Swedish Hell or Been There, Done That

It was our second visit to Stockholm and while it is a pretty city, it is just a city. So you are probably asking what would bring us back. To explain, read a paragraph from my blog of September 9, 2009 on our first visit to Stockholm.

A short walk from Skansen brought us to the Vasa Museum home to a perfectly preserved ship built in 1628. The ship was constructed in Stockholm for some invasion or other. About one hour into its maiden voyage, it sank. The design was poorly thought out. It was twice as high as any ship of the time but with a very narrow beam. The ballast was made up of round rocks that had a tendency to roll around. The ship had two decks of cannons. As the ship made its way out to sea, a strong wind came up rolling the ship on to its side. The ballast rolled to the listing side of the ship causing the ship to list even more. Water began pouring into the open gun ports. Thirty minutes later the ship was on the bottom of the harbour where it remained for over 400 years. The ship was recovered in 1962 almost intact and placed in a climate controlled environment. The boat contains over 95% of its original wood. It was an awesome sight. We arrive late so only had an hour to appreciate its beauty. Put this one on your must see list.

We were quite gob smacked by our visit to the Vasa Museum. So much so, that with Stockholm only a comfortable 7 hour train from Denmark, we took the opportunity for a second visit. Our train ride from Denmark was fast, clean and on time, reinforcing my reason to hate flying so much. Arriving early in the afternoon, it was only a two stop subway ride to the station near our hotel,.

I had mapped out a route from the subway station to the hotel. This route depended on exiting the station from a very specific exit with our hotel only two blocks away. Mistake #1, we left from a different exit and immediately got lost. Mistake #2, always keep your phone fully charged if you are planning to use the map app. 30 minutes later, we retraced our steps back into the subway station, found the correct exit and were at the front desk of the hotel in 5 minutes. Perhaps it was the fact that the station was nicknamed "Hell" that threw us off.

The Hotell Anno 1664 is housed in a 17th century building. One of the oldest hotels we have ever stayed in. The stairs down to our economy room were made of stone, the centre of the stairs worn out by hundreds of years of guests trudging down to the bowels of the building. The building has carefully maintained its old world charm right down to the bed, which I swear felt like it was from the 17th century. Thankfully, we were only there for two nights.

We were up early and off to catch a public ferry that would take us to the Vasa Museum. The City of Stockholm is situated on fourteen islands and on the banks of the archipelago where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea. The city centre is virtually all situated on the water so public ferries are an excellent option to to see the city.

Once again were were awed by this perfectly preserved ship.

Six hours later we exited the museum and back into daylight.

We can re-confirm that it is a must see tourist destination in Stockholm.

As we strolled back to the ferry, we came across "Vikingaliv A true Adventure", a touristy, over priced kind of pseudo museum exploring the history of the Vikings. I have Irish roots, and have always felt that there might be a little Viking blood coursing through my veins.

Give me a shield and an axe and there is no telling what I might do. We were asked to leave the museum. I guess pillaging was frowned upon. I mean, really, what  kind of Viking museum would have a problem with a little pillaging.

Our next stop was Gamla Stan (Old Town). To quote the Stockholm tourist bureau, "Gamla Stan is like a living, pedestrian friendly museum, filled with sights, restaurants, cafes, bars and places to shop. The Old Town is one of the largest and best preserved medieval city centres in Europe."  Just about every capital city in Europe has a version of Gamla Stan. While big and well preserved it is not the best we have seen. See my blog of August 31, 2009. The Old Town of Tallinn while smaller is, I think better preserved.

Our main stop in Gamla Stan was a visit to the gift shop in the Nobel Museum. I was hoping to pick up my Nobel Prize, but sadly the museum was closed to the public due to a private function.

It was time to bid goodbye to Stockholm. If they want to give me my Nobel Prize they will have to fly me in because I don't think we will be returning on our own dime. There are just too many other European cities that we have yet to visit.

When I have to fly, I do enjoy flying the northern route flown by Iceland Air from their hub in Reykjavik. If you are lucky enough to get a clear day the views are spectacular.

Arriving in Vancouver, we were treated with a fly over of Vancouver. Nothing more beautiful than Vancouver on a sunny day.

Leftovers of the 2018 Tulip Tour

Travelling in Europe is quite different than travelling in Canada. For us a trip just to Vancouver can take 5 hours. In Europe, you can see five different countries in 5 hours.  We can attest to this as we traveled from Austria, through Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Germany and into France in one day. Okay, okay, Lichtenstein is really a country, check it out. So when planning a trip to Europe, you really cannot just visit one country. On this trip we added Denmark and a revisit to Sweden.

Leaving the barge our last morning  in Amsterdam, we needed a wasserette or laundromat in English. So with a little internet research, we were off to the Aquarette Self-Serve Laundry near the train station. Following the  instructions, we spent $5 euros more than we needed to because we (I) did not read them clearly or in one case assumed that the instructions were wrong and I knew better.  It is my opinion (Nonie's may differ) that the instructions were purposely nebulous so that you would make mistakes resulting in having to plug the machines with extra Euros.

With fresh clothes and some time on are hands, we headed back to the train station to store our luggage and grab a train to the little village of Muiderslot and a visit to their cute little two bedroom/den castle. Once again, we ended up paying $10 Euros more to store our bags because of more nebulous instructions designed to screw over unwary tourists. (My opinion, Nonie's may vary)

Muiden Castle is cute little place. It has been around since the 13th century and was used to enforce tolls on traders traveling up and down the rive Amstel.  It is only 32 x 35 metres with 1.5 metres thick walls and what every castle needs, a moat.

As time moved on, it became a summer house for the rich and famous then a prison before falling into neglect till the late 19th century when money was found to restore it.

As much as I love a good castle, it was time to head to the airport and a short 1.5 hour flight to Copenhagen.  Copenhagen can appear at first glance to be the little sister to Amsterdam.

It has canals filled with tourists, but just a few.

Windmills, but just a few.

And of course, tulips, but just few.

But, Copenhagen is not just the little sister to Amsterdam, It has its own character and quirky history.  One that we found interesting was the beautiful Church of St. Alban's.  Copenhagen was home to a sizable British community starting in the 16th Century. As the city grew in importance so did the British congregation. In 1864, the Prince of Wales, coughed up some bucks. Perhaps it was his Danish consort Princess Alexandra who convinced him with consecration of the church happening in 1882.  The church was inhabited by two lovely, little, old  English ladies who gladly took our money.

Another more famous attraction is Tivoli Gardens, the worlds first amusement park. It has operated since 1843 but is most famously known by North Americans as the template for Walt Disney's design of Disneyland. It has a snow capped mountain.

Amusement rides.

A pirate ship

And it is populated by cute little cartoon characters. 





Can you say Disneyland?

But the most iconic image of Copenhagen was born from a story penned by Hans Christian Andersen in 1836, turned into a statue in 1913, became a cartoon in 1989 and traveled to Shanghai in 2010. I am talking about the statue, the Little Mermaid, the most photographed image in all of Denmark.

Although, close up, it doesn't have quite the same impact. Perhaps it was the seagull poop.













Sadly only one full day in Copenhagen, but we packed in a lot and  were pleased I added it on to our trip. Nonie wishes to note that the she did not once smell cannabis during our time in Copenhagen so gives it here thumbs up as well. Off to Sweden next.

The Bloomin Blooms Weren't Blooming, Part 2

As previously mentioned, weather in the Netherlands had been a little on the cool side prior to and after our arrival. So our first barge day dawned cool and damp and +8 C.  Our room was located in the hold of the barge with a nice big porthole. It was a little freaky to see the canal water lapping up that close to that big pane of glass. Nonie likes to sleep with a window open, no matter what the weather. Not going to happen here.

Thankfully the Magnifique II was well fit out for a warm and comfortable nights sleep, that is as long as the windows don't leak. We had sailed from downtown Amsterdam, the night before to the town of Zaandam where we moored on a small side canal.   As it happened the moorage site was about three blocks from the hotel where we had just spent the last four nights.

I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about the quality of the barge, despite seeing the pictures and reading all the brochures about how nice everything was, especially the evening meals.

Well, my skepticism was ill placed as the pictures did not lie, the Magnifique II was to be a great home for the next four days.

But I digress. Let me repeat, the first morning dawned cloudy, misty and definitely looked like rain. For two weeks before we left, I had been religiously checking the long term forecast for Amsterdam so no surprises for us as we came prepared for cool and wet. It was + 6 C when we started and managed to get to a high of +12 C for the day. 

Today's trip was to be a distance of 30 K with a visit to Zaanshe Schans. Zaanshe Schans is a living museum populated with old, well preserved windmills, traditional houses and warehouses.

The rain started shortly after we started the ride, so we arrive a little wet.  Not the most comfortable ride, but we have had worse. Several years ago we biked Saltspring Island and it rained so hard, we had 4 inches of water in our supposed waterproof panniers plus several other orifices that are normally dry.

All the windmills at Zaanshe Schans are working windmills. One is used to pump water from the village into the canal, one crushes pigments for paint, several mills make oils from various seeds and the one we visited is an operating sawmill. There is a waiting list for wood produced here. Today they were milling replacement lattice that would be used in the vanes of a windmill.

The rain continued and now a pretty good headwind had come up so the "Slow Group" (speed not intelligence)  unanimously opted to return to the ship in Zaandam and barge to the next stop. We were greeted with bowls of hot, homemade pumpkin soup and an early glass of complimentary wine in the lounge. The "Fast Group" (speed not intelligence?) opted to do the full ride 

No sign of those blooming tulip fields yet.

It was 2 1/2 hour cruise to our new moorage in the city of  Haarlem. Along the way we experienced our first of many locks that protect the Netherlands from disappearing into the ocean. The "Fast Group" (speed not intelligence?) arrived soon after we docked.   No soup for them.

Harlem, a 1,000 year old city is a 15 minute high speed train ride from Amsterdam with many people commuting into Amsterdam to work.  Our moorage was about a 15 minute walk from the old center of Haarlem and across from the 120 year old  Droste Cacao factory.  There is an illustration of a nurse in the sign and she is known as La Belle Chocolatiere (The Pretty Chocolate Girl) which is the name of Droste's famous chocolate pastel.  It is meant to illustrate the health benefits believed to be endowed by drinking cacao.






The weather had improved shortly after arriving in Haarlem, so we opted for a walk into the Old Town

Our goal was to visit the "Grote Kart" (Old Church),  a 5 century old Gothic church that towers over Haarlem.

The church is home to a very ornate Muller organ, built in 1738 and  played by both Handel and Mozart.  It is over 30
metres high with 25 larger than life-sized statues.

Pretty impressive church for a city with a population of only 160,000.  It is operated more as a museum now, than a church. They were preparing for an organ recital the next day. Would have loved to here that organ fire up.

Day three dawned sunnier but still cold.  +5 C to start our ride today so gloves and layers were in order.  We are off on a 30 K ride to the Keukenhof Gardens, home to over 7,000,000 flower bulbs that are planted each year and hopefully some blooming tulip fields along the way.

By coffee break, things were heating up but the only blossoms to be seen were on the table.

Still no tulip fields but we did find a field of blossoming daffodils just behind our coffee stop. Perhaps things were opening up.

Perhaps not. Lots of bare tulip fields that were just being planted.

Success. Well, not exactly to the magnitude that we had had been hoping for. But to be fair to the tulips, it was  +12 C so only the red tulips were brave enough to show their heads.

We were putting all our blooms into one basket now, so Keukenhof had better deliver. Alas, that was not to be. Some blooms were blooming but lots of blooms were still waiting to bloom. Still, it was a bloomin impressive place that sees over 1.4 million visitors that visit during the 6-8 weeks that the gardens are open.










There are over 3,000 registered varieties of tulip and many of them were on display in the huge greenhouses found in Keukenhof. Most were blooming but even here in this climate controlled environment, some tulips were playing hard to get. The colours are incredible. To bad they only bloom for such a short time.






Time to head home.  The sun continued to shine but as the day warmed up, we were introduced to what is known as the "Dutch Mountains", headwinds that were able to stop you in your tracks. It was going to be a slog to get back to the barge.

Our hard work was rewarded with a beautiful field of colourful hyacinths.

Day five, dawned sunny, warmer with anticipated temperatures in the double digits for our 45 K ride into Amsterdam and our last night on the barge.  The morning started with a  lovely 2 hour barge ride to a moorage site that would bring us a little closer to Amsterdam before starting our bike.

A last chance to travel through  one of the thousands of locks making canal travel possible through out most of the Netherlands.

While the weather was improving, the head winds were not. Great for the windmills but not so much for us cyclists.

The trip into Amsterdam was exciting, with a few lost moments along the way as our guide had not done this leg of the trip before. It included an unplanned ferry ride across another canal.

Just about every road way in Amsterdam has a bike lane but despite that it did not seem seem to make me feel any safer.

Our last dinner on the barge was a culinary masterpiece. Unlike the big cruise ships, you don't get a choice of four main courses and 5 desserts, you get one choice so it had better be good. And it was.  A great finish to a great trip.