has this famous waterfall. It allows passengers to step out, admire the falls, and of course, get the cameras out and take some shots.

Talking about the Norwegian skills in transportation engineering, the Flam Railway is one of the many examples that I saw there. There was also the Funicular (cable car) in Bergen (which I will detail in a latter post), and the many massive road and rail tunnels all over the country. In fact, I just drove through three tunnels, one nearly 7 km long, one 4.5 km long and a third nearly 3 km long. The first one was under the sea. Also read and heard about the Norwegian sea voyagers of yore, who have reached the South Pole, the North Pole, etc. All in all, a very impressive set of people, as far as transportation means go.

Back to the Flam railway, and after that fascinating journey, we reached Flam. And the first impression was intoxicating. Large open spaced platform with some small buildings by its sides, right in the middle of a valley, a large boat parked nearby, and a big fjord right there. Everywhere you looked, you could get the most precious view that you can imagine. Idyllic was another adjective that I could think of, to describe that view and that place. You could almost fall in love with that place, and at first sight too.

We had chosen to stay a night at Flam. The most famous hotel in Flam is called Fratheim, which is a largish place and at a distance from the fjord. But of course, I am sure, all rooms would have a great view of the water too. But Fratheim was frightfully expensive for a night. And my research had brought up another interesting name for me, in terms of the Flam Marina and Apartments. This place was right at the water. It was like you could step out of your room balcony and almost treat it like a diving board to dive into the fjord waters! And as such, it had the most breathtaking view right from the hotel room, of the valley and the water, and the mountains. We checked in and enjoyed the view and just stayed put, watching it all for a few hours. By the time it was around 6 pm, we felt that there was also something called food and decided to step out to see if we could get something. Not realizing that this was one tiny tourist spot, the season was just about beginning (May 15th almost marked the official first day of the Flam season, and we were there that day; we were also the summer's first guests for Flam Marina), and in any case, even in bigger cities, stores close early in Norway. When we walked out at around 6 pm, all the 3-4 small stores (all close to the railway station - which in any case, was hardly 500 m or so from Flam Marina) were closed and we came back empty handed. Made do with the snacks and food packs that we were carrying.

Oh, by the way, the Flam Marina was an apartment kind of place. 2 decent bedrooms, bath, a common hall / kitchenette, and a balcony. So we did use the kitchenette to heat up and prepare some of the food packets that we had got.

The sun never seemed to set. As we sat and played cards and admired the view outside, we did not realize that it was nearly 11 pm and it was still quite bright outside.

Next day morning when I woke up, the view was altogether different. The reflection of the mountains into the fjord waters, the clouds half covering the mountains and the slight reflection of the sun on the snow capped mountains, all made for a wonderful view. After taking it all in, and then getting ready, we checked out to proceed to the next section of the Norway in a Nutshell trip.

This time, we would take a boat from Flam to Gudvangen. Through the fjords. Another exciting journey. The fills coming closer now, viewing the many small villages on the way, and the boat going cutting through the fjord waters silently, even as we experienced a chill standing outside on top of the boat. Periodically we withdrew into the warm comfort of the inside section of the boat which also had a good cafeteria. The coffee and hot chocolate was much needed to warm us out of that chilly feel.

The boat reached Gudvangen which was a small tourist town. With its typical tourist store for souvenir shopping. Most of us went inside, not just to look at the offerings, but also to keep warm, since it was quite cold on the street outside.

After a short wait, we got our next connection, which was a bus from Gudvangen to Voss. I keep repeating myself, but yet again, this was a scenic drive and quite an experience. This time, from bus and by road. Thus, in the three sections of the tour, we had done train, boat and road trips, and got different perspective of the fjords and the mountains and the green plains all over.

At Voss, we came off the bus and waited for the train. Voss was en route from Bergen to Myrdal and we had passed Voss when we started the Norway in a Nutshell tour the previous day. This time around, we were taking the same train, midway, from Voss, rather than from Myrdal.

We got into the train at Voss and reached Bergen by afternoon on the second day, to complete one of the best travel experiences of my life, the Norway in a Nutshell trip!!

Copenhagen in a day

2008-05-25T23:42:00.008+05:30

May 14th was the only day that we had available to do justice to Copenhagen city itself. So it had to be Copenhagen in a day!

The first stop had to be that one place which you have to see, if you have to say that you have been to Copenhagen! Copenhagen's great symbol - the Little Mermaid statue, by the waterside. We took a bus to the spot. My cousin joined us for this part of the tour. She was starting a new assignment from that day but she was to join post lunch, so she came with us. The place has a nice walkway by the water, and the Little Mermaid is at one of the spots there. Early morning on a weekday, there were a few tourists still, like us, wanting to pay their respects. The statue itself was a disappointment of sorts. Kind of small and not that impressive. I presume it has more significance to the city due to some history. Anyway, that done, we walked around, looked at the larger Mermaid statue that someone has made, of course, not half as famous nor impressive as the Little one, but a more sensuous looking Mermaid all the same.

From there, we went back to the Kings' Square and picked up the walking trail by there. Well, not exactly a hike of any sorts, but a whole promenade area, which is largely banned for all vehicles. There is a lot of shopping area, open street cafes, other food places, and lots of people, including tourists. Its a lively place and fun to walk around. We also took lunch - a privilege to find good vegetarian options in pizzas, enchiladas and spaghetti - at a street cafe called Mama Rosa. It was a great meal. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend this place to any vegetarian visitor to Copenhagen.

We then took the canal tour around Copenhagen. Most of these cities have a great waterway, and a canal tour is both pleasant, as well as being a good way to get a view of the city. The English speaking guide helps. The canal tour around Copenhagen was pleasant and we saw the very interesting Nyhaven (or 'new harbour', which is known for good food and drink places, again a lot of street cafes, lots of people), we saw the house where Hans Christian Andersen lived (one of the famous Copenhagen residents), the new opera building, some great waterside houses, the royal residence etc.

As an aside, its interesting to note that these Scandinavian countries are still monarchies, and some by choice too. Learned a few days later in Norway that hundreds of years after the original monarchy had gone, and Norway was free and had a choice, there was a referendum in the country to check if people wanted to be a republic or a monarchy state. And the people voted to opt for monarchy! And the even funnier part was that there was no royal family left and they had to actually go out looking for someone who could be King of the country. So the present Norwegian royal family is not really an old royal descent but in fact, a Danish origin family, who was given the throne of Norway for the taking!!

Coming back to Copenhagen, we also went and saw the Rosenberg Castle and the gardens around the castle. The gardens were huge, with beautiful lawns, many picnickers, and very pleasant overall. The castle was also quite impressive, and we saw the royal guards outside, taking care of the crown jewels which reside inside.

From there we made our way to the other famous Copenhagen landmark, the Tivoli gardens. It was an amusement park and a lot more. A park that had a character of its own, with music, entertainment, and other fun things. Its a very old institution of Copenhagen and has evolved over time. We walked around, saw the rides, saw the other interesting parts of the garden. Ate good ice cream - the kids were really excited to find the popular American ice cream chain Cold Stone Creamery there. In fact, there were other US brands present in plenty, including Hard Rock Cafe, Build a Bear Workshop etc.

Tired after a long day of walking, we were not in a mood to take many rides, and after seeing it all, we got out of Tivoli Gardens. Across the street from the Tivoli Gardens is another entertainment spot of the city. Open spaces, theatre and cinema complex. It was interesting to find a good large poster of the Hindi movie, Race, outside one of those cinema houses.

Tired after a long day of sightseeing, we returned to my cousin's house, and they got some pizzas picked up, to end a great day at Copenhagen.

The next day, early morning, we hauled all the luggage down the 5 floors of her apartment building, took a cab to the airport and headed off to Bergen, in Norway.

Around Copenhagen - Malmo and Lund, in Sweden

2008-05-21T14:10:00.005+05:30

We spent May 13 and 14, in and around Copenhagen, sightseeing.
Copenhagen in close to the Denmark-Sweden border. In fact, a 30 minutes drive or train ride connects Copenhagen to Malmo, which is a city in Sweden. And the two are connected by the spectacular Oresund bridge. The long road and rail bridge has parts of it that go under the water, and then suddenly, as it seems, the bridge emerges from the middle of the water, and goes up over the ground. More than the experience of going over the bridge, the view from an airplane, is better. As it makes it appear like a bridge emerging from the middle of a water body!

The only trouble with this bridge is the high toll that they charge, if you want to drive over it. And if one is going just for a day trip, it seems like a lot of money to pay, just to go over the bridge.

On the other hand, there is excellent bus and train service in Copenhagen, as also over this bridge, and connecting Copenhagen to Malmo. So we had planned originally, to take the bus to Malmo, see Malmo, and then rent a car from Malmo and drive up deeper into Sweden, upto Kalmar.

However the toll that the air travel from India, and then the walking trip in Helsinki took, all the way up to the late night arrival into Copenhagen, dampened our mood to do so much the very next day. So we down sized our plans to an extent.

We took the bus from the beautiful lake side area of my cousin's apartment upto the city center (Kings' Square area) in Copenhagen, and from there, we took the longer distance connecting bus, to Malmo.

The great part about buses and bus stops in Copenhagen, is that all stops not only have the bus numbers mentioned, but also the routes that those buses are going to take. Although these are in Danish language, if you have done some homework on these, you can pretty much find your way through the bus system. We were fortunate to have my cousin guiding us through the process and we just followed her instructions.

Another interesting part of the bus system in Copenhagen is the zonal system, and bus travel validity. One can take tickets for a zone. And within that zone, it may cost you one ticket fare to go around as many times as you need, within a hour.

The ride to Malmo by bus, was pleasant. Streets are quite empty and traffic is smooth. Buses are very comfortable as you would expect.

At Malmo, the bus ride ended in a major square where lots of tourists and locals were hanging out. There were street cafes, open areas, flowers, old style architecture. There were the omnipresent sculptures and statues (green in color, mostly!). We walked around here and there for a bit, took some pictures, and then looked for the railway station that is nearby - a 5-7 minutes walk. In the railway station is located the tourist information office. We got some idea of places to see, from there, and also enquired about going to Lund, another city a bit head, from Malmo.

We first walked over to the famous building in Malmo, known as Twisted Torso.

Its a modern residential building in a Transamerica Tower (San Francisco) style (white tower structure, though not as tall), but with a significant architectural style. The building twists around like a corkscrew, across its height, and so it appears like someone has held the building from the top, and twisted it a few rounds over! The building is visible from a distance but being one of the main sights to see in Malmo, it was expected that we walk to the building and see it at close proximity. Which we did, after a 10-15 minutes walk. It was not a lot better in terms of a view, than what we saw from the distance. The other 'plus' in walking close to this building, was to reach the boardwalk from where a better view of the Oresund bridge is available. We saw that, but again, the bridge was at a distance, so it was just an 'okay' view. Oh well, we had the long walk anyway.

We returned by a local bus, back towards the Railway station. Grabbed a bite of lunch from Burger King there. Very interestingly, the Burger King at Malmo had a veggie burger to offer. With the patty made of carrots, beans and peas. Quite nice in fact.

From there, we took a 15 minutes train ride to Lund, a little further up into Sweden. There were 2-3 interesting places to see, as per the Tourist Information office. But when we reached Lund, what most impressed us was the small town, university town appeal. Lot of students, small bylanes where people hung out, cobbled stone paths.

We walked up and saw an old Cathedral (oh, there are so many all over the place, everywhere).

We also walked up to, what was an old musuem.

However we were not inspired enough to go inside and take a look. There was a large botanic garden at a short distance, but the family had just about had it with walking around, for the day. So we headed back to the station, from where we took a train and went back to Malmo.

As we had taken a return bus ticket from Copenhagen, hence we had to go to Malmo by train and then head to the bus stop. Else we could have also taken the train upto Copenhagen.

From Malmo, we changed back to the bus (this bus service between Copenhagen and Malmo had an hourly frequency, so if we had missed this one, it would have been an hour's wait) and headed back to Copenhagen. Although it was about 6 pm or so in the evening, it was bright and sunny, almost like 3-4 pm India time!

On 12th May morning, we were in Mumbai, India. Later that afternoon, we were out in the streets of Helsinki in Finland. Later that night, and on 13th May morning, we were at the city center of Copenhagen in Denmark. In the day on 13th, we were out on the roads of Malmo and Lund in Sweden. And back that evening, we were again at Kings' Square in Copenhagen, Denmark. 4 countries in two days!! Interesting start to our trip..

Baggage lockers problem at Copenhagen airport

2008-05-21T13:13:00.006+05:30

Copenhagen was our first port of call, so to say. We were to spend two days (3 nights) in the area. And we were lucky to have a cousin sister staying at Copenhagen with her husband, on deputation on a project of TCS. We were to stay with them for this short part of our trip.

However the flip side was that their apartment was on the 5th floor of a building with no elevators! While we could still do the climb up and down, but with the baggage that we were carrying, it looked like a tough call. This building was like many buildings in Scandinavian cities - old buildings, somewhat refurbished, but still in good condition, and hence it did not have an elevator there. This building must have been several decades old but looked perfect in terms of its condition.

We had hoped then, that we could leave the larger part of our baggage in airport lockers, and we had packed our stuff for Copenhagen separately. Almost all airports and railway stations in this part of the world would offer such a locker service. But we had bad luck at Copenhagen. Although the service is offered, that department is open only until 10 pm at night. And our flight from Helsinki landed around 10:30 pm. So no go. Baggage had to go with us, and we had to carry it up the 5 floors, at that time of the night!

We found later, in our further journeys across Norway especially, that the lockers offered were on self-help basis, and open at any time of the day or night. So Copenhagen with its manned lockers and having limited hours of operation, was an exception. And in fact, due to the 5 floors that we had to climb, Copenhagen was where we needed this service the most! Oh well, between all of us, and especially my cousin's husband, we managed to get all the bags up the 5 floors at 11:30 pm.

Speaking of the night time, we are in Scandinavia during the summer time, and days are really long. When we took off from Helsinki at 9-15 pm, the sky was as clear as you would find at around 5 pm in India! And over the approximately 1.5 hours flight to Copenhagen, the sky was bright for at least an hour.

There is a time difference of 1 hour between Copenhagen and Helsinki. At Copenhagen then, the sky start turning dark by around 9:30 pm local time. When we landed then, and when we carried the baggage up the 5 floors, it was dark outside.

Finally, about the baggage, it was not exactly very huge amount of baggage that we were carrying! As anyway, a flight to Europe from India, has restricted baggage allowance. But it was baggage for 4 people for a 16 days trip and inclusive of woolens and food stuff, so 5 floors up by stairs, was a handful, for sure.. !

And back down, on the day that we left Copenhagen - and that time, it was early morning at around 5 am, when we brought all those bags down the 5 stairs. Again, thanks to all of us, and my sister and her husband, we managed to bring it all down, without much problem!

Sterling, Blue1, Norwegian - Southwest Model works

2008-05-19T10:44:00.006+05:30

As I was researching the internal travel within Scandinavia, I was quite set to do a lot of driving or perhaps, some driving and some train travel, within Scandinavia. And I figured that the loss of time, going from place to place, would be a price to pay.

Till I discovered that the Southwest Airlines model works here too, and a whole host of airlines are available to service the many cities in Scandinavia.

Few of the airlines that worked out for me (and there are few more as well) included Sterling Air, Norwegian Airlines and Blue1 Airlines.

All of them has mastered the model that includes:
- self-help online booking,
- excellent online interface,
- sell few seats very cheap, few more at higher and few more at highest prices,
- sell cheap tickets early; you want cheap fares, get them ahead of time,
- cheap tickets come with restrictions, so changes are expensive,
- no-frills fares, even water may have to be purchased on board,

But it works. And I call it the Southwest model, not necessarily because they pioneered it (I am not even sure, if Southwest pioneered it), but because Southwest has made a huge success of it. And the world follows.

As does the Scandinavia region, with its several airlines following the same model.

We took Blue1 (part of SAS group) from Helsinki to Copenhagen. As mentioned earlier, there was some issue on the baggage, but luckily, we managed to get it all in without any penalty. Otherwise on the flight, it was quiet efficiency, flight taking off and landing on time, small flight with lots of empty seats, just two air hostesses on board, one of the smaller planes in service (2+2 seats in a row).

The flight was 1.5 hours, but as Copenhagen is 1 hour behind in time with Helsinki, therefore, after taking off at 9:15 pm (Helsinki time), we reached Copenhagen at 9:45 pm (Copenhagen time).

Oh, as far as time zones are concerned, only Finland is different, being ahead of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, by an hour. Sweden, Norway and Denmark, thankfully, have the same time zone, otherwise, it would have been more 'diversity in unity'!!

Helsinki, the capital of Finland

2008-05-19T03:08:00.006+05:30

After completing the currency exchange and other formalities, we were finally able to get out of the Helsinki airport and head off to the city center for a quick trip.

The city center is pretty much the place to see in Helsinki. And I reckon, the only place to see. Of course, tourist guides and books will talk of many other smaller and obscure places of interest. But if you do a good job walking around the city center, you have pretty much covered the gist of Helsinki.

As we had managed to check-in most of our luggage, we were reasonably comfortable in our movements, and hence decided to take the airport bus (instead of a taxi) for the city. Converting the Euros to Indian Rupees would still make the city trip look expensive, but once you are out of India, you need to stop doing these calculations, else you will only remain miserable all through the trip! Yeah, even after the recent appreciation of the Rupee!

The city center is about 30-35 minutes drive from the airport. In fact, strictly speaking, the airport located at Vantaa is a different city altogether. Along with Espoo and the main Helsinki city, the three are referred together as Helsinki itself. Essentially extended Helsinki. There is hardly any traffic worth its name (when you have driven around in the Mumbai traffic, everything else seems a cinch, and Helsinki seemed like a dream come true, in fact). Driving past lot of barren land (forests, mostly) and an occasional commercial building, we approached the city and saw the flat, mostly uninspiring house structures. Possibly because of the cold winters that they have, the structure is very closed and boxy. Balconies are as if, an afterthought, and look like these are fitted on to an existing building from outside!

The bus dropped us close to the railway station. Which, as we are learning now (as we have traveled to few more cities), is a typical city center. As railways run underground in most places, you do not sense the approach of a railway station (I mean, you do not see tracks or anything) and suddenly you are at the station.

The station was typical old architecture and majestic. The city center was a huge open area with many bus stops, few imposing buildings, lot of people walking around, a large sculpture and a few main roads intersecting right there. We have since, seen similar city centers also at Copenhagen, Malmo and Bergen. So this again appears to be a typical concept for city centers.

We went into the railway station building and found a tourist information office (such offices are found in most places, and provide good information for free; there are also other commercial entities, who would charge for a lot of things, including local maps etc. and you should know that there is a free option, in terms of these tourist information offices). The office guided us to a typical 1 hour walk around that we could do in the nearby area. That is what we needed. There was an option of doing this via tram, but then, it would have got done even faster! At least by walking around, we get to stop and watch and experience the city better. This was the theory anyway. And personally, I was game for it. However as we found out later, due to the first experience of a colder climate (after coming from Mumbai), the walk became a little tough for the family.

There are small food stops inside the railway station and also places to sit and eat. We had carried some sandwiches and other snacks for the journey, and we removed those and ate there, in the railway station complex.

As we walked around, we saw the key sights to see - the Harbour, the Senate Square, the imposing blue domed cathedral building. We also walked around the Esplanade area, which is a long promenade with a lot of greenery between two parallel roads, and lined on both sides are street cafes, shopping options, and buzzing with people. It was a nice introduction to Scandinavia for us. Although not very cold (must have been 12-14 deg C), since it was a first change of weather from the warm Mumbai that we had left behind, and also as we walked the open streets, the wind chill also hit us, therefore, we decided to head back to the airport.

We also saw in subsequent visits to say, Copenhagen and Bergen, that in many of these Scandinavian cities, the harbour is also very critical. I presume the location would have become the city center, originally, on account of the harbour. And then, because it was already the city center, they would have terminated the trains and the buses also there, to make it a complete city center! The water ways still contribute significantly, for goods movement, people movement, for fishing boats and the like, and are very important for the city. In most cases, they also have a good city tour by boat. We did not have time to do the Helsinki one that day, but my come back and do it, when we are back at Helsinki on the last day of our trip.

Street cafes is another common thing that we experienced at many cities of Scandinavia. I guess, they want to make the best use of the short summer that they have, and sitting out, sipping coffee or wine or beer, and spending time in the sun, must feel good for them! Makes for a great lively place as well.

We returned back to Helsinki airport and waited for our night flight to Copenhagen.

Scandinavia - the currency challenge

2008-05-17T10:41:00.004+05:30

When we decided to get out into the city at Helsinki, having a few hours on hand, the first thing that we needed to do, was to organize some local currency.

As we were traveling to four countries, each of which used a different currency, I had carried with me, some Euros and some US Dollars in travelers' checks. Expecting to keep converting into local currency as needed.

But this is indeed one of the biggest challenges of travel. One does some homework about currency conversion rates. All theoretical, all on paper. When one is at the airport needing some conversion, or on the street in a city looking to get some local currency, one walks in to the nearest currency conversion location. And more often than not, one gets ripped apart, on the currency conversion that one gets. There are minimum charges, there can be a huge rate differential and what not. And one just does not have the time to really shop around and get the best rates, each time. After all, you are on a tourist itinerary, needing to move on and get on.

Also in cases like where we are, in Scandinavia, with multiple currencies and all, there is at most times, a multiple conversion situation. And a lot of losses.

Think about it:
1. I converted from Indian Rupees, to get US Dollar and Euro travelers' checks. Conversion number 1, loss number 1.

2. Say, I am in Denmark and need Danish Kroners (DKK). I convert my Euro travelers' checks to DKK currency. Conversion number 2, loss number 2.

3. If I have DKK left over when I leave Denmark, and if I choose to get these reconverted to Euros (as DKK will not work outside Denmark), that becomes conversion number 3 and loss number 3.

4. And then, when we return back to India, and would like our Rupees back, that makes it conversion number 4 and loss number 4.

The above is a typical requirement. Yes, you can plan a little better and see what parts of the above exchange can be avoided. For example, you convert to DKK almost as much as you expect to use. And hence you do not need to reconvert back to Euros. Or if you have small overflow, either of DKK when you leave Denmark, or of Euros / USD when you return to India, you may choose to retain them in original currency, expecting it to be reusable at a later date or on another trip. If the numbers left are small, you can afford to leave them as it is, and at least not enrich only the currency converting bankers!

One other option that many of us use is credit cards.
Say, you use your international credit card to shop or use a service in Norway. And you are actually paying in Norwegian Kroners (NOK). Then, when the amount comes in for payment in your credit card statement (in Indian Rupees) may actually have had two rounds of internal conversion, from NOK to USD and then from USD to INR.

So it would seem like 2 conversion rounds become almost minimum, and to that extent, we have to assume that the theoretical exchange rate that we see before we head out on a travel program, will be hit by at least 10-15% due to these conversion losses. At times, it could be more as well.

This needs to be borne in mind, as we do the mental calculations, while seeing a product on display in stores, or while purchasing that meal in a restaurant!

Coming to our first challenge at Helsinki airport, before we headed out of the airport, we needed to be sure if we were covered for our currency requirements. As I carried Euro TCs, I figured it should be easy to convert the same into currency.

The fact is that while a lot of local transactions can happen on credit card, and perhaps, hotels and such would also accept TCs directly, however, there are certain types of expenses like local bus fares or paying for lockers at airports, etc. where local currency is required. And hence the need to change TCs to local currency.

Usually in such cases, I have found it easier to go and spend a small amount using say a USD 100 or a EU 100 TC, and getting balance money in cash. That way, you save on the conversion charges. But this time around at Helsinki airport, I moved around to at least 5-6 different establishments there, and NONE of them would accept TCs as a mode of payment at all. That was very strange. Ultimately, I had no choice but to go to the conversion counter. There again, the first time, I attempted with a pure play conversion counter, and they would charge 10% conversion fee. Looking for other options, I found a bank counter on the airport, which still took away 5% of the money, but that was the cheapest method of currency exchange.

Since then in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, I have kept looking for banks where one loses the minimum, in exchange. Also one has to estimate the maximum likely needs of currency and convert to that extent. Then still try and spend with credit cards wherever possible. And finally, when one is close to leaving a particular country, then to make the last payment, be it the food bills or the hotel payment or the taxi charges, with the currency that you are holding, so that you leave the country with a minimum currency balance, and not have to change all over again.

Lessons learnt in traveling through multiple countries on a single trip...!

Scandinavia - Diversity in Unity?

2008-05-17T10:28:00.006+05:30

.fi, .dk, .se, .no....
Euro, DKK, SEK, NOK...
Finnish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian languages...

The four countries that we are traveling to, are referred together as Scandinavia. They are located in a particular geography for sure, and they do have their share of similarities. They probably also enjoy a lot of common history, with some of them being common unions, at least partially, in the past.

But there are a lot of differences also. From the languages and the currencies, for example..

As for the languages though, for English speaking tourists, its not much of a problem to get around. Most people speak and understand English. Most websites have an English option. Most brochures and maps are also available in English.

The challenge could come, potentially, if one was doing a lot of driving. Road signs, on account of the limitation of size I presume, are only in a single language. And which can be a problem sometimes. At Bergen in Norway, as we waited for our train, there was a remark next to our train number on the board. We needed to ask someone to translate that for us, just in case, it had some important announcement with regards to our travel program.

Other than these occasional issues, most other times, one can make do quite well, with English.

As regards the currency, its management remains a challenge. More about it, in the next posting...

Finnair Flight AY030

2008-05-16T10:28:00.006+05:30

Finnair has been doing huge promotions in India recently. Its been Singapore Airlines earlier, then Malaysian Airlines and now Finnair. Countries looking to develop tourism, and specifically targeting Indians as a traveling community.

Some years back if one traveled abroad, one would see hordes of Japanese people, with their fancy cameras, all over the place. They were big tourists. Then you saw the Chinese. And now its Indians who are visible around the world.

There must be something about a common interest amongst mankind, to see the world, whenever it is possible, and so as soon as a country starts getting a little rich, you see its people traveling to far corners of the world.

India is at that stage right now, and Finnair has obviously seen the opportunity. And you see Finnair advertising in Indian magazines, on Indian TV channels, on hoardings, and what's more, even on buses, including school buses! Besides the visibility at perhaps, low cost, of a school bus moving all over the place, it might have also been understood that children can be a big influence on the family's choice of vacation destination. Perhaps that explains Finnair's presence on school buses!

With that kind of promotion, I would have explored the Finnair option for any destination in Europe or even the US, so when it came to visiting Scandinavia, it was a very quick decision to pick Finnair.

The flight to Helsinki starts at a reasonable hour from Mumbai - 8 am. That's not too bad and is far better than the 2 am and 3 am kind of departure times that few other airlines have.

There was Internet check-in, to pick your seats. Since the flight lands in the middle of the day (1-45 pm, Helsinki time) and the islands and forest bodies of Helsinki make for a good view from the top, we opted for window-aisle combinations one behind the other, for the four of us. That way, when we got closer to Helsinki, we would be able to get a good view of the city down below. Oh, the layout of 2-4-2 seats was interesting (as against the larger planes' 3-5-3 options) and enabled us to have our cozy comfort of two rows, one behind the other, with no other disturbances.

The flight itself was comfortable. The seats were nice and as roomy as economy class seats can get. The food was typical airplane food, but of course, the lunch having been loaded from Mumbai, was a decent Indian vegetarian meal. The crew was efficient. Not overly friendly but certainly not rude. Unlike some of their other western world airline cousins!! Wine and beer, and of course, soft drinks, are offered free. Even when the service is not on, one can go to the bar at the rear of the plane and pick up these drinks. Other alcohol is at extra cost. On my visit to the rear, I did manage to engage the air hostess into small talk, and got some useful tourist tips from her, for Scandinavia.

The flight had about 40% occupancy with roughly 50% of them being Indians and the rest of other origins. The flight took off on time and we reached Helsinki ahead of the scheduled time of arrival, at 1:30 pm. The window seats were worth taking as it was indeed a good view of the city below, from the plane. Large number of islands, fairly low and flat housing, a lot of forests, were all on view from the plane window, as we got ready to land.

I thought the airline had missed out on not giving us the immigration forms in the plane itself, as is the norm when you enter any country. However I realized later that there is NO concept of an immigration form at Helsinki. Only your passport is sufficient. Finland is a very eco-sensitive country and perhaps the elimination of immigration forms might be a part of that sensitivity. We passed through immigration without any questions being asked about why we had got a visa from a different Schengen country, etc.

The baggage arrived in no time. There was no charge for use of luggage trolleys (as is the case at most US airports). In about 15-20 minutes time from when the plane landed, the area was completely empty. All was done and over with, at the Helsinki airport.

After landing at around 1:30 pm, we had to take another flight out to Copenhagen, same night at 9:15 pm. That was enough time to go out into the city. But we could not possibly lug around all that luggage with us. There were three options in front of us, viz. 1. to check if Blue1 Airlines (www.blue1.com, part of SAS group) would allow us to take an earlier flight out, 2. if not, then would they check in the luggage for the 9:15 pm flight, so much in advance, or 3. to look for luggage lockers where we could leave the luggage for a few hours, and then go out into the city.

Well, the option 2 worked out fine. They could not book us on an earlier flight, as Internet booked tickets that we had, did not carry the privilege of a flight change option. When we started checking in for Copenhagen flight, we were informed that the plane was a smaller one, and they are not equipped for a lot of hand carry baggage. When they saw our back packs etc., they suggested that we better check those in as well. They would give us credit for the total weight allowance including the hand baggage one. As we did this adjustment, there was a problem and we were on the verge of having to make an excess baggage payment to the tune of EU 100 or so. That being high, we decided to come out and do some readjustment on the weight, after which it managed to go through without any charge being levied.

Once checked in, we then had our hands relatively free, and decided to go out into the city, at Helsinki.

Prologue

2008-05-16T10:15:00.005+05:30

We were always keen to take a good vacation in the summer of 2008. One, because our elder daughter had just gone through a grueling year of class X studies and needed a well deserved break, and also because I had been away from home for extended periods for last 6 months, and this would have made a perfect opportunity to spend time together as a family.

I wanted to plan some really good destination and I had the hunch that if I planned and researched it all myself, I should be able to get good value for money in almost any place. The initial short list came down to two options, viz. the USA with Alaska, and Scandinavia. Since we have a lot of family in the US, a trip to Alaska would necessarily include additional days to be spent in California and New Jersey at the minimum, and overall, it would have to be a longer trip. On the other hand, Scandinavia would be restricted to the actual duration of the Scandinavia tour days alone. Either would have still been fine, except that I accidentally discovered a passport issue. This discovery happened roughly 1.5 months prior to the likely departure date of around May 1st. I had taken the passports out to apply for a change of residential address on them (we had moved houses sometime back, and this needed to get done). The change of address process is a relatively trivial one, and could happen quickly. But that’s when I discovered that both of my daughters’ passports were due to expire in June 2008. And typically when you are leaving the country, they like you to have a passport valid for at least 3 months beyond your scheduled travel dates. And if you are applying for a new visa, then that it absolutely essential!

I had no choice left but to apply for passport renewals for my daughters. Since my elder one had crossed the age of 15, her passport renewal process involved the complete works - police check and what not. It suddenly put huge question marks about the dates of travel, as nothing could have been done if the passports were not back.

Reviewing the process involved, including typical days that it would take, I still figured that we would get the passports in hand in about a month's time on the outside, and keeping a buffer in hand, that left us with just enough vacation time, to plan about 20 days time, including travel. That made the decision easier, and we opted for Scandinavia ultimately.

Its another matter that the passport and visa issues became terribly close for comfort ultimately. And that after trying "everything" to hasten the process. That we could ultimately travel was thanks to a huge effort from my father and good luck and blessings of the Almighty.

The importance of this cannot be underestimated. When you plan a vacation of this kind on your own, at some point you face the moment of truth. When you have to start paying up for the air tickets and the internal travel arrangements. And where everywhere you see that the cheap rates are completely restrictive. Meaning that a change in program is impossible. You would just have to write off the amount, should you not be able to travel or need to change your dates.

Having bitten the bullet and made the reservations earlier, the delay in passport receipt first, and then the anxiety on leaving less time to get the visas, put a lot of stress. But it fell in place, like a 'just-in-time' machine and we were able to leave the shores of India, and take off for the vacation.

May 12th, 2008, we boarded the Finnair flight at 8 am, from Mumbai, headed to Helsinki.

Scandinavia - Summer of 2008: The Inspiration to blog this..

2008-05-16T09:49:00.008+05:30

Sitting in the balcony of our room at the Flam Marina Hotel, looking out into the fjord, early in the morning on May 16th, there was enough inspiration that the mind needed to go and blog about this Scandinavia trip!

Nestled between small hills on the side, and the one across having a lot of snow at the top, low clouds covering half the hill, the early morning sun trying to break through in the middle of these clouds and making its bright presence felt ever so slowly..

All of which is reflected in a perfect mirror image, in the still water between the hills. A very light drizzle and a cool (not cold) 8 deg C temperature.

And amidst all that, if the eyes open up early at 5 am, and the rest of the family is still asleep and there are a few hours to go before proceeding to the next jaunt on the vacation. And a fast and free WiFi connection buzzing in the room and a lonesome laptop waiting to be lifted (yeah, I know, I am getting over dramatic..its the atmosphere, what to do?!)...

What more could I have asked for. So here it goes, starting from the very beginning, about how we landed into this Scandinavia vacation, in the first place, and from there on, moving ahead..