I am archiving our retirement travels through this column so thought I would talk about some of our recent northern travels before launching into our upcoming winter travel experiences. Paul and I are not cruise people but about five years ago we decided to take a Baltic cruise which is a convenient way to experience the many cultures in that region of the world. What I remember most about that trip is the color and feeling of the long light filled night skies I would describe as “dusty peach- pink.” We started the trip by spending several days in Stockholm, Sweden where late one evening we were enjoying an outside nightcap at our hotel when a group of surreal looking hot air balloons slowly and silently drifted across the sky over our head. I also remember the stunningly beautiful archipelago of the region as our cruise ship left the harbor in Copenhagen. We slowly made our way to Helsinki, Finland, Tallinn, Estonia where Paul dumped me in the Baltic while kayaking, St. Petersburg, Russia for a look at the art and royal city dwellings, Riga, Latvia where I picked up some beautiful woven textiles, the island of Gotland, Sweden where we biked, Gdansk, Poland, Rostock, Germany ending in Copenhagen, Denmark where we spent several days. We disembarked on a warm summer morning and while checking into our hotel we saw numerous real life Santa’s milling around. When I looked out the large lobby window overlooking the river I saw another group of Santa’s enjoying a boat ride. We soon learned there was a worldwide gathering of Santa impersonators in Copenhagen that weekend. We even saw a few older gentlemen with white beards wearing Santa hats on our flight home. It still makes me smile!
Last fall, after a week with Paul’s cousins in England’s Lake District and before his teaching assignment in the Netherlands, we took a quasi-cruise along the western coast of Norway to experience the fjords. We enjoyed several days discovering the city of Bergen before boarding the Hurtigruten which is a combination ferry/cruise/freight shipping system that travels in both directions along with western coast of Norway. Many Norwegians travel locally from one city to another via the ferry as the country’s western mountain ranges make road travel difficult and more time consuming. It is a hop-on, hop-off system that allows passengers to spend several hours or several days in the small coastal towns where it stops as there is another ship arriving and leaving every port every day. We disembarked in Trondheim, spent the night and re-boarded a different system ship the next day continuing our journey north to Tromso and ending in Kirkenes (above the Arctic Circle) where we flew to Oslo. Along with way, we visited a salmon museum, took in an arctic exploration exhibition and Paul went on a nighttime king crab safari. In Oslo, we enjoyed staying in an old historic hotel, viewed the city’s modern architecture and new developments along with waterfront, visited a design museum and strolled through a sculpture park.
From Oslo we flew to Reykjavik, Iceland where we spent several days exploring this remote sparsely populated country. We enjoyed viewing the large white ornate church in the city center from which there are awesome city views. We also visited their national museum, the modern symphony hall building, historical harbor and enjoyed a fun walking food tour. The food was great but very expensive; $15 for a bowl of soup or a beer. One day we took a “Golden Circle Tour” through the countryside enjoying several national parks, an historic parliament site, and waterfalls at Gulfoss and soaking in a hot spring lagoon at dusk before returning to the city. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a glimpse of the Northern lights but certainly learned a lot about them. This stopover was a great way to re-enter and I will always have wonderful memories from our northern travels. 2018